Is this an Intifada?

I returned home on October 3, 2015 after a one week visit to New York to attend our annual meetings at Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA), only to find a Jerusalem that was completely different from the one I left a week earlier.
Upon returning, it took me close to two hours to arrive to my home in the Old City of Jerusalem, though it was a Saturday and traffic is usually very light. I found out later that the deadly stabbing of two Jewish people inside Damascus Gate coincided with my landing at the airport.

Opinion is split, with some believing that doctrine cannot be changed as it would confuse faithful and others emphasising that the Church is supposed to accompany everyone. One of the Synod Fathers tells the story of a little boy who broke the host in two and gave half to his father, a remarried divorcee

The residence in Rome’s Via dei Penitenzieri is already up and running and can host up to 34 people a night: the dorms are run by nuns from Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity. The restructuring work was paid for by the Papal Office of Charities.

At the opening of the Synod session, on Friday October 9, Pope Francis called on the international community to resolve conflicts using weapons of diplomacy and respecting the law.

According to the Chaldean Patriarch, the Church needs to show solidarity and offer encouragement to people. Hierarchies cannot be detached from the people.

Pope Francis' address at the United Nations was not the first that a Pontiff makes from the United Nations rostrum. Other Popes had delivered speeches at the United Nation, namely Pope Paul VI (1965), John Pope II (1979 and 1995) and Benedict XVI (2008).

Apostolic courage, evangelical humility and trusting prayer. The “deposit of faith” “is not a museum to be visited or even simply preserved”.

Pope Francis presided at a vigil of prayer for the synod of the family, on Saturday October 3, attended by tens of thousands of Romans and pilgrims from many continents, many of them holding lighted candles

Pope Francis presided at a vigil of prayer for the synod of the family, on Saturday evening, October 3, attended by tens of thousands of Romans and pilgrims from many continents, many of them holding lighted candles.

Moments before the arrival of Pope Francis to the United States, there was a plebiscite on the Facebook page of abouna.org. The question was: "What do you expect the Pope to say? What do you want him to say?'' There were variant responses. For those living in safe and stable homelands, they requested further justice, freedoms and continued stability in their countries. While the displaced and the refugees asked the Pope to make great efforts to achieve unconditional end to the daily bloodshed and destruction in their countries.

The Pope’s Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees which is to be celebrated on 17 January 2016, has been published. In it, Francis reminds the world that by welcoming the stranger we open our doors to God himself. He highlights the importance of seeing migrants above all as people “who are capable of contributing to progress and the general welfare”. The right conditions need to be created in order to stop people from having to flee as a result of poverty, violence and persecution