In a Sunday audience with pilgrims, Pope Francis denounced the “offensive and baseless allegations” made against St. John Paul II by Pietro Orlandi, the brother of Emanuela Orlandi, the 15-old “Vatican girl” who disappeared on June 22, 1983.

On Easter Monday, Pope Francis marked the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which, he said, “put an end to the violence that had troubled Northern Ireland for decades.”

He asked Christ to help the international community “to make haste to surmount our conflicts and divisions, to open our hearts to those in greatest need” and “to pursue paths of peace and fraternity.”

Pope Francis, recovering from bronchitis, delivered a forceful Palm Sunday homily asking us to remember the “many abandoned Christs” in our own time, or those who experience suffering and solitude.

The director of the Vatican press office, Matteo Bruni, said that “last evening, Pope Francis had dinner, eating a pizza, together with those who have assisted him in these days in hospital.”

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.

Pope Francis has asked the doctors not to give public reports on his health condition, as he does not want to dramatize his state of health.

Pope Francis has “a respiratory infection that requires some days of appropriate medical therapy in hospital,” the Vatican press office said in a statement.

In a new interview, Cardinal Gerhard Müller said Pope Francis should correct or punish German bishops for approving “proposals directly against the Catholic faith,” including blessings for homosexual couples.

Pope Francis told the Latin American church leaders, “Anyone who lessens the impact of this history or minimizes the current danger dishonors those who have suffered so much and deceives those they claim to serve.”