The "prosperity gospel" that U.S. President Donald Trump and many of his advisers and followers seem to espouse does not promote solidarity for the common good, but sees God as giving his blessings to the rich and punishing the poor, said an influential Jesuit journal.

Documents in the Vatican Secret Archives and the archives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prove it was a "myth" that Blessed Paul VI largely set out on his own in writing "Humanae Vitae," the 1968 encyclical on married love and the regulation of births.

With the children seated around him in the atrium of the Vatican audience hall, Pope Francis answered their questions about his childhood, his school, his vocation and the standard question children ask him, "How did you feel when you were chosen pope?"

"The Holy Father has reached the conclusion that the document has not matured enough to be published.”

Archbishop Luis Ladaria is one of the 14 men Pope Francis has chosen to make cardinals this year.

Recent reforms encouraged bishops to fully fund their marriage tribunals and not charge petitioners.

Everything from where a family chooses to invest its savings to where a multinational corporation declares its tax residence are ethical decisions, according to a new Vatican document.

Commenting on the letter, Pope Francis said, "We must thank God, who alone guides and saves the church, for having allowed Paul VI to continue until the last day of his life to be father, pastor, master, brother and friend."

Pope John Paul II described the Mafia as "a culture of death, profoundly inhuman, anti-Gospel, an enemy of human dignity and civil peace.''

The theologians said a synodal attitude and way of being church flowed naturally from the Second Vatican Council's description of the church as a communion and its emphasis on the responsibility of all Catholics for the church's life and mission, although each person has been given different gifts and roles by the Holy Spirit.