VATICAN (CNS): Pope Francis has asked Reinhard Cardinal Marx, president of the German Bishops’ Conference, to come to Rome to discuss pastoral guidelines for possibly allowing some non-Catholics married to Catholics to receive the Eucharist, Matthias Kopp, the conference spokesperson said on April 19.
 

VATICAN (CNS): Finance and the economy effect every person and every society, playing a large part in “determining the quality of life and even death” and the degree to which a person’s life is worthy of his or her God-given dignity, Pope Francis writes in the introduction to the book Potere e Denaro (Power and Money), which was released on April 12.
 

VATICAN (CNS): “While I unceasingly pray for peace and invite all people of good will to keep doing the same, I appeal once again to all political leaders so that justice and peace may prevail,” Pope Francis said after the United States of America (US), France and the United Kingdom (UK) launched missile strikes on Syria on April 13, targeting sites intended to weaken the nation’s chemical weapons capability. 
 
The missile strikes came a week after an alleged chemical attack in the Ghouta region, outside Damascus.

SANTIAGO (CNS): James Hamilton, Jose Andres Murillo and Juan Carlos Cruz, victims of Father Fernando Karadima, released a statement April 11 saying they appreciated Pope Francis’ letter in which he apologized for underestimating the seriousness of the crisis in Chile and were “evaluating the possibilities” for meeting with him.
 

VATICAN (CNS): “With this exhortation I would like to insist primarily on the call to holiness that the Lord addresses to each of us, the call that he also addresses, personally, to you,” Pope Francis writes near the beginning of his new apostolic exhortation, Gaudete et Exsultate (Rejoice and Be Glad).
 
“Do not be afraid of holiness. It will take away none of your energy, vitality or joy,” he writes in the document, which was signed on March 19, the feast of St. Joseph, and released by the Vatican on April 9.

VATICAN CITY (CNS): Pope Francis condemned the use of chemical weapons after the deadly April 7 attack by Syrian army warplanes that killed dozens of innocent men, women and children in Douma, Syria.
 
“There is no good and bad war, and nothing, nothing can justify the use of such instruments of extermination against defenseless people and populations,” the pope said before concluding Divine Mercy Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square on April 8.
 

VATICAN CITY (CNS): Easter morning dawned bright and sunny at the Vatican, highlighting the thousands of flowers, trees and bushes donated by flower growers in the Netherlands.
 
Before delivering his Urbi et Orbi (To the city and the world) blessing on April 1, Pope Francis prayed made special mention of the ongoing carnage in Syria as well as the recent violence which saw 15 Palestinians killed during protests along Gaza’s border with Israel on March 30.
 

VATICAN (CNS): Celebrating Passion Sunday Mass on March 25 with thousands of young people, Pope Francis urged them to continue singing and shouting hosanna in the world, proclaiming the lordship of Jesus and following his example of outreach to the poor and suffering.
 
The crowd that shouted hosanna as Jesus entered Jerusalem included all those for whom Jesus was a source of joy, those he healed and forgave, and those he welcomed after they had been excluded from society, the pope said in his homily.