Father Rizzo said he usually hears 20-30 confessions a day in Italian or Spanish, but the number of penitents increases on Saturdays and Sundays, and he will offer the sacrament to at least 50 people each day on the weekend.

Four Missionaries of Charity and 10 to 12 other people at a home the sisters operate for the elderly and disabled in Aden, Yemen.

Pope Francis "is inviting us to lower our voices. You cannot have a dialogue shouting."

The Cuba meeting was not an improvisation, Father Lombardi said; it took two years of intense planning and negotiations to schedule.

"This visit is important because it gives two important signals: The first signal is continuity," demonstrating that "the route opened by John Paul II and followed by Benedict XVI is now going forward," Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, the chief rabbi of Rome, said. The second signal is a recognition of the importance of mutual respect and dialogue at a time of increasing "violence inspired and sustained by distorted visions of religion."

Interrupted repeatedly with applause at Rome's main synagogue Jan. 17, the pope said the church "recognizes the irrevocability of the Old Covenant and the constant and faithful love of God for Israel."

In the statement, "The Gifts and the Calling of God Are Irrevocable," the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations With the Jews gives thanks for 50 years of Catholic-Jewish dialogue and looks at some of the theological questions that have arisen in the dialogue and in Catholic theology since the Second Vatican Council.

"The latest progress report confirms that the Holy See has established a functional, sustainable and effective system, aiming at preventing and fighting financial crimes," said Msgr. Antoine Camilleri, under-secretary for relations with states and head of the Vatican delegation to the Moneyval plenary.

"The crowds, the joy, the ability to celebrate even with an empty stomach" were impressions the pope said he would take home with him after his six-day trip to Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic. After two years of civil war, the pope told reporters, the people of the Central African Republic want "peace, reconciliation and forgiveness."

"Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters," created by the same God, he said, and they must act like it.