Pope Francis on Sunday wrapped up a weekend trip to Belgium, where he faced some of the strongest criticism yet levied during one of his foreign trips. The 87-year-old pontiff was pressed by high-profile figures at three of the five major events on his three-day visit in unusual and sometimes fierce language for a papal trip.

A woman is more important than a man, but it is terrible when a woman wants to be a man: No, she is a woman,” the pope had said in Belgium.

Pope Francis addressed the armed conflict in the Middle East and other moral issues on Sunday, emphasizing the importance of ethics during war. "Defense must always be proportional to the attack," the Pope told journalists during the return flight from Brussels to Rome.