FRONTERA COMALAPA, Mexico – In the early 1980s, parishioners at the Santo Nino de Atocha parish in this town on the Mexico-Guatemala border opened their church and homes to refugees fleeing civil war in Guatemala. Three decades later, they're preparing for another influx of asylum seekers – this time from countries farther south as Central Americans seek safety from the gang violence gripping El Salvador and Honduras.

VATICAN CITY – Given the ongoing crises in the Middle East, North American, European and other Western nations will need to be more generous in coming to the aid of refugees and displaced peoples, said two prominent church leaders.

Before South Sudan was a country, Luciano Moro was a refugee from South Sudan building a new life alone in Canada.

Christian artist Timothy Schmalz is putting a face to the label “refugee” with a new bronze sculpture.

As Canadians debate how we should respond to a surge in asylum seekers crossing southern borders, Catholics should reflect on recent words from Pope Francis about what he calls the scandal of hypocrisy.

VATICAN CITY – On Friday Pope Francis paid a visit to Rome’s Roma Tre university, stressing to students the importance of dialogue, listening and integration in putting an end to the fear that can at times be generated in the face of welcoming new migrants.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, that part of the Bible we call the Old Testament, we find a strong religious challenge to always welcome the stranger, the foreigner.

Canada can expect to see more asylum seekers crossing its 9,000 km, mostly unguarded, border with the United States as enforcement toughens at the U.S.-Mexican border and President Donald Trump continues to issue executive orders to restrain refugee arrivals, Catholic refugee advocates have told The Catholic Register.

WASHINGTON– Local Catholic Charities agencies are scrambling to save staff jobs as they respond to President Donald Trump's executive order temporarily suspending the country's refugee resettlement program.

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis called for greater compassion for refugees and marginalized people less than a week after President Trump ordered a temporary immigration ban from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

BEIRUT – Many Western nations forget that their countries were built on migrants, said the president of Caritas Internationalis.

VATICAN CITY – Giving priority to Christian refugees for settlement programs would be "a trap" that discriminates and fuels religious tensions in the Middle East, said Iraq's Chaldean Catholic patriarch.

WASHINGTON – Amid reports of an imminent executive order to halt most refugee resettlement in the U.S., one international Catholic charitable group is speaking out.

Since 1914, the Church has used the World Day of Migrants and Refugees to highlight the great need for nations to welcome those seeking shelter from the evil and horrors that inflict their homelands. It is a message about compassion and hospitality, yet it is frequently greeted with anxiety and fear, perhaps more today than ever.

The sword of justice sometimes takes the form of a sliver of light that slips into a camera for just 1/60th of a second.