Visiting Mongolia Sept. 1-4, Pope Francis encouraged the nation’s tiny Catholic community to grow in faith and charity, but the visit also was designed to reassure the government that it has nothing to fear from the Catholic missionaries who arrived in the country in 1992.

The pope admitted Sept. 4 it was not his best moment when he cited the examples of Peter the Great and Catherine II, who conquered and subjugated neighboring nations and who Russian President Vladimir Putin has evoked as role models in his war on Ukraine.

The Synod of Bishops is not a television show or a parliamentary debate, and its discussions will not be open to the public or to reporters, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis ended his four-day visit to Mongolia where Catholic missionaries began — with charity.

Campaign rhetoric often offers simple solutions to complex problems of drug trafficking and migration, an immigration policy expert told OSV News, with a notable example taking place at the recent first Republican primary debate of the 2024 presidential election cycle.

Despite Latin America’s economy having grown in the past two years, following a sharp contraction in 2020, the region has yet to overcome the scarring impact that COVID-19 left on its social fabric, according to a report released by CELAM, the Latin American bishops’ council.

Church activists in the Amazon are worried about the Brazilian government’s plan to exploit oil in a marine area close to the mouth of the Amazon River.

Like the land struck by a “zud,” the human heart has a thirst and longing that can be alleviated only by the God of love, Pope Francis told Mongolians gathered for Mass in Ulaanbaatar’s Steppe Arena.

The 86-year-old Pope Francis and other religious elders gathered in a ger-shaped theater to speak of the earth and the divine, harmony and beauty, peace and the human family.

Pope Francis continues to make surprise additions to the College of Cardinals with plenty of “firsts,” and perhaps the most surprising of those “firsts” this time is just how many cardinal electors there will be.