Jesus says to have no fear of ridicule, persecution or criticism for being faithful to the Gospel, but to be afraid of wasting one’s life chasing after trivial things, Pope Francis said.

While desperation mounts in Ukraine amid more than 480 days of war — and in the aftermath of the destruction of a dam that caused the flooding of dozens of towns in the south of the country — Cardinal Konrad Krajewski traveled to the country June 22 for the sixth time “to assist those in need.”

With a green light from his doctor, Pope Francis has assured young people that he will be with them in Portugal for World Youth Day despite his recent surgery.

Recognizing they lived the Christian virtues in a heroic way, Pope Francis has declared venerable Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, founder of the first Catholic order of African American nuns, and Sister Lúcia dos Santos, who, with her cousins, reported seeing Mary when she was a child in Fátima, Portugal.

In a church that “bears the signs of serious crises of mistrust and lack of credibility,” members of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops will be asked to find ways to build community, encourage the contribution of every baptized person and strengthen the church’s primary mission of sharing the Gospel, said the working document for the October gathering.

The president of Bolivia welcomed a pledge from Pope Francis “to take concrete, joint actions against the impunity of sexual crimes” in the South American country, where credible accusations of clerical sexual abuse have provoked outrage and caused a reckoning for the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis had a 40-minute private meeting at the Vatican with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel.

– President Joe Biden’s special envoy for climate issues is counting on Pope Francis’ support to get nations attending the next U.N. climate summit to adopt bold measures to mitigate climate change.

The Latin language in the Catholic Church faces two major hurdles: the increasingly exclusive access to Latin instruction worldwide and the difficulty of transmitting the ancient language’s modern value to seminarians from non-European backgrounds, said the new president of the Vatican’s Latin academy.

Catholics need to recover a sense of awe and adoration before the Eucharist, knowing that it is “the real and loving presence of the Lord,” Pope Francis told members of the committees organizing the National Eucharistic Revival and the National Eucharistic Congress in the United States.