VATICAN – The church is like a bicycle -- it stays upright as long as it keeps moving, Pope Francis said.

ROME (CNS) -- Cones raised in the air, the crowd gathered for dinner at the Sant'Egidio Community's soup kitchen toasted Pope Francis on his name day, the feast of St. George.

WASHINGTON – Caritas Internationalis, the Catholic Church's worldwide network of humanitarian aid agencies, three German banks and more than 30 other Catholic institutions are planning to divest at least part of their financial portfolios from the fossil fuel industry.

VATICAN – Pope Francis appointed three women as consultors to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It marks the first time women and laypersons were named as active contributors -- not support staff.

VATICAN – The Italian government granted citizenship to Alfie Evans, a seriously ill British toddler, in a last-minute effort to prevent doctors in England from withdrawing life-support.

VATICAN – In its efforts to help advise the Pope, the Roman Curia, bishops' conferences and local churches on protecting minors from abuse, a Vatican commission listened to abuse survivors from Great Britain and discussed the results of Australia's public inquiry into its country's institutional responses to abuse.

VATICAN – Pope Francis called for an end to violence in Nicaragua after several days of protests against proposed social security legislation led to the deaths of more than two dozen people.

VATICAN – The Vatican Gardens has branched out and added a small orchard to its hillsides, becoming a safe haven for a number of endangered native Italian fruit and nut tree species.

Canadian Jesuit Deacon Adam Hincks was one of the first people in the world to read Pope Francis’ latest apostolic exhortation, a distinction that isn’t lost on the 36-year-old astrophysicist.

VATICAN – The church needs courageous men and women like Italian Bishop Antonio Bello of Molfetta, who imitated Jesus' closeness to the poor and the downtrodden, Pope Francis said.

HOUSTON – Former first lady Barbara Bush "was a model public servant and set a standard for her unwavering and loving devotion to both family and community," said Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston Houston in offering his prayers and "heartfelt condolences" to the Bush family.

Why won’t Pope Francis issue a formal apology for the Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s residential school system? 

Pope Francis has long held in esteem the late Cardinal Francois-Xavier Nguyen van Thuan, the archbishop of Saigon who spent 13 years in a communist prison camp, including nine years in solitary confinement.

VATICAN – Pope Francis has asked German bishops to come to Rome to discuss pastoral guidelines for possibly allowing some non-Catholics married to Catholics to receive the Eucharist, the German bishops' conference said.

VATICAN – Christians must be willing to move where the Spirit leads them and not be benchwarmers on the sidelines of efforts to evangelize, Pope Francis said.