NATION/WORLD

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- God tells Christians not to be afraid because he is always close, accompanying the faithful throughout their lives and through all their challenges, Pope Francis said "God says 'Do not be afraid' to Abraham, Isaac" and many others in the Bible, but "he says it to us, too. 'Be not afraid,' keep going," because God "is your traveling companion," the pope said Jan. 22 during his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Audience Hall.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Artificial intelligence or any other technology that worsens inequality around the world and increases fake news should not be embraced as "progress," Pope Francis told business and government leaders meeting in Davos, Switzerland. "Technological developments that do not improve life for everyone, but instead create or worsen inequalities and conflicts, cannot be called true progress," the pope said in a message to the World Economic Forum.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Thanking members of the military and the police for their service, Pope Francis asked them to be on guard against seeing other people as enemies and instead dedicate their lives to defending life, peace and justice."Be vigilant lest you be poisoned by propaganda that instills hatred (and) divides the world into friends to be defended and foes to fight," the pope wrote in his homily for the Mass Feb. 9 for the Jubilee of the Armed Services, Police and Security Personnel.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Catholic's vocation is to bring God to every aspect of one's life: to work, the family and serving the community, Pope Francis said in a message. "Do not be afraid and abandon yourselves" to God's will, he said in the message sent to people taking part in a national congress on vocations in Spain. "The Spirit will surprise you at every step," inspiring believers "to reduce the distance that separates you from God and your brother or sister, to change your course and encounter Jesus in the embrace of the one to whom you are sent," the pope wrote. Members of lay movements and associations, religious congregations, bishop

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Catholics cannot confine their faith to the liturgy but must fully engage and dialogue with the culture that surrounds them, said the cardinal responsible for the church's engagement with the world of culture. "We cannot close the Christian experience in a kind of parenthesis that is only the liturgy," Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, told Catholic News Service Feb. 14. "Culture cannot be at the margins of faith. We must live in culture, accompany it, inhabit it, seeking to build a unity with what we believe."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- "Being ordained is not an ascent but a descent, whereby we make ourselves small, lower ourselves and divest ourselves," Pope Francis said in a message to 23 men from eight countries, including three from the United States, who were ordained permanent deacons in St. Peter's Basilica. The Feb. 23 ordination Mass at the Vatican was the culmination of a three-day Holy Year celebration that drew thousands of deacons, plus their wives and others, from more than 100 countries to Rome for communal prayer, discussion and celebration of the diaconate.

The faithful throughout the Diocese of Phoenix continue to join their brethren across the globe in praying for the recovery of Pope Francis from severe respiratory health problems. “We’re all praying,” said Dcn. Roy Drapeau of Ss. Simon and Jude parish in Phoenix. The Vatican Monday night reported the pope’s condition had improved slightly, with “no new episodes of asthma-like respiratory distress.” Vatican News also stated doctors at Gemelli Hospital in Rome had slightly reduced the pope’s oxygen flow and levels and that his test results had improved. The 88-year-old pope was hospitalized Feb. 14. He was treated for bronchitis and later pneumonia in both lungs. 

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.

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) -- 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.