Matt Campuzano, a 10-year-old from Marple, Pennsylvania, is looking ahead to his spring basketball season and keeping Pope Francis in his prayers. Matt has a special connection to the pope, who embraced him while making the rounds in his popemobile in Center City in September 2015,

Catholics in Buenos Aires attended Mass on Sunday to pray for Pope Francis' recovery. (Video by Cristian Kovadloff)

"Thank you for your closeness, and for the consoling prayers I have received from all over the world!" In a late update on Sunday, the Vatican said Francis remains in critical condition and blood tests show early kidney failure but he remains alert and "well-oriented.

Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan said that the closing of Catholic schools in New York City amid a faith and funding crisis in the US brings him to tears.

Pope Francis has received get-well notes featuring heartwarming drawings from children in the hospital where he is staying.

Time-honored rituals, drafted and refined over centuries, allow time for mourning and provide order at a dramatic moment of transition.

Michael Duffy, the rector at St. Agnes, the seat of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, addressed the pope’s condition during the 9:30 a.m. Mass. He began his sermon by asking the attendees to pray for the pontiff.

Pope Francis, hospitalized in critical condition with double pneumonia, was well enough to meet with the Vatican secretary of state to approve new decrees for saints and call a formal meeting to set the dates for their canonization,

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

Pope Francis' condition remains critical after developing pneumonia in both lungs earlier this month, but the Vatican said he is showing signs of improvement.