The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops termed as "a great evil" the Easter terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka targeting the country's minority Christian community as worshippers packed three churches.

Since the end of the nation's 26-year civil war, in which the Tamil Tigers, a rebel group from the ethnic Tamil minority, sought independence from ethnic Sinhala Buddhist majority Sri Lanka, the country has seen sporadic ethnic and religious violence, but the scale of Sunday's bloodshed recalled the worst days of the war,

Unless we remove all of the people, we will never produce a sinless church, one that pursues the good without also perpetrating some evil.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Thursday announced a ban of "military-style" semi-automatic firearms and high-capacity magazines like those used in the shootings at Christchurch mosques last week.

First, reach out to your neighbors and local mosque to show concern and compassion. Then call out those in your life who dehumanize others.

That rampage killed at least 41 people, while an attack on a second mosque in the city not long after killed several more.