In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI dropped “Patriarch of the West” from his official titles. Vatican officials at the time said the title was removed because it was theologically imprecise and historically obsolete.

In a speech at his weekly general audience, Francis said that “fortitude is a fundamental virtue because it takes the challenge of evil in the world seriously.”

The Vatican’s new declaration, “Dignitas Infinita” (”Infinite Dignity”), garners praise from U.S. Catholic leaders for its comprehensive addressing of key issues surrounding human dignity, including poverty, migration, abuse, gender issues, and digital violence.

The Major Penitentiary is sometimes referred to as chief confessor of the Catholic Church because he has broad faculties that are reserved to the Holy See to grant pardon and forgiveness for sins for which an ordinary priest or bishop cannot grant absolution.

Pope Francis has been managing church-state relations well since Javier Milei’s election, while the church hierarchy in Argentina has kept a cautious and skeptical distance from the country’s new leader.

In a speech at his weekly general audience, Pope Francis highlighted justice in his cycle of catechesis on virtues. Justice, the pope said, is animated by the righteous person who “desires the good of society as a whole.”