“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”

That was Nelson Mandela, announcing a new children’s fund in May 1995.

Heading into Father’s Day weekend – at the end of a news-jammed week that began with a new report on last month's suicide of a Honduran father in a Texas jail – the US national conversation is largely centered on the treatment of the children of migrants.

The separation of parents and children who cross into the United States by choice and without documentation – for whatever reason – has been cast as both a justifiably tough, zero-tolerance stance against child “smuggling” and as the morally repugnant use of cruelty as a deterrent.

It has triggered a White House press conference clash about parental empathy. It appears to be sowing debate, if not outright division, in Republican ranks. (On Monday, Harry Bruinius will look at how the policy sits with the president’s evangelical supporters.) 

But even as politicians play hot potato over the origin and ownership of the policy, what may slowly be dawning at the crossroads of process and compassion is a sense that the innocence of children transcends nationality, as does responsibility for its protection. A sense that children belong to society as it is most broadly defined.

How will their treatment ultimately reflect on humanity?

Check CSMonitor.com for news stories we’re following, including the inspector general’s report on the Justice Department’s conduct during the 2016 presidential campaign and the questions raised by the jailing today of Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman. Now to our five featured stories for today.