As Pope Francis became the first pope to celebrate Mass on the French island of Corsica Dec. 15, the usual excitement of an open-air Mass with the pope was combined with the flair and pageantry of a Renaissance fair.

Pope Francis became the first leader of the Catholic Church to set foot in Corsica, the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte, praising the French island’s heritage of popular piety as a bridge between faith and secular culture.

Making his customary visit to the Rome Basilica of St. Mary Major to pray before his trip to the French island of Corsica, Pope Francis also met and prayed with dozens of actors staging a living Nativity scene.

In a letter to his nuncio in Russia, Pope Francis called out those who would claim Russia’s war on Ukraine had any spiritual justification.

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.