AMMAN, Jordan – A Syrian Christian political leader has joined the growing ranks of international condemnation over violent attacks in Syria's northwestern area of Afrin and the Damascus enclave of Eastern Ghouta.

WASHINGTON – If Christians in the Middle East are going to be "honest" with their Muslim dialogue partners, said Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda of Irbil, Iraq, Muslims will have to acknowledge that the persecution of Christians in the region did not start with the Islamic State's rise to power in 2014.

OTTAWA – One of the most well known abortion protesters in the nation’s capital is the first to be charged for violating Ontario’s new bubble zone law.

BANGALORE, India – Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, newly elected president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, expressed "anguish" over increasing threats to pluralism in the country.

LONDON, Ont. – A Canadian bishop announced that the Diocese of London, Ontario, would protest new requirements for government grants that require organizations to profess the government’s view on topics like abortion rights and gender identity.

We live in a country where we are told what to believe, we are pressured to conform, and our religious freedoms are gradually being taken away.

A new bill proposed in Iceland that would make circumcision punishable by up to six years in prison is a “dangerous attack” on religious freedom, Cardinal Reinhard Marx has said.

Catholic agencies that alter the controversial reproductive rights attestation on the Canada Summer Jobs application will be denied grant money, according to a government spokesperson.

OTTAWA – A government report on religious discrimination has overlooked Ottawa’s own failings, including its conduct in the Canada Summer Jobs controversy, according to the president of the Catholic Civil Rights League.

VATICAN – On Sunday Pope Francis announced that Friday the first full week of Lent would be a day of prayer and fasting for peace given the many ongoing conflicts throughout the world, particularly those in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan.

There has been some positive news on the global religious freedom front over the last two years, but it is still far from peaceful.

Canada’s Catholic bishops say the government’s new Canada Summer Jobs policy infringes on freedom of religion and freedom of conscience.

OTTAWA – Faith-based groups and pro-life organizations are mobilizing to fight a new federal government policy to only give summer job grants to employers who endorse abortion.

Canada’s former ambassador for religious freedom sees recent punitive changes to Ottawa’s Canada Summer Jobs program as the epitome of anti-faith hostility.

KINSHASA, Congo – Congolese church leaders, including the nation's cardinal, condemned security forces' attacks on Catholic protesters that left at least eight dead and 120 people detained.