"On the International Day of Tolerance, let us recognize the mounting threat posed by those who strive to divide, and let us pledge to forge a path defined by dialogue, social cohesion and mutual understanding."

GSR Today - Displaced children's lives; South Sudan's violence; people's climate march; refugees' tough job prospects are the subject of this week's Monday crisis blog.

When the Vatican confirmed that Pope Francis would visit Kenya later this month, women from the Dolly Craft center in Nairobi asked to celebrate the pope with three handmade vestments. The Vatican approved the request, and the women began to sew. Dolly Craft, which gets its name from its initial project of making African dolls, is an income-generating facility in Kangemi, a slum about 20 miles from the capital, operated by the Jesuit-run St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church, where Pope Francis will be visiting next week.

Autumn is on its last legs these days. Some late-coloring trees stand out among the many leafless ones. Unless I missed it, this year did not seem to bring a brilliant autumn in the part of the country where I live. Most likely this was the result of a dry summer and early fall. This time of year, between fall and winter, is one of letting go.

Franciscan Sr. Alicia Torres won a special Thanksgiving competition on the Food Network's "Chopped," bringing $10,000 to the ministry of Mission of Our Lady of the Angels. Torres says the experience also unexpectedly deepened her faith.

For the past several months I've been attending various film festivals in the U.S. and Canada in support of the award-winning documentary "Radical Grace." I am one of three sisters the film tracks as we traversed the scary terrain of the "nunquisition" -- the Vatican's six year investigation of U.S. sisters that finally ended favorably for us last spring.

"The core of the vocation to service is to embrace with tender affection the whole of humanity, especially the poorest, the weakest, the least important, those whom Matthew lists in the final judgment on love: the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and those in prison."

God’s designs demonstrate that diversity is a gift, a naturally essential part of community. To encounter “the other” — someone who is different from us in experience, perspectives and ideas — should stretch and grow us. We are compelled to work out the tough parts of our dynamics and dialogue about our differences.