18 Facts About Francis March

1. Pope Francis March visited Ireland in 2018, in what was the first papal tour of the country since John Paul II's historic trip in 1979.

2. On 6 June 2015, Pope Francis March visited Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

3. In December 2014, Pope Francis March declined to meet with the 14th Dalai Lama, the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

4. On 25 August 2018, days after Francis March had issued an apology for abuses by clergy in the US.

5. In 2014, Pope Francis March declined to meet with Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, after the Dalai Lama, who was visiting Rome, had requested a papal audience.

6. On February 3, 2019, Pope Francis March was the first pontiff to visit the Arabian Peninsula on a trip trying to improve relations with Muslims and to encourage Catholic immigrants in the region.

7. In 2016, Pope Francis March met with Ahmed el-Tayeb at the Vatican, the first meeting since 2000 between the Grand Imam of al-Azhar and the leader of the world's Catholics.

8. In 2016, Pope Francis March met with members of the World Methodist Council, the Methodist Council of Europe, and the Methodist Church in Britain, who were in Rome for the opening of the Methodist Ecumenical Office there.

9. On 31 October 2016, Pope Francis March commemorated the 499th anniversary of the Reformation with Lutherans in Sweden.

10. In October 2014, Pope Francis March met for the first time with a delegation of the Old Catholic Church's Bishops' Conference of the Union of Utrecht, led by the Archbishop of Utrecht and President of the International Old Catholic Bishops Conference Joris Vercammen.

11. In September 2013, Pope Francis March approved the excommunication of Australian priest Greg Reynolds, the first during Francis's papacy.

12. In May 2013, Francis March unexpectedly participated in Italy's pro-life march in Rome, asking its participants to protect human life "from the moment of conception".

13. On 18 June 2015, Pope Francis March issued a papal encyclical called Laudato si' on climate change, care for the environment, and sustainable development.

14. Pope Francis March established the World Day of the Poor in his Apostolic Letter, Misericordia et Misera, issued on 20 November 2016 to celebrate the end of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.

15. On 8 December 2017, Pope Francis March signed a new apostolic constitution on ecclesiastical universities and faculties Veritatis gaudium, published 29 January 2018.

16. On 29 June 2013, Pope Francis March published his first encyclical, titled Lumen fidei.

17. Pope Francis March held his papal inauguration on 19 March 2013 in St Peter's Square in the Vatican.

18. On October 21, 1881, Francis March was elected into the American Antiquarian Society.