Pope makes another surprise appearance at St. Peter’s, greeting restorers of papal tombs

The recent restoration of the funerary monument of Urban VIII is displayed to journalists inside St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

ROME — 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, unannounced, in a wheelchair — his third such surprise appearance in less than a week.

Francis thrilled the crowd at St. Peter’s during a Jubilee Mass for the ill on Sunday, met privately with King Charles III and Queen Camilla on Wednesday, before the impromptu turn through St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday.

“We didn’t know if we could approach him. We greeted him from afar,‘’ Lorena Araujo Pinheiro said on Friday as officials unveiled the last of three restoration projects in the basilica for the Jubilee Holy Year, an ancient church tradition encouraging the faithful to make pilgrimages to Rome. Then the pope and three people accompanying him motioned for the two restorers to come closer.

“He thanked us many times for the work,‘’ said Michela Malfatti. “Then he asked me if he could take my hand because his were cold. He was very sweet with us.‘’

Both, in turn, gave them their hands.

The Vatican said that Francis was getting some air that day from his convalescence in the Santa Marta Domus, a block of church apartments, and asked to be brought to St. Peter’s Basilica to pray. The pontiff is in his third week of doctor-ordered rest after nearly dying from double pneumonia, and doctors have advised him to avoid large gatherings.

Besides the restorers, Francis greeted the faithful who had come to Mass or to walk through the Holy Door for the Jubilee Year. Video of several encounters posted on social media showed the pope wearing a long-sleeve white shirt with a poncho-like blanket folded over his chest for warmth as he greeted a boy in one video, and then a baby in another.

The restoration work on the tombs of Pope Urban VIII, sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and the basilica’s founder, Pope Paul II, by Guglielmo della Porta was completed on Thursday just as the pope arrived. It was the last stage of a three-part restoration, after the ornate canopy over the main altar, and the gilded bronze monument that holds the throne of St. Peter, said Pietro Zander, head of the necropolis and artistic heritage section of the Fabbrica di San Pietro that maintains the basilica.

The papal tombs now appear more “sparkling,‘’ Zander said.

An important change on Urban VIII’s tomb was to remove a sculpted cloth that had covered the bare breast of a female figure called “Charity,‘’ who is depicted putting aside a sated child she has just nursed for another that is crying to be fed.

“It was decided to free her from this veil, and it doesn’t seem to me to be anything offensive,‘’ Zander said. “Malice is always in the eyes of who is looking.‘’

The Vatican also unveiled new lighting in the necropolis where popes are buried beneath the main altar, and the addition of stone ramps leading into the basilica that were installed for safety reasons in case of a need to quickly evacuate a crowd from the basilica.

The pope’s decision to come to the basilica and check out the works was an encouraging sign.

“We take it like a blessing of the end of the work,‘’ Zander said.

Colleen Barry, The Associated Press