“Throughout the day, he alternated between high-flow oxygen therapy and a Ventimask,” today’s medical report said. A Vatican source described this change as an improvement.

In Part I of this exclusive interview with Gerard O’Connell, the Vatican’s foreign minister says speculation about the pope’s resignation is “at this time, not appropriate, and it’s certainly not in the cards.”

The 88-year-old pope continues his slow recovery from double pneumonia, with results of more medical tests expected later Thursday.

A Reflection for Thursday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time, by Robert Buckland

A Homily for the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, by Terrance Klein

Pope Francis “had a quiet night and is resting,” the Holy See Press Office informed journalists just after 8 a.m., Wednesday morning, Feb. 26, after his 12th night at the Gemelli Hospital.

Signed by the pope and dated Feb. 11, three days before Pope Francis was hospitalized, the decree was released by the Vatican Feb. 26.

Areas for possible dialogue between the church and the Trump administration included anti-human-trafficking efforts, the status of Dreamers and the right of a nation to control its borders.

Pope Francis introduced a new option for receiving an indulgence this Jubilee Year: fasting from the internet and social media.

Canon law states that a pope can resign, but it stipulates that the papal resignation must be “made freely and properly manifested”—conditions that would be difficult to ascertain if a pope were already incapacitated.