All of Christ's disciples, especially its pastors, are called to model themselves after Jesus and "suppress our instinctive desire to exercise power over others, and instead exercise the virtue of humility," Pope Francis said.

 Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami cut to the chase about halfway through his Oct. 8 keynote at a Respect Life celebration sponsored by the Diocese of Evansville."The story of the Holy Family is instructive," said Archbishop Wenski, who devoted his remarks to migration and immigrat

"The Temple Mount has come to symbolize a national focal point in which the fate of the whole Jewish sovereignty of the Land of Israel is to be decided." A parallel process has occurred for Muslims over the past 20 years, and the compound has become first and foremost a symbol of nationalism, with the Al-Aqsa mosque coming to define Palestinian identity as Arabs.

Non-state actors, Secretary of State Kerry said, “are now the principal persecutors and preventers of religious tolerance and practice. Most prominent, and most harmful, obviously, has been the rise of international terrorist groups such as Daesh, al-Qaida, al-Shabaab, Boko Haram. And all have been guilty of vicious acts of unprovoked violence.”

The contraction and displacement of Christians has been driven by the well-founded threat of genocide after a number of well-publicized and brutal attacks conducted by Islamic State militants and other extremists groups like Africa’s notorious Boko Haram.

Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, called the decision "meaningless."