The pastor’s release came a day after Canadian officials confirmed that a delegation had traveled to North Korea to discuss his imprisonment.

Depending on who is counting, the anti-drug war in the Philippines has claimed from 2,000 to more than 7,000 lives, both in police operations and vigilante-style or extrajudicial killings.

Navy chaplain Father David J. Hammond said Mass in the USS Bonhomme's Star of the Sea Chapel for three Marines who died when their aircraft went down off the coast of Australia.

The Vatican has appointed an apostolic visitor to investigate claims by Indonesian priests that their bishop had a mistress and misappropriated church funds.

"The real thing is that at this moment China and (the) pope have a very good relation," said Argentine Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, chancellor of the pontifical academies of Sciences and of Social Sciences.

The pope led pilgrims in praying a Hail Mary for the victims of the attacks at St. Philip's Catholic Church in Ozubulu, Nigeria and at a mission in Gambo, Central African Republic.