Catholic News Service

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.

In a letter "On the Role of Literature in Formation," published by the Vatican Aug. 4, Pope Francis said he initially intended to write a letter on how important it is for seminarians to devote time to reading novels and poetry but decided to expand it because reading is important for "the formation of all those engaged in pastoral work, indeed of all Christians."

"Attacks, even targeted ones, and killings can never be a solution," the pope told thousands of people gathered in the midday heat to pray with him. The pope's remarks came after the killing July 31 of a top Hamas leader in Iran — a killing widely attributed to Israel. Attacks and killings, the pope said, never promote "the path of justice, the path of peace, but generate even more hatred and revenge."

There have been "various signs" in modern times that have prompted a new awareness of the Gospel and how great God's love for humanity is, a theologian and consultor for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith said. These signs include the Catholic Church's hope of salvation for infants who die without being baptized, the inadmissibility of the death penalty and the recent declaration opening the possibility of non-liturgical blessings to gay and other couples not married in the church, the consultor, Michelina Tenace, said in an article published in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, July 30.

Pope Francis visited an amusement park an hour outside of Rome to greet workers, their families and the two nuns providing pastoral care there.

Thanks to Jesus' promise to be with his disciples always, the faithful can be fully present for others, especially those in need, Pope Francis told thousands of altar servers from around the world.