Cindy Wooden

The saints were not "starched," picture-perfect conformists, Pope Francis said; they were "countercultural and revolutionary."

The COVID-19 pandemic has weakened many parishes, but that community "in the midst of homes, in the midst of people," is still an essential place for nourishing and sharing faith, Pope Francis told Italian young adults.

With a renewed membership, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors met at the Vatican in late October and laid the groundwork for devising an annual report on child protection efforts by the Catholic Church globally.

"Spiritual arrogance" -- thinking one is holier or better than others -- is a temptation everyone faces and is a form of self-worship, Pope Francis said.

Saying it is committed to "respectful dialogue" with China's communist government and to "fostering the mission of the Catholic Church and the good of the Chinese people," the Vatican announced it has renewed its agreement with China on the appointment of bishops.

Convinced that poverty, inequality and economic systems are killing millions of people each year and threatening the dignity of many more people, Pope Francis appointed an economist to the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Completing a project to repatriate human remains held in the Vatican Museums' ethnological collection, the Vatican and the government of Peru signed an agreement Oct. 17 to return to Peru three mummies sent to the Vatican in 1925.

As bishops across Asia celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences, Pope Francis urged them to recognize the dignity and potential of their laypeople and to remember that the diversity that marks their cultures and churches is a gift to the church.

While the term "synodality" is not found in any of the 16 documents of the Second Vatican Council, the council's vision and definition of the church is at the heart of what synodality is, said Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops.

The refusal to help desperate migrants "is revolting, it's sinful, it's criminal," Pope Francis said as he canonized a bishop dedicated to assisting migrants and a Salesian brother who had immigrated with his family to Argentina.

Exploring their sacraments, rituals and outreach that promote reconciliation with God and among people, Catholic and Methodist experts acknowledged in a new document that divided Christians "fall short of what it means to be the church."

German Catholics involved in the Synodal Path are convinced the church must address the "systemic causes" of the clerical sexual abuse scandal and that will require change, said Charlotte Kreuter-Kirchhof, a member of the German Synodal Assembly.

While their life journeys and the stages of their sainthood causes diverged, two men born in Italy are set to be canonized together Oct. 9: Blessed Giovanni Battista Scalabrini and Blessed Artemide Zatti.

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."

Education is a spiritual work of mercy not because it imparts information, but because it helps another find meaning and learn to shine, Pope Francis told members of a Catholic group from Argentina.

While praising schools and universities that have developed education programs specifically for migrants and refugees, Pope Francis told them they also have work to do with their own students and staff.

Pope Francis said that while he has defined Russia's invasion of Ukraine as "unacceptable, repugnant, senseless aggression, barbaric (and) sacrilegious," he also said that too many people have taken a simplistic view of the war.

A new economic model must be "an economy of friendship with the earth and an economy of peace," the pope said at the closing session of the Economy of Francesco event in Assisi.

When reflecting on and teaching about St. Thomas Aquinas or any of the great theologians or philosophers, there is a danger of using the master to promote one's own thought, Pope Francis said.

Close to 200 bishops at the beginning of their ministries in dioceses and eparchies around the world met Pope Francis Sept. 19 at the end of a week of conferences.