When Pope Francis visits Dubai in the United Arab Emirates Dec. 1-3 to address the opening of the UN Climate Change Conference, he will be the first pope ever to attend one of the global gatherings that began in 1995.

Pope Francis has invited a community of Benedictine nuns from Argentina to move into the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican Gardens, renewing the building's purpose as home to a cloistered community of women dedicated to supporting the pope's ministry with their prayer.

Pope Francis will travel to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates Dec. 1-3 to participate in the U.N. Climate Change Conference, the Vatican press office confirmed.

"War is a defeat," Pope Francis insisted as he called for prayers for peace in Israel and Palestine.

The Catholic Church, in pursuit of "pastoral prudence," should discern if there are ways of giving blessings to homosexual persons that do not alter the church's teaching on marriage, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis said the title of his new letter on the environment will be "Laudate Deum," (Praise God), a frequent refrain in several psalms, including Psalm 148, which tells the heavens and the angels and the sun and moon to praise the Lord.

Comments by a leading Argentinian presidential candidate may have dampened hopes that Pope Francis would soon visit his home country for the first time since becoming pope, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith said.

The Synod of Bishops is not a television show or a parliamentary debate, and its discussions will not be open to the public or to reporters, Pope Francis said.

Russian clergy and lay Catholics were "caught by surprise" by the pope's remarks in a video call Aug. 25 to a youth gathering in St. Petersburg praising the country's past empire and urging young people to "never give up this heritage."

Thanking a group of European lawyers for their attention to environmental protection laws, Pope Francis said he was preparing another document on the subject.

On the feast of Mary's assumption into heaven, Pope Francis entrusted to her people's prayers for peace, especially in Ukraine.

After a five-day trip to Portugal, which recently came to terms with its own clerical sex abuse crisis, Pope Francis said the Catholic Church must abandon its practice of covering up abuse and instead be "very open" about how it is confronting the crime.

Arriving at the edge of the European continent for World Youth Day, Pope Francis urged Portuguese officials to return to their maritime roots by setting sail toward new horizons of hope and helping build a Europe "capable of recovering its youthful heart."

Destroying grain is a "grave offense to God," Pope Francis said, appealing to authorities in Russia as "my brothers" and urging them to resume cooperating with a United Nations' initiative to guarantee the safe transport of grain out of Ukraine.

One year after the historic papal visit to Canada, positive signs abound.