Approving the revision of the entire process of the Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis has asked that it begin with serious, widespread consultations with laypeople on the diocesan level.

Pope Francis has called on the world’s Catholics to pray May 22 for dialogue, forgiveness and peaceful coexistence in the Holy Land.

In a document published by the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life May 18, the Vatican issued a set of pastoral guidelines for local WYD celebrations “to ensure that younger generations feel that they are at the center of the church’s attention and pastoral concern.”

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.”