But the issue of clerical sexual abuse is also hanging over this leg of the pope’s visit to the region as revelations of mistreatment concerning high profile East Timor clergy have emerged in recent years.

Carlo Acutis, who died from leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15, was renowned for using his computing skills to spread awareness of the Catholic faith and earned the nickname “God’s influencer.”

Illinois’ Attorney General Kwame Raoul released a nearly 700-page-long report Tuesday morning detailing child sexual abuse by members of the Catholic clergy in Illinois, stretching back to 1950.

The report's list of abusers includes clergy members, seminarians, deacons, teachers and other employees of the Archdiocese.

Former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick pleaded not guilty in September 2021 in the Massachusetts case that alleges the priest sexually abused the boy at a wedding reception at Wellesley College in June 1974. He is the only U.S. Catholic cardinal, current or former, ever to be criminally charged with child sex crimes.

Pope Francis has criticized laws that criminalize homosexuality as “unjust,” saying God loves all his children just as they are. Catholic teaching holds that while gay people must be treated with respect, homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.” Francis has not changed that teaching, but he has made reaching out to the LGBTQ community a hallmark of his papacy.

The Vatican says Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's health has worsened over the past hours and doctors are constantly monitoring his condition. Pope Francis appealed Wednesday to the faithful to pray for his “very ill” predecessor “until the end.”

"I want to ask you all for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict who sustains the Church in his silence. He is very sick."

The U.S. attorney’s office in St. Louis says the FBI was contacted after an internal investigation found what appeared to be videos of minors engaging in sex acts.