Along with the Our Father sung at the end of his weekly general audience or his Sunday Angelus in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis has added to these public events for the last year his own heartfelt prayers for the martyred people of Ukraine.

Pope Francis praised the late Auxiliary Bishop David G. O’Connell of Los Angeles for his “profound concern for the poor, immigrants and those in need” in a telegram following his murder.

As Pope Francis prepares to mark the tenth anniversary of his pontificate in March, one hallmark of his papacy has been to make both sides of the American political aisle “uncomfortable,” panelists, including Washington’s Cardinal Wilton Gregory, said at a Feb. 28 event hosted by Georgetown University’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life.

The work of journalists is to listen and convey the truth of what was really said, Pope Francis told a Catholic weekly magazine.

Everyone must engage in politics, which is simply what it means to take part constructively in the life of a nation or society, Pope Francis said in a new book of interviews.

Pope Francis will travel to Hungary April 28-30 where he will meet with government officials, refugees, academic scholars and young people in Budapest, the Vatican announced Feb. 27.

After praying the Angelus with an estimated 20,000 visitors in St. Peter’s Square Feb. 26, the pope prayed in a special way for those in the Holy Land to “find the way of brotherhood and peace with the aid of the international community.”

If the goal of a “synodal” church is to have all the baptized recognize their responsibility for the life and mission of the Catholic community, Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet said that necessarily means taking a new look at priesthood.

The call to make sacrifices for others out of love remains urgent as so many people continue to suffer from war, violence, exclusion and poverty, Pope Francis said.

Isolating Syria from the international community through sanctions “benefits no one” and complicates relief efforts to the millions left homeless after earthquakes devastated the country, said a top Vatican official who visited Turkey and Syria.