MYTILENE, Greece -- Standing in a tent on the shore, Pope Francis said the Mediterranean Sea, “the cradle of so many civilizations, now looks like a mirror of death.”

NICOSIA, Cyprus -- Sympathizing with the Cypriot government and citizens feeling overwhelmed by an influx of migrants and refugees, Pope Francis urged them to remember their history as a crossroads and meeting place of people of different cultures and traditions.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis will draw the world’s attention to migration once again as he visits Cyprus and Greece in early December.

Pope Francis will visit Canada to further reconciliation with Indigenous Canadians in relation to residential schools.

There has never been a papal visit to anywhere that has been anything like what will unfold when Pope Francis comes to Canada — a papal journey of sorrow, mourning and repentance holding forth a thin candle of hope up against the flood of our own Catholic sins.

Deacon Harry Lafond is well aware of the serious, sorrowful situation which has prompted Pope Francis to announce a visit to Canada. But he does not believe the papal visit should drown in tears.

VATICAN CITY -- Before going to the hospital for colon surgery July 4, Pope Francis told a crowd in St. Peter's Square that he would be visiting Hungary and Slovakia Sept. 12-15.

While pundits in the West wonder whether Pope Francis really will brave out-of-control COVID-19 infections, shootings and bombings to visit Iraq, there’s not much doubt among Iraqis and others who know the Pope’s commitment to Christianity in the Middle East.

AMMAN, Jordan -- Despite challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and security concerns, Pope Francis hopes to visit Iraq, an opportunity that eluded his predecessors.

AMMAN, Jordan -- On his historic visit to Iraq in March, Pope Francis hopes to encourage his Christian flock, badly bruised by sectarian conflict and brutal Islamic State attacks, while building further bridges to Muslims by extending fraternal peace.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis said that unless there is a serious new wave of COVID-19 infections in Iraq, he has every intention of visiting the country in early March.

VATICAN CITY -- In the midst of three days of prayer and fasting for peace and an end to the coronavirus pandemic, Iraqi Cardinal Louis Sako, the Baghdad-based patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, said Iraqis still are counting on Pope Francis to visit in March.

ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT TO PANAMA – While speaking to a journalist aboard his flight to Panama, Pope Francis confirmed that he will visit Japan this year.

Pope Paul VI made papal history on Oct. 4, 1965, becoming the first pontiff to ever leave Europe and the first to leave Italy since 1809. His destination (he’s also the first to travel by plane) was New York City, where he spent a grand total of 14 hours on the ground. He packed a lot into the quick trip, including a meeting with President Lyndon Johnson and a speech to the United Nations. Here’s a report in the Oct. 9, 1965 issue of The Register on part of Pope Paul’s historic visit.

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ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM GENEVA – The question of allowing Protestants married to Catholics to receive Communion at Mass in special cases has to be decided by each individual bishop and cannot be decided by a bishops' conference, Pope Francis told reporters after a one-day ecumenical journey to Geneva.