A boy walks unexpectedly and repeatedly on stage to say hello to Pope Francis during the weekly Wednesday audience at the Vatican. After the child walks on the stage for the third time, the Pope says he wishes to "thank this child for the lesson he taught" because "he has acted from the heart."

Pope Francis expresses his compassion for the victims of the recent attacks in Norway, Afghanistan and England stressing that "violence begets violence."

Pope Francis expresses his personal shame and that of the Church at the sexual abuse of children by French Catholic clergy, and offers the victims his prayers, after the scale of the problem was laid bare in a devastating report. An independent commission revealed earlier this week that French Catholic clergy sexually abused around 216,000 minors over seven decades since 1950, calling the scandal a "massive phenomenon" that was covered up by a "veil of silence".

The top Catholic said it was "time to make wise choices" for the future of the planet, addressing some 400 young climate activists who had gathered in Milan.

Pope Francis meets with Roma in a notorious housing project on day three of his Central Europe trip. The visit comes after he met with Holocaust survivors in Bratislava Monday.

Pope Francis cited Angela Merkel's greatness before echoing her feelings about the situation in Afghanistan. However, it was Vladimir Putin, not the German chancellor, that the pope was parroting.

Pope Francis expresses his "concern" over the situation in Afghanistan and calls for "dialogue" to resolve the conflict. The Taliban are on the brink of total victory in Afghanistan, with their fighters ordered to wait on the outskirts of the capital and the government conceding it was preparing for a "transfer of power".

Pope Francis returns to work full-time following a colon operation, urging the international community to help a struggling Lebanon on the anniversary of the explosion that killed over 200 people.

Speaking at the end of the Angelus prayer from the window of the Apostolic palace overlooking St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis says he hopes the Tokyo Olympics will be a sign of hope and "universal brotherhood" during the coronavirus pandemic raging around the world.

Pope Francis celebrates a special mass at St Peter's Basilica for the people of Myanmar in the wake of the country's military takeover earlier this year. Several hundred Christians from Myanmar joined him in appealing for peace in the Southeast Asian country.

Pope Francis urged Catholics to remain hopeful in his Easter Sunday address, calling vaccines an "essential tool" in ending the pandemic and urging their swift rollout to the world's poorest countries. Due to coronavirus restrictions, he delivered his Easter blessing "Urbi et Orbi" ("To the city and the world) to a small congregation in St Peter's Basilica, instead of to the usual crowd of tens of thousands in St Peter's Square.