A Reflection for Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent, by Samantha Richardson

Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley expressed his surprise, disappointment and disagreement with statements challenging the commission’s effectiveness made by Father Hans Zollner.

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.

A Vatican statement said the 15th-century papal bulls, or decrees, “did not adequately reflect the equal dignity and rights of indigenous peoples” and have never been considered expressions of the Catholic faith.

As Francis faces this new illness, help the doctors and nurses who care for him, help him to bear any pain with grace and help him to heal quickly.

In his weekly general audience, Pope Francis reveals how Paul of Tarsus was the exemplary witness to what passion for the Gospel means, and he has the zeal to preach about Jesus and help others.

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

There are urgent “structural and practical issues that led me to disassociate myself” from the papal commission of sex abuse, Father Hans Zollner said.

Pope Francis went to Rome’s Gemelli hospital March 29 for “some previously planned tests,” the Vatican press office said, providing no further details.

I have spent the last seven years working in the Roman Curia. My experience has been far from that of those who would claim that Pope Francis governs through fear.