Members of the Synod of Bishops have begun looking for ways to make relationships within the Catholic Church “more transparent and more harmonious, so that our witness may become more credible.”

As fighting in the Middle East intensified and spread, Pope Francis turned to Mary, begging her to “intercede for our world in danger.”

Love is demanding, but it is also beautiful when a woman and a man love each other fully, “without half measures,” Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis announced he would create 21 new cardinals Dec. 8, including a 99-year-old former nuncio and the 44-year-old Ukrainian bishop who heads his church’s eparchy in Melbourne, Australia.

At the end of a multiyear process of listening, praying, discussing and discerning, Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, said he hopes the Synod of Bishops can give Catholics four practical suggestions for being a more “synodal” church.

Controversy over women’s ordination, even at the synod, detracts attention from the plight of women in the Catholic Church and society, said an Australian bishop, who is a member of the Synod of Bishops.

The Diocese of Rome, like the Rome city government, has put so much effort into ensuring services in the historic center of the city that it often neglects the growing suburbs where most people live, Pope Francis said.

Before the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica, a symbol of the Catholic Church’s unity behind the successor of St. Peter, 15 men laid prostrate to express their humility and take vows of chastity and obedience to their bishop.

“Rushing” to open the diaconate to women in the Catholic Church would short-circuit a necessary reflection on the relationship between ordained ministry and charismatic leadership, particularly as it impacts the participation of women in the church, said the head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, returned to themes relating to peace that he had presented during 79th session of the U.N. General Assembly at an evening Mass celebrated Sept. 30 at Holy Family Church in Manhattan, near U.N. headquarters.