Pope Francis: The Gospel helps us to interpret “today’s pain and tomorrow’s hope” and calls on us to be ”witnesses of compassion amid widespread disinterest.”

They were intent on responding with mercy to a crisis that at the time showed no signs of slowing.

“This could have a profound change in the life of the church.”

Sunday, Nov. 14, marks 25 years since Cardinal Joseph Bernardin’s death. Do Catholics today want a church that is “alive and rooted, public in its service to the city” and the world?

It is not sufficient for contemporary Catholics simply to repeat the formulas of the past.

With a pilgrim’s staff and mantle, Pope Francis entered Assisi’s Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels with 500 economically or socially disadvantaged people.