The 12-day Asian tour will be the longest trip of his papacy.

Pope Francis presided at an Ordinary Consistory of Cardinals, which approved the canonization of 15 people, including Blessed Carlo Acutis, the first millennial to be made a saint.

The Pope lamented the "dramatic situation" taking place in the Holy Land, where the apostles "received the mandate to go out to the world to announce the Gospel."

The pope called for the building of an agrivoltaic plant on Vatican property about 11 miles outside of Rome.

Known as "the Man of the Eight Beatitudes," he was beatified by St. John Paul II in 1990 after his sainthood cause was launched in 1932.