Roman Catholic Church

Down a narrow side street, in a district of Istanbul on the Golden Horn well off the beaten tourist track, sit the relatively modest headquarters of the "first among equals" of the world’s estimated 300 million Orthodox Christian believers.

Francis on June 21 issued the strongest attack on organised crime groups by a pontiff in two decades, accusing them of practicing the "the adoration of evil" and saying mafiosi are excommunicated. 

It was the first time a pope had used the word excommunication - a total cutoff from the Church - in direct reference to members of organised crime. 

Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios met Pope Francis on Sunday in Jerusalem, the first meeting between the spiritual leaders of Christian Orthodoxy and Catholicism in 50 years, and signed a joint pledge to pursue dialogue which bolstered values shared by both their churches.