On his 23rd apostolic journey abroad June 21, the pope spent several hours with Christian leaders at the headquarters of the World Council of Churches, a fellowship of 350 ecclesial communities, including many Orthodox churches. The pope came to help celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of what is the largest and broadest ecumenical fellowship in the world. Speaking to reporters aboard the papal plane from Rome, the pope said, "This is a trip toward unity," representing the "desire for unity."

The Pew Research Center's ninth annual study, which was released Thursday, on restrictions on religion around the world charted the direction of religious freedom in 198 countries in 2016, and found a notable overall increase from 2015. Whether from government decrees hostile to religious faith or terror groups committing atrocities against religious minorities in their societies, antagonism toward people because of their religion is trending upward. "More than a quarter (28%) of countries had 'high' or 'very high' levels of government restrictions on religion in 2016, an increase from 25% the year before. This is the largest share of countries in these categories since 2013," the report reads.

Pope Francis on June 23, 2018, encouraged representatives of the Organization of African Instituted Churches (OAIC) during an audience at the Vatican. The OAIC represents 60 million members of various Christian denominations in Sub-Saharan Africa.

"A particular task of Christians in African societies is that of fostering the coexistence of differing ethnic groups, traditions, languages, and religions, a task that often meets with obstacles due to grave mutual antagonisms," the Holy Father said. "For this reason too, I would like to encourage greater encounter and ecumenical dialogue between ourselves and with all the other Churches. May the Holy Spirit shed his light upon us, so that we may succeed in discovering how best to promote cooperation between all - Christians, traditional religions, Muslims - for the sake of a better future for Africa."

His comments came in an audience at the Vatican with a delegation of the Emouna Fraternité Alumni Association. "You also witness, in a spirit of openness, the ability of religions to take part in public debate in a secularized society," the Holy Father said. "You know, in fact, that true fraternity cannot be lived other than with this attitude of openness to others, which never seeks a conciliatory syncretism; on the contrary, it always seeks sincerely to enrich itself with differences, with the will to understand them in order to respect them better, because the good of each resides in the good of all."