VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis will celebrate Mass in St. Peter's Basilica with migrants, refugees and volunteer rescue teams, the Vatican said.

NAPLES, Italy -- The Mediterranean Sea, which has been and again could be a route for a meeting of peoples and cultures, instead is a "border not to be crossed" between the poor South and the wealthy North, said Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

VATICAN – The Vatican has created a set of pastoral guidelines to inspire and improve the church's work in addressing the crime of human trafficking and the care of its victims worldwide.

ROME – Migrants rescued from the Mediterranean were taken to shore in Malta Jan. 9 after being kept at sea while European nations argued over who was responsible for them.

As Toronto’s city-run shelter system bulges with refugees and migrants, volunteer-run Out of the Cold programs are operating at capacity and wondering when governments are going to get serious about housing.

OTTAWA – The Canadian government needs to speed the processing for refugee claimants and raise the number of government-sponsored refugees, say advocates.

Welcoming the stranger can sometimes be a risk of faith, but it is a risk that Christians are called to take, said Toronto Cardinal Thomas Collins. 

VATICAN – The "throwaway culture" has become a pandemic today, and it leaves migrants and displaced people without a voice and at the mercy of those who exploit them, Pope Francis said.

TAPACHULA, Mexico – Bishop Jaime Calderón Calderón of Tapachula, Mexico praised the generosity of lay people and priests aiding migrants in his diocese.

Starlight, star bright

Re: Forgiveness is the greatest miracle (July 22-29):

Fr. Rolheiser states that “the miracle” of a starlit night sky “goes mostly unnoticed; we watch television instead.”

Deeper reasons for this may be involved. Humans spill so much light into the sky that few of our present generation have ever experienced what the natural night sky looks like. Most of the lighting industry displays a stunning indifference to this issue. And the amount of  “light-pollution” continues to increase by about six per cent annually in most places.

Sleeping in insufficient darkness suppresses our immune systems. Artificial light disrupts the life-cycles of insects, birds, amphibians and other animals. Many people think responsibility for our environment is a religious issue and light-pollution is certainly included in this. Does your porchlight shine upward?

James LaFramboise,

Thornhill, Ont.

The recess bell rings and a child dives for cover underneath her desk. A teacher is at the front of the classroom but a student is wandering from desk to desk starting conversations of his own. The lunch bell rings and several pupils have arrived without lunch, or uniforms, or gym clothes. A six-year-old turns up in school mid-morning, but doesn’t have enough English to tell the school secretary who she is, where she’s from or where she’s supposed to be.

STE.-ANNE-DE-BEAUPRE, Quebec – Cardinal Marc Ouellet called upon Canadians to be mindful of the needs of migrants and refugees during a Mass celebrating the feast of St. Anne.

Anyone who has stepped inside a church in the last 40 years doesn’t need a nationwide poll to tell them that the most religious Canadians are the newest Canadians. Immigrants are driving the bus for almost every faith community in Canada, but none more-so than Catholics.

The Church, with its long history of serving the poor and the persecuted, must play a key role in dealing with the global migration crisis.

VATICAN – Hearts that are closed to welcoming migrants and refugees are similar to those of the Pharisees, who often would preach sacrifice and following God's law without exercising mercy to those in need, Pope Francis said.