The statement from Archbishop Gomez comes five days after the U.S. launched a drone strike that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.

Pope Francis prayed for peace from St. Peter’s Square. “War only brings death and destruction,” he said. “I call on all parties to keep alive the flame of dialogue and self-control and avoid the shadow of enmity.”

Even though manuscripts—handwritten books— are at least several technological stages behind the ways we access information today, we still rely on them for access to the past.

"The wounds of the Islamic State have not been healed yet, together with the ongoing violence, poverty, unemployment and poor services that have pushed thousands of people, especially youth, to demonstrate peacefully, demanding the right to live with dignity and freedom in a stable, secure and strong independent homeland," Cardinal Louis Sako, patriarch of Chaldean Catholics, said of anti-government protests.

"We want to help people feel the joy of Christmas," Sabine Bou Serhal, 22, a chief for the group, told Catholic News Service.

We bring our hearts with us to Bethlehem. This is what Christmas means.