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.

The disappearance 40 years ago of Emanuela Orlandi has haunted her family, fueled conspiracy theories and provided grist for a recent Netflix series.

Pope Francis criticized the use of artificial intelligence in ways that negatively affect the most vulnerable, specifically those seeking asylum.

The way individual Catholics and their parishes care for the sick offers a precise measure of just how much they either are part of or are fighting the “throwaway culture” that ignores or discards anyone seen as flawed or weak, Pope Francis said in his message for the World Day of the Sick.

Hundreds of Polish priests dropped everything and came to Rome to pay tribute to the pope emeritus.

“Peace requires before all else the defense of life,” which is threatened by the “alleged ‘right to abortion,'” Pope Francis told ambassadors accredited to the Holy See.

– Telling parents and godparents to teach their little ones to pray from the time they are small, Pope Francis baptized 13 babies in the Sistine Chapel as their older brothers and sisters looked on — or got away and ran around.

Father Federico Lombardi said that the pope’s message was a “very refined and profound” tribute to his predecessor that respected the liturgy of a funeral Mass.