[Church:] Welcome back, everyone. The pope has been warmly greeted throughout his time in Cuba. A huge crowd of young people turned out in the rain just to catch a glimpse of him. He told them to be tolerant to those who think differently. Earlier Sunday, the pope celebrated mass before a crowd of thousands. There he told Cubans to serve people, not ideas. Now, before he was Pope Francis, he was Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio, and not too long ago, the man who would become the pope, looking out for those on the margins, was himself marginalized, living alone in a small room. CNN's Daniel Burke has more.
[Daniel Burke, Cnn Correspondent:] This is Cordoba, a city in the heart of Argentina.
[Burke:] More than a million people live here, but in the 1990s, this was a lonely place for the man who would become Pope Francis. Jorge Bergoglio, that's the pope's name before he was Francis, used to live in Buenos Aires, where he had a reputation for being more a drill sergeant than a man of mercy. He would tell priests how to read, how to dress, even how to pray. Finally, the Jesuits decided they'd had enough. They sent him 500 miles away to Cordoba, basically hoping to get rid of him. So how did this man who was exiled not only become pope but become a rock star pope?
[Barack Obama, President Of The United States:] As His Holiness, Pope Francis, has said, diplomacy is the work of small steps.
[Unidentified Male:] I want to thank and recognize the support of the Vatican and especially Pope Francis for the improvement of relations between Cuba and the United States.
[Jon Stewart, Former Host, The Daily Show:] I love this guy.
[Javier Sebastian, Journalist:] Nice to meet you.
[Burke:] Nice to meet you. Javier Sebastian is a local journalist in Cordoba
[Sebastian:] How is it?
[Burke:] Good. [voice-over]: who fed me well and gave me their perspective on how the city changed the man. You can hear the sadness in the pope's own words. Ricardo Spinasi was one of the pope's closest friends. He read me a poem that Francis wrote about being lost on a dark night, with only the stars to keep him company. Ricardo, told me that if I really wanted to know what happened during the pope's dark nights, I should talk to his spiritual son, Father Angel Rosi. [on camera]: How long have you been here?
[Father Angel Rosi:] 18 years here. Mate.
[Burke:] That's a big mate. He looks happy. He took me to the chapel where the pope prayed alone every morning. Rosi said that the pope suffered terribly during his exile, his friends were actually worried about his mental health. Wow. [voice-over]: Father Rosi showed me the actual room where Francis lived. [on camera]: He would pray and write and read in here?
[Rosi:] Yes.
[Burke:] Very simple. Very humble. [voice-over]: In the end, it's not exactly clear what happened to Pope Francis during his exile in Cordoba. But he says that he came back more merciful and kinder. So it seems like whatever happened here clearly had a lasting impact on Pope Francis.
[Church:] Daniel Burke with that report. To the weather now, and storms are in the forecast for many migrants making their way into southern Europe. We have our Pedram Javaheri here to talk to us about that. And of course, the problem is that these people have had so much to deal with and the weather is not on their side.
[Pedram Javaheri, Ams Meteorologist:] It's not on their side, not this week. And of course, we know the seasons are transitioning on Wednesday. Actually, it's the first day of autumn across the northern hemisphere. As we see a shift in the pattern the weather pattern not going to be helping the situation. But the pattern towards the southeast, we looked at right there. Really much of the Greek isles, that's where the active weather is locked in place. And the storm system here will meander over this region for a couple of days. So I know some of the land routes, especially exiting, say, out of Greece and work into Macedonia, certainly one of the areas where we know people have had to be trudging through some muddy areas just to get across the land, the region. The storm system will push through the area and eventually by mid-week we'll see conditions try to improve. The heavy-dutiest rainfall toward Athens, southern Balkans. Perhaps upwards of 200 millimeters of rainfall. As it goes right into Macedonia, notice the wind speeds 40 to 60 kilometers per hour. The water route across the Eastern Med much the same as well when it comes to the situation there. You look at some of the images in recent days across the Greek and also Macedonian border and it looks much like this. You get the heavy rainfall we know will fall this week. Certainly not going to help with people having just their livelihoods on their back and trying to cross over this region. The other story we're following, the smog across portion of Beijing. Of course, we know the 45th annual Beijing international marathon was taking place on Sunday and look at some of the images. It kind of surprises some people, but other people, some of them getting into the race and wearing masks during the entire 42-kilometer race just because of the air quality issues. In fact we know some seven people hospitalized because of heart-related issues and of course we know across this region a lot of smokers, a lot of lung-related cancer as well. Much of it attributed to smoking. But certainly doesn't help when you're talking about pollution being a major player in this part of the world. A storm system will come here and clean up the air for one or two days and then we're back at it again for several weeks at a time of poor air quality. As it gets cooler, people start using coal to heat their homes. And that doesn't help.
[Church:] Yeah. And no advice to people that it's not a good idea to get out in the street and run
[Javaheri:] They've continued. It's a very large event, 30,000 participants. And I think it was run at your own risk. And your oxygen intake sometimes increases tenfold when you're running. You're taking in far more pollutants.
[Church:] Very vulnerable.
[Javaheri:] You're very vulnerable.
[Church:] Yeah. Pedram, many thanks to you.
[Javaheri:] You're welcome.
[Church:] We'll take a short break. But still to come, facing unusual challenges on and off the race course. Up next, an Iranian woman's goal in motocross. Back in a moment.