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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.”

It would be wrong to say Tyshawn, an active child who loved school, video games and basketball, was in the wrong place at the wrong time, Father Pfleger said. “Tyshawn was on his way to play basketball in the park near his grandmother’s house,” the priest said. “Our children have the right to walk down our streets. Our children have the right to play in the park. Our children have the right to sit on their porches. Our children have the right to be safe wherever they are in the city of Chicago.”

“No institution in the United States has done more in recent years than the Catholic Church to take proactive steps to protect children from the evil of sexual abuse,” wrote Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington in a Nov. 2 letter emailed to Catholics in his archdiocese.

“The probability is very high that he comes to Juarez,” said Father Hesiquio Trevizo, spokesman for the Diocese of Ciudad Juarez.

“If we look at press, we see unreasonable attacks with little meaning, that are ill-conceived and very emotional, if not hysterical.”

In early November, the U.N. Security Council discussed Burundi’s worsening violence, sparked by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s acceptance of a third term in apparent violation of the constitution.

The church must become “a proactive agent for racial justice” if it is to “remain viable and relevant in the 21st century.”