VATICAN CITY - Easter is a feast of hope, a celebration of God's mercy and a call to pray for and assist all who suffer, Pope Francis said before giving his solemn blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world).

MONTREAL - Canada’s first Syriac Catholic bishop says his immediate challenge is to minister to refugees from the Middle East and at the same time move forward with plans for evangelization in his vast new Canadian diocese as he prepares for the demands of the Easter season.

VATICAN CITY - Five years after the war in Syria began, there is a "feeling of helplessness in front of an endless human tragedy," a Vatican official told the UN Human Rights Council.

With seven million Syrian children forced into poverty, almost three million out of school and two million living in cities under siege, the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF estimates 80 per cent of Syria’s children have suffered harm in the five-year-old war.

AMMAN, Jordan - As peace talks get underway in Geneva trying to end the 5-year-old war in Syria, the U.N. children's agency warned that more than 80 per cent of Syria's children have been harmed by the destructive conflict.

Retired lawyer Bob Doherty has no illusions about becoming fluent in Arabic but he’s taking a language course at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax in order to ease the transition for the Syrian refugee family his parish will soon welcome.

VATICAN CITY - Even in the midst of constant bombing, Jesuit and Salesian priests remain in war-torn Aleppo, Syria, trying to create a sense of normalcy for those unable to leave.

OTTAWA - As peace continues to elude wartorn Syria, Canadian Catholics are being asked to remain in solidarity with those ravaged by the conflict.

Speaking on Ash Wednesday Cardinal Thomas Collins said the start of Lent was not a day that Christians in Syria could line up for the blessing of ashes. Instead, the ashes in their lives are what remains of the churches and homes they fled at gunpoint.

There’s more than political interest, strategic advantage, and military considerations in the decision to end Canadian bombing runs over Syria and Iraq in favour of more military trainers on the ground and additional spending on aid and development.

TORONTO - The federal government is seeking to pair displaced Syrian refugees fleeing the civil war in their homeland with their families already in Canada or with groups ready to sponsor them.

VATICAN CITY - A negotiated political resolution is the only answer to the crisis unfolding in Syria, Pope Francis said, urging world leaders to do everything possible to kick-start talks.

MANCHESTER, England - A European bishops' commission has welcomed a move by the European Parliament to classify atrocities and religious cleansing by the Islamic State as genocide.

AL-KHALDIYA, Jordan - As a donors conference to stem the Syrian refugee crisis opens in London, Syria's neighbors, which have hosted hundreds of thousands of refugees for the past five years, say they cannot continue to bear the brunt of the burden.

ROME - Controversy over Italy’s decision to cover nude statues during the visit of Iran’s president continued to spark debate as the leader of the Syrian Catholic Church criticized the episode, saying it pains persecuted Christians in Syria who feel forgotten.