The injury and death of so many innocent people, especially children, caused by escalating violence between Israel and the Gaza Strip is “terrible and unacceptable,” putting the area at risk of sinking into “a spiral of death and destruction,” Pope Francis said.

Kerry said Pope Francis’ moral authority and teaching on the need to address both climate change and poverty can rally more people to make a greater commitment to helping the environment.

In the age of instant communications and fake news, journalists — like everyone else — need to recover the practice of going out and verifying information before they share it, Pope Francis said.

Young members of the clergy who are tempted to avoid the complex realities of the world — finding solace and safety instead in the sacred — can be vulnerable to the illusions of the mafia, said the priest heading a new department on the Mafia and other criminal networks.

“How difficult it is to forget the bang of the would-be assassin’s gunshots, which in a single moment could have put an end to this extraordinary pontificate,” the cardinal said.

The roughly 15,000 members of the Society of Jesus, their collaborators and many people who draw on the spiritual heritage left by St. Ignatius of Loyola are preparing to mark a special Ignatian Year beginning May 20 and lasting until the saint’s feast day, July 31, 2022.

Calling for formal recognition of “those lay men and women who feel called by virtue of their baptism to cooperate in the work of catechesis,” Pope Francis has instituted the “ministry of catechist.”

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has urged the U.S. bishops to proceed with caution in their discussions about formulating a national policy “to address the situation of Catholics in public office who support legislation allowing abortion, euthanasia or other moral evils.”

Marking the beatification of an Italian judge murdered by the Mafia, a Vatican office announced the formation of a working group on “the excommunication of mafias.”

Pope Francis called for a global fight against the virus of “closed nationalism” and lack of concern for the poor by supporting “the temporary suspension of intellectual property rights” that prevent the widespread manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines.