In the end, it was not the solemn corridors of a hospital ward that bore witness to Pope Francis’s final days, but the sun-drenched square of St Peter’s Basilica, draped in spring tulips and echoing with chants of “Viva il Papa”.
Doctors had pleaded with him to rest. The double pneumonia had nearly claimed him just weeks before. He was 88, frail, and barely breathing at times during a 38-day hospital stay so dire his physicians, in private, considered letting nature take its course.
Yet, Francis had a different kind of prognosis in mind – one not guided by medicine, but by a mission.
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With thanks to The Sydney Morning Herald and Rob Harris, where this article originally appeared.
