The Catholic Church’s highest ranking prelate in the Holy Land offered his “absolute availability” to be exchanged for Israeli children taken hostage by Hamas.

Pope Francis has called for the respect of “humanitarian rights…above all in Gaza,” as well as the guarantee of “humanitarian corridors” and the release of the hostages.

Sandesh Gonsalves, who leads the Jesuit Refugee Service team in Afghanistan, reports that Afghans are struggling in the wake of a “massive” earthquake that struck on Oct. 7. According to U.N. sources, the humanitarian aid system in Afghanistan is already desperately overstretched and underfunded, with over 29 million Afghans in need of assistance.

While outright war conditions pertain in Gaza and along its border in southern Israel, in the north, in Jerusalem and the West Bank, conditions are also fraught. Violence between Palestinians and Israeli settlers has broken out sporadically.

Let me help you, Jews and gentiles alike, bridge the gap that’s keeping us from really being there for each other.

In his new document, 'Laudate Deum,' Pope Francis gives us more hope about humanity’s right relationship with other animals, even if it lacks specifics.