During his visit to Turkey last week (November 28-30), Pope Francis denounced what he called the “degrading conditions in which so many refugees are forced to live.” He met with nearly 100 young Syrians and Iraqis in Istanbul and urged the international community to work harder to resolve the conflicts that have generated the refugee crisis. The main purpose of Francis’s trip was to visit Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world’s 300 million Eastern Orthodox Christians. The two issued a joint statement pledging to work for unity between their traditions, which have been divided since 1054. Patriarch Bartholomew said with the persecution of Christians across so many areas of the Middle East, the two churches are “already regrettably unified through the blood of martyrdom.”

At the Vatican (December 2), Pope Francis hosted a wide array of religious leaders who signed a declaration calling for an end to modern-day slavery by 2020. The leaders represented Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, and Muslims. They called slavery a crime against humanity and said it is a moral imperative to end practices such as human trafficking, forced labor, prostitution, and organ trafficking.