ROME – Because most people today do not understand that sacramental marriage really is a bond that binds them to each other for life, many marriages today can be considered invalid, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis said that prayers are not magic words for Christians and when we pray the ‘Our Father’ we can feel God looking at us and this prayer should be the cornerstone of our prayer life. His words came during his mass celebrated on Thursday morning in the chapel of the Santa Marta residence. 

Praying for our enemies can heal our hearts: that was Pope Francis’ message at Mass in the Casa Santa Marta chapel on Tuesday morning. Recalling his own childhood in Argentina, when people prayed that dictators would go to hell, the Pope recalled how Jesus himself tells us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us.

Pope Francis has decried the pursuit for perfect bodies, saying it leads to society hiding away the disabled to avoid offending the sensibilities of what he described as “the privileged few.”

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis offered prayers for the families of the victims of the mass shooting in Orlando and expressed hope that people would find ways to identify and uproot "the causes of such terrible and absurd violence."

COORANBONG, Australia – A shiny white motor home stationed on the grounds of Catholic churches throughout the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese has become a beacon of hope and mercy among local communities.

AMMAN, Jordan – Iraqi refugee women who fled Islamic State group violence in their homeland have appealed to Pope Francis for help, sending a hand-sewn mantle and imploring him to pray for them and for peace in their country.

VATICAN CITY – Recognizing St. Mary Magdalene's role as the first to witness Christ's resurrection and as a "true and authentic evangelizer," Pope Francis raised the July 22 memorial of St. Mary Magdalene to a feast on the Church's liturgical calendar, the Vatican announced. 

Revolution was once a bad word — even The Beatles were against it. But ever since the late Steve Jobs got hold of it and applied it to every new gadget to come off the Apple assembly line, the word has lost its threat and most of its meaning.

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis will send high-level observers to the pan-Orthodox council meeting in Crete as a sign of respect, support and encouragement of the Orthodox Church.

VATICAN CITY – Growing acceptance of euthanasia does not indicate increased compassion, but highlights the rise of a selfish "throwaway culture" that casts aside the sick, the dying and those who do not satisfy the perceived requirements of a healthy life, Pope Francis said. 

Pope Francis celebrated Mass in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta on Friday morning. In remarks to the faithful following the Readings of the Day, the Holy Father focused on three attitudes that are characteristic of the Christian: “standing” before God in “silence” to hear His voice and readiness to “go out” into the world to proclaim what one has heard to others. The Pope also warned against the danger of paralyzing fear in Christian life, no matter where one is in one’s journey with God and regardless of one’s state of life in the Church:

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has called on Catholics to adopt a “healthy realism” in their approach to their faith, and he decried rigid idealists as heretics.

VATICAN CITY – After making a personal donation and asking Catholic parishes throughout Europe to take up a special collection for victims of the war in Eastern Ukraine, Pope Francis has set up a predominantly Ukrainian committee to distribute the funds and has asked that they go to projects suggested first of all by the assemblies of Ukraine's religious leaders.

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has upended many traditions during his extraordinary pontificate, to the point that some have wondered whether he is really Catholic.