Christopher White

On Sept. 30, Pope Francis met with a delegation of women at the Vatican who presented voices from the Amazon region and around the world.

Pope Francis on Sept. 29 strongly condemned the disproportionate use of military force for the purposes of retaliation and said that any nation that violates this principle is "immoral."

Pope Francis on Sept. 28 slammed the "arrogant indifference" of powerful leaders who put financial interests over efforts to save the planet and said a conversion of the heart is necessary to combat climate change. 

At the Catholic University of Leuven, Pope Francis heard pleas for women's ordination, welcome to LGBTQ people and a deeper reckoning with its history of clergy abuse and cover-up. 

Pope Francis on Sept. 27 kicked off a three-day trip to Belgium by asking forgiveness for the church's shameful record on clergy abuse, but was met with a challenge by the country's prime minister that "words alone do not suffice."

Pope Francis on Sept. 26 used an eight-hour visit to one of the least populated but most secularized countries in Europe to cast a renewed vision for a church that is willing to "evolve" in order to evangelize the modern world. 

Pope Francis' Sept. 26-29 visit to Luxembourg and Belgium in Europe will force him to confront some of the Catholic Church's biggest challenges, including the clergy sexual abuse crisis and declining church attendance.

"It's often when Francis is on the road that he's able to underscore the simplicity that he expects from church leaders," writes Christopher White, NCR's Vatican correspondent. 

During Pope Francis' four-country visit to Asia and Oceania, world leaders were eager to echo the pontiff's focus on combating climate change, calling for commitments to greater global action. 

The pope's rejection of single-issue voting — consistent with his previous teachings on how Catholics should engage in politics — stands in contrast to the official position of the U.S. bishops' conference that declares abortion to be the "preeminent priority" for Catholic voters.

Catholics from China, Vietnam and Malaysia who attended Pope Francis' Sept. 12 Mass in Singapore are hoping the pontiff might also become the first pope to visit their respectives countries, as well. 

Pope Francis on Sept. 11 landed in Singapore, the world's most religiously diverse country, where he is expected to encourage the country's small but growing Catholic community and to continue his push for pluralism on the Asian continent.

More than 600,000 Timorese attended Pope Francis' history-making Mass in Dili on Sept. 10. 

Pope Francis on Sept. 9 arrived on the small island of East Timor where he issued a broad condemnation of abuse, but stopped short of specifically addressing the church's complicated record on clergy sex abuse in a nation that is the most Catholic country in the world, outside of the Vatican.

On Sept. 8, Pope Francis visited the remote town of Vanimo, Papua New Guinea, using his ambitious two-week tour in Asia and Oceania to put a spotlight on the Catholic Church in the peripheries. 

Pope Francis, during his first full day in Papua New Guinea on Sept. 7, was confronted with the myriad of challenges facing women in both the church and society. 

Pope Francis on Sept. 6 arrived in the South Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea, marking the start of his first ever visit to Oceania, where he will spend the next three nights in one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

In a historic encounter at Asia's largest mosque, Pope Francis and Indonesia's grand imam Nasaruddin Umar signed a joint declaration on Sept. 5 calling on religious leaders to deepen their cooperation in order to fight climate change and dehumanization. 

More than 100,000 Catholics gathered for Mass with Pope Francis in Muslim-majority Indonesia on Sept. 5. 

Pope Francis on Sept. 4 delivered a sharp warning that "distortion of religion" fuels extremism, intolerance and violence and urged Indonesia to double down on its long tradition of coexistence and social harmony during the first full day of his nearly two-week tour of Asia and Oceania.