In an apostolic letter released at the close of the Holy Year of Mercy, Pope Francis called on the Catholic Church worldwide "to promote a culture of mercy in which no one looks at another with indifference or turns away from the suffering of our brothers and sisters."

"The problem that we have today, not only in society but also in the church, is that we've become too polarized," Cardinal Kevin Farrell, an Irish-born prelate who was bishop of Dallas before taking over a Vatican department on family life earlier this year, told America.

In Chicago, 17 people were lost to gun violence in a single weekend.

Cardinal-designate Cupich urged U.S. bishops to “speak in a pastoral way to calm the fears of people and let them know that we are advocates for them,"

The day before Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, Pope Francis said he would make no judgments about the candidate and was interested only in the impact his policies would have on the poor.

“Two priorities that we have are unity and governance,” said Jonathan Reyes, executive director of the U.S. Catholic bishops’ Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development. “So this divisive election—we somehow have to get to the other side. That will not be easy,