Church leaders who decide not to attend, he said, bear responsibility for reneging on their commitment to realizing "this vision held over many years, which all our churches cherish, to declare and proclaim the unity of our Orthodox Church."

Opening the Year of Mercy jubilee celebration for the sick and persons with disabilities, Redemptorist Father Cyril Axelrod insisted sign language, tactile sign language and body language are "gifts of the Holy Spirit."

Catholics and Lutherans are finding common ground in what Cardinal Kasper described as "the original, fundamental" emphasis of Martin Luther, "which is the Gospel of grace and mercy and a call to conversion and renewal."

"The difficulty or the challenge," he said, is "to listen, to be careful about what's going on, to understand, to exercise dialogue...to discover the beauty, the richness of the culture of the people."

After less than 48 hours in Rome, "dream" is the word used most often by the six Syrian adults Pope Francis brought back to Italy with him from a refugee camp in Greece.By April 18, the couples—who asked to be identified by only their first names, Hasan and Nour, Ramy and Suhila, Osa

"What I saw today and what you saw in that refugee camp—it makes you weep."

"We are going to encounter the greatest human catastrophe since World War II," he said.

Among the migrants and refugees, "The terror is immense."

He hit the million-follower mark in just 12 hours, making his "our fastest growing account on Instagram to date."

"How beautiful it would be if in every diocese there were a structural work of mercy: a hospital, a home for the aged or abandoned children... a home for recovering drug addicts."