A convalescing Pope Francis has 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.

Many in the crowd reached out to touch Francis’s 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 was not wearing nasal tubes for supplemental oxygen, as he had done 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 greeted a boy.

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.

The Vatican said it is waiting to advise on what role he may play in upcoming Holy Week events leading up to Easter Sunday.

It was his second in St Peter’s Square before a crowd, following last Sunday’s unexpected appearance that thrilled the faithful.

Pope Francis in a wheelchair
Francis arrived in St Peter’s Square at the end of Mass on Palm Sunday (Alessandra Tarantino/AP)

He also met privately with King Charles 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 favourite 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,” he said.

The Pope is pushed in a wheelchair passed the faithful
Francis’s appearance delighted the faithful in St Peter’s Square (Alessandra Tarantino/AP)

For the ninth week, including during his five-week stay in hospital from February 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’s triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, when crowds waved palm branches to honour him.

The initial welcome contrasted with the suffering that followed, 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.