Overview

• Speaking at the Angelus on August 31, the pope called for an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine, saying “the voice of the arms must be silenced.”
• He prayed for victims of the Minneapolis Catholic school shooting and denounced a global “pandemic of arms,” a message that has renewed debate in the United States over gun policy.
• The Vatican sent a telegram, signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, offering the pope’s condolences and spiritual support to the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.
• Authorities identified the attacker as 23-year-old Robin Westman, who died by suicide; two children were killed and many others injured, and the FBI is treating the case as a possible hate crime and domestic terrorism, according to the White House.
• He also mourned a migrant shipwreck off Mauritania with more than 50 dead and about 100 missing, urging prayer and concrete acts of charity.