When Pope Francis said he wanted the focus of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to be “something very different” from the dicastery’s reputation as a stringent watchdog, he was not saying anything goes, Cardinal-designate Víctor Fernández, the dicastery’s new prefect, said in an interview.

Pope Francis has named Spanish-born Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo, who has held the No. 2 post at the Vatican office that oversees the world’s religious orders, to be coadjutor archbishop of Mérida-Badajoz, Spain.

Communicating Pope Francis’ efforts to promote dialogue and advance peace efforts in Ukraine is a “great problem” for Catholic clergy and faithful in the country, said the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

Scholars from different Christian churches who have studied together the New Testament letters of St. Paul are engaging in “courageous and prophetic work,” Pope Francis told them.

A Holy See delegation at a Sept. 11-14 meeting of nations that are parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions urged nations that have not yet done so to sign the treaty, which “prohibits under any circumstances the use, development, production, acquisition, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions.”

In a message to religious and political leaders gathered at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, Pope Francis pleaded with ordinary citizens and governing officials to have the “audacity of peace.”

Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, who said Pope Francis tapped him not to mediate but to encourage dialogue that could end Russia’s war on Ukraine, flew to China Sept. 12, Italian media reported.

After a severe storm set off flooding that breached dams in eastern Libya, leading to the deaths of thousands of people, Pope Francis sent his condolences and prayers.

Workers are human beings, not machines or “spare parts” to be used to drive production and profit at all costs, Pope Francis told members of an organization that advocates for and protects the rights of those seriously injured or disabled on the job.

After an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested that a financial relationship exists between the Vatican and Moscow, the Vatican bank said Sept. 9 that it “does not receive nor invest money from Russia.”