“It was a great blessing to be able to speak with him,” Sister Nabila Saleh said. “He gave us courage and the support of prayer.”

On “Inside the Vatican, host Colleen Dulle and veteran Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell sit down in Rome to cover the second week of the synod, which covered contentious issues in the church, such as the inclusion of L.G.B.T. people and women deacons.

This synod, more than any other, is built on the premise that realities are greater than ideas.

The Catholic Church’s highest ranking prelate in the Holy Land offered his “absolute availability” to be exchanged for Israeli children taken hostage by Hamas.

Until the early 20th century, the Catholic Church in the United States was “the recipient of help from the church in other lands,” recalls Anthony Andreassi, C.O., in his homily for World Mission Sunday. “Now it is our turn to reach out to support others so that this important work of evangelization can continue."

Francis did not say whether this “compañero” was in fact among those killed, injured or taken hostage.

Published Oct. 15, the pope's letter is titled, "C'est la Confiance," the opening words of her phrase, "It is confidence and nothing but confidence that must lead us to Love."

Pope Francis has called for the respect of “humanitarian rights…above all in Gaza,” as well as the guarantee of “humanitarian corridors” and the release of the hostages.

Yesterday, the participants in the Synod on Synodality made a pilgrimage through the St. Sebastian catacombs, the burial place of at least three early Christian martyrs.

Emilce Cuda, the highest ranking lay woman working in the Vatican, joins “Jesuitical” to explain how “el pueblo”—ordinary, working class people—are at the forefront of a burgeoning synodal church.