Christians today can fall into the temptation of creating their own idols, Pope Francis tells an audience including the musician Sting.

“The huge thing,” she said, is the recognition by the church of “the inviolable dignity even of guilty people who have done terrible crimes.”

Pope Francis has revised the church’s catechism to state that the death penalty is no longer admissible.

The pope met Aug. 1 with about two dozen European Jesuits currently involved in the order's formation process. They had been talking about communication and one asked Pope Francis how they can meaningfully communicate with unemployed young people when, as Jesuits, they will never know what it means to be without a job.

The revised teaching declares that the death penalty is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person, and that the church works "for its abolition worldwide."

Catholic moral theologians from around the globe conclude an international ethics conference with calls for prophetic action.