Spanish Msgr. Lucio Vallejo Balda cited a Whatsapp conversation in which Francesca Chaouqui told him: "I will destroy you in all the newspapers and you know that I can do it."

"Pedophilia and the attachment to money are the two behaviors of the clergy that have most wounded and angered the Christian people," Servite Father Ermes Ronchi said during the retreat on March 9.

The meeting of cardinals and promoters of the sainthood causes, also known as an "ordinary public consistory," formally ends the process of approving a new saint.

The number of baptized Catholics reached 1.27 billion or 17.8 percent of the global population.

Noting the generosity of countries like Greece, Pope Francis called on European Union member states to "focus decisively and unreservedly on negotiations" to assist nations receiving refugees.

After months of public debate and protests, the Italian Senate passed a controversial bill that grants legal recognition to nonmarried heterosexual and homosexual couples.

Laying a bouquet of yellow roses in front of the image, the pope sat down in prayerful silence with eyes closed and head bowed.

While retracing the events of 2015 may recall moments of both joy and sorrow, it also offers a moment to understand the presence of God who "renews and sustains with his help," Pope Francis said during an evening prayer service in St. Peter's Basilica on New Year's Eve.

The announcement was made Dec. 23 in Aachen, Germany by the prize's executive committee. Citing his address to the European Parliament in 2014, the committee commended the pope's message of "peace and understanding" as well as "compassion, tolerance, solidarity and the integrity of creation throughout his pontificate."

The Islamic State and "fundamentalists don't accept anything that doesn't fit with their vision of Islam," he said. "This is a kind of purification and, of course, Christians and other minorities are a target."