Appearing publicly in street clothes for the first time as pontiff, Pope Francis went into St. Peter’s Basilica to pray and greet the faithful.

Two art restorers were putting the final touches on a months-long restoration of the tomb of Pope Urban VIII, who in 1626 consecrated St. Peter’s Basilica, when the convalescing Pope Francis appeared,

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