The importance of women in the Catholic Church cannot be “reduced” to the question of ministry, Pope Francis told members of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

People who act shocked that a priest would bless a gay couple but have no problem with him blessing a crooked businessman are hypocrites, Pope Francis said.

Feeling sad, disappointed or ashamed of oneself sometimes is normal and even can lead to conversion, but when people wallow in their sadness it becomes a dangerous vice, Pope Francis said.

Love and seek the truth, which requires being open to listening to others and sharing in dialogue, Pope Francis told students.

Christians must let go of the God they think they know and convert every day to the God Jesus presents in the Gospel — the God who is the father of love and compassion, Pope Francis said.

Three hundred parish priests from all over the world will come to Rome and make their contribution to the ongoing Synod of Bishops on synodality by sharing their experiences of parish life, the Vatican said.

If seminarians want to advance in their discernment and practice of religious life they must place the Eucharist at the center of their formation, Pope Francis wrote.

With the help of a woman Anglican bishop, a Salesian sister and a consecrated virgin, Pope Francis and his international Council of Cardinals devoted the first morning of their February meeting “to deepening their reflection, begun last December, on the role of women in the church,” the Vatican press office said.

– Pope Francis expressed his hopes that Lunar New Year celebrations would offer opportunities for people to experience warm friendships and to show care.

In a letter addressed to “my Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel,” Pope Francis expressed his heartbreak at the violence unleashed by the Hamas attack on Israel in October and he repeated the Catholic Church’s condemnation of all forms of antisemitism and anti-Judaism.