Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

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.