Catholic News Service

God suffers and grieves when those who profess to believe in him do not love the people he loves and do not work for the justice he desires, 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.

The media and the field of communications need to exercise more kindness and share the truth with charity, Pope Francis said.

The Word of God, which heals and raises people up, is meant for everyone, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis did not need to launch listening sessions for the Synod of Bishops for people to discover there are tensions in the Catholic Church, said the cardinal serving as the synod's relator general.

The best way to fight a sense of fear about the future is to do good today, Pope Francis said.

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

While the Second Vatican Council gave the Catholic Church a "beautiful" document on the priesthood, "it did not face the fundamental question" of the difference between Catholic and Protestant understandings of ordained ministry, wrote Pope Benedict XVI in an essay published after his death.

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.

The call to faith in Jesus always is a call to service and mission, Pope Francis told seminarians, priests and staff of the Pontifical North American College.

No physical limitation or setback can diminish the value of any human being because each person is a unique and beloved child of God, Pope Francis said.

Health care is not a luxury, it is a right that belongs to everyone, Pope Francis told health care workers.

Encouraging Catholics to participate in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Pope Francis also announced that before the assembly of the Synod of Bishops opens in early October, there will be an ecumenical prayer vigil in St. Peter's Square.

The United States' chief advocate for religious freedom expressed his "disappointment" in the Vatican over its provisional agreement with China on the appointment of bishops in the country.

Pope Francis' condemnations of the threat of nuclear war are "indispensable," said the head of the U.N. nuclear energy agency.

Pope Francis will celebrate the fourth annual Sunday of the Word of God Jan. 22 and, like he did last year, will confer the ministries of lector and catechist on several lay people, according to the Dicastery for Evangelization.

Sharing the faith is the "oxygen" that "invigorates and purifies" Christian life, Pope Francis said.

Telling parents and godparents to teach their little ones to pray from the time they are small, Pope Francis baptized 13 babies in the Sistine Chapel as their older brothers and sisters looked on — or got away and ran around.