VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The “Francis effect” has spilled over into the Sistine Chapel, bringing a surge in visitors but also increasing risks to maintenance of what Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums, calls “the world’s chapel.” Prior to a 14-year restoration, completed in 1994, visitors to the chapel numbered about 1.5 million annually. That rose to more than 5 million in 2011. Since the March, 2013 election of Pope Francis, whose weekly public audiences and readings of the Angelus have boosted turnout in St. Peter’s Square, the number of chapel visitors is up to 5.5 million, or 20,000 per day and 30,000 on the last Sunday of every month, when admission is free.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia in September, 2015 will serve as a forum for debating issues on the agenda for the world Synod of Bishops at the Vatican the following month, said the two archbishops responsible for planning the Philadelphia event.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis will address the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Nov. 25.The Parliament’s president, Martin Schultz, made the announcement Sept. 11, and the Vatican immediately confirmed it.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In light of “countless requests from every part of the world,” Pope Francis has approved putting SS. John Paul II and John XXIII on the Church’s universal calendar of feast days. Called the General Roman Calendar, it is the universal schedule of holy days and feast days for the Latin rite of the Catholic Church.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Presiding over the wedding of 20 couples in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis celebrated marriage as the union of a man and woman playing complementary roles during their common journey through life. “This is what marriage is all about: man and woman walking together, wherein the husband helps his wife to become ever more a woman, and wherein the woman has the task of helping her husband to become ever more a man,” the pope said Sept. 14. “Here we see the reciprocity of differences.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Vatican confirmed that Pope Francis is planning to visit Turkey “in the last days of November” but said the length of his trip and his agenda in the country have yet to be determined. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, made the announcement to reporters Sept. 12, noting that a formal invitation from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had arrived at the Vatican earlier the same day.

WASHINGTON (CNS) – United in the suffering of their people, five Catholic and Orthodox patriarchs from the Middle East urged Westerners to take action to help ensure that Christians and other minorities can remain in the Middle East.