The Vatican has released the first photograph of the pope in more than a month, showing Pope Francis wearing a purple Lenten liturgical vestments sitting in a wheelchair in front of an altar in the hospital chapel.

The Vatican released the first photo of Pope Francis in a month, showing him in a wheelchair at a hospital chapel. Doctors report his condition is improving. View on euronews

For the first time since Pope Francis was hospitalized in mid-February, the Vatican press office released a photograph of him March 16; the image shows him concelebrating Mass that morning in the chapel of his suite of rooms at Rome's Gemelli hospital.