Catholic News Service

Pope Francis, who has called for the liberation of Aung San Suu Kyi, the former leader of Myanmar and Nobel Peace Prize winner, told Jesuits in Asia that he even had offered to give her refuge at the Vatican.

"In the life of the church, just war theories are a secondary element in Catholic teaching; the first is that we should not engage in warfare at all," Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of San Diego said. The cardinal is an adviser to the Catholic Institute for Nonviolence, which is scheduled to open in Rome Sept. 29. 

Speaking with representatives of movements and organizations from Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia, Francis told the group that he has been criticized for never speaking up for the middle class, "and I apologize for that," he said. But at the same time, "it was Jesus who put the poor at the center."

Juan Antonio López, a Catholic human rights and environmental activist, was killed in his car by a hitman Sept. 14 after attending Mass, Vatican News reported. The 46-year-old husband and father of two recently had been working to shut down an iron oxide mine in a national park that was said to be contaminating two rivers in the area and threatening the local population's water supply.

With the approval of Pope Francis, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith recognized "the abundant and widespread fruits, which are so beautiful and positive," associated with devotion to Mary, Queen of Peace, and with pilgrimages to Medjugorje.

The 87-year-old Pope Francis publicly thanked God for allowing him "to do as an old pope what I would have liked to do as a young Jesuit," and that is to travel to Asia to preach the Gospel. As is customary, the pope used his first general audience after his Sept. 2-13 trip to Asia and the Pacific to tell people about what he did, what he saw and what struck him most from his travels.

The liturgy will include time to listen to the testimonies of three people: one who suffered from the sin of abuse, one from the sin of war and third from the sin of indifference to the plight of migrants, according to a Vatican statement announcing the liturgy.

Pope Francis lamented the death of an Israeli-American hostage abducted by Hamas and called for the immediate release of all hostages being held in Gaza. After praying the Angelus in St. Peter's Square Sept. 15, the pope recalled the many conflicts occurring around the globe, including in Ukraine, Myanmar and the Middle East, noting the "many innocent victims" of war.

"It needs to be said clearly: There are those who systematically work by all means to drive away migrants, and this, when done knowingly and deliberately, is a grave sin," Pope Francis said during his general audience Aug. 28. 

Speaking at the Vatican Aug. 25, Francis said, "Please let no Christian church be abolished directly or indirectly: the churches are not to be touched."

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, dicastery prefect, authorized the local archbishop to issue a document so that the Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows of Chandavila can "continue to offer to the faithful who wish to approach it, a place of interior peace, consolation, and conversion." The cardinal's letter titled, "A Light in Spain," was approved by the pope during an audience Aug. 22 and was published on the dicastery's website Aug. 23.

Dialogue between religious communities in the Holy Land is "in crisis," Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, patriarch of Jerusalem, said Aug. 20 during a presentation at the Meeting in Rimini, an annual event sponsored by the Communion and Liberation movement.

Pope Francis met with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his fiancée, Lauren Sánchez, vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund, at the Vatican to discuss climate change.

"The death penalty is in no way the solution to the violence that can strike innocent people," the pope wrote in the preface to a new book on prison chaplaincy, "A Christian on Death Row," written by American lay Catholic prison chaplain and licensed attorney Dale Recinella, and published by the Vatican publishing house.

Mary is not a "motionless wax statue," but a disciple who wants to share the good news of Jesus with everyone and reaches out to help and comfort them, Pope Francis said. Reciting the Angelus prayer with visitors in St. Peter's Square Aug. 15, the feast of the Assumption, the pope entrusted to Mary's care the people around the world experiencing war.

Just two months before the Synod of Bishops gathers again in Rome, its Latin American members met to discuss how synodality can be implemented in the Catholic Church after the close of the assembly in October.

As the world braced for Iran to retaliate for the assassination of a Hamas leader who was staying in the Iranian capital, the Vatican secretary of state pleaded with Iran's new president not to escalate the Middle East conflict. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, spoke by telephone with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian early Aug. 12, according to Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office.

God will not judge people by how many university degrees they earned, but by how well they cared for the poor, Pope Francis told a group of priests and religious women.

Pope Francis has chosen "Forgive us our trespasses: grant us your peace" as the theme for the celebration Jan. 1, 2025, said an announcement Aug. 8 from the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. The Holy Year, which the pope will open Dec. 24, is "a time for conversion that calls us not to condemn, but instead to bring about reconciliation and peace," the dicastery said.

Meeting leaders of the Afghan community in Italy, Pope Francis condemned violence and discrimination based on religion and later asked people to pray for an end to discrimination in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, particularly discrimination against women.