The aim of interreligious dialogue is not to come to some sort of agreement on religious principles that everyone can accept, Vatican officials say.

Pope Benedict XVI chose “Migrations: pilgrimage of faith and hope” as the theme for the 2013 celebration of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees.

Synod members said they were certain God “will not fail to look on our poverty in order to show the strength of his arm in our days and to sustain us in the path of the new evangelization.”

“We need to get this mandate overturned” by the courts said Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski said of the requirement that many religious employers pay for contraceptives for their workers.

Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer, but it still struggles with poverty, widespread corruption and recurring ethnic violence.

Flooding at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdeson Oct. 20 temporarily closed much of the popular French pilgrimage site.