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

Pope Francis has donated $500,000 to assist migrants attempting to travel through Mexico, but who are increasingly being impeded by Mexican officials from reaching the U.S. border.

Reforming the Vatican Curia has been a goal since the Second Vatican Council, but so far the changes have failed to improve its efficiency or responsiveness. Pope Francis is trying again.

Pope Francis prayed for victims of the attacks in Sri Lanka and called for peace, highlighting 18 conflicts around the world.

Pope Francis called on Christians not to give into a “tomb psychology,” and quoted the American poet Emily Dickinson, who wrote “We never know how high we are/Till we are called to rise.”

The pope will visit a section of Romania with a large ethnic Hungarian population—and a Marian shrine that has attracted allies of the autocratic, anti-migrant Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán.