During his upcoming visit to the United States, Pope Francis will give the majority of his speeches in his native tongue of Spanish, the Associated Press reported.

The Argentine-born leader of the world's more than one billion Catholics is scheduled to deliver four messages in English. They include remarks that will follow his White House meeting with President Barack Obama on Sept. 23, and his historic address before a joint session of Congress on Sept. 24.

But his homilies at a canonization in Washington, his Mass in Madison Square Garden and his Mass at the Catholic Church's World Family conference in Philadelphia -- a major gathering of Catholic leaders -- will be in Spanish, the Vatican announced. Francis will also speak in Spanish when he addresses the United Nations on Sept. 25; Spanish is one of the international organization's six official languages.

Francis is scheduled to leave on Saturday for Cuba and will begin his five-day visit to the United States on Sept. 22. Spanish is the second-most used language in the United States, where the Latino community of about 54 million makes up some 17 percent of the population.

Nevertheless, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, insisted that there was no symbolic weight to the Pope's decision; Francis simply finds it easier to speak Spanish, he told the AP.

"I don't think that is the intention ... He feels more comfortable [with Spanish]," Lombardi explained, according to NBC News. "The real reason is the ease of expression, and that he will have to make less effort," the spokesman added.

No language issues will arise during the pontiff's "side trip" to Cuba, meanwhile, where Francis almost certainly will meet with the communist country's revolutionary leader, 89-year-old Fidel Castro, Reuters said. The encounter, however, is not on the official agenda, and unnamed Vatican officials said it largely depends on the former president's health.

A chat with embattled Russian President Putin at the United Nations, however, is unlikely, Lombardi noted, according to NBC News.

"We do not expect this meeting to take place," the Vatican spokesman said.