Convalescing Pope Francis opens Holy Week with in-person greeting in St. Peter's Square

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A convalescing Pope Francis greeted the crowd in St. Peter’s Square on Palm Sunday, wishing more than 20,000 faithful a “Happy Palm Sunday, Happy Holy Week," in yet another reassuring public sign of his recovery from a life-threatening battle with double pneumonia.

Many in the crowd reached out to touch Francis’ hand or garments as he was brought in a wheelchair down a ramp to the main altar, where he issued his brief greeting into a microphone. The 88-year-old pope was not wearing nasal tubes for supplemental oxygen, as he had during a similar appearance last Sunday.

On his way back to St. Peter’s Basilica from where he had emerged, Francis stopped to bless a rosary, and offered candy to a boy who greeted him.

The 88-year-old Francis is entering his fourth week of convalescence during which doctors have advised him to avoid crowds. While Francis is clearly eager to show he is feeling better, he has not spoken more than a few words in public as he recovers from a severe respiratory crisis that has labored his speech. The Vatican said it was waiting to advise on what role he may play in upcoming Holy Week events leading up to Easter Sunday.

It was his second time in St. Peter’s Square before a crowd since leaving the hospital, following last Sunday's unexpected appearance that thrilled the faithful. He also met privately with King Charles III and Queen Camilla this week, and made an impromptu tour of St. Peter’s Basilica, stopping to pray, and to thank a pair of restorers for their work on the basilica's masterpieces.

On Saturday, the eve of Holy Week, Francis went to the St. Mary Major Basilica in central Rome to pray privately before a favorite icon of the Virgin Mary, Salus Populi Romani. The basilica, which he typically visits before and after his foreign trips, was also his first stop after leaving the Gemelli hospital on March 23.

In the traditional Sunday blessing, the pontiff thanked the faithful for their prayers. “At this time of physical weakness, they help me to feel God’s closeness, compassion and tenderness even more.” For the ninth week, including his five-week hospitalization starting Feb. 14, the blessing was delivered as a text.

The pope offered prayers for those suffering in the conflict in Sudan, which marks its second anniversary on Tuesday, and for Lebanon, where civil war began 50 years ago, as well as for peace in Ukraine, the Middle East, Congo, Myanmar and South Sudan.

In a prepared Palm Sunday homily read by a top Vatican cardinal, Francis urged the faithful to carry the cross “of those who suffer around us” to mark the start of the solemn Holy Week.

Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, vice dean of the College of Cardinals, led the celebrations, leading a procession of cardinals around the piazza’s central obelisk carrying an ornately braided palm that recalls Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, when crowds waved palm branches to honor him.

The initial welcome contrasts with the suffering that follows, leading up to his crucifixion, which Christians observe on Good Friday, followed by his resurrection, celebrated on Easter Sunday.

The faithful emerged from St. Peter's Square carrying blessed palm fronds or olive branches to mark the occasion. While the pope's appearance was widely expected, pilgrims acknowledged some concern that gusts of wind might keep him from entering the square.

“There was a bit of worry when a few drops fell and it was windy but then at the end he surprised us and it was a really great emotion,'' said Luigi Mighali. "I think his words, ‘Happy Holy Week and Happy Palm Sunday,' moved everyone.''

Yesica Andagua, a Peruvian nun, said she was gratified to see the pope doing so well.

"The truth is that it has given me a lot of joy, at least for me, to see that he is getting better and may he get better soon, God willing,” she said.

Video journalist Francesco Sportelli contributed.

Monsignor Massimiliano Matteo Boiardi holds the microphone for Pope Francis as he wishes happy Palm Sunday and Easter Festivities to the faithful who attended the mass on Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis arrives at the end of the mass on Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis arrives at the end of the mass on Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Monsignor Massimiliano Matteo Boiardi, left, holds the microphone for Pope Francis as he wishes happy Palm Sunday and Easter Festivities to the faithful who attended the mass on Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Faithfulget emotional as Pope Francis arrives at the end of the mass on Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis arrives at the end of the mass on Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Francis leaves at the end of the mass on Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Francis arrives at the end of the mass on Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Francis arrives at the end of the mass on Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Francis arrives at the end of the mass on Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Faithful get emotional as Pope Francis arrives at the end of the mass on Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis arrives at the end of the mass on Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis arrives at the end of the mass on Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis arrives at the end of the mass on Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

DENVER (AP) — Colorado officials say President Donald Trump's administration appears to be wielding its “political power” to give unprecedented help to a former county election clerk convicted of letting Trump supporters access election equipment after his 2020 defeat.

The U.S. Justice Department is trying to intervene in the case of Tina Peters, who wants to be released from prison while she appeals her conviction. A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon in federal court in Denver.

There have been “reasonable concerns” raised about Peters’ prosecution, wrote acting U.S. Assistant Attorney General Yaakov M. Roth in a court filing last month. Peters’ case is among those the government has said it is reviewing for “abuses of the criminal justice process.”

But Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser wants Magistrate Judge Scott T. Varholak to block the Justice Department's involvement. Lawyers from Weiser's office said the Justice Department has not given any good reason why it should intervene and has just repeated Peters' arguments.

“Tina Peters was not prosecuted because of any political pressure; she was prosecuted because she broke the law. And just as they did not prosecute her for political reasons, her prosecutors will not accede to any political pressure to give her preferred treatment in sentencing or terms of confinement,” lawyers from Weiser's office said in a filing.

Varholak denied a request to allow Peters, now in a state prison in Pueblo after serving a jail sentence, to attend Tuesday’s hearing, saying its only purpose was to hear arguments from lawyers.

The lawyers who originally submitted the Justice Department’s statement, including Colorado’s acting U.S. Attorney J. Bishop Grewell, have since stepped down from the case because their office helped the state investigate Peters. They said that while they wanted to avoid a conflict of interest, they stood by the Justice Department’s statement.

Abigail Stout, a Justice Department lawyer in Washington, is now representing the federal government instead.

A state judge sentenced Peters in October to nine years behind bars after rebuking her for being defiant and continuing to press discredited claims about rigged voting machines. Peters is now trying to get a federal judge to release her while she appeals her conviction.

Peters says Judge Matthew Barrett violated her right to free speech by denying her bond while she appeals because of her outspoken questioning of the voting system. She also argued she should be released from prison while she appeals because she is protected from being punished for trying to preserve election records, which she says is a federal duty.

Jurors found Peters guilty in August for using someone else’s security badge to give an expert affiliated with My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell access to the Mesa County election system and deceiving other officials about that person’s identity. Lindell is a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election from Trump.

Barrett previously found Peters in contempt of court after District Attorney Dan Rubenstein accused her of recording a court hearing for a person accused of being a coconspirator, which she denied.

That conviction was overturned for lack of evidence by the state appeals court in January.

Peters says Rubenstein, a Republican, later admitted that he didn’t know if Peters was recording the hearing but still used it as a reason to encourage Barrett to sentence her to prison for the voting system breach. Her lawyers say a review found no evidence of a recording.

Trump has previously been at odds with officials in Democratic-led Colorado over issues including immigration. In March, he demanded the removal of a portrait of himself from the state Capitol because he thought it was unflattering.

His administration's attempt to involve itself in Peters' case is its latest move to reward allies who violated the law on Trump's behalf.

Previously, Trump pardoned more than a thousand people convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He nominated an attorney for some of those defendants, Ed Martin, to be acting U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia.

The Department of Justice also moved to drop corruption charges against New York’s Democratic mayor, Eric Adams, saying that they were tainted by “weaponization” and that the administration needed Adams’ cooperation in its immigration enforcement efforts.

FILE - Candidate for the Colorado Republican Party chair position Tina Peters concludes her speech during a debate sponsored by the Republican Women of Weld, Feb. 25, 2023, in Hudson, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)