Catholic News Service

The women disciples, who were the first to meet the risen Jesus, offer a lesson to all Christians: "We encounter Jesus by giving witness to him," Pope Francis said.

Easter is the time "to roll away the stone of the tombs in which we often imprison our hope and to look with confidence to the future, for Christ is risen and has changed the direction of history," Pope Francis said as he celebrated the Easter Vigil Mass.

Instead of presiding over the nighttime Way of the Cross seated atop a hillside overlooking Rome's Colosseum, Pope Francis followed the service from his Vatican residence, spiritually united in prayer with the 20,000 people gathered outside the ancient amphitheater April 7.

On Good Friday, the pope's preacher said that without God, humanity is nothing.

Jesus never abandons anyone; he has come to save, serve and accompany everyone, Pope Francis told young inmates.

Priests "anointed" by the Holy Spirit should be authentic agents of harmony rather than "instruments of division," Pope Francis said.

Wanting to meet potential partners through dating apps like Tinder is "normal," and the church's teaching on sex is "still in diapers," Pope Francis said in a conversation with a group of young people gathered in Rome.

The Focolare movement has published its first report on cases of abuse received between 2014 and 2022, as well as its updated and planned measures to better and more quickly handle accusations, promote a "safeguarding culture" and offer reparation to victims.

During Lent this year, residents of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where Pope Francis lives, decided to clean out their closets and give away things other people could use. "You can't imagine how much stuff there was," the pope said.

Almost two years after updating a section of the Latin-rite Code of Canon Law dealing with crimes and punishment, Pope Francis promulgated a similar update to the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.

Saying he wanted to protect the rights of members of religious orders facing expulsion, Pope Francis made small changes to canon law, giving them more time to appeal their dismissals.

Parliaments and legislatures should have quotas to include Indigenous people and members of displaced ethnic groups in political processes, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis left the hospital April 1 after being treated with intravenous antibiotics for  bronchitis. He had been hospitalized since March 29.

Pope Francis used his third day at Rome's Gemelli hospital to visit children hospitalized in the oncology ward and to confer the sacrament of baptism on a tiny infant named Miguel Angel.

The Vatican's decision to list the titles traditionally associated with the papacy as "historic titles" in its 2020 yearbook was the right move, said the papal preacher.

The Vatican's prosecuting attorney has leveled additional charges against four of the defendants who have been on trial since July 2021 for their alleged roles in the Vatican's failed investment in a property in London.

After having difficulty breathing, Pope Francis went to Rome's Gemelli hospital March 29 where he was diagnosed with a respiratory infection that will be treated in the hospital for several days, the Vatican press office said.

Like St. Paul, Christians must not only know Jesus with their heads but invite him into their hearts through a personal encounter with Christ, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis called the deadly shooting at a school in Nashville a "senseless act of violence" and prayed that the grieving families hold strong to their faith and "bring good out of unspeakable evil."

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of 64-year-old Archbishop Michael J. Byrnes of Agaña, Guam, who, the archdiocese said, has been "on extended leave due to illness."