The statistical yearbook noted “a general downward trend in the relative number of baptisms, following closely the trend in the birthrate in most countries.”

Catholic artists, poets, writers and filmmakers serve the church not by trying to “domesticate” Christ but by helping people challenge and expand their knowledge of the Lord, Pope Francis said.

The help Father Beotti “offered to many Jewish people persecuted by the Nazi-Fascists played a decisive role” in his death, according to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

Pope Francis announced the inscription of the 21 workers, most of them Egyptians, in the Roman Martyrology, the compendium of saints celebrated liturgically in the Catholic Church.

Allegations periodically have surfaced that then-Father Bergoglio either failed to protect Fathers Jálics and Yorio or even that he facilitated their kidnapping.

Archbishop Robert F. Prevost, who took the helm at the Dicastery for Bishops in mid-April, said because a bishop is called to serve an entire diocese, not just the priests, “listening to the people of God is also important.”

To be Christian is to be open and welcoming to others, Pope Francis said as he celebrated Mass outside Hungary's Parliament building.

Mentioning some areas of common ground with Victor Orbán’s government, Pope Francis described as “ideological colonization” efforts to promote acceptance across Europe of “so-called gender theory.”

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal gave Pope Francis a book of photographs documenting the damage inflicted by Russian bombings of his country in a war that has lasted 14 months already.

“Personally,” the archbishop told his audience, “I would not assist with a suicide, but I understand that legal mediation may be the greatest common good concretely possible under the conditions in which we find ourselves.”