(ANSA) - ROME, APR 2 - Pope Francis on Sunday thanked the faithful who prayed for his swift recovery from a bronchial infection that led to a three-day hospital stay in Rome that ended Saturday.
    "I thank you for your participation and also for your prayers, which you have intensified over the past few days. Thank you indeed", said the 86-year-old Argentine pontiff at the Angelus Blessing at the end of Palm Sunday Mass.
    Francis celebrated Mass saying in a slightly weak voice after recovering from his three-day hospital bout with a chest complaint that he, too, needed Jesus to caress him.
    "I too need Jesus to caress me, to come close to me, and for this I go to see him in the abandoned, the lonely", the pontiff said in his homily at the Palm Sunday Mass in St Peter's.
    Francis was standing up leaning on a stick and did not need the wheelchair that he often uses because of a chronic knee problem.
    Having been discharged Saturday from Rome's top Gemelli Hospital after successful treatment for his bronchial infection, Francis arrived in the centre of St Peter's Square in the popemobile to bless the traditional palm leaves surrounded by some 30,000 faithful.
    The pope, who is still convalescing, wore a white overcoat, upon which he had placed a red stole for the benediction. His voice was a little fatigued. (ANSA).