Pope Francis on Sunday offered the Angelus prayer and welcomed the public in St. Peter ‘s Square, resuming Sunday’ s midday tradition in Vatican City after a seven – week hiatus to encourage large gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Laughing broadly, Francis appeared at the window of Abstol’s Palace overlooking the square and greeted two hundred people standing a safe distance apart in the millstone square. Most kept umbrellas on a wet, windy day.
“In the square again!” Francis said. It appeared on the first Sunday since the Roman region regained Italy’s “yellow zone” designation, which carries the least restrictions on movement.
Just the day before, in a break with tradition, Pope Francis appointed French nationalist Nathalie Bacquart as subscriber to a bishops’ assembly, making her the first woman to hold office and have voting rights.
Thousands of pilgrims, tourists and locals would usually turn out in the big square on Sundays to hear the pope. But Italy does not allow travel between regions in the country, and with strict measures discouraging people coming in from abroad, tourism and travel have largely grown.