“The pope’s presence at COP28 will be a historic event and without precedence in the history of COP,” Judge Mohamed Abdel Salam, a chief architect of the visit, said in this exclusive interview with Gerard O’Connell.

The pope called for aid to be allowed into Gaza to help the tens of thousands of wounded Palestinians.

Cardinal Stephen Chow said officials in China “appreciate that Pope Francis appreciates them” in this exclusive interview with America’s Vatican correspondent.

“We cannot say there are bishops who are on the left and ones that are on the right. This is a false analysis,” said Cardinal Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

“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.”