On a bright spring morning, Pope Francis prayed that Christians would experience the joy of Easter and allow Christ’s resurrection to be “the light that illumines the darkness and the gloom in which, all too often, our world finds itself enveloped.”
Pope Francis
During Lent this year, residents of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where Pope Francis lives, decided to clean out their closets and give away things other people could use. “You can’t imagine how much stuff there was,” the pope said.
“I’m still alive,” Pope Francis joked to reporters who asked how he was doing as he left Rome’s Gemelli hospital April 1.
More than 24 hours after he entered the hospital, Pope Francis’ doctors reported a “marked improvement” in his condition, which they attributed to treatment with intravenous antibiotics. The tests the pope underwent after entering Rome’s Gemelli hospital with difficulty breathing revealed he had bronchitis, said a medical bulletin released by the Vatican press office March 30. “Based on his expected progress, the Holy Father could be discharged in the coming days.”
After having difficulty breathing, Pope Francis went to Rome’s Gemelli hospital March 29 where he was diagnosed with a respiratory infection that will be treated in the hospital for several days, the Vatican press office said.
In a world where “there is no shortage of hotbeds of hatred and revenge,” Pope Francis told priests and seminarians that “we confessors must multiply the ‘hotbeds of mercy,'” by making it easy for people to access the sacrament of reconciliation.
Being an apostle does not mean climbing up the church’s hierarchy to look down on others but humbling oneself in a spirit of service, Pope Francis said. During his general audience in St. Peter’s Square March 15, the pope explained that apostleship as understood by the Second Vatican Council produces an equality — rooted in service — among laypeople, consecrated religious, priests and bishops.
The aesthetic and artistic elements surrounding the liturgy must foster prayer and a sense of communion, Pope Francis said.
Right from the start, upon his election, Pope Francis presented a whole new style of being pontiff.
Taking in and welcoming others must be done without expecting anything from them in return, Pope Francis said.