''Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'' (Mt 25:40)

At Sunday's Angelus, September 6, Pope Francis invited every parish, religious house and monastery in Europe to respond to the growing refugee crisis by offering a place of sanctuary to families fleeing from war and persecution in their home countries. The Pope calls on our generosity and solidarity to recognise and act upon our common humanity.

Really? Is the recent death of a popular lion in Africa a much greater news story than the violent persecution of millions of Christians in recent years? After all, the lion is a species ranked most violent, and humans are frequently the victims. Some may even expound that the human is a superior animal, and thus deserving greater attention. This summer it appears that numerically the persecution of Christians economically, socially and physically has exceeded all past history. These catastrophic tragedies are widely under-reported, and at best back page news. Where is the outrage?

Catholic annulments look to many to be a simple Catholic divorce. Divorce says that the reality of marriage was there in the beginning and that now the reality is broken. “Annulment” means a ruling by a Church court that a union between a man and a woman, even if it began with a Church wedding, is not a valid marriage because it fails one of the traditional tests, such as a lack of genuine consent or a psychological incapacity to undertake the obligations, or unwillingness of one of the spouses to have children.

Francis states in his preface, on September 8, 2015, to the Latin-rite decree that he is partly making the changes to the annulment process on the suggestion of the bishops at the 2014 synod, who he says “requested more rapid and accessible processes.”

Pope Francis has substantially and significantly altered the process for those seeking annulments of marriages in the Catholic church, eliminating sometimes lengthy and redundant judicial procedures and empowering local bishops to make judgments on their own in “particularly evident” cases.

In his homily for Monday, September 7, Mass at St. Martha’s House, concelebrated with the Patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenians, Francis spoke again about the Armenian massacre which took place a century ago

Pope Francis made an extraordinary appeal on Sunday, September 6, asking every parish and Catholic community across Europe to house one of the tens of thousands of refugee families crossing the continent. Christian hope, the pontiff said, is "combative" and requires concrete action.

Pope Francis has made an extraordinary appeal to every single Catholic parish and community across Europe, asking each to house at least one of the tens of thousands of refugee families risking death to migrate to the continent from the Middle East.

Since the publication of the photo of Aylan Kurdi, the dead Syrian refugee toddler found on the beach in Turkey, the world has directed its attention to the refugee crisis in Europe. What has been the reaction in the Arab world to the crisis given that many of the people seeking to escape to Europe are fleeing from Syria and Iraq?

Arab criticism has been directed at the wealthy Gulf countries who have not absorbed even one Syrian or Iraqi refugee.

In a virtual audience aired on US television network ABC on September 4, Pope Francis explained the spirit in which he is preparing for his Apostolic Visit to America from 22 to 27 September. The World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia will be a key moment of his trip. The Pope spoke via satellite with immigrants and various individuals who have experienced social unease. “I want to help you along your life’s journey”.

The time has come for His Holiness Pope Francis to hold an extraordinary emergency meeting in the Vatican with invitees from all the Middle East heads of Christian communities–church a and laity–along with the foreign ministers of the United States of America, Europe, and the Middle East. The meeting should have one agenda: the present and future existence of the Middle East Christians in countries such as Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan, with a precise timetable and hopeful outcome.

The death of a child from a sinking boat off the Turkish coast has moved the whole world, but lest we forget, thousands more have already died in Syria’s war. The refugee problem must be addressed but so do the causes that have led to this tragedy, namely Mideast wars, funding the Islamic State group, and proxies acting on behalf of regional and world powers.