Pope Francis' comments on the extermination of Armenian Christians in early 20th century Turkey prompted a strongly worded criticism from the Turkish Foreign Ministry and led to the withdrawal of Turkey's ambassador to the Holy See. But what's the full story?

As the April 24 centenary commemoration of the Armenian genocide approaches, tensions between Turkey and Armenia run high. Despite this, Pope Francis remembered the martyrdom of the Armenian people during his April 12 Mass at the Vatican.

The Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Cilicia says the presence of the Armenian people was an obstacle to the ideological plans of the Young Turks. This is why the genocide was planned. Those who bring the question of a religious clash between Islam and Christianity into today’s conflicts, obscures the reality.

John Paul II was the first Pope to use that word considered taboo in Turkey. And there were already signs of crisis with Ankara at the very start of Francis’ papacy.

Francis celebrates the Mass for the centenary of the extermination of 1.5 million Armenians. He cites the other two “unprecedented tragedies” perpetrated by Nazism and Stalinism, the mass killings in Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi and Bosnia, and those suffered by Christians still today

“Christ, my hope, is arisen,” the Church proclaims on Easter Sunday.

This hope is augmented on Divine Mercy Sunday. Celebrated on April 12 this year, the Second Sunday of Easter is when the Church proclaims “the One who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ.”

This Divine Mercy Sunday, Pope Francis will officially proclaim a “Jubilee Year of Mercy,” an extraordinary holy year to begin on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

Husband Ashiq and their daughter on European campaign, visiting Rome, Madrid, Paris and Berlin. Asia asks the Pope for a special blessing.

“When you kiss the hand of the Pope, do it also for me. That will be my kiss. And ask him to bless us.” With these words, Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Christian mother condemned to death for blasphemy in Pakistan, approved the journey that her husband Ashiq Masih and one of their daughters will embark upon next week towards Europe, in the hopes of raising support to overturn the sentence.

Francis delivering the Bull of Indiction: “The Church, in this time of great historical change, is called to offer more evident signs of God’s presence and closeness”.

“This is not the time to be distracted; on the contrary, we need to be vigilant and to reawaken

The young Iraqi man, who preferred to remain anonymous, confined himself in a classroom in the township of Na'our for long hours on daily bases and for several weeks to depict on a special piece of canvas the exodus trip or rather the forced displacement that was triggered by the mentality of labeling others as infidels and was revealed by its heinous practices in Iraq.

A horrific massacre of 147 students and others took place last week at Garissa University College in Kenya. Christians were the main target of Al-Shabaab, the al-Qaida-affiliated Somali terrorist group.

In February 2015, 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian migrant workers were beheaded by an ISIL-affiliated militia group on the beach along the southern Mediterranean coast of Libya. Their fault: being “people of the cross.”

It is logical to ask: Is there still room for what has been termed for decades as “inter-religious dialogue” at a time when the world is torn apart by wars and reverberating forms of violence that have resulted in variant bloody ferocities, deaths and victims? As some of these ferocities are committed in the name of religion, we thus inquire, “What has been left for the religion to say? What is the position of religion vis-à-vis what is taking place? What are the reasons behind maintaining inter-religious dialogue? Where will this course lead to?