Justin McLellan

"In the journey of life, we could identify hope as the signpost that marks our itinerary," Pope Francis said during a meeting with seminarians from Córdoba, Spain, Jan. 17.

Taking up the spirit of the recently inaugurated Holy Year 2025, the Cuban government has announced the release of 553 people currently serving prison sentences. That same day, the White House announced that it will no longer designate Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism and that it would eliminate some restrictions on Cuba.

The Vatican's top diplomat met with papal representatives to various Middle Eastern countries to discuss possible avenues toward peace in the region and the state of the Catholic Church there.

From Dec. 24, when the pope inaugurated the Holy Year, to Jan. 7, the Vatican said, 545,532 people from around the world have made the journey along the lengthy boulevard leading to St. Peter's Square and crossed through the basilica's Holy Door.

Marking the feast of the Holy Family Dec. 29, Francis reflected on the day's Gospel reading from St. Luke in which the 12-year-old Jesus goes missing from his parents and is found in the temple of Jerusalem.

After Pope Francis prayed on Christmas Day for Syrian Christians facing uncertainty amid the country's regime change, the leader of the Catholic Church in neighboring Iraq said the toppling of the regime left Christians in the region feeling "tense."

Three months after the murder of Juan López, a Honduran church worker and environmental activist whose death was publicly mourned by Pope Francis, the bishops of Latin America are raising awareness of attacks against those fighting for social justice in the continent.

At 53 years old, Capuchin Fr. Roberto Pasolini, the new preacher of the papal household, was among the youngest in the Vatican audience hall when he told Pope Francis and members of the Roman Curia: Be open to change.

The Vatican launched a "dashboard" for the College of Cardinals Dec. 5, allowing users of the web page to see a comprehensive list of the church's cardinals and sort them by age, rank, country of origin, electoral status and religious order. 

During two days of meetings, Pope Francis and his closest cardinal advisers discussed the relationship between local churches and other institutional church assemblies, a main topic of discussion to come out of the Synod of Bishops on synodality.

Approved by the pope, the synod's final document "participates in the ordinary magisterium of the successor of Peter, and as such, I ask that it be accepted," the pope wrote in a note published by the Vatican Nov. 25.

Pope Francis will become the first pope to visit Corsica, the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte, when he makes a daytrip to the French island Dec. 15. The pope will make the roughly one-hour flight from Rome to Ajaccio, Corsica's capital, to participate in a conference on popular religiosity in the Mediterranean region organized by the Diocese of Ajaccio, which encompasses the entire island.

Christians and Hindus must promote harmony among all groups of people despite their differences, especially when ideologies increasingly seek to sow division, the Vatican wrote in a message for the Hindu celebration of Diwali.

Pope Francis and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met for the third time since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, focusing their discussion on the repatriation of Ukrainian nationals held in Russian captivity.

"Just war theory was not part of the Gospel, it's an evolutionary Catholic practice or thought, and it's an important development in restraining warfare," Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of San Diego said at the Sept. 29 inauguration of the Catholic Institute for Nonviolence near the Vatican. "It was not meant to be a justification of war but a restraint on war, and it has lost a lot of that capacity."

"In the life of the church, just war theories are a secondary element in Catholic teaching; the first is that we should not engage in warfare at all," Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of San Diego said. The cardinal is an adviser to the Catholic Institute for Nonviolence, which is scheduled to open in Rome Sept. 29. 

Juan Antonio López, a Catholic human rights and environmental activist, was killed in his car by a hitman Sept. 14 after attending Mass, Vatican News reported. The 46-year-old husband and father of two recently had been working to shut down an iron oxide mine in a national park that was said to be contaminating two rivers in the area and threatening the local population's water supply.

The liturgy will include time to listen to the testimonies of three people: one who suffered from the sin of abuse, one from the sin of war and third from the sin of indifference to the plight of migrants, according to a Vatican statement announcing the liturgy.

Pope Francis lamented the death of an Israeli-American hostage abducted by Hamas and called for the immediate release of all hostages being held in Gaza. After praying the Angelus in St. Peter's Square Sept. 15, the pope recalled the many conflicts occurring around the globe, including in Ukraine, Myanmar and the Middle East, noting the "many innocent victims" of war.

"It needs to be said clearly: There are those who systematically work by all means to drive away migrants, and this, when done knowingly and deliberately, is a grave sin," Pope Francis said during his general audience Aug. 28.