A day before wrapping up his first U.S. visit, the 78-year-old Argentine pontiff also used his trip to Philadelphia to promote religious freedom as a fundamental right but condemned the use of religion as a pretext for hatred and brutality
Pope Francis said Wednesday the world was facing a "critical moment" in the fight against climate change, welcoming US President Barack Obama's efforts to curb air pollution
It follows a recommendation from the Vatican's child protection panel, a body which includes victims of paedophile priests and was set up last year with a brief to root out sex abuse in the Catholic Church
His visit to the island that has many Roman Catholics will be the third by a pope after Jean Paul II in 1998 and Benedict XVI in 2012.
Father Federico Lombardi said the pontiff was also weighing visits to the Philippines and Sri Lanka, though these would not take place this year.
It was his latest move to get to grips with an institution that has often been an embarrassment for the Holy See and which he has vowed to either reform or close.
Time magazine named Pope Francis as its Person of the Year on Wednesday, crediting him with shifting the message of the Catholic Church while capturing the "imaginations of millions" who had become disillusioned with the Vatican