The Jesuit Refugee Service has called for the restoration of search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean following drowning of 150 people in a shipwreck on Thursday.

The victims were Ethiopians migrants attempting to escape poverty in their home country by making their way via Libya to Europe.

“We believe that by helping to resettle the most vulnerable, we are living out our Christian faith and ‘welcoming the stranger’ as Jesus has challenged us to do.”

“Racism and xenophobia are garnering electoral power in many countries” – President Higgins.

105-year-old grandmother and her extended family walked thousands of miles from Afghanistan across mountains, deserts and seas to reach Europe.

“All of us can play our part in making such a plan work on the ground here in Ireland" - Archbishop Eamon Martin.

Archbishop of Dublin calls for a generous response to those caught up in the largest refugee crisis since the Second World War.

Ireland has the ninth lowest number of asylum applications in the EU, with just 6,560 people having sought asylum over the last five years.

New footage also includes the destruction of a number of churches, altars and works of religious art at unspecified locations.

UN Secretary General, Ban ki-Moon, will meet Pope Francis in the Vatican later this month to issues including climate change.

Irish Churches’ Peace Project event to look at the contribution of Churches to the vital work of promoting reconciliation and peace.

The resolve of Christians in Egypt has been strengthened by ISIS' murder of 21 Christians in Libya according to Coptic Catholic Bishop Youssef Aboul-Kheir of Sohag.

ISIS-linked militants post video of mass beheadings of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya.

Western military intervention is the only viable option in the fight against Nigerian militants, who are now allied to Islamic State.

Islamic State posts video apparently showing beheading of James Foley.