Pope Francis continued his slow recovery from double pneumonia on Thursday, beating back speculation of an imminent death, resignation or conclave and signaling that he was still very much in charge, albeit in a weakened state.

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

The Vatican said Francis, 88, who has been hospitalized for pneumonia, was responding well to treatment and that it was too soon to say how serious the incident was.

The development marked a setback in what had been two successive days of increasingly upbeat reports from doctors treating Francis.