The Pope will issue his first encyclical this week, titled Light of Faith. The pronouncement is the most authoritative teaching a Pope can issue. Pope Benedict produced three on charity, love and hope.

The Vatican said it will be released on Friday. Retired Pope Benedict had planned to issue a final encyclical on faith but resigned before he had time to finish it. The Vatican has long said Francis would probably take elements of Benedict's draft and make them his own.

Francis is not a theologian or philosopher and has not written nearly as extensively as his predecessors. He is more a pastoral Pope. After releasing the encyclical he plans to visit Lampedusa island to meet recently arrived migrants, proof of his priorities.

Tens of thousands of clandestine migrants, many from Africa or the Mideast, head to Italian shores each year. Lampedusa is their frequent destination, closer to Africa than the Italian mainland.

Those without jobs awaiting them or who are ineligible for asylum are sent back to their homelands. But while that screening process takes its course, many are held in overcrowded detention facilities, where riots are common. Lampedusa has had its fair share of such problems, particularly tensions with the locals, since the population of migrants swells during peak tourist season in the summer.

The Vatican said Francis had been "profoundly" affected by the recent arrivals on Lampedusa and reports of lives lost at sea by migrants who are often packed into overcrowded smuggling boats.

It said he is going to pray for those who have died, visit those who survived and also "encourage residents on the island and recall everyone's sense of responsibility so that they take care of these brothers and sisters in need."

Francis' busy schedule comes in his first week of summer holiday, with his weekly Wednesday audiences cancelled through the beginning of September. Unlike his predecessors, Francis will not go to the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo but will remain at the Vatican hotel he calls home.