SHKODER, Albania – Human bones, old shoes and deteriorating priest collars fill cardboard boxes in the office of Franciscan Brother Vincenzo Foca, an Italian who lives and works in Shkoder.

TORONTO – The “fires of persecution” are bringing Christians worldwide closer together, a number of faith leaders in Toronto believe.

Pope Francis said on Tuesday that "persecution is the Church’s daily bread.”

Pope Francis said four nuns executed by gunmen in Yemen at a home where they cared for elderly and disabled residents are “today’s martyrs.”

KAMPALA, Uganda - As Pope Francis encouraged Ugandan Christians to draw inspiration from the 19th-century Ugandan Martyrs, he carried with him graphic images of the horrors the 45 Anglican and Catholic martyrs endured.

OTTAWA - A year later, Pope Francis' visit to South Korea continues to bear fruit in the Asian nation, said Daejeon Bishop Lazzaro You.

With the phone pressed to her ear memories spring to life of a man from half a life ago.

“Sure I remember him,” said Sr. Mary Jo Mazzerolle. “The day before he was killed he was in our house. He came to us to say Mass and afterwards he came to our house for supper.

VATICAN CITY - Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, to be beatified in San Salvador May 23, has become a symbol of Latin American Church leaders’ efforts to protect their flocks from the abuses of military dictatorships.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Ethiopia's Catholic bishops condemned "in unambiguous terms" the execution of 30 Ethiopian Christian migrants in Libya.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero will be beatified in San Salvador May 23, said Italian Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the postulator or chief promoter of the archbishop's sainthood cause.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - Vandals have damaged a prominent statue of slain Archbishop Oscar Romero, recently declared a martyr.

MONTREAL - Christians have always faced various degrees of persecution through the centuries and should always be prepared to wear  “the crown of martyrdom,” a Coptic leader in Montreal told his congregation Feb. 28 during a memorial Mass honouring  21 Egyptians who were beheaded on a beach in Libya by jihadists in mid-February.

MISSISSAUGA, ONT. - The Coptic Christians of Toronto and their friends gathered in Mississauga Feb. 22 to answer the murder of 21 Egyptian Copts by Islamic State allies in Libya. They answered the Feb. 15 beheadings with Bible readings, prayers, songs, hope and forgiveness.

VATICAN CITY - The 21 Coptic Christians who were beheaded by Islamic State militants died as martyrs, invoking the name of Jesus, said an Egyptian Catholic bishop.

VATICAN CITY - After decades of debate within the Church, Pope Francis formally recognized that Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero was killed "in hatred of the faith" and not for purely political reasons.