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Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

Pope Francis said he wrote a resignation letter in 2013, his first year in office, to be used in case he became physically or mentally impaired and unable to fulfill the duties of the papacy.

The Vatican has had diplomatic contact with Russia regarding comments Pope Francis made about Russian minorities being responsible for the worst acts of cruelty in the country's war on Ukraine.

Vigilance is an essential part of the spiritual life because the devil will try to sneak in when one is not paying attention or, especially, when a Christian thinks he or she is making a lot of progress on the road to holiness, Pope Francis said.

Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet has launched a $100,000 defamation suit against a woman who accused him in a civil suit of sexually abusing her, the Associated Press is reporting.

Ken Hackett, former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, said he was advised early on that diplomacy with the Vatican was about relationships, not transactions.

Stopping to gaze at and perhaps pray before a Nativity scene is one of the best ways to remember the real meaning of Christmas, Pope Francis said.

While formal dialogue about the theological and historical causes of the splits in Christianity are essential, so, too, is a recognition that "sinful actions and attitudes" have contributed and continue to contribute to divisions in the body of Christ, Pope Francis said.

Violence against women is "a social scourge that is also linked to cultural attitudes, ingrained mentalities and prejudices," so education, prevention and swifter justice are needed to end it, Pope Francis said.

Top Vatican officials expressed concern that, with the Synodal Path, the German bishops were giving up their role as shepherds and allowing participants to adopt positions in contrast to the faith of the universal church, particularly regarding sexuality and women's ordination.

While some people want to "reform" the Catholic Church and others want "to put the brakes on the synod process," those involved in preparing the continental phase of the synod process want "to mend" the church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the pope, said Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, relator general of the synod.