When a Lutheran woman married to a Catholic man asked Pope Francis what she and her husband could do to receive Communion together, the pope said he could not issue a general rule on shared Communion, but the couple should pray, study and then act according to their consciences.

"Let your words be simple so that everyone can understand. Don't give long homilies," the pope said. "Allow me to ask you to remember your dad and how very happy he was to have found another parish in a town nearby where the Mass was celebrated without a homily!"

Gianluigi Nuzzi, the Italian journalist who published documents stolen from Pope Benedict XVI's private office by his butler, has a new book out based on more leaked documents. "Merchants in the Temple: Inside Pope Francis's Secret Battle Against Corruption in the Vatican," was scheduled for release in English Nov. 5.

"In principle, it was accepted by the synod," the pope said, according to Eugenio Scalfari, a co-founder and former editor of La Repubblica, an Italian daily. "This is the basic result: the evaluations of the facts are entrusted to confessors, but at the end of the processes—whether quick or slow—all the divorced who ask for it will be admitted."

The appeal, addressed to negotiators preparing for the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris Nov. 30-Dec. 11, was a response to Pope Francis' letter on the environment and an expression of "the anxiety of all the people, all the churches all over the world" regarding how, "unless we are careful and prudent, we are heading for disaster."

Members of the Synod of Bishops on the family agree that Catholic families are the beating heart and busy hands of the church, but the tensions in the synod hall demonstrate that what they don't agree on is a vision of the church and its primary attitude to the world.As the Catholic Church marke

Weary faces, fussy babies, little boys teasing little girls to the point of tears and repeated uses of the Arabic word, "inshallah" (God willing) reflect the uncertainty faced by refugees trying to reach northern Europe.Thousands of people fleeing Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan pass through t

Cardinal Wuerl said it was important for the synod members to show people around the world both that the church still believes firmly that marriage and family are blessings, but also that church leaders know there are challenges raised by society and by the individuals themselves.

Although the public is given glimpses of what happens inside the Catholic Church's world Synod of Bishops, the meetings themselves take place behind closed doors.Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the Synod of Bishops has been the object of a continual hunt to balance creating a protect

"I have never been at a church meeting where there aren't groups that get together and lobby for a particular direction and that's going on, I assure you," Archbishop Chaput said. "That's what happens when human beings get together."