Editor's Notebook — Freed Mariam Ibrahim arrives in Rome; a letter of desperate appeal in Iraq; ways to help young immigrant minors. The Middle East is a powder keg waiting to ignite, says Michael La Civita of Catholic Near East Welfare Association. 

The patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq has written a letter urging the UN to increase humanitarian assistance and to put political pressure on the international community to stop the atrocities being committed against Christians. 

Mariam Ibrahim, who had been imprisoned and sentenced to death in Sudan for refusing to renounce her Catholic faith, arrived safely in Rome this morning ... and met with Pope Francis! 

The pope sent a telegram to the families of the victims of yesterday's Taiwanese airplane crash expressing his "heartfelt condolences" and "assurance of prayers."

Jerusalem Patriarch Fouad Twal: "We cannot punish all the population (of Gaza) because you do not agree with Hamas."

More questions are being raised over the effectiveness of experimental lethal injection drugs after it took death row inmate Joseph Wood nearly two hours to die once the drugs were administered. Opponents of the death penalty protested the execution.

Catholics have been urged to gather for holy hour July 25 to pray for the cancellation of a black mass scheduled for Sept. 21 in Oklahoma City. 

From CNS: Ways to help the wave of young immigrant minors.

The true story of the "dirty" Little Sisters of the Poor. 

Have a great day.

Gretchen R. Crowe is editor of OSV Newsweekly. Follow her on Twitter @GretchenOSV.