Although the total was slightly higher from the 3.2 million visitors received by Pope Francis in 2015, for a jubilee year it still fell short of the 5.9 million pilgrims who visited in 2014.

The imbalance in the world, one Jesuit expert has said, reflects how years of papal pleas and Vatican mandates have not been received or implemented consistently everywhere.

Bishop Vásquez points out that there are more than 740,000 young people who have received and benefitted from DACA.

The ruling Communist Party has long feared that opposition to its rule could be spread by religious and other civic groups outside its control.

Cardinal Bechara Rai, patriarch of Maronite Catholics, appealed to the international community to work to end terrorism "that is killing and displacing families and depriving them of their rights and dignities."

Archbishop Wester: "Countless nonprofits and civic organizations work to fill food baskets, but some legislators want to take food out of another basket, the grocery basket, with their proposed food tax."

Dear Pope Francis, dear Holy Father, as a father please take care of my life. I am very much depressed. My health is deteriorating," the priest is seen saying.

The greatest gift parents can offer their children is the space to allow them to become fully themselves.

These people's lives gave us a glimpse of something meaningful, something that liberated or encouraged us.

Besides politics, readers were interested in stories about liturgy, racism, interfaith issues and gender.