“We can’t go backward,” Cardinal Robert McElroy told America’s Vatican correspondent Gerard O‘Connell at the end of the first session of the Synod on Synodality.

Exclusive interview: Cardinal Cupich on the end of the first session of the Synod on Synodality.

“Recognizing the divergences is unitive,” a bishop member of the synod told me. “It can provide healing.”

Today, Pope Francis prayed “for all those who suffer” and said he hoped that “paths of peace” may be found for the conflict in the Middle East.

Pope Francis again called for a stop to the fighting in Israel and Palestine, as he appealed to both sides: “Brothers, stop! Stop!”

After a heartrending testimony in the synod hall, Father Timothy Radcliffe said: “I hope it changed us.”

Pope Francis today called for the silencing of guns in Gaza and declared Oct. 27 a World Day of Prayer for peace.

Francis did not say whether this “compañero” was in fact among those killed, injured or taken hostage.

Pope Francis has called for the respect of “humanitarian rights…above all in Gaza,” as well as the guarantee of “humanitarian corridors” and the release of the hostages.

Pope Francis today called for “the immediate release” of the more than 100 Israeli hostages taken by Hamas into Gaza and, at the same time, expressed his deep concern at the “total siege” imposed by Israel on Gaza.