Pope Francis’ decision to convalidate the marriage of two flight attendants in the air sent waves of turbulence through the Catholic blogosphere, where respected canon lawyers and pastors raised serious questions about the pope sending a message that marriage wasn’t so serious.

Pope Francis has defended his decision to perform an airborne wedding while flying over Chile, saying the two flight attendants were properly prepared for the sacrament and that refusing them might have meant they would never get around to being married in the Church.

Returning to Rome from a sometimes contentious six-day trip to Latin America, Pope Francis said he regretted the language he used along the way regarding sexual abuse victims who have accused a Chilean bishop of covering up their abuse, but did not back down from his support for that bishop.

Dear Peruvian brothers and sisters, you have so many reasons for hope. I have seen this and have “touched” it in these days. Protect your hope. There is no better way to protect your hope than to remain united, so that these reasons for hope may grow day by day in your hearts.

Pope Francis is widely seen as a reformer, a leader shaking things up in the Church he leads, but sometimes he seems so fast and furious about it, it’s hard to know precisely what sort of reform he wants. In what amounted to his farewell address to his own flock in Peru on Sunday, Pope Francis boiled it down to the basics: More than anything else, he wants a Church that’s “involved.”

Today the Lord calls each of you to walk with him in the city, in your city. He invites you to become his missionary disciple, so that you can become part of that great whisper that wants to keep echoing in the different corners of our lives: Rejoice, the Lord is with you!

It’s not every day that a close ally and adviser to a pope, not to mention a cardinal of the Catholic Church, distances himself from that pope. So when Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston said Saturday night it was “understandable” that Pope Francis’s language in Chile about abuse victims accusing a bishop of a cover-up had caused “great pain,” it was bound to stir reaction.

Dear young people, I am pleased to be here with you. These meetings are very important for me, especially in this year of preparation for the Synod on young people. Your faces, your questions and your lives are important for the Church and we need to give them the importance they deserve.

This is a pope, after all, hardly shy about wielding his own personal power when he believes something important is at stake, from firing Vatican personnel to making big-picture decisions on matters such as the admission of divorced and remarried Catholics to Communion.

These days I have spent among you have been very intense and gratifying. I have been able to learn about and experience the different realities that shape these lands, and to share at first hand the faith of God’s holy and faithful people, which does us so much good. Thank you for the opportunity to “touch” the faith of the people that God has entrusted to you.