For the patriarch, Holy Week culminating in the Easter celebration offers a fresh hope to breathe new life into prayer and reflection, reconciliation and dialogue.

The Vatican welcomed the refugee families after an appeal made by Pope Francis on every parish, religious community, monastery and shrine in Europe to take in a family of refugees.

Pope Francis joined a chorus of humanitarian relief and human rights critics who urged the United States to do more to avoid noncombatant deaths.

Francis greeted an interfaith group of Iraqis in St. Peter's Square and issued a special appeal for peace in Iraq at the end of his general audience.

The United States dominates an annual global weapons export market that has topped $100 billion.

The invitation came amid increasingly closer relations between the Vatican and al-Azhar University, which is considered the most authoritative theological-academic institution of Sunni Islam.