“Here democracy was born,” Pope Francis said. “Yet we cannot avoid noting with concern how today — and not only in Europe — we are witnessing a retreat from democracy.”

“The European continent needs reconciliation and unity; it needs courage and enthusiasm, if it is to move forward. For it will not be the walls of fear and the vetoes dictated by nationalist interests that ensure its progress.”

The pope sees his visit here as another way to get people in Europe and elsewhere to understand that the greatest humanitarian crisis since World War II requires a global solution.

Archbishop Michel Aupetit, 70, said that his behavior toward the unnamed woman “may have been ambiguous,” but had not extended to “an intimate relationship and sexual relations.”

Glasgow was meant to deliver what Paris had begun. Instead, as its last days ground on, discontent and disappointment were rising.

A grassroots pro-life movement is emerging across the continent with elements that seem straight from the U.S. pro-life playbook. Could a U.S.-style culture war be brewing in Europe?