The Vatican has released a video in which Pope Francis comments on his July prayer intention: “We pray that, in social, economic and political situations of conflict, we may be courageous and passionate architects of dialogue and friendship.”

“We especially need to have a renewed encounter with the most impoverished and vulnerable, those on the peripheries,” the Pope commented. “And we need to distance ourselves from populisms that exploit the anguish of the people without providing solutions, proposing a mystique that solves nothing. . . . And this isn’t always easy, especially today when part of our politics, society and media are bent on creating enemies so as to defeat them in a game of power.”