VATICAN CITY - Ankara and Istanbul were gray and cold during Pope Francis' Nov. 28-30 visit to Turkey. And the general reception, outside of the Pope's official meetings, was hardly warmer.

Pope Francis called on political and religious leaders across the Muslim world to condemn violence done in the name of Islam.

VATICAN CITY - Religious orders and the Vatican congregation that assists them must be bold in assessing whether current structures and practices help or hinder the proclamation of the Gospel, the pursuit of holiness and the service of the poor, Pope Francis said.

ISTANBUL - A day after hearing Turkish leaders demand the West show more respect for Islam, Pope Francis prayed alongside a Muslim cleric inside Istanbul's most famous mosque.

The planet produces enough food to feed everyone, yet more than 800 million people go hungry every day.

STRASBOURG, France - Pope Francis has urged European leaders to reject a “throwaway culture” that treats people like “cogs in a machine”  too easily discarded through abortion and euthanasia.

VATICAN CITY - The same day he spent three hours meeting the heads of Vatican offices to discuss the reform of the Roman Curia, Pope Francis named 69-year-old Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah to be the new prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

VATICAN CITY - Almost every papal trip abroad is a complex mix of the religious and political, and that will be especially true of Pope Francis' Nov. 28-30 visit to Turkey.

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Church officials expect the Pope's Jan. 15-19 visit to bring healing to victims of disasters. They also emphasized that the visit will not be a fundraising event for the Church.

Following up on remarks to 60 Minutes about the clergy sex abuse crisis and other controversial topics, Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley has stressed that the Catholic Church needs a system to hold bishops accountable and must “avoid crowd-based condemnations.”

VATICAN CITY - The Catholic Church calls for the creation of job opportunities and the recognition of the dignity of the poor, not simply for more handouts or expanded government welfare programs, Pope Francis said.

ROME - Every human being has a right to food, and no business plan or economic policy can override that right, Pope Francis told world leaders gathered in Rome.

VATICAN CITY - Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput says hot-button socio-sexual issues won’t be the central focus when the World Meeting of Families welcomes Pope Francis to the City of Brotherly Love next year.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis condemned the "unacceptable episodes of violence" in Jerusalem, episodes that "do not spare even places of worship," after an attack in a synagogue left four worshippers, a policeman and the two attackers dead.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis has warned doctors and ethicists on several hot-button social issues, attacking abortion, embryonic stem cell research and euthanasia as “playing with life” and “a sin against God.”