Catholic News Service

105 comedians from around the world  traveled to the Vatican for a papal audience and to "establish a link between the Catholic Church and comic artists," according to the Dicastery for Culture and Education, which organized the meeting.

The poor bear the image of Jesus, and Christians must offer them support and expressions of Christian charity, Pope Francis said.

Christians should read Scripture often, every day if possible, and look to the Spirit if reading the Gospel ever feels dry, Pope Francis said.

During a closed-door meeting June 11 with about 160 priests from the Diocese of Rome at the Pontifical Salesian University, the pope said it would not be prudent to admit young men with homosexual tendencies to seminaries as candidates for the priesthood, according to the Italian news agencies.

The suspect, a former employee of the Fabbrica di San Pietro — the office responsible for the basilica's upkeep — reportedly attempted to sell an 18-page manuscript, which had been missing from its archives, back to the basilica.

"The church begins to take shape in the community, seeking together, listening to the word of God, speaking well of each other," Pope Francis told about 60 residents of a Rome apartment building: children, teenagers, adults and older people. 

Marking 80 years since some 4,400 Allied troops "heroically gave their lives" to the cause of freedom by storming the beach in Normandy, D-Day commemorations remind the world that disrupting peace in pursuit of worldly interests is a grave sin, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis announced that he is preparing a document on the Sacred Heart of Jesus to "illuminate the path of ecclesial renewal, but also to say something significant to a world that seems to have lost its heart."

The emphasis on listening, dialogue and discernment central to the Synod of Bishops on synodality originated from the periphery of the universal Catholic Church — in the Amazon — and its fruits are now challenging the church worldwide to adopt a spirit of communal participation and decision-making in the church, said the cardinal in charge of the synod.

"It is an occasion charged with salvation because Jesus is present in the sister or brother in need of our help. In this sense, the poor save us, because they enable us to encounter the face of the Lord," the pope wrote in his message for the celebration Sept. 29 of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees.

For Catholic social teaching to become a "compass" for financial structures and policy, he said, "it is necessary not to stop at exhortations but to be able to look at the workings of finance, to expose its weaknesses and imagine concrete corrections."

U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Joe Donnelly will leave his post in July, the embassy announced.

The Italian bishops' conference will "soon" begin a pilot program to research cases of alleged abuse against minors that were reported to diocesan authorities between 2001 and 2021, said the new president of the conference's commission for the protection of minors.

The social and political problems plaguing modern society can be resolved only by allowing the Holy Spirit to heal humanity's inner turmoil, Pope Francis said.

Always pray, and pray especially for an end to all wars, Pope Francis told children during Mass concluding the first World Children's Day.

Pope Francis formally recognized a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Carlo Acutis, a 15-year-old Italian teenager whose birth in 1991 will make him the first "millennial" to become a saint.

Though not found on the classical list of cardinal or theological virtues, humility lies "at the base of Christian life," Pope Francis said.

The Vatican-Vietnam joint working group held its first meeting since last year's important agreement allowing for a papal representative to reside in Vietnam and the establishment of an office there to support Vietnam's estimated 6.5 million Catholics.

Celebrating the vigil of Pentecost in Verona, Pope Francis said the Holy Spirit sows peace by creating diversity, blessing it and harmonizing it for the good of all.