Pope Francis called for an end to armed conflicts around the world in a letter written from his hospital room in Rome, where he has been treated for pneumonia for more than four weeks.

In his March 14 letter, which stressed the need for responsible journalism, he called for calm. Pope Francis notes that the media are obliged to "feel the full meaning of the words", AFP reports.

"They are never just words: they are facts that make up the human environment. They can connect or divide, serve the truth or exploit it," the Pope wrote to the editor of the leading Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera.

"We must disarm words, disarm minds and disarm the earth. We are in great need of reflection, of calm, of a sense of complexity. While war only devastates communities and the environment without offering solutions to conflicts, diplomacy and international organisations need new life and trust," he added.

Thanking Corriere director Luciano Fontana, to whom the letter was addressed, Francis noted that "in this moment of illness, war seems even more absurd."

"Human vulnerability actually has the power to make us better understand what lasts and what passes, what makes us live and what kills us," the Pope writes.

Peace, he said, "requires commitment, work, silence, words."

Pope Francis' fourth and longest hospitalization during his 12-year papacy was on Feb. 14 in an apartment on the 10th floor of Rome's Gemelli Hospital.

Doctors said his condition was now stable after a critical period marked by respiratory crises that raised fears for his life.

On the evening of March 17, the Vatican said he was now breathing on his own for short periods.

For at least two weeks, Francis has alternated an oxygen mask at night with a cannula - a plastic tube inserted into his nostrils that delivers oxygen at high flow - during the day.

Now, for the first time, he is switching to a reduced flow, the release said.

At the hospital, the pope continues to work when he can, alternating rest with prayer. | BGNES