A woman holds religious images during a Mass to pray for Pope Francis' health at Constitucion square in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Argentines pray for Pope Francis' health at Buenos Aires cathedral Mass

Women kiss during a prayer for Pope Francis' health at Constitucion square in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Children listen to a coach during a swimming lesson with a painting of Pope Francis in the background, in San Jose natatorium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025.

Hundreds of Argentines gathered in a central square in Buenos Aires Monday to pray for Pope Francis's health and recovery. (AP Video by Cristian Kovadloff)

A scholar of global Catholicism writes how Francis has opened the church to the outside world in ways no pope had done before.

The pope has spent nine nights at Rome's Gemelli Hospital, receiving treatment for pneumonia and other health complications. He is "alert and well-oriented" and attended Mass on the 10th floor of the hospital today, the Holy See Press Office said.

A lawyer for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of fatally gunning down U.S. health insurance executive Brian Thompson in December, told a judge Friday that her client was illegally searched during his arrest and she would seek to exclude that evidence from his trial on state murder and terrorism charges.

Vatican says Pope Francis remains in critical condition and blood tests show early kidney failure but he remains alert and “well-oriented.”

Hundreds of Argentines attended a special mass yesterday for their countryman Pope Francis, hospitalised in a critical condition with pneumonia