
VATICAN CITY (AP) — A convalescing Pope Francis greeted the crowd in St. Peter’s Square on Palm Sunday, wishing more than 20,000 faithful a “Good Palm Sunday, a good Holy Week,” in a reassuring sign of his recovery after a life-threatening battle with double pneumonia. Many in the crowd reached out to touch Francis’ hand or garments as he was brought in a wheelchair down a ramp to the main altar, where he issued his brief greeting into a microphone. Francis was not wearing nasal tubes for supplemental oxygen, as he had during a similar appearance last Sunday. On his way back to St. Peter’s Basilica from where he had emerged, Francis stopped to bless a rosary, and offered candy to a boy who greeted him.