ASSISI, Italy -- With a pilgrim's staff and mantle, Pope Francis entered Assisi's Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels with 500 economically or socially disadvantaged people and the volunteers who walk alongside them.

The news that many Canadians have been waiting to hear for a very long time arrived on the morning of Oct. 27 — Pope Francis is ready to come to Canada.

There has never been a papal visit to anywhere that has been anything like what will unfold when Pope Francis comes to Canada — a papal journey of sorrow, mourning and repentance holding forth a thin candle of hope up against the flood of our own Catholic sins.

Deacon Harry Lafond is well aware of the serious, sorrowful situation which has prompted Pope Francis to announce a visit to Canada. But he does not believe the papal visit should drown in tears.

ROME -- The tombstones of soldiers killed in war cry out to people today to end all wars and to stop the production of weapons, Pope Francis said.

ROME -- Pope Francis "is a man who has a great empathy. He's a man who understands that part of his Christianity is to reach out and forgive," U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters in Rome Oct. 31.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis and U.S. President Joe Biden had an unusually long meeting at the Vatican Oct. 29, talking about the climate crisis and poverty, among other issues.

Pope Francis has accepted an invitation by Canada’s bishops to visit Canada “on a pilgrimage of healing and reconciliation.”

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis named Msgr. Diego Giovanni Ravelli, who has served as an official of the papal almoner's office since 2013, as the new master of papal liturgical ceremonies, the Vatican said.

VATICAN CITY -- People should ask themselves whether their faith has become a "commercial relationship" with God or if it is a relationship built on freedom, love and generosity, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis will not be going to the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, as he had hoped.

VATICAN CITY -- High-level representatives of the world’s religions came together with Pope Francis at the Vatican to show their joint commitment to caring for the Earth and to appeal to world leaders to deepen their commitments to mitigating climate change.

VATICAN CITY -- The Catholic Church's inability to make victims of abuse their top concern is a cause for intense shame, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY -- The Catholic Church suffers from a temptation to attempt to return to attitudes and practices of the past, an attitude that blocks pastoral outreach to many of those who are marginalized, Pope Francis told Jesuits in Slovakia.

ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM SLOVAKIA (CNS) -- The debate about denying Communion to politicians who support abortion must be handled in a pastoral way, not by public condemnations that seek to "excommunicate" Catholics who are not in line with church teaching, Pope Francis said.