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.”

Risking and ultimately losing their lives to shelter Jews persecuted by the Nazis, “the martyrs Józef and Wiktoria Ulma and their seven children” were models of “evangelical love,” Pope Francis said.

Rather than engage in petty gossip which leads to scandal, Christians are called by Jesus to be direct yet loving in offering help to an errant friend, Pope Francis said.

Rescuers continue to search through the rubble in the hopes of finding survivors after a powerful earthquake struck Morocco the night of Sept. 8, killing close to 2,500 people and causing widespread destruction.

Any limitations and rules regarding media access and communications during the upcoming Synod of Bishops are rooted in the “essence” of a synod and meant to help participants in their process of discernment, said the head of the synod’s communication committee.

If people can learn how to inflict suffering on others with ever more deadly weapons, they also can learn to stop doing so, Pope Francis said.