When Pope Francis canonises Blessed Teresa of Kolkata on 4 September, he won’t simply be fulfilling a special duty of his office, he will be honouring a woman he has called “a symbol, an icon for our age.”

Celebrating how God’s mercy has been experienced for 800 years in a tiny stone church in Assisi, Pope Francis said people need to experience God’s forgiveness and start learning how to forgive others.

Sitting with head bowed and eyes closed, Pope Francis paid silent tribute to the victims of one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. The Pope arrived on 29 July at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp in Oswiecim, an area now blanketed by green fields and empty barracks lined by barbed wire fences, remnants of a horror that remains embedded in history.

With his visit to World Youth Day only a few days away, Pope Francis asked young pilgrims to accompany his visit to Krakow, Poland, with prayers.

Carmen Hernández, co-founder of the Neocatechumenal Way, has this week, Tuesday 19 July, died at her home in Madrid, Spain. She was 85 years old.

Pope Francis has this week condemned the attack on Bastille Day celebrations in France, calling it an act of “blind violence”.

For the first time in 200 years, experts have begun a restoration of the Edicule of the Tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where, according to Christian tradition, Jesus was laid to rest after His crucifixion.

Mercy is not an abstract concept, but a lifestyle that invites Christians to make an examination of conscience and ask themselves if they place the spiritual and material needs of others before their own, Pope Francis said.

Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe and Auxiliary Bishop Don Sproxton will be among some 19 bishops from across Australia who will pack their bags for World Youth Day next month, proving age is no barrier to participation in the world’s largest youth event.

Local bishops have an obligation to welcome new movements and communities and guide them, while groups have an obligation to obey the local bishop and avoid the appearance of setting up a parallel church, according to a new Vatican document.