Pope meets with public again after major surgery

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis resumed his routine of holding weekly audiences with the general public a month after he underwent bowel surgery, and during the muchawaited appearance Wednesday he recalled the anniversary of the devastating Beirut port explosion and expressed the desire to visit Lebanon.

After removing his face mas, Francis walked unaided to the center of the stage of a Vatican auditorium. He smiled as he gestured toward the visitors, before taking his seat in an upholstered chair and addressing several hundred pilgrims and tourists, who wore masks as part of the Vatican’s antipandemic measures for crowd situations.

Near the end of an almost hourlong audience, Francis spoke of the Beirut explosion, recalling the “victims, their families, the injured, and all those who lost homes and work” in the blast.

Lebanon’s people, he said, were still “tired and disappointed” in the aftermath, a reference to the economic and political crises convulsing the Middle Eastern nation. Francis appealed to the international community to offer “concrete gestures” of help to the Lebanese people and not “just words.”

“My desire to visit you is great,” Francis said, adding he “never tires of praying” for them.

Francis, 84, was hospitalized on July 4 in Rome for an operation in which a section of his colon was removed. The Vatican said the surgery was necessitated by diverticular stenosis, or a narrowing of the bowel.

On Wednesday, audience members clapped vigorously after he finished his introductory remarks and after he greeted each language group. After the pope gave participants his closing blessing, he went down the stage’s steps with the help of two aides to greet some members of the public, pausing for a selfie with an audience member.

“I hope that the coming summer holidays will be a time of refreshment and spiritual renewal for you and your families,” Francis said during his scripted remarks.

Unlike previous pontiffs, who spent summers at the Vatican’s holiday retreat in the cooler hills near Rome, or, in the case of John Paul II, who liked to vacation in the Italian Alps, Francis stays at the Vatican each summer.