Pope Francis reviews papers Feb. 23, 2019, the third day of a meeting on the protection of minors in the church at the Vatican. For Pope Francis, 2019 included his sixth anniversary as pope, his 83rd birthday and his 50th anniversary as a priest, but it also was a year that saw him still confronted with the clerical sexual abuse crisis and with Vatican financial scandals. (CNS photo/Vatican Media) See VATICAN-LETTER-POPE-YEAR-END Dec. 9, 2019.