Pope Francis, Patriarch Bartholomeos visit frontline of Europe's migrant crisis

Pope Francis arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos on April 16, turning the world's attention to the frontline of Europe's migrant crisis which has claimed hundreds of lives in the past year.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Fener Rum Patriarch Dimitri Bartholomeos and Archbishop of Athens welcomed him at the airport.

Francis, leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, was scheduled to spend about six hours on the small Aegean island. Based on his schedule, he was to meet 250 refugees and have lunch with eight of them.

Hundreds of people have died making the short but precarious crossing from Turkey to the Lesbos shores in inflatable dinghies in the past year, and the island is full of unmarked graves.

"This is a trip that is a bit different than the others ... this is a trip marked by sadness," Francis told reporters on the airplane taking him to Lesbos.

"We are going to encounter the greatest humanitarian catastrophe since World War Two. We will see many people who are suffering, who don't know where to go, who had to flee.

We are also going to a cemetery, the sea. So many people died there ... this is what is in my heart as I make this trip."

Francis will visit Moria, a sprawling, fenced complex holding more than 3,000 refugees.

"This is an island which has lifted all the weight of Europe upon its shoulders," Tsipras told Francis at Lesbos airport, where a red carpet was rolled out for the pontiff's arrival.

Greek state TV reported Francis was planning to take ten refugees back with him to the Vatican, eight of them Syrians.

Aid organizations have described conditions at Moria, a disused army camp, as appalling.

Journalists have no access to the facility on a hillside just outside...