Under the right moral conditions, a country has the right to purchase weapons to defend itself from those who attack it, Pope Francis said.

Speaking on behalf of dozens of religious leaders, Pope Francis called on world leaders to put an end to violence and bloodshed and instead strive for peace.

As war, violence and extremism in countries around the world threaten the lives of countless men, women and children, religions must rise above differences and be examples of peace and harmony, Pope Francis said.

The painful memories of the persecution of Christians in Kazakhstan serve as a reminder that peace “must be achieved anew each day,” Pope Francis said.

Arriving in Kazakhstan, a country that borders Russia, Pope Francis said he came as a “pilgrim of peace” at a time when “our world urgently needs peace; it needs to recover harmony.”

Being able to go to school and study is a gift that not every young person in the world has and is something to thank God for, Pope Francis told a group of Swiss students.

Jesus throwing money changers out of the temple and talking about how difficult it is for a rich person to get to heaven make it easy to assume that there is little hope for the salvation of a business owner, Pope Francis said, but that is not true.

Like Mary, who after the Annunciation went in haste to visit her cousin Elizabeth, young Catholics are called to welcome Jesus into their lives and then to go out and share their joy with others, Pope Francis said.

The Catholic Church “embraces and encourages a passion for scientific research as an expression of love for the truth and for knowledge about the world,” Pope Francis told members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

The first task of a catechist is to love the Lord and to live the faith in a way that makes others want to live it, too, Pope Francis told more than 1,400 people attending the International Congress on Catechesis.