The Vatican has always had a core of diplomats for centuries. It has ambassadors in 180 countries and always played a kind of behind-the-scene role in many world issues.

Father Jude Nnorom also criticized his church leaders, saying the simple lifestyle followed by Pope Francis should challenge African bishops to ask themselves.

[Pope Francis] symbolically took the migrant south-north route to the United States by going to Cuidad Juarez on the border with Texas, and there he spoke of the human dignity of immigrants.

[Pope Francis] lashed out against what he called malevolent resistance to his reforms.

Asked about Donald Trump, [Pope] Francis said a person who thinks only about building walls and not building bridges is not Christian, a remark you might remember that Trump described as disgraceful.

One of the topics that [Pope Francis] wants to raise, according to many Vatican analysts, is given the shortage of - worldwide shortage of priests is the possibility of a married priesthood. But he needs more backing from his bishops right now.

We have a pope [Francis] who's very popular among the Catholic faithful and non-Catholics, but there's no doubt he's going to continue to face resistance from conservatives inside the church.