Cardinal Michael Czerny S.J., visited Auschwitz today to celebrate Mass on the 80th anniversary of the death of Edith Stein, the German Jewish philosopher who converted to Catholicism.

After Pope Francis met with Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, the ambassador suggested that a papal visit to that war-torn country may happen in the near future.

For the first time since the start of the war in Ukraine, Pope Francis received in a private audience this morning a top-ranking member of the Russian Orthodox Church, second only to patriarch Kirill of Moscow.

Aboard the papal plane, Pope Francis addresses questions about future travel, the doctrine of discovery, contraception and Germany’s Synodal Way.

“I would like once more to ask forgiveness of all the victims,” the pope said in a homily at Quebec’s Notre Dame Cathedral. “The pain and the shame we feel must become an occasion for conversion: Never again!”

The image of Pope Francis, all alone on the side of the lake, imploring God for healing, will surely remain as an iconic image of this penitential pilgrimage.