WARSAW, Poland -- Poland's military archbishop urged security forces to prevent the illegal entry of refugees and migrants, as the country's bishops' conference announced a nationwide collection to help those amassing on the frontier with Belarus.

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said faith is the essential, secret power in her country’s struggle for democracy.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz of Minsk, Belarus, who had been blocked from entering his homeland for four months until negotiations between the Vatican and the Belarusian authorities allowed him back in time for Christmas.

WARSAW, Poland -- The president of the Belarusian bishops’ conference has been barred from re-entering his country from abroad, after warning in a pastoral letter that the nation’s worsening crisis could spill into civil war.

Some small part of the revolution now on display in the streets of Minsk and other Belarusian cities may have begun in Catholic, rural Ireland in the 1990s. It was there that Belarus’ likely-elected president who is currently in exile visited for a month each summer for 10 years, when she was between the ages of 12 and 22.

WARSAW, Poland -- Catholic leaders urged dialogue and restraint in Belarus, amid violent street clashes following a contested Aug. 9 presidential election.

WASHINGTON – People in Belarus – a former Soviet republic – have a great devotion to Our Lady of Fatima, and so does the archbishop who leads them.