VATICAN CITY -- Gossip is "a plague worse than COVID," Pope Francis said, asserting that while speaking ill of others comes almost naturally, it is a tool of the devil to divide the church.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis has asked Catholics and all people of goodwill to observe Sept. 4 as a day of prayer and fasting for Lebanon.

VATICAN CITY -- Catholics will mark the World Day of Migrants and Refugees during the ecumenical celebration of the Season of Creation, highlighting the obligation, as Pope Francis says, to listen to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor, said Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny.

VATICAN CITY -- The central focus of a Christian's life and all he or she does to help others must be Jesus Christ, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY -- An author with a long and close relationship to retired Pope Benedict XVI told a German newspaper that the 93-year-old retired pope is "extremely frail."

VATICAN CITY -- During the darkest, most deadly days of the COVID-19 pandemic in northern Italy, medical professionals and volunteers were "silent artisans of a culture of closeness and tenderness," a culture that cannot be allowed to disappear, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY -- Retired Pope Benedict XVI returned to the Vatican June 22, five days after flying to Germany to spend time with his ailing, 96-year-old brother.