"Rome nominates, the pope nominates. That is clear!”

“I have never, never given a pardon on a conviction.”

The pope said he knows that young people “are upset by sexual and economic scandals that do not meet with clear condemnation.”

It was an important message for the 2.2 million people of Latvia, where today 37 percent of the population are Russian.

On his second day in Lithuania, Pope Francis traveled 65 miles to Kaunas, the country’s second largest city, to celebrate Mass in Santakos Park for more than 100,000 people.

Pope Francis arrived in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, to celebrate the centenary of the country’s independence.

Pope Francis has recognized all the remaining bishops who were ordained in China in recent years without the pope's approval.

In a historic breakthrough, the Holy See has signed today, Sept. 22, “a provisional agreement” with China on the appointment of bishops.

He is the second pope to visit these Baltic nations. John Paul II came to the region in September 1993, after the collapse of communism, and was welcomed as a hero. Pope Francis comes exactly 25 years later, but much has changed since that first papal visit.

A Vatican source confirmed that a high-level Holy See delegation will travel to the Chinese capital for the signing and that a date has already been fixed for this ground-breaking event.