Like Saint Francis, the pope said, “each of us is called to follow in his footsteps by becoming a peacemaker, an ‘artisan’ of peace.”

Even as pope, Francis considers himself a parish priest—“the world’s parish priest” as he once told a friend. This morning, he presided in a small Catholic enclave more than 100 miles from Sofia, the capital city.

“God Bless Bulgaria," Pope Francis prayed, and "keep her in peace and ever hospitable, and grant her prosperity and happiness.”

Pope Francis will visit Bulgaria and North Macedonia from May 5 to 7, two majority Orthodox countries with very small Catholic populations.

The Catholic Book Club's new selection studies the Catholic Church's ecclesial response to modernity over the last century.

In the wake of the fire, perhaps today’s “cultured despisers” of religion will come to appreciate how devotion to Notre Dame has been a wellspring of Western civilization as we know it.