On Palm Sunday, Pope Francis made an appeal to “lay down the arms in Ukraine” and asked, “What kind of a victory would it be to plant a flag on a heap of ruins?”

In this exclusive interview, Canadian Archbishop Don Bolen shares the significance of the pope’s meeting with Indigenous survivors of Canada’s residential schools and what he expects from the pope’s pledged visit to Canada.

It had been rumored for some time that Pope Francis would appoint the internationally well-known and much-liked Ghanaian cardinal to another high-level position in the Holy See.

Answering a question from America's Vatican correspondent, Pope Francis indicated he has not spoken directly to President Putin since the war started.

Francis has long desired to visit Malta where, according to the Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul was shipwrecked in 60 A.D. while en route to Rome, where he had asked to be judged.

“If Putin says something on Tuesday, the Russian Patriarch has to say the same thing on Wednesday but just putting the word ‘God’ into the sentence,” David Nazar, S.J., said in an exclusive interview with Gerard O’Connell.

On Day 32 of the war in Ukraine, Pope Francis made another passionate appeal to political leaders “to understand that every day of war makes worse the situation for everyone.”

The pope recorded the messages in the spur-of-the-moment when he received the new bishop of Hong Kong, Bishop Stephen Chow Sau Yan, S.J., in a private audience at the papal library in the Vatican’s apostolic palace.

Some commentators have called this  “revolutionary,” but others say it has deep roots in church tradition.

“I invite every community and every one of the faithful to join with me next Friday, March 25, the solemnity of the Annunciation, in making this solemn act of consecration of humanity.”