“Complicated and sorrow-filled situations from the past must not be forgotten or denied,” he told the assembled during his homily, “yet neither must they be an obstacle or an excuse standing in the way of our desire to live together as brothers and sisters.”

Dying and rising should be happening all the time for us. And in us. It’s a way for us to participate in the beautiful mystery of the Resurrection, during the Easter season, and every day.

Pope Francis, in his scripted address, reminded his Orthodox brothers that “the bonds of faith that unite us go back to the Apostles.”

The report attributed much of the increase to a victim compensation program implemented in five dioceses in New York state.

The path to building an inclusive society is one where every person is seen as a brother or sister and “where the weak, the poor and the least are no longer seen as undesirables that keep the ‘machine’ from functioning,” the pope said on May 31, the first day of his visit to Romania.