VATICAN CITY, Holy See (AFP) — Pope Francis is showing “slight improvements” as he recovers from life-threatening pneumonia, the Vatican said Friday, hinting that the 88-year-old pontiff could appear this weekend for the Angelus prayer.

The head of the Catholic Church spent five weeks in Rome’s Gemelli hospital before being discharged on March 23 to his home in the Vatican, where doctors say he will need at least two months of convalescence.

For seven successive Sundays, Francis has published a written text to mark the midday Angelus prayer, which in normal times he delivers from a window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St Peter’s Square.

This weekend’s Angelus “could be held differently from on previous Sundays”, the Vatican press office said, adding that it would provide more details on Saturday.

It said the pope had shown “further slight improvements” in his breathing, motor skills and in his voice, which was damaged by the pneumonia in both lungs.

Blood tests in recent days also showed a slight improvement in his infection, while his use of oxygen is also “slightly decreasing”, it said.

Francis, who has been head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics since 2013, almost died twice in hospital, according to his doctors.

He has only been seen in public once since his admission to the Gemelli on February 14.

He appeared on the hospital balcony shortly before leaving, waving and thanking pilgrims gathered below in a weak voice.

Francis was then photographed in his car leaving hospital, with a cannula — a plastic breathing tube — tucked into his nostrils.

Despite resting and continuing his various treatments, the pope is still working, but has had no visitors beyond his closest colleagues, the Vatican said.

He followed via videolink a sermon on Friday morning in the Vatican and also a mass on Wednesday to mark 20 years since the death of former pope John Paul II, it added.

The Vatican said it was too soon to discuss his participation in events running up to Easter, the holiest period in the Christian calendar, which falls this year on April 20.