The Pope has given more than £75,000 to a new campaign to help refugees, prisoners, battered women and victims of terror attacks and persecution.

The $110,000 donation made Pope Francis the first to give to Be God's Mercy, launched by the pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). 

His donation will benefit Christian refugees in particular.

The cash is earmarked to go to St Joseph's Clinic in Erbil, Iraq, which gives medical care to nearly 3,000 Christian refugees who have sought refuge from Islamic State. During this Year of Mercy, Francis hopes to inspire dioceses and parishes worldwide to be generous towards the needy.

The four-month Be God's Mercy campaign will end on the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi in October.

In his video message launched with the campaign, the Pope urged Catholics worldwide to "carry out works of mercy together with ACN, in every part of the world, in order to meet the many, many needs of today."

The Pope said: "Men and women need the mercy of God, but also our own mercy. We need to hold each other's hands, caress each other, take care of one another, instead of waging so many wars."

Francis invited "every man and woman of good will" to contribute in creating concrete works of mercy and structures that would help meet "the many needs present in the world today." He concluded: "I thank you for everything you do. And don't be afraid of mercy: mercy is God's caress."

Archbishop Sebastian Francis Shaw of Lahore, Pakistan, who was at the launch in Rome, described how local Christian communities reacted to the Easter bomb attack on a park that killed more than 70 people, the majority of them women and children. The church in Lahore is among the groups which will be supported by the funds raised.

Pope Francis has long been a supporter of Aid to the Church in Need.

As Archbishop of Buenos Aires he worked closely with the charity which he saw as a "symbol of communion and fraternity with the suffering Church."