A group of 11 sick, disabled and elderly Iraqi Christians — including an 80-year-old woman with breast cancer — defied terrorists who ordered them to convert to Islam or be beheaded, saying they preferred death to giving up their faith.

The united resistance prompted the Islamic State extremists to drop their demands and order the Christians to immediately leave their village of Karamless after first robbing them of their possessions, according to one of the survivors.

In April 2013, the parents of slain US journalist James Foley attended a prayer vigil at Marquette University in Milwaukee to pray for their son, who at that time had disappeared in Syria.

Before Diane and John Foley had confirmation that spring that their son was missing, Diane said she just felt it -- he had missed one of his usual phone calls home -- and once they knew for sure, the couple said they were relying on their Catholic faith to cope and leaning on prayer to bring him home.

When word reached Hanifa and her family that the fighters of the so-called Islamic State were approaching their village, they knew they would have to flee, and fast. The fanatics were coming on like a storm sweeping through the desert, and Yazidis like Hanifa's family were the special targets of their hateful fury.

“Christ does not destroy cultures”, but “fights and defeats the Devil, who sows discord between man and man, population and population”. Pope Francis has devoted his words during the weekly general audience in the Vatican to his recent trip to Korea (13-18 August), praying again for reconciliation in the Asian peninsula.

Pope Francis prayed for a long time for the “beautiful and noble Chinese people, a wise people”, while the airplane that took him to Seoul flew over China. He said so himself in his conversation with journalists during the return flight to Rome, after the positive and intense days he spent in Korea, when he was asked about the relationship with the People’s Republic of China and his willingness to visit the country.

The US army left Iraq in 2011 with no clear strategy or solid security measurements that were likely to safeguard the “Democratic gains” that Iraqis aspired to achieve as a result of toppling Saddam Hussein’s regime. Evidently, Shite-led Iraqi former government did not learn from the sectarian strife that marginalized one sect at the expense of other.

The Italian journal, Corriere della Sera, published August 9 the statement of the exiled Chaldean Archeparch of Mosul, Amel Nona. The statement is brief and exceedingly powerful. Christians have been in Mosul for 1700 years. They are driven out or killed by the new Islamic State following the principles of its own founding.

All over the world, millions of innocent people are facing persecution, imprisonment, and even death because of their religious beliefs.

In 2013, the world witnessed the largest displacement of religious communities in recent memory, according to the State Department's Annual Report on International Religious Freedom. And the trend in 2014 is only getting worse.

“Today we are in a world at war, everywhere! Someone told me: you know, Father, that we are witnessing the Third World War - but waged in chunks, in different chapters”. Francis’ words on war, and on the bombs that kill both guilty and innocent alike, hitting women and children, describe the grim reality of today, rather than display a fear for a new imminent world war.

The plight of religious minorities who are forced to leave Iraq, ISIS’ violence, the US bombings. The Gaza war straight after the prayer for peace. The Holy See’s relations with China, Francis’ upcoming visits, his new encyclical and the holidays the Pope spent at home. This is what Francis talked about on the flight back from Seoul to Rome, answering 15 questions put to him by the journalists travelling with him.