Pope Francis has approved a new three-year reform process for the Catholic Church, sending a strong signal he plans to continue in the post despite spending more than a month in hospital battling pneumonia.

Pope Francis has entered the fifth week of hospital treatment for double pneumonia very much looking ahead as he worked on a signature priority of his papacy.

But his friends and biographers have insisted he has no plans to step down, and the approval of a new three-year process indicated he wants to continue on, despite his age and the