Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

The theologians were asked to read, organize and summarize the reports to assist members of the synod council in preparing the working document for the synod session Oct. 2-27.

The reason why the 2024 edition of the Vatican yearbook has re-inserted "Patriarch of the West" as one of the historical titles of the pope appears to be a response to concerns expressed by Orthodox leaders and theologians.

The lawyer for the former Vatican employee accused of trying to sell St. Peter's Basilica an allegedly stolen 17th-century manuscript about plans for the massive canopy over the basilica's main altar said the illustrated manuscript is different from one listed in the archives and later reported missing.

Sitting in the Vatican Gardens with the dome of St. Peter's Basilica as a backdrop, Pope Francis told cardinals and diplomats, including the ambassadors of Israel and Palestine, "Every day I pray that this war will finally end."

Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher, the Vatican foreign minister, told the ambassador and his guests, "In conflicts, the Holy See must adhere to the principle of neutrality, which does not mean being morally indifferent."

Pope Francis reportedly told a young gay man to "keep going" with his vocational search after he told the pope he felt called to the priesthood but was turned away by an Italian seminary because he told them he was gay.

In the third week of November, three executions by lethal injection took place in the U.S. in just two days and a fourth execution was called off after failed attempts happened close to the expiration of the prisoner's death warrant.

Pope Francis told the inmates that washing someone else's feet is a reminder of Jesus, who "teaches us this, and it is simple: You have to wash each other's feet, one serving the other, without self-interest."

With some 1,800 priests concelebrating and renewing the promises made at their ordinations, Pope Francis celebrated the chrism Mass in St. Peter's Basilica April 14.

The pope praised projects that "build, with the 'rejected stones,' a house where you can breathe an atmosphere of social friendship and fraternity."

The morning after undergoing colon surgery, Pope Francis was in "good general condition, alert and breathing spontaneously," the Vatican press office said July 5.