Pope Francis has his eyes fixed on Asia, where he sees the possibility of a new springtime for the church.

“When I go to visit the retirement homes for elderly priests I find so many of these great shepherds who have given their lives for the faithful. There they are, sick, paralyzed, in wheelchairs but you can see them smiling straight away."

The new saints include Argentina's first.

The key keepers are just some of the more than 3,000 lay people who perform unheralded jobs in a place that is known for pomp and circumstance.

The United Nations reports that more than 50 percent of the world’s 21.3 million refugees are children.

Pope Francis made a surprise visit on Oct. 4 to the town of Amatrice in Italy, recently devastated by an earthquake, and told survivors there: “From the first moment” of the tremblor on Aug. 24, “I felt the need to be here.”