More than half (106 bishops) of the almost two hundred individuals participating in the Extraordinary Synod on the Family which opened on Sunday, October 5, in the Vatican hail from Asia, Latin America, Africa and Oceania. It would be very short-sighted of us to therefore focus our attention exclusively on hot issues affecting European societies and Churches which are facing the challenge of secularism, to the detriment of the challenges and problems faced in other parts of the world.

The "issue of the Christian Arabs" has always been the main concern of His Majesty the King. In addition to the historic initiatives which Jordan hosted and founded--to become conspicuously global in today's world where religion has a say in large and minute affairs--His Majesty’s address at the United Nations this year has had resounding global media reverberations. The Christian Arabs are an integral part of the fabric, even if this Arab fabric is torn apart, as His Majesty said: “Arab Christians are an integral part of our region’s past, present, and future."

This morning, October 2, Francis began a three-day meeting in the Vatican with Apostolic Nuncios to Middle Eastern nations and Superiors of the Secretariat of State and the Roman Curia, including the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

Jordan has had two days with the Arab Women journalists who held their 11th annual conference with Ms. Mahasen Al-Imam, the renowned founder of the Arab Women Media Center.

Weeks before its first horrendous beheading of an American journalist, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria gave Christians in Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, a stark one week choice: Convert or face execution. Christian houses were marked with a black "N" -- for Nazarene, a reference to Jesus.

Those who fled were, as a refugee named Raad Ghanem put it, "stripped of everything. Money, wallets, jewelry, ID, passports, watches, everything." For the first time in 16 centuries, there are no Catholic masses in Mosul on worship day.

When Francis’ express visit to Albania was announced, the crisis in Iraq had not yet worsened and ISIS’ project of destruction had not yet come under the spotlight. Two reasons drove the Pope to accept the invitation to visit “the land of the eagles”: he wanted to encourage peaceful coexistence and collaboration between different Christian religions and the Muslim community and express his support to a country that was recently bathed in the blood of martyrs, under one of the most ferocious communist regimes imaginable.

“I saw your suffering up close...” On the flight back from Albania, Francis met briefly with journalists travelling with him and only answered questions that were to do with his visit. He apologised for refusing to discuss other issues – one journalist tried to ask him about the Synod – but this was so as not to take away from the importance of today’s event.

On Sunday afternoon, September 21, Pope Francis met with leaders of Albania’s religious communities. During the meeting he spoke about the “insidious enemy” of a widespread intolerance towards those with different religious convictions. He said that the starting point for dialogue must be our own identity, otherwise we risk relativism.

By Andrea Tornielli

“Let no one consider themselves the “armour” of God while planning and carrying out acts of violence!” This was Francis’ cry during today’s meeting with Albania’s political authorities, including the President of the Republic of Albania, Bujar Nishami, on the first of his European trips. Francis is visiting the country’s capital Tirana, which endured one of the most terrible communist regimes but managed to pick itself up. Tirana became an example of peaceful co-existence and collaboration between different Christian denominations and Muslims.

In the part of his September 10 speech on confronting the Islamic State that probably drew the least attention, President Obama mentioned the need to help Christians and other minorities, expelled from cities and villages in northern Iraq, return from where they came. "We cannot allow these communities to be driven from their ancient homeland," he said.

Obama got that wrong. Christians, of whom around 120,000 have taken refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan, will not be going home even if their tormentors suddenly disappear.