In a land bordering both Russia and China, and having deep ties with both, Pope Francis told Mongolian leaders their country can play “a significant role in the heart of the great Asian continent and on the international scene,” particularly in peacemaking.
Pope Francis
Greeted with “aaruul,” a dried yogurt cheese, which he tried, Pope Francis arrived in Ulaanbaatar for a four-day visit. After the nine-hour, overnight flight from Rome, the pope’s arrival Sept. 1 was low key. Battsetseg Batmunkh, Mongolia’s foreign minister, met him at Chinggis Khaan International Airport and had a brief meeting with him in the airport VIP lounge.
In a world suffering from an “epidemic of enmity,” Christians can offer healing by recognizing each person as a child of God and reaching out in friendship, said a top Vatican official, writing on behalf of Pope Francis.
On the feast of Mary’s assumption into heaven, Pope Francis entrusted to her people’s prayers for peace, especially in Ukraine.
fter many of the 1.5 million young people gathered in Lisbon’s Tejo Park waited for hours in near 100-degree weather to participate in the World Youth Day vigil with Pope Francis Aug. 5, the pope asked them, “Have you ever been tired?” Even when tempted to “throw in the towel” or stop along the journey of life, the pope said, the young people must pick themselves up and walk toward joy. “Joy is not hidden, it’s not kept under key, we have to look for it,” he said, “and that is tiring.”
Before 200,000 pilgrims at Fátima, many of them with tears in their eyes, Pope Francis called for a new Marian devotional title — “Our Lady in a Hurry” — to describe how Mary hastens to care for all her children.
Before a sea of waving flags representing countries large and small from across the globe, Pope Francis told some 500,000 singing, shouting and swaying young people that God has called each person to him by name, not their social media handle. “You are not here by mistake,” he told the mass of people in Lisbon’s Eduardo VII Park Aug. 3 for the welcome ceremony for World Youth Day. “You, you, you, over there, all of us, me, we were all called by our names.”
“Now is the God-given time of grace to sail boldly into the sea of evangelization and of mission,” Pope Francis told Portuguese bishops, priests, religious and pastoral workers after praying vespers at the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon Aug. 2, the first day of his trip to Portugal.
The Gospel calls Christians to bring the elderly to the center of their lives and away from the margins of families, politics and financial markets that banish them as “unprofitable waste” in society, Pope Francis said. “Let it not happen that by pursuing the myths of efficiency and performance at full speed we become unable to slow down to accompany those who struggle to keep up,” he said in his homily at a Mass for World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly in St. Peter’s Basilica July 23.
Treated to songs, gifts and a paper medallion designating him “hero,” Pope Francis visited children attending a summer camp at the Vatican. About 250 children of Vatican employees welcomed the pope, who greeted the children and counselors, and posed for pictures July 18. He spoke to the kids, who ranged in age from 5 to 13, and answered their questions, according to a report by Vatican News.