NATION/WORLD

In the heart of Rome's high-end shopping district, sparkling with Christmas lights and shiny baubles in the windows of famous designers, Pope Francis prayed that people would spend time in silence and in service as they prepare to celebrate Jesus' birth.

A parishioner walks up to her pastor and says, "I want to give you my kidney." Pastor smiles and says, "OK." Don't expect a punchline. It's no joke.

The destruction throughout Ferguson left Blessed Teresa of Calcutta parishioner and former mayor Brian Fletcher speechless.

Among the iconic images of the 9/11 tragedy, photographs of policemen and firefighters stand out: The first responders were entering the doomed World Trade Center as most everyone else was filing out.

Ankara and Istanbul were gray and cold, at least compared to Rome, during Pope Francis' Nov. 28-30 visit to Turkey. And the general reception, outside of the pope's official meetings, was hardly warmer.

The meeting room in the middle of Maryland's most immigrant-dense ZIP code Nov. 20 was full of people who epitomize the problems President Barack Obama is trying to address with executive action.

As millions of immigrants celebrate the possibility of protection from deportation under a new Obama administration plan, among those who cannot take advantage of it will be the 68,445 families and 68,541 unaccompanied minors who were apprehended at the border in the last fiscal year.

The global Church will ring in a new year on the first Sunday of Advent by dedicating it to the faithful whose vows of poverty, chastity and obedience serve to illuminate heaven on earth.

Attachments to holy places should not be a cause of bloodshed, hatred or violence, said the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land.

On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the most powerful tropical cyclone to slam the central Philippines, signs of hope are emerging among some of the people who lost their only means of earning a living.