This is Francis’ second visit to Japan. He came here in October 1987 to visit Jesuit missionaries as provincial. 

The pope reminded priests, religious and seminarians that the fervor of evangelization “is nurtured by a double encounter: with the face of the Lord and with the faces of our brothers and sisters.”

To be “a missionary disciple is not a mercenary of the faith,” Pope Francis told the Catholics of Thailand, but rather “a humble mendicant” who longs to bring missing family members to the Sunday table.t

Pope Francis spent his first full day in Thailand meeting with the country’s prime minister and supreme patriarch of Buddhists.

Arriving in Thailand after an 11-hour flight, Pope Francis was greeted by 11 children -- one for each of the country's dioceses.

On the eve of Pope Francis’ visit to Japan, an exclusive interview with Yoshio Kajiyama, S.J., the Hiroshima-born former provincial of the country’s Jesuits.