For the first time, women will serve on the Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod, the committee that oversees implementation of the most recent synod and prepares the next assembly.

Courageous trust in God, oneself and others is needed to see the good in one’s life and to be able to embrace a difficult and imperfect world, said the preacher of the papal household.

An Italian association for LGBTQ+ Christians, their parents and the priests and religious who minister with them is among the many groups registered to make a pilgrimage together through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.

Reducing the message of Our Lady of Guadalupe to anything other than an expression of Mary’s universal motherhood diminishes the true essence of the iconic Marian devotion, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis has called on all nations to eliminate the death penalty, to divert a fixed percentage of arms spending to a global fund to fight hunger and climate change, and to cancel the international debt of developing nations as concrete ways to usher in a new era of hope.

As the fighting in Gaza drags on, Pope Francis welcomed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the Vatican.

The “most beautiful gift” the Catholic Church and its members can give the world is a reason to live with hope, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis prayed that Advent would be a time of spiritual renewal to build up a civilization of love.

Three months after the murder of Juan López, a Honduran church worker and environmental activist whose death was publicly mourned by Pope Francis, the bishops of Latin America are raising awareness on attacks against those fighting for social justice in the continent.

Pope Francis and the country’s bishops in exile prayed for Nicaragua as the Central American country observed the Immaculate Conception of Mary amid persecution.