ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM DUBLIN (CNS) – Pope Francis said Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano’s long document calling on him to resign is written in a way that people should be able to draw their own conclusions.

Mary’s assumption into heaven was a special sign of God’s favor, but it also indicates God’s desire to save all people, body and soul, Pope Francis said.

Like the ancient Israelites, Christians today also can fall into the temptation of creating their own idols when difficulties and uncertainties arise, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis asked people to generously serve those most in need and to never waste food. “Never throw away leftovers,” he said July 29 before reciting the Angelus prayer with people gathered in St. Peter’s Square. Leftovers should be eaten later or given to someone in need who will eat them, he said, advising people to talk to their relatives who lived through the aftermath of the Second World War and ask what they did with any uneaten food. The pope made his comments during his reflection on the day’s Gospel reading about the multiplication of the loaves. He praised how the young boy in the account came forward with the little he had –  five loaves and two fish. “Young people are like this, they are courageous. We have to help them continue” being brave, he said. The Gospel account, the pope said, shows how Jesus is aware of the people being hungry and how he gets his disciples involved to offer “his word, his consolation, his salvation and, in the end, his life.”

God always loves and generously gives first before asking for fidelity to his commandments – which are the words of a loving father showing people the right way to live, Pope Francis said. “Christian life is above all the grateful response to a generous father,” not a forced, joyless compliance to a series of obligations, the pope said June 27 at his general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

The worst enemies in a young person’s life aren’t the problems they may face, Pope Francis said. The biggest dangers are being unwilling to find a way to adapt, mediocrity by settling for the status quo, and fear, he said at his general audience in St. Peter’s Square June 13. “It is necessary to ask the heavenly father for the gift of healthy restlessness for today’s young people, the ability to not settle for a life without beauty, without color.

Pope Francis asked Catholics to recognize and be thankful for the undeserved gift of the Holy Spirit they received with the sacrament of confirmation. “It is a gift to be cherished with care” and to follow with docility, “letting oneself be molded like wax from the burning love” of the Holy Spirit, the pope said May 30 at his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square. During the audience, the pope was treated to a performance by taekwondo athletes from South Korea. 

Warning that violence will never bring peace, Pope Francis urged all sides to do all they can to foster dialogue in the Middle East. “I am very worried about the intensifying tensions in the Holy Land and the Middle East and about the spiral of violence that increasingly leads away from the path of peace, dialogue and negotiations,” he said in an appeal May 16 during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

The baptismal font is a tomb in which a person dies to sin, and it is a womb through which a person is born to new life in Christ, Pope Francis said. “Just as our parents generated us to earthly life, the church has regenerated us to eternal life through baptism,” the pope said May 9 at his weekly general audience.

The only way to understand and choose what is right in a world full of conflict, difficulties and materialism, is by living a life of poverty that is filled with prayer and patience, Pope Francis said. “If you pray, if you are poor, if you are patient, rest assured that you will be fruitful,” he told about 700 consecrated men and women in the Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall May 4.

The sacrament of baptism isn’t a good luck charm but a gift from God that enables Christians to overcome evil, Pope Francis said.  Those who receive the sacrament are given the strength to overcome “the temptation to separate from God, from his will, from communion with him (and) fall into the snares of worldly seductions,” the pope said April 25 during his weekly general audience. 

Naming a child is an important task for parents, because it gives children a sense of identity and belonging to their family and to God, Pope Francis said.

Parents who prefer not to baptize their children in the hopes that they will “understand and ask for baptism” as adults lack faith that the Holy Spirit will act in their child’s life, Pope Francis said.  While some believe there is no need to “baptize a child that does not understand” the sacrament’s meaning, the pope said doing so would deny the chance for “Christian virtues to grow within that child and blossom.”

The final words at Mass – “Go in peace” – are an invitation to Christians to proclaim God’s blessings through their lives, not an opportunity to go outside and speak ill of others, Pope Francis said. Through the Eucharist, Jesus “enters in our hearts and in our flesh so that we may express in our lives the sacrament we received in faith,” the pope said during his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square April 4.

While many people hope to catch a glimpse of Pope Francis and greet him, 12-year-old Peter Lombardi got something even better than he imagined.  “Not only did Pope Francis kiss Peter, he asked Peter to ride in the popemobile with him,” Brenda Lombardi, Peter’s mother, told Catholic News Service (CNS). 

Forgiving those who have caused pain or offense is not easy, Pope Francis said. “It is a grace that we have to ask for,” because the peace offered by Christ cannot take root in a heart that is incapable of living in fraternity with others and incapable of rebuilding those bonds after being wounded, the pope said at his weekly general audience at the Vatican March 14. The pope continued his series of talks on the Mass, focusing on the Communion rite, which begins with the assembly’s recitation of the Lord’s Prayer.

Mass isn’t a paid arrangement for salvation but rather the commemoration of Christ’s sacrifice of his life, given freely to all, Pope Francis said. Christians can make a silent prayer during Mass or donate money to offer a Mass for a loved one who is in need or who has passed away, but should never feel obliged to make a payment, the pope said at his weekly general audience at the Vatican March 7.

God asks so little of people and yet, he gives so much in return, Pope Francis said. “He asks for our goodwill in daily life, he asks us for an open heart, he asks us to be willing to be better,” the pope said at his weekly general audience at the Vatican Feb. 28. Because of ice and unusual freezing temperatures in Rome, Pope Francis held the audience in the Vatican’s Paul VI hall. But the Vatican also opened St. Peter’s Basilica to accommodate the overflow. Giant screens were set up in the basilica so the people could follow the audience, and later the pope went to the basilica to greet and bless those inside.

Calling the war in Syria “inhumane,” Pope Francis called for an end to the fighting, immediate access to humanitarian aid for those in need and the evacuation of the injured and infirm. “My thoughts often turn to that beloved and martyred Syria where the war has intensified, especially in eastern Ghouta,” he said Feb. 25 after praying the Angelus with people gathered in St. Peter Square.

Everyone who goes to Mass has the right to hear the word of God in all its fullness, which means it must be read well and explained well with “fervor,” Pope Francis said. People have the right to hear God’s word in a way that “knocks at the heart and changes hearts,” he said at his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square Feb. 14.