Catholic News Service

After an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested that a financial relationship exists between the Vatican and Moscow, the Vatican bank said Sept. 9 that it "does not receive nor invest money from Russia."

Pope Francis called for solidarity and concrete assistance for all those affected by a devastating earthquake in Morocco.

Marking International Literacy Day, Pope Francis sent a message to Audrey Azoulay, director-general of UNESCO, encouraging efforts to teach reading and writing to the hundreds of millions of people in the world who do not have basic literacy skills, but he also focused on the education needed to help all people contribute to building sustainable and peaceful societies.

Any limitations and rules regarding media access and communications during the upcoming Synod of Bishops are rooted in the "essence" of a synod and meant to help participants in their process of discernment, said the head of the synod's communication committee.

Auxiliary Bishop Maksym Ryabukha of Donetsk was one of 45 bishops who traveled to Rome for the Ukrainian church's annual synod and to meet with Pope Francis and other Vatican officials. "People's esteem for the pope is very fragile"  the bishop said.

The polarization Pope Francis sees in the Catholic Church in the United States is not only a U.S. problem, Cardinal-designate Christophe Pierre, Vatican nuncio in the United States, told Vatican News.

Pope Francis said he knows people wonder why he traveled close to 6,000 miles to Mongolia to visit a Catholic community of only 1,450 people.

Like St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the first native North American woman to be canonized, all Christians must embrace their unique call to service of God and neighbor as well as the personal crosses that come with it, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis prayed that God would raise up a new generation of "well-educated and faithful Catholics leaders committed to promoting the church's social and ethical teachings" through public service, especially in politics.

Retired Brazilian Cardinal Geraldo Majella Agnelo, a former archbishop of São Salvador da Bahia and former secretary of the then-Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, died Aug. 26 at age 89.

Acknowledging Ukraine's celebration of Independence Day Aug. 24, Pope Francis pleaded with thousands of visitors at his weekly general audience to keep praying for peace in the country.

The synod process underway around the world and at the Vatican is inflicting "evident and grave harm" on the Catholic Church, retired U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke wrote in a letter published as the foreword to a book.

Our Lady of Guadalupe and other recognized Marian apparitions show clearly how evangelization does not require complicated plans and elaborate theological explanations but sharing the faith in "a language suitable for all, a language that is comprehensible, like that of Jesus," Pope Francis said.

The top-ranking U.S. military officer told reporters he and Pope Francis discussed the war in Ukraine, especially the war's impact on the people there.

Since the Mafia feeds on poverty and isolation, the response of the Catholic Church must be to build a community where everyone knows they are welcome, loved, cared for and called to conversion, Pope Francis told priests in Sicily.

Dorothy Day was "a great witness to faith, hope and charity in the 20th century," Pope Francis wrote in the foreword to a new edition of Day's 1938 memoir on her conversion, From Union Square to Rome.

Christians must stand firm in their faith but that is not the same as being rigid and unwilling to bend out of compassion for another, Pope Francis said.

"I am writing a second part to Laudato Si' to update it on current problems," Pope Francis told a group of European lawyers Aug. 21 during a meeting in the library of the Apostolic Palace.

In a world suffering from an "epidemic of enmity," Christians can offer healing by recognizing each person as a child of God and reaching out in friendship, said a top Vatican official, writing on behalf of Pope Francis.

On the feast of Mary's assumption into heaven, Pope Francis entrusted to her people's prayers for peace, especially in Ukraine.