"The wounds of the Islamic State have not been healed yet, together with the ongoing violence, poverty, unemployment and poor services that have pushed thousands of people, especially youth, to demonstrate peacefully, demanding the right to live with dignity and freedom in a stable, secure and strong independent homeland," Cardinal Louis Sako, patriarch of Chaldean Catholics, said of anti-government protests.

"We must beware of fundamentalist groups; each (religion) has their own.”

Truth and beauty can be found outside the walls of church, in a space that belongs to those who worship differently.

Christians and Muslims must, as never before, join hands to bear witness to God’s sovereignty, to God’s love for each and every member of the human family, to God’s desire that we lead upright lives.

Every citizen, whether aligned with the political right or the left, must denounce these crimes against our Jewish brothers and sisters.

Upon hearing about some unthinkable violence somewhere in the world, the first thing I do when I get to the church on Sunday morning is pencil another intention into the prayers of the faithful. In some small way, it feels like a solemn duty.