I’ve been reading the headlines from northern Iraq over the past two weeks with an intensifying sense of dread. It’s a feeling very much like the one I have whenever I read about the disappearance of some huge ice sheet in the Antarctic or the extinction of yet another rare species of animal. It’s the feeling that one more valuable ingredient of life on Earth is about to vanish, in all likelihood, forever.

Desperate to reunite with family in Europe, a young Syrian refugee recently paid thousands of dollars to a human trafficker to help him and his brother travel abroad. Instead, the pair found themselves tricked, half-way on the opposite side of the world -- in China.

Back in Jordan, with their life savings of $34,000 wasted, they almost gave up hope of seeing their mother again and the chance to start a new life.

Never before has a Pope said publicly, without mincing words, that “the mafia is excommunicated”. Pope Francis made the declaration from the pulpit, in the land of the mafia. Following his visit to the frontier of Lampedusa, an island inundated by refugees and immigrants, and the journey amongst the unemployed of Sardinia, Francis’ current visit has taken him to the fringes of the country, in Calabria.

US President Barack Obama made a statement on Iraq days ago in which he elaborated on the dangers that are associated by the Islamic State for Iraq and the Levant(Isil) or as it is more often known as the Islamic State for Iraq and Syria (ISIS), in a subliminal message to remind readers of the Nazi SIS. The American president referred to Jordan as one of the countries that will be targeted by ISIS if not defeated now in Iraq.

At its annual meeting on June 10, 2014 in Rome, the Italian Association of Craftsmen, CONFARTIGIANATO, awarded Latin Patriarch of JerusalemFouad Twal its “Janus” prize – in Roman mythology Janus was the god of peace.

The prize, intended to symbolize the strength that animates the artisans and reward their good works, was presented to His Beatitude for his testimony to peace and goodness.

On Saturday, June 20, the Pope goes to Calabria, in July to Molise, in September to Albania. On the agenda two trips to Asia (Korea, Sri Lanka and the Philippines) and in 2015 a possible visit to the frontier Wall that separates part of the border between Mexico and the United States.

Pages of the social Gospel are browsed through by the Holy Father on Sunday, June 15, in which the Church celebrates the Holy Trinity. It is an invitation to dialogue, harmony between peoples, reconciliation among believers, the Marian prayer which the Pope shares with the faithful gathered in large numbers in St. Peter's Square.

Archaeologists call it "the Pompeii of land of Palestine" and even though no buildings have remained intact, like in the city crystallized by lava on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, some natural event must have taken place for life in this town on the shores of Lake Tiberiasto stop in the first century of the Christian era. Here they just uncovered one of the seven oldest synagogues in the world, the oldest of Galilee, which preserves frescoes and pieces of a mosaic floor, a floor that, given the proximity to the city of Capernaum, may have been walked upon by Jesus.

At the conclusion of the audience devoted to the “Fear of God”on June 11, 2014, the Pope appeals against child labor: “Tens of millions are exposed to forms of slavery and exploitation, as well as to abuse, ill-treatment and discrimination”.

Arms manufacturers, exploiters of “slave labor” and those corrupted will one day “be accountable to God”. Pope Francis said at the General Audience in St. Peter's Square, which ended with an appeal against child labor.

Only the date was missing, and it came by mouth of Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo: Pope Francis will visit Sri Lanka from 13 to 15 January next year, as part of a trip to Asia (the second after the one in South Korea from 14 to 18 August) that will also take him to the Philippines (the Archbishop of Manila is the young Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle for whom Pope Francis has also had words of appreciation recently).