The preferential option for the poor, which includes feeding the hungry and drawing close to the excluded, “is the key criterion of Christian authenticity,” Pope Francis said Aug. 19 during his weekly general audience.

While reciting the Angelus, Pope Francis urged people to pray for various intentions, including praying for those suffering from the pandemic.

Seven years ago, Pope Francis announced that, unlike his immediate predecessors, he would not spend the summer at the papal estate at Castel Gandolfo.

It has been two years since the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report was published, documenting in disturbing detail at least 1,000 cases of abuse by 300 predator priests spanning seven decades.

Every conversation my mother and I had about religion drifted into an argument about Pope Francis. Being unable to talk about God with the person who gave me my faith as she lay dying was agonizing.

Pope Francis has warned that we must be careful not to let the pandemic lead us to indifference toward our fellow human beings.