VATICAN CITY -- Charity should be given freely and lived humbly with the poor, never letting it become hypocrisy, a slick business or a way to soothe a troubled conscience, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY (CNA) -- Pope Francis said Sunday that the Church cannot remain static because the Holy Spirit guides the Church along the paths of history.

VATICAN CITY -- Being indifferent to or excluding migrants is a sign of a deteriorating morality that will soon spread and risk marginalizing everyone who fails to fit in, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY -- "Abortion is never the answer" to couples seeking a way to deal with a prenatal diagnosis of serious illness or disability, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis' latest effort to help the Catholic Church safeguard its members from abuse and hold its leaders accountable came in the form of a new universal law, "Vos estis lux mundi" ("You are the light of the world"), which takes effect June 1.

When Pope Francis visits Romania May 31-June 1, he will helicopter to Sumuleu Ciuc, site of the country’s only major Marian shrine and an important place of pilgrimage for Hungarian Catholics.

VATICAN CITY -- The charity of the Catholic Church must be born from prayer before "the fixed tabernacle and mobile tabernacles" -- adoring Jesus in the Eucharist and ministering to him in the poor and needy, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY -- Nations, like individuals, have a "solemn duty" to care for the poor and to work together to promote development, Pope Francis told a group of ambassadors beginning their service at the Vatican.

SAO PAULO -- Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a bishop under investigation for extortion, mismanagement of funds and covering up alleged clerical abuse against minors. 

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis led thousands of pilgrims in prayer for a Spanish missionary sister killed in Central African Republic.

VATICAN CITY -- The Holy Spirit gives Christians the courage and the strength needed to engage in a loving dialogue with God that is like the dialogue of a child with his or her father, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY -- When Jesus gave his disciples the "new commandment" to love others as he loved them, what was "new" was the call to love completely, without counting the cost, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY -- The task of journalism is to seek the truth, which requires humility and freedom of the press, Pope Francis told foreign correspondents working in Italy.

Finally the Vatican seems to recognize that the shame inflicted on the Church by the sex-abuse scandals is as much about bishops who cover up crimes as it is clerics who commit them.

WARSAW, Poland - A cardinal incarcerated for 18 years after refusing to abandon his church and a bishop thrown in an unmarked grave after starving to death in an "extermination prison" are among seven communist-era martyrs who will be beatified by Pope Francis during his upcoming visit to Romania.