"The operation launched from Gaza and the reaction of the Israeli Army are bringing us back to the worst period of our recent history," the patriarchate, led by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said in a statement.

In his first Mass as cardinal, he acknowledged the flood of congratulations he had received from all quarters and all sects of his diocese. “Cardinals in our time are no longer the princes of the church,” Cardinal Pizzaballa said, “but its servants and those of the people of God.”

Energetic, resolutely modern, as comfortable with technology as with theology, and deeply cosmopolitan, Patriarch Pizzaballa shares Pope Francis’ intention to restore Jerusalem to its former glory.

There are just under 20 million primary-grade girls out of school in sub-Saharan Africa. The Bakhita Partnership for Education is working to change that.

“The drug cartels have taken over our territory, and we are under a state of siege, suffering widespread psychosis from narco blockades,” the local Roman Catholic Diocese said in a statement.

On his visit to Marseille last week, Pope Francis decried the “fanaticism of indifference” on the plight of migrants who risk their lives—and all too often lose them—in the attempt to reach Europe across the Mediterranean Sea.