During a Mass celebrated on Tuesday at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis emphasized that what makes a Christian a Christian is the Spirit of Christ, not academic degrees.
Pope Francis' five-day foray into South Korea included a Mass attended by nearly 800,000, saw the baptism of a father of a victim of the Seoul ferry disaster, and gave a powerful silent message to the world about the horrors of abortion.
Pope Francis is greeted by South Korean President Park Geun-hyePope Francis began a five-day pastoral visit to South Korea when his plane touched down in Seoul today, a visit that will include the beatification of 124 Korean martyrs as well as the celebration of the 6th annual Asian Youth Day.
Departing from his prepared text for yesterday's Angelus address, Pope Francis issued an impassioned plea to the leaders of the Middle East, Iraq and Ukraine to stop the wars that are enveloping those regions.
Our Lord appearing to St. Margaret Mary AlacoqueOn this feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Pope Francis focused this morning's homily on distinguishing Jesus from the other spiritual leaders of this time, saying that His message resonated with common people because his message "went to the heart" of people.
While speaking to a drug-enforcement conference in Rome on Friday, Pope Francis came out strongly against the legalization of recreational drugs.
Pope Francis welcomed Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the Vatican yesterday in an historic "prayer summit" that he is hoping will mark the "beginning of a new journey" in the efforts to bring peace to the Holy Land.
Pope Francis is not known to be shy about the subject of Satan and he raised it again last week while addressing a large gathering in Rome, telling the crowd that the devil wants to destroy families "to prevent love from becoming free."
Pope Francis surprised the world at the end of yesterday's Mass in Bethlehem's Manger Square when he invited the presidents of Israel and Palestine to the Vatican to pray together for peace. Even more surprising is that both leaders accepted!
