Pope Francis’ discharge from the hospital where his life was twice in danger during a five-week stay marked an extraordinary day – even more than anyone expected.
Early this morning, senior officials told Sky News the Pope refused a helicopter ride back to the Vatican. He preferred, instead, to travel in his white Fiat Papal car among the people.
At least 3,000 people gathered outside the Gemelli hospital, which was placed under the highest security measures by police officers heavily deployed on the scene.
At midday in Rome, the Pope finally appeared on a balcony.
The faithful started clapping and chanting his name, while trying to jump on the fence behind our camera to get a better view.
The pontiff’s voice is still very ill – and due to his treatment and the low energy he has was supposed to offer maybe just a couple of words.
Flowers left each day
Instead, while on the terrace, he noticed among the huge crowd an elderly woman with a bouquet of yellow flowers.
“I see a woman with yellow flowers, brava,” Francis said, before going back inside.
This woman was noticed by Pope for her yellow flowers
The woman is Carmela Mancuso, from Calabria in southern Italy, and she has been at the hospital every day since the pontiff arrived on 14 February.
Each time, she left some flowers. Recently, she started leaving yellow flowers “symbolising the light and recalling life”.
Behind doors, an idea started to form in the Pope’s head. He asked his security to collect the flowers from the woman.
Unplanned stop
Then, he immediately left the hospital, crossing a chaotic amount of people kept away from his car by dozens of police officers.
Instead of going back to the Vatican as planned, he told his aides that he wanted to go to his favourite Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, on the opposite side of the city, to pray.
Datawrapped
He took with him the yellow flowers.
So, the papal convoy was forced to do a quite extraordinary diversion on a busy Rome city centre road.
When he reached the basilica, where he also said he would like to be buried (breaking a historic tradition of pope being buried at the Vatican), he gave the basilica’s cardinal the yellow flowers and asked him to place them on the altar of the Virgin Salus Populi Romani.
After that, the papal car finally started heading to his home in the Vatican – but not before another unplanned stop.
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Pope Francis went to Santa Maria Maggiore, where he left yellow flowers
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Metres away from the Vatican gate, he saw a woman with a dog and decided to talk with her.
We managed to find her.
“I just told him welcome back home. He seemed very tired. I’ll keep praying for him,” Stefania told us.
She and her dog Camilla live just in front of the Vatican.
Stefania said she wished the Pope well
Entering his Vatican apartment on the second floor of Santa Marta, the Pope now knows he will face a two-month recovery, which will limit his activity.
As he showed today, he’s a Pope of surprises and spontaneity.
This is why there are so many concerns about him adapting to a new papacy following medical advice.
