"The situation here is worse than the (post-) earthquake scenario. It will be a very harsh Christmas for us this year," Father Pius Perumana, director of Caritas Nepal, said Dec. 22 from Kathmandu, the capital.

As Catholics and other Christians anticipate "the miracle of Christmas," announcing the need for peace and goodwill throughout the world this "blessed season of Advent" calls for "even stronger voices" this year.

"Pope Francis reminded us when he visited a mosque in Bangui, Central African Republic that 'Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters. We must therefore consider ourselves and conduct ourselves as such.'"

"There is absolutely no reason to stop or pause the resettlement of Syrian refugees. The fear around this is wrong and as people of faith, we must demand more from our public officials," said Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington.

"We want human rights, indigenous rights, food security and gender equality in Article 2" of the accord's text, said Bernd Nilles, head of CIDSE, an alliance of Catholic development agencies present at the conference site in Le Bourget on the outskirts of Paris.

"We need funding, we are small-scale farmers (and) we don't have much resources. How do we adapt," she asked, from inside an antiquated and ornate room belonging to a Paris syndicate. She sat surrounded by other, mostly African women farmers and their advocates who, like Chidararume, had traveled thousands of miles to France in an attempt to sway U.N. negotiators.

Group believes Middle East Christians should be included in any listing of genocide victims based on their treatment by the Islamic State.

"A great deal is at stake for every country. Progress has too long been based on fossil energy, to the detriment of the environment. This is the moment to take action," Cardinal Peter Turkson told a high-level segment of the U.N. climate change conference taking place on the outskirts of Paris.

If temperatures increase by 4 degrees Celsius, "projections for Africa suggest sea levels could rise faster than the global average and reach 80 cm above current levels by 2100 along the Indian and Atlantic Ocean coastlines, with particularly high numbers of people at risk of flooding in the coastal cities of Mozambique, Tanzania, Cameroon, Egypt, Senegal and Morocco."

"Like Bishop Barnes said, this is a time for prayer, a time to pray for peace...I know there are many people all over who are praying for us here in such a terrible time, and I want to extend my thanks to all of them. We don't need any more violence."