Pope Francis to be discharged from hospital on Sunday

(CNN) — Pope Francis will be discharged on Sunday from the hospital where he has spent more than a month being treated for double pneumonia, Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the head of the team taking care of the pontiff, announced.

“The Holy Father will be discharged from tomorrow in stable clinical condition with a prescription to partially continue drug therapy and a convalescence and rest period of at least two months,” Alfieri told reporters at a news conference at Gemelli on Saturday.

“Today we are happy to say that tomorrow he will be at home,” he added.

The pontiff will also make his first public appearance on Sunday at the hospital’s balcony before making his way back to the Casa Santa Marta, his residence since the 2013 conclave, according to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni.

Francis, who has been in hospital since February 14, has recovered from double pneumonia, but not all of the infections he has been suffering from, according to Dr. Luigi Carbone, the vice-director of the Vatican’s healthcare service.

The pope’s voice is improving but he still needs time to recover, he added.

The 88-year-old pontiff will continue the therapy and physiotherapy after he has been discharged, Carbone added.

Francis will offer a blessing and greeting to well-wishers at the end of Sunday’s Angelus prayer, the Vatican press office said earlier on Saturday. Francis usually leads the prayer and offers a reflection each week, but has not done so for the past five Sundays.

Catholic worshippers from Vatican City to Argentina, where Francis is from, celebrated the news.

Many gathered at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City on Saturday night to pray for the pope as they have been doing since his hospitalization. But today their prayers were mixed with relief.

“It’s a great joy for all of us, for all the faithful, for all of us who’ve come here each evening to pray,” Richard Gundel, one of the worshippers, told Reuters at the square. “Now we’ve received wonderful news, a great joy.”

In Argentina’s capital, a video showed a framed photograph of the pope at a Buenos Aires church on Saturday as worshippers attended a mass to pray for his health.

“When I heard the news today, it gave me goosebumps,” one of the worshippers Raquel Martinez told Reuters outside the church with a big smile on her face. “I was so moved, it’s something indescribable.”

The pope’s hospitalization has been his longest stay in Gemelli since his election 12 years ago. While he has not been seen in weeks, his presence has been felt with the Vatican releasing a short audio message from the pope as well as a photo last weekend showing him praying at that hospital’s chapel.

Since the pope’s admission to the hospital mid-February, there were two serious episodes were his life was in danger, according to the Vatican and the team taking care of the pontiff.

Carbone told reporters at the hospital news conference on Saturday that the pope is in good spirits and has been asking to be discharged for the last few days.

News of his discharge comes after the Vatican said this week that the Pope’s condition appeared to be improving, adding that his pneumonia is considered under control.

Last week, the pope approved a new three-year reform process for the Catholic Church, sending a strong signal he intends to remain in the post despite his lengthy stint in hospital.

Reforms on the table include how to give greater roles to women in the Catholic Church, including ordaining them as deacons, and the greater inclusion of non-clergy members in governance and decision making.

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