Pope Francis began a meeting with participants in a Focolare-sponsored conference by telling the movement’s president, “I pray for your homeland; I pray so much for your homeland, which is suffering at this time.”

Workers need spaces in which they can come together, form a sense of community and advocate for the marginalized, Pope Francis said.

Every encounter with people on the move as migrants or refugees is an encounter with Christ, Pope Francis said.

When Catholics carry the Eucharist through the streets, “we are not doing this to show off or to flaunt our faith” but to invite others to share in the life that Jesus gives by making himself a gift, Pope Francis said.

Forty-five years ago, on June 2, St. John Paul II started his first papal pilgrimage to his native Poland, then shackled by a communist dictatorship. The visit had not only an enormous impact on the spiritual renewal of the Polish nation, paving the way for democratic changes, but it also inspired future freedom fighters in other parts of the Soviet empire.

Stressing openness and mercy, Francis’ emphasis has been on welcoming everyone into the church, and if a mess is made along the way, so be it.

U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Joe Donnelly will leave his post in July, the embassy announced.

The first years of priesthood are challenging, and the best way to survive and thrive is through closeness to God, to one’s bishop, one’s fellow priests and to one’s parishioners, Pope Francis told priests who have been ordained less than 10 years.

Christians cannot share a vision that sees migrants as threats to society or as a cause for fear, Pope Francis said in a video meditation.

The social and political problems plaguing modern society can be resolved only by allowing the Holy Spirit to heal humanity’s inner turmoil, Pope Francis said.