“War is always a defeat,” Pope Francis said, urging people at his general audience to pray that leaders in war-torn nations would have the courage to negotiate for peace.

Though the global situation risks plunging people into pessimism, Christians are called to pursue their vocation of becoming “men and women of hope,” Pope Francis said.

Asked to reminisce about his life and where he was at key moments in history, the 87-year-old Pope Francis obliged, but also used the opportunity to talk about the lessons the events hold today and his hope for the future.

Cutting-edge science and medical research cannot benefit only the privileged few but must be placed at the service of those most in need, Pope Francis said.

At the request of Pope Francis, three Jesuit-run institutions of higher learning in Rome — the Pontifical Gregorian University, the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Pontifical Oriental Institute — will formally become one university in May.

Pope Francis called for the release of two religious brothers, members of the Congregation of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, who are still being held hostage in Haiti.

The United States established formal diplomatic relations with the Holy See 40 years ago, and the current ambassador in Rome says its mission has been a wonderful success.

Pope Francis has named Bishop Luis Manuel Alí Herrera to be secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and Teresa Kettelkamp to serve as adjunct secretary.

Hope “is the opposite of impatience, of haste, of ‘everything immediately.’ It is the antidote to discouragement. It keeps yearning alive,” Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa told Pope Francis and members of the Roman Curia during a Lenten meditation in the Paul VI Audience Hall March 15.

Faced with decades of rising secularism, the Catholic Church must invest in families and in strengthening other forms of community to transmit the faith, Pope Francis said.