Vatican

The celebration of a Holy Year every 25 years is an acknowledgment that "the Christian life is a journey calling for moments of greater intensity to encourage and sustain hope as the constant companion that guides our steps toward the goal of our encounter with the Lord Jesus," Pope Francis wrote.

Francis, the comic strip: Leo's Advent prayer is all about waiting.

Often homilies are so long, 20 or 30 minutes, that people will go outside to smoke a cigarette and come back, the pope said.

During two days of meetings, Pope Francis and his closest cardinal advisers discussed the relationship between local churches and other institutional church assemblies, a main topic of discussion to come out of the Synod of Bishops on synodality.

Francis, the comic strip: Even after a difficult year, there's always one thing we can do.

Pope Francis praised a new ceasefire reached in Lebanon, prayed for Israeli hostages and Palestinians in Gaza, and appealed to world leaders to help put an end to the war in Ukraine.

Decades of clergy sex abuse scandals are an "existential threat" to the Catholic Church and can only be remedied through transparency and prioritizing survivors, said the Australian ambassador to the Vatican. 

Francis, the comic strip: Leo takes mercy on a turkey in need of a pardon.