Convalescing Pope wishes faithful well in Palm Sunday appearance

Pope Francis arrives at the end of the mass on Palm Sunday in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican (Gregorio Borgia/AP)

A convalescing Pope Francis has 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 yet another reassuring public sign of his recovery from a life-threatening battle with double pneumonia.

Many in the crowd reached out to touch Francis’s 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.