Pope Francis has returned to the Vatican after a nine-day hospital stay and intends to go ahead with his planned trips abroad in August and September, according to his chief surgeon.

Pope Francis was scheduled to be released from Rome’s Gemelli hospital June 16 after having abdominal surgery June 7, the Vatican press office said.

Pope Francis has directed Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the longtime personal secretary of the late Pope Benedict XVI, to leave the Vatican and return to his home diocese in Germany without a new assignment.

“The time has come to say an emphatic ‘no’ to war” and state decisively “that wars are not just,” Pope Francis said in a message to the U.N. Security Council.

A week after undergoing abdominal surgery, Pope Francis’ recovery is going well enough that his doctors are making plans to discharge him from Rome’s Gemelli hospital, the Vatican press office said.

To recognize and address the poverty of others, Christians must become poor like the figure of Tobit from the Hebrew Bible, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis’ message of hope for humanity encased in a small satellite blasted off into space June 12 and soon will beam his words back to Earth.

A papal resignation should occur only in “truly extreme cases” and must not “become the norm,” said the former head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office.

While the Catholic Church does not promote a single political party or legislative agenda, it does insist that Christian politicians always work to promote human dignity and advance the common good, Pope Francis said in a message to the European People’s Party.

As Pope Francis continued a smooth recovery at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, he was back to work and shared a Sunday meal with his closest collaborators, the Vatican said.