MYTILENE, Greece – Although their speeches were punctuated with policy appeals, Pope Francis and Orthodox leaders focused their visit to the island of Lesbos on the faces, stories and drawings of refugees.

VATICAN CITY – Meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican, Bolivian President Evo Morales discussed social policy and the economic situation facing his country.

Perhaps Cardinal Christoph Schonborn best summarizes Pope Francis’ papal exhortation Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love): “There are true innovations, but no break” in tradition, the Austrian theologian told reporters the day the exhortation was released.

VATICAN CITY – In a "humanitarian and ecumenical gesture," not a political one, Pope Francis is to join Orthodox leaders in personally meeting with hundreds of refugees and migrants stranded in Greece, the Vatican spokesman said.

One must be docile to the Holy Spirit, said Pope Francis Thursday at Mass in his residence of Casa Santa Marta, and one must not resist Him. Pope Francis warns against those who resist the Spirit with "so-called fidelity to the law" and invites the faithful to pray for the grace of the docility to the Spirit.

VATICAN CITY – Before St. John Paul II arrived in Greece in 2001 there were protests by Orthodox faithful and an all-night prayer vigil by Orthodox monks on Mount Athos, praying that the pope would not come.

Sex is not something the Church fears or is trying to control. Sex is not the opposite of prayer and spirituality, it’s not something we grudgingly concede to the young. Sex is not merely the mechanism of reproduction, although there’s no such thing as a full and true understanding of sex that can’t live with our human capacity to make babies.

Pope Francis’ long meditation on love in the family does more than sum up two meetings of the world’s bishops in Rome in 2014 and 2015. Francis is bringing a new spark to an old fire.

Pope Francis said on Tuesday that "persecution is the Church’s daily bread.”

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis' call to action on climate change does not want to ruin any business, provoking job losses, but seeks to point humanity in the right direction in protecting the environment for future generations, a Vatican official said.

Pope Francis on Monday spoke of the importance of taking stock of what is in people’s hearts and lives instead of only taking the law into account.

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis appealed for the release of all people being held captive in the world's battle zones, including Salesian Father Thomas Uzhunnalil, who was abducted in Yemen.

If Pope Francis wanted a single image to illustrate the special Year of Mercy that is the current focus of his ministry and, indeed, at the heart of his pontificate, he could do no better than choosing an underappreciated masterpiece by the Italian artist Caravaggio.

Pope Francis presents a special call for young people in his new document, "'Amoris Laetitia' (The Joy of Love), on Love in the Family.”

He calls youth to be the generation that will restore hope to the future of the family. He emphasizes the importance of instilling good values within the family and expanding those values to the larger family of the Catholic Church.

OTTAWA — Canada’s Catholic bishops are glad to count Pope Francis as an ally in their fight against euthanasia. The bishops were anxious to point out how strong the Pope rejects euthanasia in his post-synodal exhortation Amoris Laetita: On Love in the Family, Apr. 8, noting in its teachings its rejection of euthanasia.