VATICAN CITY – Children are the most vulnerable and hardest hit among the world's migrants and require special protection, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY – Meeting a pilgrimage of Catholics and Lutherans from Germany, Pope Francis said he does not like "the contradiction of those who want to defend Christianity in the West, and, on the other hand, are against refugees and other religions."

VATICAN CITY – Defending religious freedom, fighting indifference to attacks on human dignity and promoting care of creation are obligations that Orthodox and Catholics share and areas where Pope Francis said he and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople are in deep harmony.

ROME – Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona says it was the influence of his countryman Pope Francis that revived his faith and brought him back to the Catholic Church.

VATICAN CITY – In choosing 17 new members of the College of Cardinals, Pope Francis has once again looked to countries and dioceses that had never been represented in the body that advises the Pope and will elect his successor.

The death knell for the nuclear family continues to ring out in a new compilation of statistics from the Vanier Institute of the Family. But the good news is that grandparents are more involved than ever in raising their grandchildren and helping out their extended families.

VATICAN CITY – Catholic missionary orders like the Oblates of Mary Immaculate have as much work to do as ever, Pope Francis said.

ROME – In a narrow alley a few miles from the center of Rome, around 250 migrants gather at sunset.

VATICAN CITY – Wherever public policy, communities and even religions may have failed, sports and recreation are ready and set to lift wounded spirits and build cooperation and peace in the world, said a number of speakers at a Vatican conference.

VATICAN CITY – The following is the text from Pope Francis’ general audience at the Vatican Oct. 5.