humanity

The worldwide Synod of Bishops convenes in Rome on Oct. 4 on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi to focus on “synodality” and understanding what it means in terms of “communion, participation and mission” in the church.

A small satellite will be launched into space June 10, 2023, carrying a “nano” version of Pope Francis’ book, “Why Are You Afraid? Have You No Faith?”

The senselessness of war produces tremendous poverty, and its violence strikes those who are defenseless and vulnerable, Pope Francis said in message for the World Day of the Poor, which will be marked Nov. 13, 2022.

The international community must work for peace, and believers of all faiths must pray for it, but pressuring Ukraine to make peace with Russia would be to “consecrate the law of the strongest,” French President Emmanuel Macron told religious leaders meeting in Rome.

With “rivers of blood and tears” still flowing in Ukraine and with the increasing threat of the use of nuclear weapons, Pope Francis begged Russian President Vladimir Putin: “Stop this spiral of violence and death.”

The bishops, in a statement released July 13, expressed their deepest concern for Palestinians who for decades “have been reduced to the status of refugees in their own homeland.”

A member of the Missionaries of Jesus, Sister Pimentel will receive the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award April 21, 2022, in the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa.

Meeting leaders of the Eastern Catholic churches — many from countries at war, facing the threat of war or dealing with the destruction left by war — the pope said human beings seem to be “attached to wars, and this is tragic.”