Traveling as a “sower of peace” to the Kingdom of Bahrain, Pope Francis further strengthened ties with the Muslim world and witnessed the joy and vitality of its minority and predominately expatriate Christian population.

Numbers are a real challenge, but “those who get caught up in pessimism put faith aside,” the pope told students and staff of the Claretian Institute of the Theology of Consecrated Life in Rome and its affiliated programs in the Philippines, India, Colombia and Nigeria.

Pope Francis has continued to call on Russian and Ukrainian leaders to negotiate an end to the war, but the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church told him Russia wants only the destruction of Ukraine.

Everyone needs help to mature and to grow as a person of faith, Pope Francis told young people in Bahrain, so reach out to someone a bit older and wiser and don’t forget to pray.

Seek to be guardians and builders of unity, reaching out to dialogue with others and living as brothers and sisters, Pope Francis told the Catholic faithful and their bishops and priests from throughout the Persian Gulf.

A society that does not give women the same rights and opportunities as men will become impoverished, Pope Francis said at the end of a four-day visit to Bahrain.

The World Day of the Poor — marked each year on the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time — will be celebrated Nov. 13 this year with the theme: “For your sakes Christ became poor.”

Conflicts and evil in the world are all rooted in people rejecting God and their brothers and sisters, Pope Francis said to international Islamic scholars and experts.

A true love for the divine Creator means acting on behalf of his children who are neglected by the powerful: the poor, the unborn, the elderly, the infirm and migrants, Pope Francis told representatives of different religious faiths and international leaders.

Pope Francis promised reporters traveling with him to the Gulf nation of Bahrain that his Nov. 3-6 visit would be an “interesting trip.”