Franco Pisano

The Vatican Dicastery for Catholic Education released a document on the current “educational crisis” to promote a methodology “based on three guiding principles seen as best-suited to meet the needs of both individ­uals and communities: to listen, to reason and to propose.”

Francis talks about Syria, Holy Land, Mideast and Ukraine in his meeting with participants to the 92nd plenary assembly of the Reunion of Aid Agencies for the Oriental Churches (ROACO). "My mind is still set on Iraq, where I would like to go next year,” said the pope.

Promoting peace "does not only involve religious convictions translated into social values, but also an increased rational commitment, to transform the world according to the imperative of unconditional respect for the dignity of the human person".

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt continue to support Sudan’s military junta even after its crackdown on peaceful protest caused more than 100 deaths. The Sudanese military is engaged in the ongoing war in Yemen alongside the Saudis.

The Church needs "men and women, laity and consecrated people who are passionate, set afire by their encounter with God, redeemed in their humanity, and capable of proclaiming in their lives the happiness born of their vocation."

A tweet from Francis comments on the death of the young Dutch woman. The girl would have chosen death to end "years of psychological suffering", due to repeated episodes of sexual violence, suffered since she was 11 years old.

At the general audience Francis proposes the initiative for the fifth anniversary of the meeting, at the Vatican meeting of the Presidents of Israel and Palestine, the Pope and Patriarch Bartholomew. The trip to Romania underlined "the value and the need to walk together both among Christians, on the level of faith and charity and between citizens, on the level of civil commitment".

On his return flight from Romania, Francis spoke to journalists. Europe that must recover "the mystique of the founding fathers". "A politician must never, never sow hatred and fear". Listening to Benedict XVI "gives me strength, I feel the nourishment of my roots and it helps me to move forward".

Francis dedicated the last leg of his visit to Romania to the Roma community. “For all those times in history when we have discriminated, mistreated or looked askance at you, with the look of Cain rather than that of Abel, and were unable to acknowledge you, to value you and to defend you in your uniqueness.”

On his last day in Romania, Francis beatified seven Greek Catholic bishops, martyred under the Communist regime. “May you be witnesses of freedom and mercy, allowing fraternity and dialogue to prevail over divisions, and fostering the fraternity of blood that arose in the period of suffering, when Christians, historically divided, drew closer and more united to one another.”

In the afternoon Francis travelled to Iaşi to meet with young people and families. It's up to young people to pursue the “prophetic vision: without love and without God, no one can live on the earth.” Faith “does not show up on the stock exchange”. It is not for sale, but it “is a gift that keeps alive a profound and beautiful certainty: that we are God’s beloved children.”

Francis celebrated Mass at the Șumuleu Ciuc shrine, in Transylvania, a Hungarian-speaking area, before at least 100,000 people. “To go on pilgrimage,” he said, “is to participate in that somewhat chaotic sea of people that can give us a genuine experience of fraternity, to be part of a caravan that can together, in solidarity, create history”.