OXFORD, England – Clergy in the Central African Republic say their first cardinal will continue to work to reunite the country after years of civil war and speak up for the continent's poor.

CARTAGENA, Colombia – An agreement to end Latin America's last armed conflict is the start of a process of positive change for Colombia, Cardinal Pietro Parolin said hours before the government and Marxist rebels were set to sign peace accords Sept. 26.

TORONTO – For those looking to understand the situation in Syria as war continues to ravage the country, Fr. Henri Boulad suggests turning to the final book of the Bible.

With 10,000 dead in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region, Russian tanks and missile systems massing on the eastern border, two million internally displaced Ukrainians, Crimea already under Russian rule and the Ukrainian Black Sea fleet sunk or stolen, Fr. Peter Galadza is putting his trust in the politics of the beatitudes.

DAMASCUS, Syria – Christian patriarchs residing in Damascus urged the international community to "stop the siege of the Syrian people" and to lift international sanctions, which they say are deepening the suffering.

VATICAN CITY – Innocent men, women and children are paying the ultimate price in the continuing conflict raging in Syria, especially in Aleppo, where they are caught in the crossfire between rebel and government forces, Pope Francis said.

ROME – Pope Francis sent a high-ranking cardinal to South Sudan to urge for a peaceful end to the escalating violence in the country.

LVIV, Ukraine – Liza, 15, left Donetsk in June 2014. Her father was a pro-Ukrainian activist, and it became too dangerous for her and her mother to remain in Donetsk, which pro-Russian militants later made the headquarters of their self-proclaimed republic. 

TUNJA, Colombia – After decades of war, Colombia is moving rapidly toward peace, said Archbishop Luis Castro Quiroga, who has maintained a pastoral presence at peace talks in Havana.

VATICAN CITY – After making a personal donation and asking Catholic parishes throughout Europe to take up a special collection for victims of the war in Eastern Ukraine, Pope Francis has set up a predominantly Ukrainian committee to distribute the funds and has asked that they go to projects suggested first of all by the assemblies of Ukraine's religious leaders.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – War rhetoric from South African political leaders could incite election violence and civil war, a South African bishop warned.

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis' pleas for humanitarian aid for Ukraine is bringing needed attention to a forgotten war, said Ukrainian Catholic leaders.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - San Salvador Archbishop Jose Escobar Alas said church files on human rights violations committed during the civil war are available to help to find the truth and bring about justice in the killings of six Jesuit priests and two women, murdered in November 1989.

YAMBIO, South Sudan - An attack on religious sisters at a teacher training college in South Sudan has shaken and saddened the church, a church leader said, while urging people of faith to demand the implementation of the latest peace accord to end the civil war.

MANCHESTER, England - A Syrian archbishop sees “a source of hope” in Russian airstrikes against rebel groups in their country.