The Swiss Guard’s main duties are providing security services, protecting the pope and his residence and offering honor guard duty at the main entrances to Vatican City State, at public audiences, Masses and diplomatic receptions.

Religious leaders must courageously cooperate in supporting each other in opposing hatred and promoting peace, Pope Francis said.

The violence of the Holocaust and the atrocities committed against the Jewish people are tantamount to blasphemy, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis praised his predecessor’s courage in denouncing the danger of people no longer respecting or understanding the sacredness of human life.

Slovakia’s tradition of hospitality along with its witness of faith amid persecution must be at the forefront of government policies and the Catholic Church’s engagement with the faithful, Pope Francis said.

The archbishop who steered Poland’s Catholic Church through communist rule and a blind Franciscan nun who founded one of Europe’s foremost centers for the sight-impaired took a step closer to sainthood Sept. 12.

“Let us not be concerned only with the things that can benefit our individual communities,” the pope said. “The freedom of our brothers and sisters is also our freedom, since our freedom is not complete without theirs.”

Spending time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament can heal Christians from a self-absorbed religiosity that is ostentatious and triumphalist, Pope Francis said.

As the World Trade Center was attacked on Sept 11, 2001, first responders of all kinds did all they could in the hours and days after the towers’ fall to bring comfort and hope to those devastated by the terrorist act.

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recalled the heroic deeds of first responders and security forces during the Sept. 11 attacks around the country on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the day’s harrowing events.