The upsurge of xenophobic and hate-filled public conduct in the United Kingdom requires an urgent response from people of faith.

"The past night has struck us and shaken us deeply," Bishop Gebhard Furst told attendees at Rottenburg's Cathedral of St. Martin.

A tractor-trailer veered into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin and plowed through bystanders, killing 12 people and wounding nearly 50.

The struggle to liberate Mosul from ISIS militants has entered a third month of often savage combat.

In a world marked by violence, "the choice of nonviolence as a style of life is increasingly demanded in the exercise of responsibility at every level," the pope said.

Government licenses and German arms exports had risen 96 percent in 2015 to a value of $13.6 billion, a priest said.