Does anyone really look forward to Lent? What is it about Lent that excites us? What aspects of the Lenten journey test us? The scriptural readings for this season are carefully chosen so as to replay salvation history before our very eyes.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis urged Ukraine's Catholic bishops to focus on the social and human tragedies unfolding in their country and avoid politicizing their role as Church leaders.

WASHINGTON - The much-anticipated encyclical by Pope Francis on the environment, expected sometime this spring or early summer, is generating a lot of buzz in Washington and elsewhere.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis once again urged solidarity with migrants who risk their lives crossing the Mediterranean Sea for Europe, and assured prayers for the victims of a deadly crossing in early February.

VATICAN CITY - Less than a month after saying Catholics don’t have to multiply “like rabbits,” Pope Francis on Wednesday (Feb. 11) once again praised big families, telling a gathering in St. Peter’s Square that having more children is not “an irresponsible choice.”

VATICAN CITY - The leaders of the world's bishops' conferences and religious orders must ensure they are doing everything possible to protect children and vulnerable adults from abuse and are offering appropriate care for victims and their families, Pope Francis said.

Moira McQueen, mother of eight and moral theologian, thought Pope Francis’ off-the-cuff remark about Catholics reproducing like rabbits was hilarious.

The news cycle is like a popularity contest — and Pope Francis is winning.

VATICAN CITY - Christians are united in bloodshed as they suffer from violence and persecution in various parts of the world, Pope Francis told Christian leaders.

Despite the economic downturn of recent years, bank accounts of the world’s billionaires have  grown deliberately fatter as the financial canyon between rich and poor has widened. It has reached a point that by 2016 the world’s richest one per cent could own more than half the planet’s wealth.

“I beg the Lord to grant us more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people, the lives of the poor!”   
Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel)

Pope Francis made an apostolic visit to Sri Lanka and the Philippines Jan. 13-19, 2015. The Sri Lanka highlight was the canonization of St. Joseph Vaz. In the Philippines, the Pope celebrated Mass with six million people in Manilla. All the articles from his trip are listed below, including some Canadian reaction written by Register reporters Michael Swan and Evan Boudreau.

MANILA, Philippines - Pope Francis told a crowd of an estimated six million gathered in a Manila park to protect the family "against insidious attacks and programs contrary to all that we hold true and sacred, all that is most beautiful and noble in our culture."

MANILA, Philippines - Young people drew inspiration from an encounter with Pope Francis at the University of Santo Tomas.

TACLOBAN, Philippines - Among more than 100,000 people who braved an approaching tropical storm and waited long hours to attend Mass with Pope Francis Jan. 17 were survivors of Typhoon Haiyan.