“I have had two [face-to-face] meetings with Pope Francis, and other members of the government have met him, too,” Ukraine’s President Zelensky said in an interview. “I am most grateful to him for these encounters. He is helping us!”

After a five-day trip to Portugal, which recently came to terms with its own clerical sex abuse crisis, Pope Francis said the Catholic Church must abandon its practice of covering up abuse and instead be "very open" about how it is confronting the crime.

In his homily for the closing Mass at World Youth Day, Pope Francis preached on The Transfiguration and its lessons for young people. He also announced that there will be a Jubilee for young people in Rome in 2025 and that the next World Youth Day will be held in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, in 2027.

Though he did not mention Ukraine specifically, Pope Francis used his visit today to the Fátima shrine in Portugal to pray for peace.

Pope Francis preaches on Jesus’ love and desires for us at the Way of the Cross at World Youth Day.

America editor Ricardo da Silva, S.J., and Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell report from Lisbon on the opening of World Youth Day in this special episode of "Inside the Vatican."