“This hypothesis—that the reality of personal sexual misconduct by bishops...was a factor which inclined some bishops not to vigorously pursue allegations of abuse among their clergy—I believe that this is a valid hypothesis.”

“As Catholic agencies assisting poor and vulnerable migrants in the United States and around the world, we are deeply saddened by the violence, injustice, and deteriorating economic conditions forcing many people to flee their homes in Central America.”

Sunni Muslims who have returned to the gray dusty ruin of West Mosul, Iraq, to start over, but most Christians are convinced that is impossible to ever return to live here.

Few Yazidi families have been able to escape from temporary shelters in Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan. Their home villages have not been swept for mines and booby traps left behind when ISIS was dislodged.

Qaraqosh’s wary residents who fled ISIS have returned to a city in near ruin, but there are signs of renewed life, including a kindergarten sponsored by the Jesuit Refugee Service.

The United States is gutting the funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, creating an instant humanitarian crisis for a region already overloaded with them.

Christians in northern Iraq try to rebuild their lives after the defeat of ISIS, but the terror of being driven from their homes is not easily forgotten.

The subpoenas seek documents relating to sexual abuse allegations, financial payments to possible victims or the findings from internal church investigations, according to The Associated Press.

Organizers report that inmates in at least 17 states planned to join the protest.

Several watchdog groups say that religious freedom around the world is taking a beating, and the Catholic pastoral group Aid to the Church in Need says the persecution of Christians is “today worse than at any time in history.”