In his absence, the Vatican’s day-to-day operations continued, with Cardinal Pietro Parolin celebrating Mass for an anti-abortion group in St Peter’s Basilica

As he begins his fourth week in a Rome hospital, Pope Francis is showing a "gradual" improvement, the Vatican said. Pope Francis is responding well to treatment at a Rome hospital for pneumonia, the Vatican said Saturday,

Pope Francis on Monday received a visit from Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the Substitute for General Affairs Mons. Edgar Pena Parra at Rome's Agostino Gemelli Hospital, the Vatican press office said in a bulletin on Tuesday.

Pope Francis entered his fourth week in hospital with double pneumonia on Saturday, increasingly handing off his day-to-day duties.

As members of the Roman Curia gather nightly to pray for Pope Francis’s health and recovery, they are doing so while seemingly ignoring his reforms, particularly on the issue of women and their inclusion in leadership.

Pope Francis, who has been in hospital for 10 days now, is critical with mild signs of kidney failure. There is growing speculation about the 88-year-old pontiff’s successor. Who could it be?

The Vatican has set in motion nightly prayers for Pope Francis in the hope that he might recover and get back to leading the Catholic Church.

THE Pope wrote his resignation letter 12 years ago in case he became too ill to fulfil the holy role as he remains in a ‘critical’ state in hospital. The Pontiff has spent 10 nights in