The pope’s monthly prayer intentions reflect the tension between the comfort and challenge of the Gospel. On March 13, the 11th anniversary of Francis’ papacy, there is no better gift than to pray with and for him.

The ruckus over the pope’s comments once again put the Vatican’s diplomatic corps in the position of having to smooth over Francis’ informal, off-the-cuff way of speaking.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmitro Kuleba, said on Sunday that Ukraine will “never” raise the white flag to negotiate with Russia, and criticized the pope’s remarks for asking to do just this.

Pope Francis wrote that “it is beautiful” when a penitent, reciting the Act of Contrition, recognizes that God is “all good and deserving of all my love.”

The pope suffered from the flu for almost two weeks and hardly spoke in public. During a visit to a parish on Friday, he appeared recovered and preached for an unusually long time.

Leading up to International Women’s Day, Catholic women convened near the Vatican and online, advocating for female leadership within the Catholic Church, pushing for equality, visibility and institutional openness to change.