“You must continue to be the face of Christ for others”, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB told more than 100 members and friends of the Voice of the Voiceless (VoV) Ministry on February 22.

Pope Francis’ most frequent advice and exhortation to Catholics — from laypeople in parishes to bishops and cardinals — is “Go forth.” In Italian, the phrase is even snappier: “Avanti.”

A small sign — a sheet of paper printed from a computer — announces “We’re now open” on the front door of Matthew’s Meat Shop on Real Street, across from some of the most devastated communities in this typhoon-ravaged city.

From the moment Pope Francis, dressed simply in a white cassock, stepped out on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica for the first time and bowed, he signaled his pontificate would bring some style differences to the papacy.

Preparing for the Year for Consecrated Life, members of religious orders, secular institutes and consecrated virgins are asked to spend a considerable amount of time remembering the joy they felt when they first realized God was calling them.

Pope Francis said bishops should act not like ambitious corporate executives, but humble evangelists and men of prayer, willing to sacrifice everything for their flocks.

As protests in Venezuela continued, with flare-ups of violence, the country’s Catholic leaders urged dialogue and respect for the demonstrators’ human rights.

Just because many Catholics do not understand the church’s teaching about the indissolubility of marriage, that does not mean the church can change that teaching, said Cardinal Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Pope Francis urged people to overcome indifference and to mourn for the innumerable victims of war and conflict around the world.

Uganda’s Catholic bishops reaffirmed their opposition to homosexuality, but reserved judgment on a recently ratified bill imposing harsh punishment for homosexual acts in the East African nation.