Laphidil Oppong Twumasi, a youth leader from Ghana, reads Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, “Christus Vivit” (Christ Lives), during a news conference for its presentation at the Vatican on April 2, 2019

As a young Jesuit, Jorge Bergoglio taught literature to a group of rowdy, hormonal teenage boys at a private school in Argentina who, according to one of them, “had no desire to study.”

Faced with the chaos of the classroom, the 28-year-old Bergoglio refused to adopt a dictatorial path of control but instead engaged his pupils by posing them challenges. He demonstrated his passion for a range of writers, even managing to get one of Spanish literature’s greats, Jorge Borges to come and talk to the class.

Recalling those days Jorge Milia, who is now a writer, said the future Pope always urged his students to analyse, break down arguments and not be “hood winked.”

Decades later, and now sitting in the Chair of St Peter, Pope Francis is adopting a similar teaching method when it comes to how the Church can better connect with young people.

President Donald Trump’s decision to build an anti-immigrant wall will leave the United States alone and a “prisoner” of its own isolation, according to Pope Francis in his latest wide-ranging interview, this time with a Spanish journalist.

“He who raises a wall ends up a prisoner of the wall he erected,” the Pope said. “That’s a universal law in the social order and in the personal one. If you raise a wall between people, you end up a prisoner of that wall that you raised.”

“Yes, I defend my autonomy, yes,” Francis said, “but you’re left alone like a mushroom.”

Francis’s words came in a pre-recorded interview, which took place before he departed for an overnight trip to Morocco. Speaking to Spanish journalist Jordi Evole of La Sexta, Francis said countries that traffic in arms “have no right to talk about peace.”

“Are they fomenting war in another country and then want peace in their own?” Francis asked. “That theory will boomerang. Life charges them, one way or another. If you arm the war there, you will have [the war in] your house whether you want it or not.”

Asked about victims of clerical sexual abuse and whether they should go to the police to denounce a crime, Francis said “of course” and insisted such a standard was the outcome of a recent summit on abuse he convened.

The German Bishops’ Conference on April 3, 2019 has published a contribution to climate policy discussion as a central social challenge in the field of the creation of creation. The expert text “Ten theses on climate protection. A discussion contribution “is based on socio-ethical, economic, natural and juris prudential considerations and contains solutions.

Based on Pope Francis ‘Encyclical Laudatosi,’ the text clarifies the need for climate protection from a socio-ethical perspective. The task of counteracting dangerous climate change is described as a requirement of justice. The text is committed to the goal of achieving greenhouse gas neutrality as early as possible, but by 2050 at the latest. Specific implementation steps will be identified, including taking a pioneering role in Europe and the world, the phasing out of fossil fuels Frame-work for the transformation of the energy system, the involvement of consumers and producers and the promotion of sustainable lifestyles. Reflections on the model function of the church complete the text.

For five years they were at war with each other in a bloody conflict that has killed 400,000, left six million starving, four million displaced from their homes and a devastated economy.

On 11 April 2019, the President of South Sudan, SalvaKiir, and his former vice-president Riek Machar sat together on a sofa in the Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican as Pope Francis appealed for them to persevere with their fragile peace agreement and “remain in peace.” After finishing his talk the Pope stood up from behind his desk, walked over to the warring leaders of the world’s youngest state and knelt down and kissed both of their feet. Machar, who was taken aback by the gesture, appeared to try to stop the Pope from bending down in front of him. Francis told him: “let me.”

Along with Kiir and Machar, the 82-year-old Pope also bent down to kiss the feet of the other political leaders gathered in the room including Rebecca Nyandeng, the widow of John Garang, the man who helped bring about an independent South Sudan. Nyandeng was in tears during the encounter, which is likely to go down as one of the most dramatic peace gestures of the Francis pontificate.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, choking up with emotion after witnessing the scene said: “We have heard the prophetic call of Christ. We now commission you as ambassadors of peace.” He handed each of the leaders a Bible with the following message: “seek that which unites. Overcome that which divides.”

By any worldly measure, South Sudan’s problems seem insurmountable and might be best left to the intercession of St Jude, the patron of saint of hopeless causes.