The top priority for Pope Francis’ peace envoy in his meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden was the repatriation of children forcibly deported from Ukraine to Russia, the papal nuncio to the United States said.

Pope Francis has sent Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, his special envoy, to Washington as part of his ongoing humanitarian efforts to help Ukraine.

Treated to songs, gifts and a paper medallion designating him “hero,” Pope Francis visited children attending a summer camp at the Vatican.

Pope Francis has rectified an irregularly appointed bishop in China for the “greater good of the diocese,” said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state.

Even if the fruits are not immediately visible, Christians are called to sow seeds of faith in the world and people around them in their daily lives, Pope Francis said.

On behalf of the bishops of the United States, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of Military Services, USA, and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, offered his congratulations and prayers July 9 upon Pope Francis’ announcement of the creation of 21 new cardinals.

Pope Francis named 21 new cardinals, including U.S.-born Archbishop Robert F. Prevost, who took the helm at the Dicastery for Bishops in April, and French Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Pope Francis has appointed more than 450 participants, including dozens of religious men and women and laypeople from around the world, to attend the first general assembly of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality in October.

The Catholic Church must take great care to avoid rites or blessings that suggest marriage is anything other than a sacramental bond between one man and one woman, the incoming prefect of the Vatican’s doctrinal office said.

Any book that is considered sacred by its people must be respected out of respect for the human person who holds it sacred, Pope Francis said.