Carol Glatz

Older people are precious nourishment for families, young people and communities, Pope Francis said in the homily he wrote for the Mass marking the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly.

Jesus is always praying for each and every person, desiring that his word would help people in their lives and that they never would feel alone, Pope Francis said.

Poverty is the result of people's selfishness; it is not "fate" or the fault of the poor, Pope Francis said.

The Vatican bank showed a net profit of 36.4 million euros ($44.1 million) in 2020. Compared to a net profit of 38 million euros ($46 million) the previous year, "this is a very significant result" considering the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, wrote Cardinal Santos Abril Castelló.

Seminarians can learn more from the way their bishops, rectors, spiritual directors and formators live than from what they say, Pope Francis said.

People's hearts and the entire church must be wide open to wonder and devotion to Christ and ready to embrace everyone — sinner and saint alike, Pope Francis said.

New canon law provisions approved by Pope Francis are expected to help the Catholic Church safeguard against abuse.

Prayer is not a magic wand or a way to ask God to be at one's service, Pope Francis said.

Do not let a complex organizational hierarchy stifle creativity, Pope Francis told the Vatican's communications office.

Climate, biodiversity, health and Indigenous people's rights are interconnected, church leaders say.

The injury and death of so many innocent people, especially children, caused by escalating violence between Israel and the Gaza Strip is "terrible and unacceptable," putting the area at risk of sinking into "a spiral of death and destruction," Pope Francis said.

If families are not the priority of the present, there will be no future, Pope Francis said as he opened a meeting in Rome on Italy's chronic decline in population growth.

As India faces a massive surge in new infections and deaths caused by COVID-19, Pope Francis said he was praying for all those affected by the huge health emergency.

Contemplative prayer transforms and purifies the human heart, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis is scheduled to open a meeting discussing the challenges posed by Italy's low birthrate. "For more than a decade, Italy has become an increasingly elderly and less populated country, suffering from structural and legislative shortcomings at the fiscal, economic and social level," which have all exacerbated a drop in births, according to a press release about the meeting.

Shortly after midnight on April 2, unidentified gunmen broke into the home of Christian Carlassare, the bishop-designate of Rumbek, South Sudan, shot him in both legs and fled, according to church news reports.

Because prayer is a dialogue with God, people should not dismiss or be embarrassed by saying their prayers out loud or in a whisper, Pope Francis said.

Greeting visitors in St. Peter's Square after nearly a month of tight restrictions due to the pandemic, Pope Francis said he was happy to see people allowed to gather and be present for Sunday noonday prayer.

Without prayer, everything crumbles and any initiatives for church reform will just be proposals by some group and not the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Pope Francis said.

Fr. John P. Beal, professor of canon law at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., said in his talk that past abuse scandals in the U.S. showed "how lack of transparency in church governance allowed these lapses in accountability to go unrecognized and unaddressed for decades."