Pope Francis has returned to doing audiences with the faithful in person after a nearly six-month interruption due to Covid-19.
Francis greeted several hundred socially distanced and masked visitors inside the San Domaso Courtyard of the Apostolic Palace.
![]()
The audience coincided with the 40th anniversary of an assassination attempt against St John Paul II.
The pope was gravely wounded on 13th May 1981 by a 23-year-old Turk as he passed through St Peter’s Square in an open car during a general audience.
Francis said the anniversary “makes us aware that our lives and the history of the world are in the hands of God”.