Traveling as a “sower of peace” to the Kingdom of Bahrain, Pope Francis further strengthened ties with the Muslim world and witnessed the joy and vitality of its minority and predominately expatriate Christian population.

A new outreach to teaching the faith, called the Institute on the Catechism, will be a springboard for faith formation developed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee on the Catechism.

Numbers are a real challenge, but “those who get caught up in pessimism put faith aside,” the pope told students and staff of the Claretian Institute of the Theology of Consecrated Life in Rome and its affiliated programs in the Philippines, India, Colombia and Nigeria.

Pope Francis has continued to call on Russian and Ukrainian leaders to negotiate an end to the war, but the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church told him Russia wants only the destruction of Ukraine.

– From an altar set on a platform just above the waters that straddle the U.S. and Mexico, Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, celebrated a Mass Nov. 5 to remember migrants who’ve died trying to cross the waters below or along the border in 2022.

Everyone needs help to mature and to grow as a person of faith, Pope Francis told young people in Bahrain, so reach out to someone a bit older and wiser and don’t forget to pray.

Seek to be guardians and builders of unity, reaching out to dialogue with others and living as brothers and sisters, Pope Francis told the Catholic faithful and their bishops and priests from throughout the Persian Gulf.

As the latest U.N. climate change summit began, some faith and civil organizations had a long wish list of what they hoped it would achieve.

A society that does not give women the same rights and opportunities as men will become impoverished, Pope Francis said at the end of a four-day visit to Bahrain.

The fall general assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will find the bishops voting on a new president and vice president and how to proceed in disseminating their quadrennial document on Catholic participation in public life.