For the first time in his 11-year papacy, Pope Francis has chosen to write his own meditations for the Good Friday Way of the Cross service at Rome’s Colosseum, the head of the Vatican press office said.

The fight against illegal drugs and narcotrafficking must target not just drug supplies, but also the demand for drugs through prevention programs and assistance, Pope Francis said.

– Young people need to understand how much Christ loves them unconditionally and how much the church needs their voices and presence, Pope Francis said.

Meeting hundreds of Nigerian Catholics who live, work and study in Rome, Pope Francis asked them to make their Rome parishes places where cultural, ethnic and linguistic differences are respected and shared.

Media outlets have a responsibility to share the truth, not spread ideologies, Pope Francis said.

Dressed in red vestments, the color of the Passion, Pope Francis presided over the Mass, the solemn beginning of Holy Week, but he skipped the homily and did not have an aide read any prepared remarks.

The Palm Sunday procession at the foot of an 85-foot-tall Egyptian obelisk in St. Peter’s Square recalls the martyrdom of many early Christians and the fast-thinking foresight of an Italian Renaissance sea captain.

The Holy Spirit is like a line prompter at a theater, behind the scenes and constantly whispering to Christians the words of Jesus, said the preacher of the papal household.

The Catholic Church’s “established, dogmatic models of the theological approach to sexuality have become anachronistic,” a moral theologian told a conference on sexuality and culture at the John Paul II Pontifical Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences in Rome.

The head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church has insisted his countrymen will “never surrender” to Russia’s invasion and that the pope’s recent call for a negotiation of terms with Moscow was “deeply hurtful” for his nation.