IMAGE: CNS photo/Gerald Wutkowski Jr., Catholic SpiritBy Marianne Zanko KomekPERTH AMBOY, N.J. (CNS) -- In 2013, while volunteering in India, Graciela Colon first heard the inner stirrings of Jesus calling her to a religious vocation.

For three weeks, she helped St. Teresa of Kolkata's Missionary Sisters of Charity, minister to abandoned children, some of whom were severely disabled. They took the children off the streets and cared for them.

IMAGE: (CNS photo/Vatican MediaBy Carol GlatzVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Although people may have different ways of praying or of serving their parish or the poor, the Catholic Church needs laity, priests, religious, parishes and lay movements to collaborate in order to be truly "catholic," Pope Francis said.

More also must be done to include women in roles of advising and governance, but without reducing them to having just a "functional" role, he said, speaking Nov. 16 to members and consultants of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, which was holding its first plenary assembly since its creation in 2016.

IMAGE: CNS photo/Vatican MediaBy Cindy WoodenVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A commitment to defending and protecting human life requires a commitment to ending wars and to promoting nuclear disarmament, Pope Francis said.

"Using nuclear weapons is immoral," the pope said in a video message released Nov. 18. The video was a greeting to the people of Japan in advance of the pope's arrival there Nov. 23.