This past weekend, Pope Francis traveled to Marseille for a meeting of bishops and young people from around the Mediterranean basin, where he delivered a powerful message about integrating migrants into society.

The pope’s visit came just as the migration crisis was making headlines across Europe again. The week before his trip, 8,500 migrants and refugees arrived on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa—the site of Pope Francis’ first apostolic visit in 2013—over the course of only three days. Just days before welcoming the pope, France announced it would no longer accept migrants who had arrived in Italy.

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On this episode of “Inside the Vatican,” veteran Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell and host Colleen Dulle recap three major moments from the pope’s visit, before giving a preview of three important Vatican events coming up in the next week: The consistory to create new cardinals on Sept. 30; the opening of the Synod on Synodality, which includes a prayer vigil where tens of thousands of Christians will pray together asking for the Holy Spirit to descend upon the synod body as it deliberates; and the release of Pope Francis’ follow-up to “Laudato Si’,” which we now know will be an apostolic exhortation entitled “Laudate Deum” (“Praise God”) calling all people of goodwill to review what has been done to mitigate climate disasters since the Paris Accords in 2015.

The “Inside the Vatican” and “Jesuitical” podcast teams will be in Rome covering the synod in October! Send your questions about the synod to insidethevatican@americamedia.org. Gerry may answer them on “Jesuitical” next week!

Order a copy of Fr. James Martin, S.J.’s new book, Come Forth: The Promise of Jesus’s Greatest Miracle, here.

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Each week, Colleen Dulle goes behind the headlines of the biggest Vatican news stories with America’s Rome correspondent Gerard O’Connell. They'll break down complicated news stories that have a whole lot of history behind them in an understandable, engaging way. Colleen and Gerard will give you the inside scoop on what people inside the Vatican are thinking, saying—and planning.

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