Whenever we have been at our best, as Christians, we have opened our churches as sanctuaries to the poor and the endangered.

OTTAWA – In Canadian politics, 2016 will be remembered as the year Canada legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide.

VATICAN CITY – Canadian Jesuit Fr. Michael Czerny has been appointed to the Vatican's new department for the Promotion of Integral Human Development.

VILLANOVA, Pa. – Consensus about the Middle East and its long-simmering tensions might seem hard to come by, but a dozen international scholars, government officials and leaders of nongovernmental organizations found a few points of agreement during a meeting at Villanova University.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – As the American people continue to unpack exactly what the election of Donald Trump means for the country, those who work with vulnerable populations such as refugees and immigrants have serious concerns and questions about what the future holds.

LONDON – Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster said some British media were stirring up xenophobic sentiments against migrants and refugees.

ATHENS, Greece – Abdul rose just before sundown on one of the last days of the holy month of Ramadan. The 17-year-old refugee from Afghanistan was keeping odd hours, eating breakfast in place of dinner and passing the day in slumber.

OXFORD, England – A French bishop defended the demolition of a migrant camp in northern France while urging greater help for displaced refugees and a "change of mentality" toward asylum-seekers.

VATICAN CITY – Closing doors to immigrants and refugees is not the answer – in fact, it only helps encourage the crime of human trafficking, Pope Francis said.

ISTANBUL – Yako Hanna, 36, always keeps an eye on his phone waiting for a call that would change his life.

VATICAN CITY – Children are the most vulnerable and hardest hit among the world's migrants and require special protection, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY – Meeting a pilgrimage of Catholics and Lutherans from Germany, Pope Francis said he does not like "the contradiction of those who want to defend Christianity in the West, and, on the other hand, are against refugees and other religions."

TORONTO – When Elizabeth Carrillo was five, she arrived in Canada with her mother, at the time pregnant with her son Brian. The FCJ Refugee Centre literally became the family’s home.

ROME – In a narrow alley a few miles from the center of Rome, around 250 migrants gather at sunset.

WINNIPEG – The Winnipeg community of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions honoured Sr. Aileen Gleason for seven decades of a life of service to others and for changing the lives of thousands of refugees.