Vatican City, Oct 9, 2019 / 08:40 am (CNA).- A contributor to the working document for the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops on the Amazon region made his case Wednesday for the priestly ordination of married men in the region.

“I’m saying this with great sincerity - there is no other option,” Bishop Erwin Kräutler, the retired head of the Xingu prelature in Amazonian Brazil, said at a Vatican press briefing Oct. 9.

Vatican City, Oct 9, 2019 / 04:41 am (CNA).- In his general audience Wednesday, Pope Francis warned Catholics to not turn their faith into an ideology, as he said St. Paul did when he was persecuting Christians before his conversion.

St. Paul, called Saul before his conversion, was “an ideologist; for Saul, religion had become ideology, religious ideology, social ideology, political ideology,” the pope said Oct. 9.

Vatican City, Oct 8, 2019 / 05:17 am (CNA).- Pope Francis appointed Tuesday Fr. Austin A. Vetter as the next bishop of Helena, Montana.

Vetter, 52, is a priest from the Diocese of Bismarck, North Dakota, where he has served as rector of the city’s Cathedral of the Holy Spirit since 2018. Before that he was posted in Rome for six years as the director of spiritual formation for the Pontifical North American College.

Vatican City, Oct 7, 2019 / 03:39 am (CNA).- In his opening remarks for the Amazon synod Monday, Pope Francis said the assembly’s working document is meant to be “destroyed” as the starting point of the work of the Holy Spirit, who he prays will guide the synodal process.

“Synod is to walk together under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit,” the pope said inside the Synod Hall Oct. 7. “The Holy Spirit is the main actor of the synod. Please, let’s not throw it out of the room.”