In the photo, Pope Francis appears slightly slumped in his wheelchair, adorned in white robes and a purple stole before an altar at the Rome hospital where he has been a patient since Feb. 14. The shot is not head on — perhaps because it remains frowned upon in the Holy See to capture clear images of an ailing pope.

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.