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“I am close to the people of France, to the families of the victims, and I am praying for all of them,” Pope Francis said.

Scores have been killed in numerous attacks across the city of Paris tonight. Reacting to the carnage in Paris, the Holy See called for a united and decisive response.

In a keynote address on Nov. 11, Archbishop Cupich urged that the United States finally fix its broken immigration system, begin treating migrants to its borders as people in need of protection, not detention and begin responding more generously to the Middle East crisis by accepting more people for refugee resettlement.

“The world has changed, it’s now more complex and its violence is more concrete. What will be Canada’s involvement in that new reality?”

“This will be the most important abortion rights case before the Supreme Court in almost 25 years,” says Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights.

“Are these two religions incompatible? They shouldn’t be,” Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos, Nigeria, said, noting that believers in both faiths are to greet people with a word of peace. “Dialogue between these two groups is possible. Islam and Christianity have come to stay in the subcontinent, with millions of adherents. It is very hard for one to eliminate the other.”

Pope Francis has long urged Catholics to welcome refugees, saying the world is currently suffering from a “globalization of indifference,” ignoring those who cry out for mercy. On Saturday, as a precursor to the Holy Year of Mercy to launch on 8 December, the Pope will formally recognize and pledge support for the JRS Global Education Initiative, an initiative aimed to extend JRS’ educational programs to 100,000 additional refugees by the year 2020.

Ukrainian religious leaders issued an appeal to President Barack Obama “on behalf of our people to help address the humanitarian catastrophe gripping our country. The needs are enormous, ranging from medical supplies to everyday items such as food, water, and clothing.”

Obama’s executive action expands a 2012 program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and creates the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents.

“When children at the dinner table are glued to the computer, or the telephone and do not listen to one another, they are not a family, they are retired,” the pope said Nov. 11 during his weekly general audience. The pope said that “to share a meal—and not just food, but also affection, stories, events—is a fundamental experience.”