The Vatican’s permanent observer to the United Nations told a committee of the world body that “civilian populations continue to be victims of widespread and systematic attacks.”

Complaining can be “a poison to the soul, a poison to life” and “almost a sin” when it prevents people from building and strengthening “the desire to move forward,” he said during his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square Oct. 12.

The Second Vatican Council was of great interest to the Orthodox world, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople wrote in an article published in the Vatican newspaper.

The Second Vatican Council was the universal Catholic Church’s response to God’s love and to Jesus’ command to feed his sheep, Pope Francis said, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the council’s opening.

While the term “synodality” is not found in any of the 16 documents of the Second Vatican Council, the council’s vision and definition of the church is at the heart of what synodality is, said Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops.

The best way to ensure that economic growth benefits everyone is to create jobs, especially for those who struggle most, Pope Francis said.

The refusal to help desperate migrants “is revolting, it’s sinful, it’s criminal,” Pope Francis said as he canonized a bishop dedicated to assisting migrants and a Salesian brother who had immigrated with his family to Argentina.

Pope Francis appointed several recently created cardinals to be members of the dicasteries of the Roman Curia, the Vatican announced.

Pope Francis said he was “deeply saddened” after hearing the news of one of the world’s worst mass shootings at a day care center in northeast Thailand.

During his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square Oct. 5, the pope said that knowing oneself requires “patient soul-searching” and the awareness of one’s “way of acting, of the feelings that dwell within us.”