Pope Francis reappears in public after five weeks and returns to the Vatican

In his first public appearance in more than a month, Pope Francis thanked the crowd of faithful followers from a balcony of Rome's Gemelli hospital. This Sunday marks the 38th day since the supreme pontiff was hospitalized on Feb. 14.

"Thank you all!" the 88-year-old pontiff said in Italian as he sat in a wheelchair to the crowd gathered in front of the balcony. "I can see that woman with yellow flowers, well done," he said to laughter from the crowd.

The head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, who has spent more than five weeks in the hospital battling pneumonia, was on the balcony for two minutes and was immediately discharged.

When he left the hospital as a passenger in a car, he could be seen carrying a cannula, a plastic tube inserted into his nostrils that supplies oxygen. Although doctors said his health improved enough to return to the Vatican, they acknowledged that his condition is delicate and that he has at least two months of recovery ahead of him.