Hospitalised Pope calls for end to world conflicts

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis called Tuesday for an end to war and urged reflection in a letter published by Italy's newspaper of record, as the 88-year-old pontiff recovers from pneumonia in hospital.

Emphasising the need for responsible journalism, he called in his letter dated March 14 for calm minds, noting that the media had a duty to "feel the full importance of words".

"They are never just words: they are facts that build human environments. They can connect or divide, serve the truth or use it," he wrote in the letter published on the front page of the newspaper. 

"We must disarm words, to disarm minds and disarm the Earth. There is a great need for reflection, for calmness, for a sense of complexity."

"While war only devastates communities and the environment, without offering solutions to conflicts, diplomacy and international organisations need new life and credibility," he wrote.

Thanking Corriere's director Luciano Fontana, to whom the letter was addressed, Francis noted that "in this moment of illness... war appears even more absurd".

"Human fragility, in fact, has the power to make us more clear about what lasts and what passes, what makes us live and what kills," he wrote.

Peace, he said, "requires commitment, work, silence, words".

Pope Francis, in hospital for over a month with pneumonia, did not need to use an oxygen mask overnight, the Vatican said Tuesday, as the 88-year-old's condition gradually improves.

Doctors at Rome's Gemelli hospital have said Francis is now stable, after a critical period marked by breathing crises that raised fears for his life -- though they have yet to say when he might leave hospital.

"There have been some slight improvements" in the pope's condition and he "did not need to use" an oxygen mask overnight, the Vatican said in an evening briefing.

Instead, Francis used a cannula -- a plastic tube tucked into his nostrils that delivers high-flow oxygen.

But the Vatican cautioned that this did not mean the pope will no longer need the mask, which he has worn overnight for most of his stay.

Francis, who had part of one lung removed as a young man and is prone to respiratory illnesses, is "stable" but his "clinical picture remains complex", it said.

The next medical bulletin is expected on Wednesday afternoon.