In documents issued his first 10 years in office, Pope Francis covered topics as diverse as strengthening one’s faith, evangelization, caring for creation, accompanying families and young people, and respecting indigenous peoples.

When Pope Francis greeted the thousands of faithful gathered in a rain-soaked St. Peter’s Square March 13, 2013, he quipped that his brother cardinals looked almost to “the ends of the earth” to find a new bishop of Rome.

Pope Francis’ call for the church to serve those on the peripheries should prompt American Catholics to reimagine their role in U.S. public life, Catholics in politics or public life told OSV News shortly before the pontiff’s 10th anniversary as pope.

A timeline of some significant events in Pope Francis’ pontificate

For a decade, even when discussing the internal workings of the Vatican, Pope Francis has insisted the church is not the church of Christ if it does not reach out, sharing the “joy of the Gospel” and placing the poor at the center of its attention.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty, along with the USCCB Secretariat of Catholic Education and the Our Sunday Visitor Institute, is hosting a religious liberty essay contest for high school juniors and seniors.

From the beginning of his pontificate 10 years ago, Pope Francis set out to reform the structure and attitudes of the Roman Curia and knew he also had to reform the Vatican’s financial system and stewardship of resources.

Allissa Battocletti Noffke has one of the coolest nicknames on the face of the earth. She is known as the “Professor of Spacewalking,” reflecting her teaching and training of American astronauts in this rare skill at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Right from the start, upon his election, Pope Francis presented a whole new style of being pontiff.

Democratic President Joe Biden unveiled the third budget proposal of his presidency March 9, and his first to a divided Congress.