The Catholic Church must put more effort into ensuring that the sacrament of confirmation is not the “sacrament of goodbye” for young people, who receive it and then do not come to church again until they want to get married, Pope Francis said.

Highlighting progress made in safeguarding and recommendations for rectifying ongoing gaps, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors dedicated its first annual report to all victims and survivors of sexual abuse by members of the Catholic Church.

Father Michal Olszewski, priest of the Polish branch of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, was released from his detention center on bail Oct. 25 after the order paid $90,000.

Cardinal Renato Martino, the former Vatican observer at the United Nations and former president of the pontifical councils for justice and peace and for migrants and travelers, died Oct. 28 at the age of 91.

Migrants demonstrate what hope is, and the Catholic Church must support them to keep that hope alive, Pope Francis said.

Two days after opening the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica to inaugurate the Holy Year 2025, Pope Francis will travel to a Rome prison to open a Holy Door as a “tangible sign of the message of hope” for people in prisons around the world, the Vatican announced.

Pope Francis’ new encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus is being hailed as “a simple and powerful cure” for a fractured world, said the president of the U.S. Catholic bishops’ conference — and that sentiment was echoed by other experts on devotion to the Sacred Heart.

Members of the Synod of Bishops experienced a new way of being church and are committing to sharing it, said the two cardinals who guided its work.

Three years after he asked the world’s Catholics to walk together in faith on a synodal journey, Pope Francis said that the church cannot risk becoming “static” but must continue as a “missionary church that walks with her Lord through the streets of the world.”

Parishes and dioceses must move quickly to give life to the consultative bodies and broad participation in mission and ministry already foreseen by church law if the Catholic Church is to have any hope of becoming a more “synodal” church, members of the Synod of Bishops said.