In his landmark document on creation, the Pope pointed out that his namesake St Francis of Assisi was so close to the natural world that he even preached to the flowers.

The US president’s visit to the island from 20 to 22 March is going to be a historic event, a sign of an easing of tensions and of friendship among peoples. The Pope’s role in this has been a discreet but efficient one.

At the morning Mass in St. Martha’s House on Monday, March 14, Pope Francis talked about the people who get sick in Italy’s “Terra dei Fuochi” (Land of Fires), the homeless person who died of cold in Rome without even a final comforting embrace, the nuns killed in Yemen and the migrants who find doors slammed shut. The only answer to these tragedies is to trust in the Lord.

Despite many Ukrainian Greek Catholics feeling betrayed by the joint declaration signed last month by Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in Havana, the Eastern Church’s leadership was encouraged by a recent meeting with the Holy Father and a pledge he made to help the suffering people of Ukraine.

Significant advances in relations between China and the Holy See could be just around the corner as dialogue enters a new phase, according to Vatican and Chinese government sources.

Pope Francis’ bridge-building diplomacy is also raising hopes for a papal visit to the country, part of a process to help realize Benedict XVI’s vision of one Church in China. But not everyone is convinced, and the Holy See’s revamped Ostpolitik is causing concern that any gains will come at the cost of compromise.

Pope Francis celebrated the beginning of the fourth year of his pontificate with an evocative summary of his first three -- preaching to crowds in St. Peter’s Square on Jesus’ mercy towards a woman found in adultery and giving them pocket copies of “The Gospel of Mercy.”

In his weekly Angelus address Sunday, the day marking the fourth anniversary of his election as the leader of the global Roman Catholic church, Francis said that God “does not nail us to our sins” but instead identifies us by our names and wants us to transform evil into good.

In March 2006, the then-Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah, delivered an invaluable lecture within the framework of a seminar organized by Amman Municipality, titled, “Terrorism: Roots, Phenomenon, Mechanism of Fending it off”.

All these declarations, namely the Istanbul Declaration (2011) which was designed to combat religious intolerance, the Morocco Declaration (2016), and the Doha Declaration (2016) aim at attaining two main targets. The first one is to exonerate Islam of the lurking misconceptions in light of what terrorist groups and organizations commit in the name of religion and the Almighty God; and the second one is to call for instilling mutual respect among the followers of religions.

The number of Catholics in the world rose between 2005 and 2014, the number of priests is up, while the number of religious continues to drop. Positive figures were recorded until 2011 then this trend came to a halt. The underlying trend shows a Church that is growing in Asia and Africa but shrinking in Europe and North America.

At the General Audience, on Wednesday March 2, the Pope denounced “benefactors” who come with “offerings” but these are “the fruit of the blood of people who have been exploited, enslaved with work which was under-payed”. He spoke about the refugees who are arriving in Europe and don’t know where to go.