Justin McLellan

Isolating Syria from the international community through sanctions "benefits no one" and complicates relief efforts to the millions left homeless after earthquakes devastated the country, said a top Vatican official who visited Turkey and Syria.

Russia's suspension of a nuclear arms treaty with the United States weakens structures promoting global security in the nuclear age, a senior Vatican official said.

Members of Ukraine's parliament asked for Pope Francis' support in returning the thousands of Ukrainian children believed to be being held in Russian custody.

"I am close to you, and I pray for you," Pope Francis told the Turkish people reeling from earthquakes that killed nearly 42,000 people in Turkey and neighboring Syria, according to figures updated Feb. 16.

Pope Francis sent 10,000 thermal shirts to earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria, where millions are sleeping outdoors in below-freezing temperatures.

Christians are not called to "argue, counterattack and defend themselves" when evangelizing but to be meek and humble, Pope Francis said.

Just days after Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa, Nicaragua, was sentenced to 26 years in prison, Pope Francis expressed concern over his condition.

Indigenous people have a "fundamental role" in protecting the planet from "unprecedented" social and environmental threats, Pope Francis said during a meeting with participants from the Forum of Indigenous Peoples at the Vatican Feb. 10.

Young people must be "missionaries of human dignity" to fight human trafficking and all forms of exploitation, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis urged all people to be in solidarity with the regions of Turkey and Syria struck by two powerful earthquakes early Feb. 6 and that are "in part already martyred by a long war."

Pope Francis expressed his "spiritual closeness" and "solidarity" with those affected by a pair of powerful earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria Feb. 6.

Ongoing flooding in South Sudan is causing people to move into regions traditionally populated by members of other ethnic groups. That leads to competition for land and resources that fuels ethnic tensions.

More than three-quarters of a century after the largest genocide in history, the United States and the Catholic Church are still making sense of their response to the Holocaust.

Ukraine's religious leaders asked Pope Francis to visit Kyiv, said Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

As war ravages Ukraine, the country cannot be divided among religious confessions but must be united behind "mother Ukraine," Pope Francis said.

Germany's bishops do not have the authority to establish a permanent decision-making body of bishops and laypeople that top Vatican officials said would supersede the authority of the country's bishops' conference, according to a letter from the officials published Jan. 23.

Lengthy, abstract homilies are "a disaster," so preaching should be limited to 10 minutes, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis told young people to always "look to the horizon" and open their hearts to other peoples and cultures.

Welcoming a delegation of Cambodian Buddhists to the Vatican Jan. 19, Pope Francis called for "dialogue at all levels" to seek solutions for repairing the broken relationship between humanity and nature.

Christians must develop a pastoral heart to care for those who have not heard the Gospel or who have left the fold, Pope Francis said.