It's been less than a month since Pope Francis was released from a Rome hospital after a five-week stay in which he came close to death, but he has been making an increasing number of public outings despite doctors' orders to take it easy and avoid crowds. On Thursday, the 88-year-old visited Rome's Regina Coeli prison, ABC News reports. "Every year l like to do what Jesus did on Holy Thursday, the washing of the feet, in a prison," he told inmates, according to a Vatican statement. "This year I cannot do it but I wanted to be close to you. I pray for you and all your families." The Vatican said Francis met with 70 inmates individually.
"Every time I enter one of these places, I ask myself: 'Why them and not me?'" the pope told reporters outside the prison. Asked how he was marking Easter season, he said, "I am living it as I can," the AP reports. He is expected to make more appearances in the days ahead, though cardinals will take his place at some Holy Week events. He made a surprise appearance to greet Palm Sunday worshippers in St. Peter's Square and has made unannounced St. Peter's Basilica and another basilica miles from the Vatican. In the visit to St. Peter's Basilica last Thursday, the pope, who wasn't wearing his traditional robes, greeted two people working on the restoration of the tomb of Pope Urban VIII.
"He wanted to shake our hands, and mine was very cold and I was afraid to give it to him, but he was very warm, and kind and he asked me to give it to him in any case," one of the restorers said, per the New York Times. Christopher White, Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, says Francis came in as a "maverick" 12 years ago and is continuing to be one after his hospitalization, the Guardian reports. White believes that the public appearances are partly because the pope "really does believe that being with people is the best medicine," and partly because he is "politically astute" and after reading reports about his possible resignation, he is trying to "channel pretty concrete ways of saying 'I'm here, and I'm in charge.'" (More Pope Francis stories.)
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