Celebrating Mass in the underground burial chamber, Pope Francis said he naturally thought "of the life of those people who had to hide, who had this culture of burying their dead and celebrating the Eucharist inside here."
The most important thing to emerge from the synod was the unequivocal commitment by the church to seek new ways to preach the Gospel and to promote justice and stand in solidarity with the Amazon’s 34 million inhabitants.
The pope reflected on the day's reading from St. Paul's letter to the Romans, in which the apostle says his sufferings are "nothing compared to the glory to be revealed for us."
Representatives from the Catholic and Orthodox churches and the Muslim and Jewish faiths signed a joint declaration at the Vatican reaffirming each religion's clear opposition to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.