ROME (AP) — Pope Francis on Thursday made his first public appearance outdoors since being stricken by bronchitis two weeks ago, which forced him to cancel a planned trip to the COP-28 climate conference in Dubai.
The pope has been steadily recovering, and for the Dec. 8 holiday devoted to Mary kept a traditional appointment to pray at the Spanish Steps. He arrived in a black car, and blessed a crowd of onlookers before taking a seat in a chair facing a statue of the Madonna.
The pontiff prayed for Mary’s mercy for “all the people oppressed by injustice and poverty, tried by war,’’ adding a special prayer for “the tormented Ukrainian people,” as well as Palestinians and Israelis “who have fallen back into a spiral of violence.”
Francis also addressed violence against women, a topic that has resonated in Italy in recent weeks following the killing last month of a 22-year-old female student in northern Italy. “Mary, we need you as a woman, to entrust all of the women who have suffered violence and those who are still victims in this city, in Italy and in every part of the world,’’ the pope said.
Before his…
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