Pope Francis will be released from Rome’s Gemelli University Hospital on Sunday after fighting off a month-long case of double pneumonia that threatened his life.
The 88-year-old Argentine will require at least two months of rest, rehabilitation and convalescence back at the Vatican, and has been discouraged from exerting himself or meeting big groups, according to his medical team.
The leader of the Catholic Church—who will bless the faithful from the window of his 10th-floor papal suite at midday before being discharged—had been hospitalized for 38 days. On two occasions, it was unclear whether he would survive.
Francis’s personal physician, Dr. Luigi Carbone, said if he continues his steady improvement and rehabilitation, he should eventually be able to resume all his normal activities.
The pontiff, who has chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed as a young man, was hospitalized on Feb. 14 after a bout of bronchitis worsened into what became the longest and most dangerous hospitalization of his 12-year papacy.
Last year, Francis was increasingly critical of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza due to the mounting Palestinian civilian casualties in the course of the urban warfare, straining relations with the Jewish state.