Catholic News Service

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.

"These results have been achieved out of the conviction that we need to work steadily to increase the income stream and to cover expenses without eroding the Holy See's assets and without calling for the sale of institutional properties," Archbishop Giordano Piccinotti, president of APSA, said in a comment to Vatican News.

The day marked the Catholic Church's celebration of World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, whose theme was, "Do not cast me off in my old age."

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of State, visited Ukraine to hold high-level meetings, meet local Catholics and represent Pope Francis at the final stop of a pilgrimage to the Marian Shrine of Berdychiv.

"My presence in Ukraine (is) to bring in person the closeness of the pope," the cardinal said July 22 on the Secretariat of State's official X account.

Pope Francis expressed his condolences for the death of Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of the Communist Party, and his appreciation for his role in fostering improved relations with the Vatican.

There is a danger that "can threaten us when, for instance, our enthusiasm in carrying out our mission or our work, as well as the roles and tasks entrusted to us, make us fall victim to a kind of activism which is overly concerned with things to do and with results, and this is a bad thing," Pope Francis said.

With world peace under serious threat, Pope Francis called on all nations to observe the Olympic truce and cease all conflicts for the traditional period before, during and after the Olympic Games in Paris.

Pope Francis' visit to Luxembourg and Belgium Sept. 26-29 will come just 13 days after wrapping up the longest trip of his pontificate. After visiting Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore Sept. 3-13, the pope will travel to the tiny European nation of Luxembourg Sept. 26 and neighboring Belgium Sept. 26-29, traveling to Brussels, Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve.

Any Catholic who participates in the celebration July 28 of the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly can receive a plenary indulgence, the Vatican announced.

Vatican rulings on allegedly supernatural phenomena, such as Marian apparitions, will continue to be released publicly, but official validation of an event's supernatural status — as has happened at Lourdes, Fatima and Guadalupe — would be "exceptional," the Vatican's doctrine chief said.

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a "nihil obstat" decree to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rock in Calabria, Italy, effectively ruling that devotion at the shrine may continue but not validating the supernatural status of the apparitions associated with it.

St. Peter's Basilica hired two women to its team of "sanpietrini," the church's specialized artisans and workers, for the first time since the basilica's maintenance office was established 500 years ago.

Francis said communion, harmony and sobriety are "indispensable values for a church to be missionary at all levels."

The General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops released the names of members of two sets of study groups that have been conducting an in-depth look into several themes that emerged during the first assembly of the synod on synodality in 2023.

A statement released by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith July 11 revealed that a ruling of "constat de non supernauralitate" — a judgment declaring that a phenomenon is not supernatural — was reached in 1974 by the then-Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and approved by St. Paul VI regarding the alleged apparitions and revelations of "The Lady of All Nations."