VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis called for greater compassion for refugees and marginalized people less than a week after President Trump ordered a temporary immigration ban from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

BEIRUT – Many Western nations forget that their countries were built on migrants, said the president of Caritas Internationalis.

VATICAN CITY – Giving priority to Christian refugees for settlement programs would be "a trap" that discriminates and fuels religious tensions in the Middle East, said Iraq's Chaldean Catholic patriarch.

WASHINGTON – Amid reports of an imminent executive order to halt most refugee resettlement in the U.S., one international Catholic charitable group is speaking out.

Since 1914, the Church has used the World Day of Migrants and Refugees to highlight the great need for nations to welcome those seeking shelter from the evil and horrors that inflict their homelands. It is a message about compassion and hospitality, yet it is frequently greeted with anxiety and fear, perhaps more today than ever.

The sword of justice sometimes takes the form of a sliver of light that slips into a camera for just 1/60th of a second.

Whenever we have been at our best, as Christians, we have opened our churches as sanctuaries to the poor and the endangered.

OTTAWA – In Canadian politics, 2016 will be remembered as the year Canada legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide.

VATICAN CITY – Canadian Jesuit Fr. Michael Czerny has been appointed to the Vatican's new department for the Promotion of Integral Human Development.

VILLANOVA, Pa. – Consensus about the Middle East and its long-simmering tensions might seem hard to come by, but a dozen international scholars, government officials and leaders of nongovernmental organizations found a few points of agreement during a meeting at Villanova University.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – As the American people continue to unpack exactly what the election of Donald Trump means for the country, those who work with vulnerable populations such as refugees and immigrants have serious concerns and questions about what the future holds.

LONDON – Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster said some British media were stirring up xenophobic sentiments against migrants and refugees.

ATHENS, Greece – Abdul rose just before sundown on one of the last days of the holy month of Ramadan. The 17-year-old refugee from Afghanistan was keeping odd hours, eating breakfast in place of dinner and passing the day in slumber.

OXFORD, England – A French bishop defended the demolition of a migrant camp in northern France while urging greater help for displaced refugees and a "change of mentality" toward asylum-seekers.

VATICAN CITY – Closing doors to immigrants and refugees is not the answer – in fact, it only helps encourage the crime of human trafficking, Pope Francis said.