Pope Francis is urging Europe to be beacon of peace amid war and a welcome home for migrants. He made the appeal as he arrived Thursday in Luxembourg to encourage the dwindling Catholic flocks in onetime bastions of Christianity.

Pope Francis called Thursday for Europe to be a beacon of peace amid war and a welcome home for migrants as he arrived Thursday in the heart of the continent to encourage the dwindling Catholic flocks in onetime bastions of Christianity.

With church attendance in decline and child abuse scandals still live, the pontiff has arrived in Luxembourg to try and raise morale.

As Pope Francis begins his trip to Luxembourg and Belgium, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin says Europe is “increasing the risk of falling back into the tragic errors of those times.”

Pope Francis is traveling to once-strong bastions of Christianity in the heart of Europe to try to reinvigorate a Catholic flock that is dwindling in the face of secular trends

Pope Francis called for a new “missionary proclamation” of the gospel after landing in Luxembourg yesterday, the first stop in his four-day tour that saw him leave for Belgium yesterday afternoon. Stopping in the Gothic 17th-century Notre-Dame Cathedral,

While in Belgium, Pope Francis will have to face a backlash against local church authorities amid child abuse scandals. The Vatican hopes the visit will also help the EU "rediscover its roots".