VATICAN CITY - In a lengthy and wide-ranging interview with one of his Jesuit confreres, Pope Francis spoke with characteristic frankness about the perils of overemphasizing Catholic teaching on sexual and medical ethics; the reasons for his deliberate and consultative governing style; and his highest priority for the church today.

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) Sept. 29 (Amos 6:1, 4-7; Psalm 146; 1 Timothy 6:11-16; Luke 16:19-31)

There isn’t much of a market for ivory beds today but many other symbols of luxury have taken their place. Amos wrote in the eighth century B.C. and addressed both the Northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. His stinging denunciations were meant to awaken the upper classes from their spiritual and moral lethargy.

In a masterful book on grace, Piet Fransen suggests that we can test how well we understand grace by gauging our reaction to this story:

ROME - Acting in his capacity as bishop of Rome, Pope Francis offered words of encouragement to his diocesan priests, assuring them that recent and current scandals cannot overcome the Church's holiness and urging them to keep their vocations alive through love of God.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis' Sept. 11 meeting with Dominican Father Gustavo Gutierrez was an informal one, held in the in the pope's residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae, and not listed on his official schedule. Yet the news that Pope Francis had received the 85-year old Peruvian priest, who is widely considered the father of liberation theology, has excited interest far beyond the Vatican's walls.

VATICAN CITY - People who judge and criticize others are hypocrites and cowards who are unable to face their own defects, Pope Francis said.

“I have come to set the Earth on fire and how I wish it were already blazing... Do you think that I have come to establish peace on Earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three.”

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) Sept. 22 (Amos 8:4-7; Psalm 113; 1 Timothy 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13)

People are an expendable commodity. Unbridled profit should be one’s guiding principle. If this sounds heartless and shocking it should because it is — but it expresses the underlying mentality of too many people and it helps to fuel our institutions.

VATICAN CITY - Writing in one of Italy's major secular newspapers, Pope Francis called for a "sincere and rigourous dialogue" between the Church and non-believers as an "intimate and indispensable expression" of Christian love.

VATICAN CITY - Leading a crowd in prayer for peace in Syria, Pope Francis said that war is ultimately caused by selfishness, which can be overcome only though expressions of fraternity and never with violence.