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In Buenos Aires, thousands of faithful gathered to pray for the Pope

17/3/2025 5:53
Thousands of Argentines, many from poor neighborhoods around

the capital, gathered on Sunday at a church on the outskirts of

Buenos Aires to pray for Pope Francis, who has been hospitalized

for more than a month.



Bearing drums, cymbals, flags and cans of holy water,

Catholic believers and priests gathered at the imposing

neo-Gothic Basilica of Our Lady of Lujan, Argentina's patron

saint, to pray that Latin America's first pope recovers from

pneumonia.



"Long live Pope Francis!" Father Jose Maria "Pepe" di Paola,

a member of a local group of priests in poor neighborhoods, told

the congregation. "This is how we should live the Church as Pope

Francis teaches us, a poor church for the poor."



The latest Vatican medical reports suggest Francis'

health is improving, but Rome's Gemelli hospital has not yet

said when he will be discharged.



On Sunday, the Vatican released a photo of the pope



breathing unassisted



after receiving oxygen, the



first photo



of him it has released since he was hospitalized on

February 14.



Francis, now aged 88, quickly shook the Catholic world

with more lenient attitudes toward same-sex marriage, women's

ordination and focus on global issues such as climate change.



Before he was elected to head the Catholic Church of 1.4

billion believers, 12 years ago, Francis, born Jorge Mario

Bergoglio, had served as the Archbishop of Buenos Aires where

his closeness to the poor earned him a nickname: "



the slum pope.



"



"I pray for him to have a speedy recovery," 55-year-old

housewife Dora Calvo told Reuters at the basilica. "I always

pray to the little virgin of Lujan so she will protect him and

cover him with her mantle."



"We were very worried at the beginning when his health

worsened and they ended up hospitalizing him," added Walter

Camaratta, 60. "We are following the latest information, the

medical reports talk about slow but positive developments."



Pope Francis has yet to return to his home country.



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