NATION/WORLD

The Vatican office in charge of coordinating plans for the Holy Year 2025 announced they are launching a new website and releasing an app to help people register and to guide them along their pilgrimage in Rome.

The new projects and developments at the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors represent "a major shift toward a more impact-focused direction," said its president, Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley of Boston.

Missionaries are needed today just like in the past because "there are so many men and women who still need the Gospel, not only in the so-called 'mission lands,' but also in the tired old West," Pope Francis said.

Christians have no need to be afraid or hopeless because Jesus always tells the faithful where they are going and how to get there, Pope Francis said.

Alongside departure listings and boarding gates, the 35,000 passengers who walk through Terminal 1 at Rome's largest airport each day can also see a marble masterpiece of Christ on their way to catch a flight.

Meeting a group of pilgrims from the Italian diocese his father's family came from, Pope Francis said the family "remains a key value" even though it is "a reality that has changed so much and continues to change."

Safeguarding minors and vulnerable persons must be a priority for everyone in the church, Pope Francis said.

Just under three months before World Youth Day gets underway in Lisbon, Portugal, Pope Francis said young people should consult their grandparents about how to prepare.

Catholic universities must be outward looking and prepare their students to engage with the world's problems rather than teaching rigid ideas, Pope Francis said.

The strong roots of faith and community helped the people of Hungary resist and survive Nazi occupation and communism, Pope Francis said, and the people must draw on those roots today to resist the more subtle threats of consumerism and individualism.