Pope Francis spent final day working, despite doctors’ orders

After spending more than five weeks in the hospital for a bout of double pneumonia, doctors told Pope Francis he needed two months’ rest — but the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics kept working right to the end.

On Easter Sunday, the day before his death at the age of 88, Francis made his first prolonged public appearance since February, entering St. Peter’s Square in a white pope-mobile to greet cheering crowds.

And for only the second time since leaving the hospital on March 23, the pope also met on Sunday with foreign leaders, welcoming US Vice President JD Vance to his residence for a brief encounter.

“I was happy to see him yesterday, though he was obviously very ill,” Vance wrote on X. “May God rest his soul.”

In his last public appearance on Sunday, Francis said only a few words, wishing a happy Easter in a raspy voice to about 35,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

In a traditional Easter message, read by an aide, Francis reiterated his frequent call for a ceasefire in Gaza, calling the humanitarian situation in the enclave “deplorable.”

The pope also called on Hamas to release its remaining hostages and condemned what he said was a “worrisome” trend of antisemitism in the world.