New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Thursday announced a ban of "military-style" semi-automatic firearms and high-capacity magazines like those used in the shootings at Christchurch mosques last week.

First, reach out to your neighbors and local mosque to show concern and compassion. Then call out those in your life who dehumanize others.

That rampage killed at least 41 people, while an attack on a second mosque in the city not long after killed several more.

New Zealand's Catholic bishops have expressed their horror and distress at a terrorist attack in two mosques in Christchurch which saw at least 49 people killed.

Five suspected Abu Sayyaf militants accused of involvement in a deadly suicide attack at a Roman Catholic cathedral in the southern Philippines have surrendered to authorities, the national police chief said Monday amid renewed terrorism fears.

During his visit to La Casa Hogar El Buen Samaritano where he lead the Angelus, he also prayed for the victims of the terrorist attack today in a cathedral in the Philippines and a recent terrorist attack on a police academy in Bogota, Colombia, as well as for those who died in tragic accidents in Brazil and Mexico this past week.