The Vatican also announced on Saturday that Pope Francis would make his first public appearance since his hospitalization on Sunday, when he is set to greet crowds outside Gemelli Hospital.

Pope Francis was hospitalized on Feb. 14, after suffering a bout of bronchitis for weeks and after increasingly finding it hard to speak publicly. Doctors diagnosed a complex infection that developed into double pneumonia.

Pope Francis is to leave the hospital on Sunday and return to his residence in the Vatican, where he is to spend "at least two months" recovering.