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In terms of raw page views and reader engagement, that is, keeping site visitors on our pages longer and coming back for more (and perhaps converting them into donors and subscriberswhats holding you back?), few people do more for America than our favorite Jesuit.

Pope Francis has figured in more than 400 articles, columns and reports that America published in 2021, stories that have drawn almost 5.3 million page views.

The pope also scores well with long-time site visitors and flighty page hoppers alike and regularly draws both digital and print subscribers. Folks love reading about Pope Francis and hearing most of the things he has to say, but do they read the stories Pope Francis might wish they would read?

Hundreds of thousands of visitors storm the America website when the pope figures in political entanglements like the quadrennial Communion wars, issues unexpected decrees on important ecclesial matters or after an off-the-cuff remark (or three) create global headlines.

But the topics Pope Francis personally returned to a lot in 2021 dont always get as much attention.But dont fret. A new year is coming when we can all try to follow the Pope Francis newsfeed a little more faithfully. To catch you up until then, heres a rundown of some of the issues the pope tried to keep at the forefront of the news in 2021 and articles about them you may have missed.

Human migration: The world continues to experience unprecedented levels of migration as refugees from conflict, poverty and hopelessness head north from the Caribbean and Latin America to the United States or across the Mediterranean into Europe from the Middle East and Africa. The United Nations reports a global tally of more than 281 million international migrants. Most170 millionare international laborers, but about 90 million are refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people. Spiking populations escaping conflict and political chaos this year came from Afghanistan, Central America and troubled African and Middle Eastern states.

The fate of the worlds refugees and migrants has been a special focus for Pope Francis since the beginning of his papacy. His first trip outside of Rome in 2013 was to Lampedusa, an island then at the heart of the ongoing Mediterranean migrant crisis, where he said Mass for the refugees and migrants lost at sea in their attempts to reach Europe.

Throughout 2021, Pope Francis continued to urge attention to this humanitarian crisis that concerns everyone, culminating in his last official visit of the year to Greece and Cyprus. On Dec. 5 he visited a migrant reception facility in Mytilene, on the Greek island of Lesbos.

The pandemic, he said, preached the interconnectedness of the world. We have come to understand that the great issues must be faced together since in todays world piecemeal solutions are inadequate, he said.

We live in an age of walls and barbed wire, the pope said. Yet problems are not resolved and coexistence improved by building walls higher, but by joining forces to care for others according to the concrete possibilities of each and in respect for the law, always giving primacy to the inalienable value of the life of every human being.

Migration stories you may have missed:

Climate change and care of creation: In May, Pope Francis raised alarms about the urgency of combating climate change, asking Catholics around the world to join the Laudato Si Action Platform, a seven-year journey that will see our communities committed in different ways to becoming totally sustainable, in the spirit of integral ecology.

We need a new ecological approach that can transform our way of dwelling in the world, our lifestyles, our relationship with the resources of the Earth and, in general, our way of looking at humanity and of living life, he said.

He urged the coordinated response of the global community. Only in this way will we be able to create the future we want: a more inclusive, fraternal, peaceful and sustainable world.

In his address to the U.N. conference on climate change, COP26, in Glasgow in November, he asked the worlds advanced economies, and not coincidentally the ones most responsible for carbon burning, to accept their obligation to confront climate change engendered by global warming. We find ourselves facing an epochal change, a cultural challenge that calls for commitment on the part of all, particularly those countries possessed of greater means, Pope Francis said. These countries need to take a leading role in the areas of climate finance, decarbonization in the economic system and in peoples lives, the promotion of a circular economy, providing support to more vulnerable countries working to adapt to the impact of climate change and to respond to the loss and damage it has caused.

Care of creation stories you may have missed:

Economic and social inequities, especially in distribution of Covid vaccines: Pope Francis has implored the worlds wealthy states to pursue a comprehensive and equitable distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine, in a service to themselves as much as everyone else. Unfortunately, hoarding by wealthy states has, as predicted, allowed Covid-19 variants to emerge that have undermined the efficacy of the worlds existing vaccines. Vaccine hoarding has been only one aspect of his ongoing critique of the maldistribution of the worlds wealth and resources or the rampant waste of them through arms races and what he has memorably called the throwaway society.

Let us remember what the pandemic has shown us, namely that we cannot remain healthy in a world that is sick, he said in an address to world political and religious leaders attending a meeting on peacemaking organized by the lay Community of SantEgidio. In recent times, many people have contracted the sickness of forgetfulness, forgetfulness of God and of our brothers and sisters, Pope Francis said. This has led to unbridled individualism and the desire for self-sufficiency, which has overflowed in insatiable greed. The earth we inhabit bears the scars of this, while the air we breathe is rich in toxins but poor in solidarity. We have thus poured the pollution of our hearts upon creation.

In a letter in April to the participants in the spring 2021 virtual meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Pope Francis called for a model of recovery from Covid-19 capable of generating new, more inclusive and sustainable solutions to support the real economy... and the universal common good, not a return to an unequal and unsustainable model of economic and social life, where a tiny minority of the worlds population owns half of its wealth.

Economic and social inequities stories you may have missed:

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Stories from 2021 that Pope Francis wished you would have read - America Magazine

A crisis has been escalating along the border that divides Belarus and the European Union. For several weeks, thousands of migrants looking to reach the EU were trapped between Poland and Belarus, living in freezing camps with no humanitarian aid. Today, the migrants have been moved to warehouses for shelter, but this crisis isnt over.

Since 2015, Europe has experienced several migration waves, but this one was different: This one was manufactured. Belarus lured migrants to the border to pressure the EU to lift sanctions. And while this particular crisis has started to die down, the problem isnt going away. Its the result of a complex EU migration policy that has opened the door to the exploitation of migrants, and until that policy is fixed, Belarus or other bordering nations could create a crisis all over again.

To understand how Belarus manufactured this crisis and the geopolitical context that allowed it to happen, watch the video above.

You can find this video and all of Voxs videos on YouTube.

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There is a migrant crisis at the Poland-Belarus border - Vox.com

The Czech Republic on Wednesday announcedits government hadapproved a mandate to send150 troops to the Belarus-Poland border as the migrant crisis there continues.

The measure must also be approved by both chambers of the nation's parliament, which is expected,according toRadio Free Europe. This action by theCzech Republic comes just weeks after both Estonia and Britain deployed troops to the Belarus-Poland border.

"The government has just approved a mandate to send troops to protect the Polish-Belarusian border. Up to 150 soldiers are ready for a period of up to 180 days. The mandate has yet to be approved by both chambers of Parliament!"Czech Minister of DefenseLubomr Metnar tweeted.

Vlda prv schvlila mandt na vysln vojk na ochranu polsko-blorusk hranice. Pipraveno je a 150 vojk na dobu psoben a do 180 dn. Mandt jet mus schvlit ob komory Parlamentu!

Politico Europe reportedaround 100 Estonian and 100 British were being sent to Poland to help secure its border with Belarus.

Thousandsof migrants, mostly from the Middle East, have gathered at Belarus' borders with its European Union-member neighbors. Travel agents and migrants have reportedthat the Belarusian government encouraged easy migration to the country. Upon arriving, migrants were reportedly driven to the border of the EU, given wire cutters and encouraged to illegally cross into countries like Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

The EU has accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of manufacturing the crisis and using the migrants for his own political purposes, namely to unsettle the EU as retribution for sanctions that were issued against his government.

The sanctions were issued following crackdowns on the pro-democracy movement in Belarus, a country which has been controlled by Lukashenko often referred to as "Europe's last dictator" for over two decades.

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Czechs move closer to sending troops to Poland-Belarus border amid migrant crisis | TheHill - The Hill

French authorities have confirmed the body was found by a fishing vessel off Calais on Friday. They claimed the body was believed to have been in the water for some time before it was discovered.

It is not known whether the body was one of the 27 unaccounted asylum seekers who lost their lives at sea while making the journey from France to Kent in November.

Estimates suggested between 34 and 50 people had been crammed in a flimsy inflatable dinghy when in capsize on November 24.

It was later confirmed that 27 people - including children - lost their lives, although the exact figure is still unclear.

According to Kent Online, one of those who died was a 24-year-old woman who was making the perilous journey to reach her fiance in the UK.

The International Organisation for Migration said this was the biggest single loss of life in the Channel since it began collecting data in 2014.

This year alone, the number of migrants crossing the Channel has exceeded 25,000.

Kevin Saunders, who was the UK's Chief Immigration Officer in Calais for 16-years, claimed the French refuse to assist further in the migrant crisis.

Last month, 27 people tragically lost their lives during an attempted crossing in one of the deadliest days on the English Channel.

READ MORE:Migrant crisis in numbers: Full stats

The Home Office confirmed 1,185 people had made the same journey all within 24 hours of each other.

As the number of migrants attempting to cross the Channel increases so too have the risks that people are willing to take in order to reach the UK.

Many of the individuals who look to enter the UK originate from some of the most deprived countries in the world such as Yemen, Sudan and Iraq.

Dan O'Mahoney, Clandestine Channel Threat Commander, said last month: "These journeys are dangerous and facilitated by violent criminal gangs profiting from misery.

"We are working with the French to stop boats leaving their beaches and crackdown on the criminals driving these crossings.

"People should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach.

"The Government's New Plan for Immigration will fix the asylum system, making it firm on those who abuse it and fair on those in genuine need."

While the total number of migrants crossing the Channel by boat has increased the opposite can be said for the number who attempt to claim asylum in the UK.

For the year ending in June 2021, the number had fallen by four percent compared with the previous 12 months.

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Body found caught in nets of fishing boat in English Channel investigation launched - Daily Express

If we falter, the Balkans will explode again, warned the United Kingdoms former Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Shortly afterward, British prime minister Boris Johnson named Air Chief Marshall Sir Stuart Peach as his envoy for the Western Balkans. Johnson argued that The Western Balkans are experiencing the biggest threat to their stability and security in over two decades. We have a responsibility to do all we can to preserve the gains achieved through peace and dialoguewe cannot allow any return to the violence and division of the past.

Wars in the Balkans traditionally erupt in spring or summer, with political tensions preceding in the months ahead. This year, the usually chilly autumn was marked by heated tensions and warmongering above average even for Balkan standards.

If there is one person who is solely responsible for the deteriorating stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which can have an impactful spillover effect, it is Milorad Dodik. The firebrand Serb ultra-nationalist, who serves as a member of the countrys tripartite rotating presidency, has been making headlines over the past decade for openly working toward the destruction and dismemberment of his own country.

Dodik and his henchmen have for years advocated for the creation of their own Abkhazia-styled mini-state which would encompass forty-nine percent of the country. It would be the finishing touch of Serb nationalist aspirations dating back to the 1990s and their genocide against Muslim Bosniaks. To be clear, what Milorad Dodik is advocating for is no different from what notorious war criminals such as Radovan Karadi and General Ratko Mladi wanted some thirty years ago.

More recently, Bosnian Serbs have upped the ante by pledging to re-create their own army, even threatening to expel Bosnian army troops from their barracks located in the Serb half of the country. If the West tries to intervene, warned Dodik, he would call his friends for help. This was a thinly veiled reference to Serbia and Russia, perhaps even Hungary, with whom Dodik has been nurturing ties in recent years.

Serbias position towards Bosnia and its open support towards Milorad Dodik and his policies is rather clear. Serbia is unwilling and unable to accept that its imagined dominions are now independent states. As it has never given up on its dream to create a Greater Serbia, it continues to fret, posture, and lash out in an attempt to assert its former status. Its drive to dominate the region stems from its implicit assumption of entitlement and exceptionalism.

But why would Moscow be interested in fomenting instability in the Balkans and why is Serbia its loyal ally?

To start with, Russia sees the geographical location of the Balkans as being the soft underbelly of the European Union. The region remains the last significant part of Europe that has not yet fully integrated into the EU and NATO structures, yet borders a number of NATO and EU member states. There are the tit-for-tat dynamics: since NATO has been infringing upon Soviet-era zones of influence in Moscows backyard (i.e., Georgia and Ukraine), Moscow feels entitled to reciprocate in NATOs backyard.

In addition, the Balkan region is located on the crossroads of a hydrocarbon route running from Russia to Turkey and the Black Sea. Moscow knows all too well that energy and geopolitics are intertwined.

Finally, a controlled crisis in the Balkans would keep the EU preoccupied while giving Russia leverage over more important projects, such as invading Ukraine or militarily scaffolding the Belarusian regime.

However, unlike the post-Soviet Central Asian states or the Caucasus, Russia is incapable of physically penetrating the Balkans, hence its reliance on local players. Moscow enjoys a series of local assets including highly placed nationalist Serb politicians, biker gangs, friendly paramilitary militias, murky businessmen, pro-Russian media outlets, and above all the Serbian Orthodox Church. Their combined actions are enough to keep fragile states in a permanent state of latent or low-intensity conflict, something that serves Russian interests.

The two main Russian allies are Serbias strongman Aleksandar Vui and Bosnias Serb member of the tripartite presidency Milorad Dodik.

Moscow has for years been sending up trial balloons to see what it can get away with before hitting hard when the opportunity arises. It seems that the Western silence was taken as a green light.

The EU seems to be distracted and rudderless, absolutely lacking a common approach towards its foreign policy and security issues. The blocks biggest economic powerhouse, Germany, is in a post-Merkel transition, while France, another major player, is busy preparing for next years elections. The number of recalcitrant member states, such as Poland and Hungary, is constantly rising. Given the fourth wave of Covid-19, the EU is more concerned with digital Covid vaccine passports than with outlining a cogent response towards Moscows hybrid wars.

On the other hand, Washington has made a number of lamentable blunders in the past couple of months, including its disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, caving on Nord Stream II, and mishandling the sale of nuclear submarines to Australia so badly that longtime ally France temporarily pulled its ambassador in anger.

The Kremlin interpreted all of this as a lack of a coherent transatlantic strategy.

Russian president Vladimir Putin recognizes the moment, and with the winter in full swing, he is upping the ante by manufacturing a series of concurrent crises. The migrant crisis along the Belarus-Poland border, the gas war with Central and East European states, constant violations of Baltic airspace, the massing of troops along Ukraines borders, and the Balkan security crisis are all part of the same hybrid war. His goal is to divide, pressure, and weaken the EU while at the same time testing NATOs resolve.

Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, with his country directly affected by the migrant crisis, had no doubts as to who is behind the crisis. This attack which Lukashenka is conducting has its mastermind in Moscow, the mastermind is President Putin, Morawiecki said. Similarly, former Croatian foreign minister Vesna Pusi cleverly noted There is no doubt that Russia is the main disruptor in the Balkans, using its local pawns to implement that policy. Its objectives, however, most likely transcend the region and include finding a broader compromise with the EU.

Looking at this from a broader perspective, the EU is now surrounded by a belt of instability. Emboldened by the inability of the EU and United States to firmly stand up to its actions, Moscow is set to continue pursuing its strategic goals.

However, it is a highly pernicious illusion to think that the EU has the will and capacity to act in a unified manner against Kremlins hybrid wars.

Much like in brokering peace following the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s, the only force capable of confronting Moscows designs today is the United States. How the United States responds to these overt military threats will have far-reaching consequences for the security of Europe and the transatlantic alliance.

The United States should start by increasing its military presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina to ensure that the liberal democratic order is maintained and that the country does not slide into conflict. Should Bosnian Serbs declare independence and secede, then NATO will have an Abkhazia-like state on its borders. Second, the United States should send higher-ranking leadership instead of mediocre State Department officials who are merely interested in short-term solutions to ensure quick career promotions. Finally, the Biden administration should push for fast-tracking Bosnias accession to NATO. This would anchor the country firmly within the alliance and secure American political investment in the region.

The conflict with Russia cannot be avoided. It has already begun.

Harun Kariis a journalist and political analyst based in Sarajevo covering foreign influences in the Balkans. He tweets@HarunKarcic.

Image: Reuters

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Russia's New Front In the Balkans Heats Up - The National Interest