HONG KONG (SE): A talk given by the Vatican secretary of state, Pietro Cardinal Parolin, in the Italian town of Pordenone on August 27 was described by Francesco Sisci, from Renmin University in Beijing, as a hint to how much the Vatican is prepared to suffer in order to achieve peace and establish a more workable relationship with China.

HONG KONG (SE): A large crowd gathered at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on September 4 to hear Pope Francis proclaim Mother Teresa of Kolkata a tireless worker of mercy, describing her as an icon of God’s love, as he declared the woman who has become known as the Saint of the Poor a saint of the Catholic Church.

KRAKOW (SE): There are a few football teams that wear black and white, but beyond that there is little in life that can be described as being anything other than shades of grey.

On July 30, Pope Francis told a group of Polish Jesuits during World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, that the confessional is certainly one of those grey areas.

VATICAN (CNS): Pope Francis met privately at the Vatican with French president, Francois Hollande, who said he felt it necessary to thank the pope in person for his words after the slaying of a French priest and other terrorist attacks in France.

Hollande arrived in Rome on August 17 and went directly to the French national church, St. Louis, to visit a chapel which was set up as a place of prayer for the victims of terrorism.

ASSISI (CWN): “The world needs forgiveness,” Pope Francis said during a visit to Assisi on August 4. “Too many people are caught up in resentment and harbour hatred, because they are incapable of forgiving.”

The pope made forgiveness the main theme of his remarks during a personal pilgrimage to mark the 800th anniversary of the Pardon of Assisi, the feast which commemorates the establishment of a plenary indulgence for all who pass through the chapel where the Franciscans were founded.

VATICAN (SE): “It is not right to identify Islam with violence. It is not right and it is not true,” Pope Francis told reporters during his return flight from World Youth Day in Poland on July 31.

The pope also stressed that he would not identify Islam with terrorism, because that would be unfair and not true.

KRAKÓW (SE): As over one million people pressed around the altar set up at Campus Misericordiae (Field of Mercy) for the closing Mass of World Youth Day on July 31, in stark contrast to the opening Mass on July 26 the sun shone its warmth on the grassy field and the heavens smiled on the cherished memories held in each heart.

Paris (SE): “The world is at war,” Pope Francis said on his flight from Rome to Krakow en route to World Youth Day after hearing of the death of Father Jaques Hamel as he was celebrating Mass in the village of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, France, on July 26.