Pope Francis met with Hebe de Bonafini, the president of "Madres de la Plaza de Mayo," a human rights organization in Argentina.

"Peace will be lasting in the measure that we arm our children with the weapons of dialogue.”

This global gathering “is an event of the whole church,” said Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.

“The meeting is the message,” the pope said as he welcomed Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb.

It all began on Aug. 14, 1549, when St. Francis Xavier arrived and introduced Christianity.

Francis responded to questions relating to the separation of church and state, Islamophobia, pedophilia, synodality and reconciliation with the Lefebvrists.

The pope recalled that “our primordial vocation” is to be “children of God.”

An accord seems possible before the year’s end.

“It’s impossible to launder money at the I.O.R.” today, said the bank’s president.

John Paul II, who visited in 1997, said, “Lebanon is more than a country; it is a message.”