Dorothy Day had a very realistic picture of the Catholic Church, the pope said. “To her the church frequently seemed to be on the side of the rich and the property owners, and often unaware of the need for real social justice.”

“I am writing a second part to Laudato Si’ to update it on current problems,” Pope Francis told the lawyers Aug. 21 during a meeting in the library of the Apostolic Palace.

“Praise increases joy. Praise is like a ladder: it leads hearts upward,” Pope Francis said. “Praise elevates souls and defeats the temptation to give up.”

Controversy and deep division continue in an Indian archdiocese over the direction the priest faces during the celebration of the liturgy.

Donations to the annual Peter’s Pence collection were down in 2022, but the amount of money the fund distributed increased significantly thanks to the proceeds of property sales, the Vatican said.

Pope Francis has declared venerable Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, founder of the first Catholic order of African American nuns, and Sister Lúcia dos Santos, one of the children who saw the Fátima vision.

In a message to the U.N. Security Council, Pope Francis expressed opposition to war: “We are all brothers and sisters, journeying on the same earth, dwelling in a single common home.”

A week after undergoing abdominal surgery, Pope Francis’ recovery is going well enough that his doctors are making plans to discharge him from Rome’s Gemelli hospital, the Vatican press office said.

The statistical yearbook noted “a general downward trend in the relative number of baptisms, following closely the trend in the birthrate in most countries.”

Catholic artists, poets, writers and filmmakers serve the church not by trying to “domesticate” Christ but by helping people challenge and expand their knowledge of the Lord, Pope Francis said.