NATION/WORLD

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Be courageous in caring for and accompanying others, helping them to dream big, cultivating their unique gifts and flourishing, Pope Francis told university chaplains and pastoral workers. "The work of education is a true mission in which individuals and situations are accepted with all their lights and shadows -- their shadows, too -- with a kind of 'parental' love," the pope said. "This facilitates in a unique way the growth of those seeds that God has sown within each person," he said Nov. 24 in an audience at the Vatican with people taking part in a conference on pastoral care in Catholic universities, sponsored by the Dicastery for Culture and Education.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis appealed for perseverance in praying for peace, especially in the Holy Land where the conflict is no longer "warfare," but has become "terrorism." "Please, let's move toward peace. Pray for peace," the pope said. "May the Lord help us to not keep going to the point of killing everyone. "At the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square Nov. 22, the pope reminded everyone "not to forget to persevere in prayer for those who are suffering because of wars in so many parts of the world, especially for the dear people of Ukraine, martyred Ukraine, and Israel and Palestine."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Catholic pilgrimage, especially a pilgrimage to Marian shrines, should help people grow in their commitment to be missionary disciples, Pope Francis said. Meeting pilgrims from the Archdiocese of Ozamiz, Philippines, Nov. 17, the pope said their visits to shrines in Europe dedicated to Mary should remind them that "being followers of Jesus always involves listening to his word, meditating on it in our hearts and then bringing that word to others," Mary did when she visited her cousin Elizabeth.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Long moments of silence and listening to God's Word are some of the many lessons contemplative women can give other Catholics, Pope Francis said. "In this world that is always full -- of things, words, news, a whole industry of external communication -- interior communication, in silence, is so necessary," he said during an audience at the Vatican Nov. 16. He spoke to people taking part in an international conference sponsored by the Pontifical International Marian Academy on the Venerable María de Jesús de Ágreda.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- By supporting the preservation, restoration and exhibition of art, especially religious art, the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums share beauty that can touch all people and build bridges between them, Pope Francis said. The pope met Nov. 9 with about 300 members of the patrons' group -- which started in the United States and continues to have a majority of its members in North America -- as they celebrated the organization's 40th anniversary.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis joined leaders of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem in praying for peace in Israel and Palestine, "sharing the great sorrow of the mother church of Jerusalem." "We are sadly witnessing a tragedy unfolding in the very places where the Lord lived, where he taught us through his humanity to love, to forgive and to do good to all," the pope said Nov. 9. "And, instead, we see them torn apart by tremendous suffering that is striking the innocent most of all, so many innocent people dead."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- God seeks and loves those who are humble because it allows him to be a part of their lives, Pope Francis said. "This is Christian humility, which is not simply one virtue among others, but the basic disposition of life: believing ourselves to be in need of God, making room for him and putting all our trust in him," the pope said in his homily Nov. 3.

ROME (CNS) -- As the sun broke through the morning sky after a torrential downpour in Rome, Pope Francis was wheeled past dozens of gravestones that marked the final resting place of members of the military forces who died during and immediately after World War II. He carried a bouquet of large white roses and had an aide place it at the grave of Guardsman William Perkins, a member of the Welsh Guards who died at the age of 28 in 1944. The pope then continued along the green lawn, hands clasped briefly in prayer.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- After dozens of people were killed and billions of dollars in damages were suffered due to a hurricane that hit Mexico's Pacific coast, Pope Francis expressed his condolences and prayed that Christians would contribute, in a spirit of charity, to the reconstruction of affected areas. The pope was "deeply saddened to learn of the natural disaster that is affecting the coasts of Guerrero" in southern Mexico, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, wrote in a telegram to Archbishop Leopoldo González González of Acapulco Oct. 27.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Since the Gospel message touches every aspect of a person's life, it must be proclaimed in a way people can understand, Pope Francis said. At his weekly general audience Oct. 25, the pope looked at the lives of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, two brothers from ninth-century Greece who became missionaries in central Europe. St. John Paul II named them co-patrons of Europe and wrote the encyclical "Slavorum Apostoli" ("The Apostles of the Slavs") about them, affirming Eastern Europe's Christian culture.