After his greetings in various languages at yesterday’s general audience, the Holy Father mentioned that Friday 20 June will be World Day for Refugees, dedicated by the international community to those who are forced to leave their homelands to flee from conflict and persecution. “The number of our brethren who become refugees is increasing and, in recent days, thousands more people have had to leave their homes to save themselves…

• On the 18th of June 2014, Pope Francis received in audience the members of the High Council for the Italian Magistrature, to whom he expressed his esteem for their work which “aims at the good functioning of a sector that is vital for social coexistence”. He also apologised for not having received them yesterday as scheduled, explaining that “in the mid-morning I felt unwell and had a fever, so I had to cancel all my appointments…

• Pope Francis opened the Ecclesial Convention of the Diocese of Rome on Monday night, emphasizing the Church’s role of Mother in a society where more and more children are leading the life of an orphan.

  Pope Francis began his remarks by stating that over the past year, he has made numerous parish visits in the Diocese of Rome, where he has met a great number of people, however briefly…

Pope Francis delivered a video message to the organisers, players and fans participating in the 2014 World Cup tournament in Brazil. Delivered in Portuguese, the message expresses the Holy Father’s hope that, in addition to a celebration of sport, this World Cup can be transformed into a festival of solidarity between peoples.

The message goes on to say sport is not only a form of entertainment, but also a tool to communicate the values ​​that promote the good of the human person and help to build a more peaceful and fraternal coexistence…

• Pope Francis warned corrupt persons in positions of power that they would do well to fear God’s justice and repent on Wednesday, during the course of the catechetical portion of his weekly General Audience, dedicated to the seventh and final of the gifts of the Holy Spirit: fear of the Lord.

  Departing repeatedly from his prepared text in Italian for emphasis, the Holy Father spoke of the fear of the Lord, not as a servile or supine disposition before the Lord, but as the grateful response of people who have first been loved by the infinite love of God the Father…

“Peacemaking calls for courage, much more so than warfare”, the courage “to say yes to encounter and no to conflict: yes to dialogue and no to violence; yes to negotiations and no to hostilities; yes to respect for agreements and no to acts of provocation; yes to sincerity and no to duplicity”.

This was Pope Francis message to his guests Sunday evening – the Israeli and Palestinian Presidents Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas – as he welcomed them to his home for an Invocation for Peace in the Holy Land…