No physical limitation or setback can diminish the value of any human being because each person is a unique and beloved child of God, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis will celebrate the fourth annual Sunday of the Word of God Jan. 22 and, like he did last year, will confer the ministries of lector and catechist on several lay people, according to the Dicastery for Evangelization.

The call to faith in Jesus always is a call to service and mission, Pope Francis told seminarians, priests and staff of the Pontifical North American College.

St. John the Baptist is a model for Christian witness, leading others to Jesus and then stepping out of the way so they follow the Lord and not the person who evangelized them, Pope Francis said.

The death of Australian Cardinal George Pell was a shock because just five days earlier he had concelebrated the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI and “seemed in good health,” said Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals.

The United States’ chief advocate for religious freedom expressed his “disappointment” in the Vatican over its provisional agreement with China on the appointment of bishops in the country.

Pope Francis’ condemnations of the threat of nuclear war are “indispensable,” said the head of the U.N. nuclear energy agency.

To understand the Gospel, its beauty and its power, people need to read it, Pope Francis said.

Beginning a new series of catechesis focused on evangelization and apostolic zeal, the pope said that when Christian life loses its aim of proclaiming the Gospel, it becomes “self-referential” and “atrophied.”

Pope Francis praised the late Australian Cardinal George Pell as a faithful servant of God and of the Catholic Church, who steadfastly followed the Lord even “in the hour of trial” when he was jailed for sexual abuse before his conviction was overturned by Australia’s highest court.