In his message to Cardinal Kurt Koch, the Pope said: “We are not indifferent to our suffering brothers and sisters” who are “witness[es] to Christ, even to the shedding of blood”.

During the mass for deceased cardinals and bishops, Francis said: “those who do not live to serve have no reason to be alive”; may we “be free from the anxieties of the ephemeral, which pass and vanish”.

Following the conclusion of the Fourteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Family, the Synod Fathers issued a statement in which they stated their wish to focus their attention towards the families of the Middle East. The statement reads that the region has been going through bloody disputes for years, where families living there suffer from grave problems that have been aggravated over the past months and weeks.

According to the President of CELAM, we need to work toward an ecological conversion on all levels, starting with those who are at the forefront of development.

The Pope dedicated the General Audience, on Thursday October 28, in St. Peter’s Square to the 50th anniversary of the conciliar declaration Nostra Aetate and to dialogue between Jews and Muslims.

Following is the text of an interview conducted with Msgr. William Shomali, patriarchal vicar for Jerusalem, on October 26, 2015, regarding the volatile situation in Jerusalem and the West Bank, as well as its effect on the diminishing Christian presence in the Holy Land:

Msgr. William Shomali, the whole world is shocked by what is happening right now in Jerusalem. The situation seems hopeless. How do you endure these events at the level of the Christian community?

She took the Rosary of Mercy and the prescription medicine out of her coat pocket.

All paragraphs of the final document have been approved with a two-thirds vote from the Synod Fathers. Number 85 was also only just approved (178 placets, 80 non placets and there was a qualified majority quorum of 177). The text does not introduce any general rules, nor has unconditional access to the sacraments been granted but it does build on the work Wojtyla started with the “Familiaris consortio”, advocating “discernment” on a case-by-case basis

The annual Report to on International Religious Freedom – the International Religious Freedom Report for 2014 was issued with no signs of media uproar as was the case in the past, despite the fact that the past year witnessed the emergence of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) whose early “achievements” was the elimination of religious plurality in the regions that came under its control, namely Mosul as well other villages and cities of the Nineveh Plain in Iraq.

At the Mass celebrated on Friday, October 23, in St. Martha’s House, the Pope said we need to read the signs of the times and be discerning, while remaining faithful to the Gospel, without succumbing to conformism.