Cardinal Angelo Scola, the runner-up in the last papal conclave, has come out strongly against those, especially within the church, who frequently and increasingly attack Pope Francis.

The handbook contain the most up-to-date norms and practices that bishops and superiors of religious orders should follow.

The appeal was signed by the more than 40 of the foremost religious figures of this majority-Buddhist state, including Cardinal Charles Maung Bo.

Pope Francis' brief words at the Sunday Angelus are the Vatican's first public response to the Turkish president's move to turn Hagia Sophia back into a mosque.

The Unesco World Heritage site in Istanbul, founded as a Christian church in the 6th century, transformed into a mosque in the 15th century and then into a museum in 1934, will reopen as a mosque on July 24 with Friday prayers.

Pope Francis drew attention to the dramatic situation of refugees in Libya today, “the detention camps, the abuses and violence that migrants are victims of, journeys of hope, rescue operations and push-backs. ‘Whatever you did, you did it for me.’”