KINSHASA, Congo – Catholic bishops in Congo have abandoned attempts to arrange a government-opposition power-sharing agreement, amid rising violence.

SANTIAGO, Chile – The residents of La Legua, Santiago's most notorious community, are never sure when the gunfights will begin.

MANILA, Philippines – Caught in the throes of a brutal war on drugs, the people of the Philippines are increasingly looking to the Catholic Church to provide refuge and resistance.

Congolese Catholics in Toronto are in shock as they learn about politically-motivated attacks on Catholic churches and schools in their majority-Catholic homeland.

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican and one of Islam’s most renowned schools of Sunni thought are joining forces to discuss how they can work together in combating religious extremism that uses God’s name to justify violence.

MANAUS, Brazil – After nearly 100 inmates died in gang-related riots at prisons in northern Brazil through Jan. 8, Church officials in the country have recommitted themselves to assisting in the rehabilitation of prisoners and parolees.

The annual World Day of Peace message is an occasion that can’t help but highlight the idealism expected from popes.

VATICAN CITY – What are being called two major acts of terrorism in just the past 24 hours have prompted Pope Francis to again beg for an even stronger commitment to putting such bloody attacks, which have marred many parts of the world over the past 18 months, to an end.

BEIRUT – The Syriac Catholic patriarch said he was horrified to see widespread devastation and what he called "ghost towns" during a recent visit to northern Iraq.

OTTAWA – Religious persecution is becoming more widespread, more violent and contributing to an “explosion” of refugee cases around the world, says a new report from Aid to the Church in Need.

KHARTOUM, Sudan – The bishops of two African nations wracked by years of war and cycles of violence called for forgiveness among the sparring factions so that the countries can move forward for the betterment of their people.

WASHINGTON – There is only one word to describe the images coming out of Syria as the conflict advances: apocalyptic.

NAIROBI, Kenya – A suspected al-Shabab raid in the border town of Mandera has left at least 12 people dead and has reignited a sequence of bloody attacks on Christians in northern Kenya.

OTTAWA – Jeff Durham vows to keep fighting for changes in the law in the wake of the defeat of Cassie and Molly’s Law, a bill named after his murdered unborn daughter and her mother, Cassie Kaake.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – As the most respected institution in Congo, the Catholic bishops' conference is putting enormous effort into steering the country onto a path to peace, said an official of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.