ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT TO HAVANA - Making his 12th trip abroad, Pope Francis was accustomed to collecting interview requests, notes and gifts from the journalists who travel on the plane with him.

MEXICO CITY - A prison riot in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey has claimed 52 lives, offering another example of the problems plaguing Mexico's prison system and casting a pall over the arrival of Pope Francis in the country.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis told Rome's priests that offering God's mercy during the jubilee year will mean lots of unpaid overtime.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis marked the beginning of the Church's Lenten journey by sending off several hundred religious and diocesan priests on their own special path as "missionaries of mercy" in local parishes.

VATICAN CITY - Meeting Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, Pope Francis expressed his hopes that Iraq and other war-torn countries would have leaders strong enough to bring once-divided peoples together.

VATICAN CITY - A jubilee year that does not open people's wallets to share what they have with others is not a true jubilee, Pope Francis said.

Nobody wants the Pope to meet Moscow’s Orthodox patriarch more than the Ukrainian Catholics, but the Eastern-rite Catholics want to be sure their Church is treated as a full partner in the dialogue between Rome and Moscow.

VATICAN CITY - On the eve of sending off "missionaries of mercy" to all corners of the globe, Pope Francis told his specially appointed men that the reassuring strength of God's love -- not the "bludgeon of judgment" -- will bring the "lost sheep" back to the fold.

VATICAN CITY - Confessors have two choices: to be like Jesus who readily forgave sins or like the devil who always condemns, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis is scheduled to have more than two hours alone with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow in Cuba in addition to signing a declaration with the patriarch before flying on to Mexico for a Feb. 12-17 visit.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis said his reasons for going to Mexico are "easy and simple."

VATICAN CITY - A negotiated political resolution is the only answer to the crisis unfolding in Syria, Pope Francis said, urging world leaders to do everything possible to kick-start talks.

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, MEXICO - Long before Pope Francis spoke of a poor Church for the poor and taking the Church to the peripheries, Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia of San Cristobal de Las Casas built the Church in southern Chiapas state.

Pope Francis had barely begun this year’s Lenten message when the talk turned to women’s wombs.

VATICAN CITY - Russian Orthodox officials said the planned meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow is not a signal that decades of tension have been resolved, but emphasizes the need to work together on behalf of persecuted Christians in the Middle East.