Authorities arrested six people who have maintained contact with a couple that left Italy to join the Islamic State in Syria.

The pope signed 12 decrees, including one recognizing a miracle attributed to the intercession of Jesuit Father John Sullivan.

"The climate right now is causing disasters and making it difficult for people to live wholesome, decent lives."

Spanish Msgr. Lucio Vallejo Balda cited a Whatsapp conversation in which Francesca Chaouqui told him: "I will destroy you in all the newspapers and you know that I can do it."

"Pedophilia and the attachment to money are the two behaviors of the clergy that have most wounded and angered the Christian people," Servite Father Ermes Ronchi said during the retreat on March 9.

The meeting of cardinals and promoters of the sainthood causes, also known as an "ordinary public consistory," formally ends the process of approving a new saint.

The number of baptized Catholics reached 1.27 billion or 17.8 percent of the global population.

Noting the generosity of countries like Greece, Pope Francis called on European Union member states to "focus decisively and unreservedly on negotiations" to assist nations receiving refugees.

After months of public debate and protests, the Italian Senate passed a controversial bill that grants legal recognition to nonmarried heterosexual and homosexual couples.

Laying a bouquet of yellow roses in front of the image, the pope sat down in prayerful silence with eyes closed and head bowed.