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.