Calling homes for retired priests and nuns "sanctuaries of holiness," Pope Francis asked Catholics to visit those who spent their lives sharing the Gospel and caring for others.

In his morning Mass homily Oct. 18, the pope described retired clergy and religious as "good priests and good sisters, aged and bearing the weight of solitude, waiting for the Lord to knock on the doors of their hearts.

Let's not forget them," he said during the Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae.