Child pornography is “criminality available to everyone through their phones,” Pope Francis said.

In a visit of under 30 hours to Marseille, France, Pope Francis highlighted his key appeals and positions concerning migration and the mandate for people of faith to care for the “stranger” in one’s land.

Four months after soliciting public input on the development of safeguarding guidelines, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors said it had reviewed 300 responses and 700 suggestions that “largely confirmed the approach adopted” for establishing rules and procedures to handle abuse in the Catholic Church.

People often are tempted to think their relationship with God is some kind of commercial transaction where they buy God’s grace with their hard work, Pope Francis said.

The world and the Catholic Church today need to take a leap forward “in faith, charity and hope,” Pope Francis said in his homily at a late afternoon Mass in Marseille’s open-air stadium.

Unlike earlier meetings of the Synod of Bishops, which focused on a specific issue or a specific region of the world, the “synod on synodality” is focused on the church itself: Who belongs? How are leadership and authority exercised? How does the church discern God’s call? How can it fulfill its mandate to share the Gospel with a changing world?

In a rather unusual moment for secular France, the president of the country confirmed he will attend Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in Marseille Sept. 23.

Jesuit Brother Bob Macke, a Vatican astronomer and meteorite expert, has built a custom device for studying material from the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid.

At a moving ceremony at the edge of a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, Pope Francis led a moment of silence for the countless lives lost in its blue but treacherous waters.

Pope Francis arrived in the ancient port city of Marseille Sept. 22 for a two-day visit that was to focus on the plight of migrants and other opportunities and threats facing the Mediterranean Sea and the nations along its shores.