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.

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.

VATICAN CITY - The Pope called on more than 100,000 people crowded into St. PeteröÏÓãÊÓƵapp on Sept. 7 to always reject violence, to never accept war and to enthusiastically become ambassadors for peace.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis is leading the Catholic Church on an extraordinary campaign to prevent President Barack Obama's proposed military strike on Syria.

VATICAN CITY - On the evening of Sept. 7, days before U.S. lawmakers vote on President Barack Obama's proposal for a military attack on Syria, Pope Francis will lead thousands in St. Peter's Square in a prayer vigil for peace.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis has stuck with a long-standing tradition by appointing a seasoned member of the diplomatic corps to replace Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone as the top Vatican official.

WARSAW, Poland - A priest who died of cold and hunger in a communist prison will be beatified as a martyr in Romania.