The statement examines rising tensions around the world, the nature of truth, the spread of misinformation and disinformation, the arms race, domestic cohesion, the need for dialogue and education for peace.

As the Israel-Hamas war edges toward the one-year mark, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem is calling on the faithful to pray for peace while observing the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Aug. 15.

Every Christian, but especially seminarians, should set aside their screens regularly and spend time with a book of literature or poetry, Pope Francis has said.

Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris and Bishop Emmanuel Gobilliard of Digne, special representative of the Holy See for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, celebrated a solemn Mass in the presence of over a hundred diplomatic delegations.

The Holy Father reflected on the day’s Gospel reading from St Mark (6:7-13) about the mission of the twelve disciples in which Jesus sent them out “two by two” and told them “to take nothing for the journey” but only what was necessary.

The school, a property of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, was a place of refuge for hundreds of civilians whose homes were destroyed.

The Instrumentum laboris is not a magisterial document or a catechism, but a way to encourage prayer, dialogue, discernment and the “maturing of a consensus”, according to an explanatory paper.

Pope Francis said he will open the Holy Year at the Vatican on 24 December this year and close it 6 January 2026, on the feast of Epiphany.

Scholars overseeing archives and managing libraries must have “a great openness to discussion and dialogue,” Pope Francis told professors and students from the Vatican’s archival and library sciences schools on 13 May.

The Holy Fathers message expanded on the theme chosen for this year’s world day which was taken from the Book of Psalms: “Do not cast me off in my old age.”