Carol Glatz

Poverty and inequality, which are major factors in child labor exploitation, must be addressed, Pope Francis said in a written message.

Wanting to go back to the way things were in the past is not Christian, Pope Francis said.

Christians must listen to God's word, go where Christ goes, seek those who are lost and reach out to their neighbors, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis and his international Council of Cardinals met in-person at the Vatican April 25, discussing the war in Ukraine, the Vatican press office said.

If young people recognize all that they have received with gratitude and older people take the initiative of relaunching hope in young people for their future, then nothing can stop the flourishing of God's blessings among people, Pope Francis said.

Having "the smell of sheep" for one military chaplain serving in Ukraine has now meant being surrounded by the smell of burned homes and lives.

There is no such thing as a "good" or "bad" nation because wickedness can be found everywhere, Pope Francis said.

The planned second meeting between Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill has been canceled out of concern it could cause "confusion," and there will be no papal visit to Kyiv while war rages, Francis said in an interview with the Argentine daily newspaper La Nación April 21.

Mexican Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, a longtime president of the former Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, died in Rome April 20 at the age of 89.

Pope Francis and the Vatican are urging world leaders to listen to the people's cry for peace, and they have backed an appeal by the head of the United Nations for an Easter truce in Ukraine.

More than 10,000 people gathered outside Rome's Colosseum prayed with Pope Francis for peace in the world, while a Ukrainian and a Russian woman held a cross together during the nighttime Way of the Cross April 15.

Jesus invites everyone to repent and to turn swords into plowshares and missiles into factories and homes, the papal preacher said during the Good Friday service at the Vatican.

Pope Francis has appointed Stanley Prusiner, an American neurologist and Nobel Prize laureate in medicine, and Zeresenay Alemseged, an Ethiopian paleoanthropologist who discovered the fossilized remains of the "world's oldest child," to be members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

To wage war, which marks a failure of politics and humanity, is to surrender to the forces of evil, Pope Francis wrote in a new book.

The pope met in the Paul VI audience hall April 8 with members of the high council, which regulates Italy's ordinary justice system, seeking to ensure the autonomy and independence of criminal and civil judges.

The Legionaries' 2021 'Annual Report: Truth, Justice and Healing' was released April 6 with updates to their ongoing effort to 'give an account of their commitments to the victims of sexual abuse since the publication three years ago (December 2019) of all cases from their history.' They received four new allegations of sexual abuse against members of the congregation between March 2021 and March 2022.

Andrii Yurash, Ukraine's ambassador to the Holy See, presented his credentials to Pope Francis April 7. He also met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state.

Meeting members of a foundation supporting individuals with autism and their families, Pope Francis happily put on a gift of a red chef's apron over his white cassock and gave his guests an enthusiastic "thumbs-up."

Pope Francis asked people to pray for his upcoming trip to Malta and to pray for an end to the "savage cruelty" of war.

God always forgives and joyously welcomes back everyone who returns to him, even after a life of mistakes and sin, Pope Francis said.