NATION/WORLD

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis encouraged pilgrim groups visiting Rome for the Holy Year to be witnesses of hope and trust in God's faithfulness, especially in moments of discouragement. "God acts, even when we do not immediately see the results," the pope wrote to pilgrims from the Czech Republic. "The history of your saints teaches us this: think of the perseverance of John of Nepomuk and many other witnesses of faith in your land." In a message sent March 29 to some 2,000 participants in the Czech national jubilee pilgrimage, Pope Francis reflected on the country's deep Christian roots and the enduring legacy of saints such as Sts. Adalbert, Cyril and Methodius.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Even though its focus was mainly scientific, a Vatican-sponsored conference on aging and longevity could not ignore the ongoing convalescence of 88-year-old Pope Francis. The pope returned to the Vatican March 23 after more than five weeks in Rome's Gemelli hospital, but his doctors have prescribed two months of a drastically reduced schedule to allow him to recuperate.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Change can be frightening, but the Holy Spirit encourages the faithful to face their fears, follow Jesus' light and be "born again," Pope Francis said in a prepared text. "If we do not accept to change, if we close ourselves up in inflexibility, in habits or our ways of thinking, we risk dying. Life resides in the capacity to change to find a new way to love," he said in the catechesis prepared for his general audience March 19.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis spent the night without a breathing mask, the Vatican press office said March 18, indicating that his need for supplemental oxygen continues to diminish. The pope received high-flow oxygen through a nasal tube overnight, it said, a change from the noninvasive mechanical ventilation he had been using since he had a breathing crisis Feb. 28. He has been hospitalized since Feb. 14. The decision to forgo overnight mechanical ventilation aligns with a medical plan to "progressively reduce" the 88-year-old pope's supplemental oxygen intake, the press office said, though it does not mean he will no longer use it at night.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Going to Mass and receiving Communion are signs of putting one's trust in God and understanding he is the one who gives the courage and strength to live life to the fullest no matter how little one has, the preacher of the papal household told members of the Roman Curia. "When we gather to celebrate the Lord's Supper," the sign of the Eucharist is what makes visible that the Lord is "in us and we in him," Capuchin Father Roberto Pasolini said March 13 during his eighth Lenten meditation offered for the Curia.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis' condition continued to be stable with further slight improvements March 11, the Vatican press office said. The pope's doctors at Rome's Gemelli hospital did not issue a medical bulletin March 11, the day after they had announced his continued stability and incremental improvement had led them to lift their "guarded" prognosis, although they insisted he continued to need hospitalization. The Vatican press office said the 88-year-old Pope Francis had again watched by video the morning and evening talks of Capuchin Father Roberto Pasolini, preacher of the papal household, who is leading the Lenten retreat at the Vatican for cardinals and senior members of the Roman Curia.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The devil, who lies and sows divisions, tests everyone, even Jesus, Pope Francis said in a written homily. Satan tries to convince people that the hungry cannot be fed, that "angels will not come to our aid when we are falling, and that at best, the world is in the hands of evil powers that crush nations by their arrogant schemes and the brutality of war," the homily said. But the Lord has opened a new path of liberation and redemption, the pope wrote, so when the faithful are "tested," it does not have to end in failure. "By following the Lord in faith, from drifters we become pilgrims."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The morning after suffering two acute episodes of respiratory crisis, Pope Francis no longer needed oxygen through a breathing mask, the Vatican said. The crises March 3 led doctors to again put the pope on "noninvasive mechanical ventilation" -- a treatment that delivers air with added oxygen through a tightly fitted face mask and using positive pressure to assist breathing. But early March 4, the Vatican press office said, the pope was taken off the treatment and was instead receiving high-flow oxygen through a nasal cannula.

ROME (CNS) -- As he continues to receive treatment in Rome's Gemelli hospital, Pope Francis sent written thanks for people's prayers, but he did not go to his hospital window as some people had hoped. Young people and members of the House of Mary, both groups associated with the Pontifical Academy of the Immaculate Conception, led the recitation of the Angelus prayer March 2 around a statue of St. John Paul II below the pope's hospital window.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis' "clinical condition remains critical but stable" and the "prognosis remains guarded," the Vatican's evening bulletin said Feb. 25. The 88-year-old pope, who has been in Rome's Gemelli hospital since Feb. 14, has had no recurrence of "acute respiratory episodes," the Vatican said. The "hemodynamic parameters" that measure heart health "continue to be stable," the bulletin said.