Pope Francis sends heart-warming message in letter to editor ahead of King Charles II' visit

Pope Francis said in a letter published Tuesday that his lengthy illness has helped make «more lucid» to him the absurdity of war, as his top deputy shot down any suggestion of resignation and plans progressed for an upcoming meeting with Britain's King Charles III, as per a report.

Italian daily Corriere della Sera published a letter to the editor from Francis, signed and dated March 14 from Rome's Gemelli hospital where the 88-year-old pontiff has been treated since February 14 for a complex lung infection and double pneumonia, AP reported.

In it, Francis renewed his call for diplomacy and international organizations to find a “new vitality and credibility.” And he said that his own illness had also helped make some things clearer to him, including the «absurdity of war».

“Human fragility has the power to make us more lucid about what endures and what passes, what brings life and what kills,” he wrote.

Responding to a letter from the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Luciano Fontana, Francis also urged him and all those in the media to “feel the full importance of words.”

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“They are never just words: they are facts that shape human environments. They can connect or divide, serve the truth or use it for other ends,” he wrote. “We must disarm words, to disarm minds and disarm the Earth.”

The letter was published as Francis registered slight improvements in his treatment and as the Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, shot down any suggestion the pope might resign.

“Absolutely no,” Parolin told journalists on Monday when asked if he and the pope had discussed a resignation. Parolin has visited Francis twice during his hospitalization, most recently on March 2, and said he found Francis better than during