HOUSTON – Laredo's Bishop James A. Tamayo is calling church leaders and lay faithful to "extend the compassion of Christ" to those who come to Catholic churches in need.

MEXICO CITY – The chaotic scene in Tijuana Nov. 25 -- when migrants, including women and children, were repelled from the U.S. border with tear gas -- prompted the closure of one of the world's busiest border crossings. It also showed the increasing impatience and despair of thousands of caravan participants, who could spend months in an uncomfortable camp as they wait to present asylum claims to U.S. officials.

A caravan of up to 7,000 migrants heading north through Mexico toward a possible showdown at the American border are highlighting an urgent issue in Canadian refugee policy. 

VATICAN – With the rising death toll of migrants and refugees attempting the treacherous voyage across the Mediterranean Sea, Pope Francis urged world leaders to act to prevent further tragedy.

UNITED NATIONS – The Vatican's nuncio to the United nations welcomed the "inclusion and added emphasis on the right to family unity and to family life" in the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.

WASHINGTON – The chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration committee said April 11 he agrees with concerns raised issued by U.S. bishops on the southern border about President Donald Trump's call to deploy National Guard troops to the region.

WASHINGTON – Catholic church leaders, immigration officials and university presidents were swift and unanimous in their condemnation of President Donald Trump's Sept. 5 decision to phase out Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals known as DACA.

VIENNA – Many people become more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation when safe, legal and affordable opportunities for immigration or asylum are lacking, a Vatican official told global leaders.

VATICAN CITY – Condemning an economy that encourages speculation more than entrepreneurship, warning priests and religious that they share responsibility for the vocations crisis and telling young people they are right to be puzzled by nations that close their doors to people fleeing persecution, Pope Francis spent a busy day in Genoa.

UNITED NATIONS – Migration should be "a choice rather than something forced or involuntary," said Philippine Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the Vatican's permanent observer to the United Nations.

VATICAN CITY – A more Christian, as well as more effective, approach to the global migration crisis would be to move from a concern about "national security" to a concern for "common security," Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila told participants at a Vatican conference.

VATICAN CITY – While he was in town for a global meeting on the crisis in the Mediterranean region, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry stopped by the Vatican for a meeting with Pope Francis that likely centred largely on the problem of migration.

Middle Eastern Christians have suffered soft, state-sponsored discrimination since the Ottomans ruled and that discrimination has been reinforced over generations by poor, underfunded education systems throughout the region. More recently this evil brew has been stirred into feverish, bigoted campaigns of hate spread by Saudi-funded Wahhabi preachers.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis said people who shut out refugees should seek forgiveness June 17, after clashes on Italy’s borders as European countries try to push back against a wave of migrants fleeing by boat from Libya.

WASHINGTON - The timing of Pew Hispanic Center's report saying Mexican migration to the U.S. had leveled off or reversed course ensured that it would get prominent play April 23 and 24.

Coming just two days before the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Arizona v. United States over that state's law cracking down on undocumented immigrants in the state, the report was cited widely in stories providing context for the supposed effect of such laws.

But while the dense, 42-page Pew Hispanic report points to a clear shift in migration patterns for Mexicans, its discussion of the possible causes for that change is far less clear.