A holy year is an opportunity to start fresh with one’s relationship with God and with other people, Pope Francis told thousands of pilgrims.

The Vatican’s top diplomat met with papal representatives to various Middle Eastern countries to discuss possible avenues toward peace in the region and the state of the Catholic Church there.

While calling himself an “old man” and saying he never expected to be pope this long, Pope Francis said he still has dreams for the future.

Four days after Corpus Christi Church was incinerated in the Palisades Fire, Capt. Bryan Nassour of the Los Angeles Fire Department picked his way over a 6-foot layer of rubble in the ashen bones of the sanctuary and recovered the tabernacle Jan. 11.

Several Catholics who have fled the wildfires ravaging Los Angeles have been praying for the intercession of Our Lady of Champion, who once saved a rural Wisconsin shrine from a devastating inferno.