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ECATEPEC, Mexico (CNS) — Pope Francis began his travels to Mexico’s “peripheries” by visiting an overcrowded, sprawling settlement known internationally as a hunting ground for girls to force into prostitution and for boys to enlist in the drug trade.

MEXICO CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis fulfilled his much-desired wish to pray in silence before the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. After celebrating the first Mass of his papal trip to Mexico Feb. 13, the pope made his way to the “camarin” (“little room”) behind the main altar of the basilica dedicated to Mary. The miraculous mantle, which normally faces the congregation, can be turned around to allow a closer and more private moment of veneration.

MEXICO CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis demanded forceful denunciations of drug violence in Mexico from the country’s bishops, who have preferred timid pronouncements instead of speaking prophetically on a tragedy that has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past 10 years and left another 25,000 Mexicans missing.

MEXICO CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis told Mexico’s president and government officials that the country’s future can be bright only if government and business leaders put an end to a culture of “favors” for the influential and scraps for the poor.

HAVANA (CNS) — At long last, Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow embraced, kissing each other three times. “Finally,” the pope told the patriarch Feb. 12 as they met in a lounge at Havana’s José Martí International Airport. “We are brothers,” he told the patriarch.

Making his 12th trip abroad didn't prepare Pope Francis for requests and gifts while en route to Mexico via Cuba Feb. 12

Christ calls every person to a special mission, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted told Massgoers who often find themselves praying in front of abortion clinics.

The reassuring strength of God's love — not the "bludgeon of judgment" — will bring the "lost sheep" back to the fold, Pope Francis told his newly appointed "missionaries of mercy."

SANTA ANA, Calif. (CNS) — Saying the future of the pro-life movement is “cultural not political,” Archbishop José H. Gómez of Los Angeles called upon Catholic Latinos to work toward a “new Christian humanism, a new vision of society and human destiny that is rooted in the Gospel.”

A former Diocese of Phoenix athlete, who punted for the 2007-08 Super Bowl champs, earned the diocese a spot in the first Super Bowl High School Honor Roll.