It was the end of a long day of baseball under the late May sun in Santa Clara, Cuba, and Marilyn Santos found an unpainted, dented, wooden baseball bat among the shiny blue and black ones she had brought from the United States.

Meeting with acrobats, clowns, carnival workers, street performers, musicians and magicians, Pope Francis thanked the artists for bringing beauty and joy to an often dark, sad world.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople called on his brother patriarchs and primates of the Orthodox churches to honor their commitments and join him for the Great and Holy Council of the Orthodox Church.

Thinking green is not easy. Nor is it always cheap.

In the small dormitory room that smelled of moist modelling clay, dozens of statues of a laughing Jesus lined wooden shelves against a wall.

Indifference and hostility can blind Christians from recognizing Jesus in those most in need, Pope Francis said.

In celebration of the Year of Mercy and the gift of the Eucharist, tens of thousands of people attended the 2016 Eucharistic Congress of the Archdiocese of Atlanta June 3-4 at the Georgia International Convention Center.