"It is profoundly disquieting that the decision of the High Court in Belfast has effectively weighed up one life against another and said to our society" that the lives of some children are "more worthy of our protection, love and care than others."

In 1984, four guardsmen were found guilty of the killings and convicted to 30 years in prison, but those who planned the murders and gave the orders have never been brought to justice, said some of the more than 100 North Americans who traveled to El Salvador to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the murders.

"The crowds, the joy, the ability to celebrate even with an empty stomach" were impressions the pope said he would take home with him after his six-day trip to Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic. After two years of civil war, the pope told reporters, the people of the Central African Republic want "peace, reconciliation and forgiveness."

"Yesterday, our community experienced an act of pure evil at the local Planned Parenthood clinic," Bishop Michael J. Sheridan of Colorado Springs said in a statement. "As Pope Francis recently reminded us, 'The path of violence and hate can never solve the problems of humanity.'"

From Seoul, South Korea, to Ottawa, Ontario; New York to Sao Paulo, people marched to demand a response to climate change. Interfaith leaders gathered in Saint-Denis, France, Nov. 28 to hand over a petition with more than 1.8 million signatures—800,000 collected by Catholic organizations.

"Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters," created by the same God, he said, and they must act like it.