Mourners attend the April 10 funeral for victims of a bomb attack the previous day at the Orthodox Church of St. George in Tanta, Egypt. (CNS photo/Mohamed Hossam, EPA)

Deadly Egypt attacks won’t deter Cairo visit by Pope Francis

by Carol Glatz - Catholic News Service April 10, 2017

Despite recent and repeated terrorist attacks against Egypt’s minority Christian communities, Pope Francis will not cancel his visit to Egypt.

Women cry during the funeral for those killed in a Palm Sunday church attack in Alexandria Egypt, at the Mar Amina church, on Monday, April 10, 2017. (AP Photo/Samer Abdallah)

News, Politics & Society

Egyptian Christians left to bury their dead after church bombings

by Brian Rohan, Associated Press April 10, 2017

Women wailed as caskets marked with the word “martyr” were brought into the St. Mina monastery in Alexandria.

Relatives and onlookers gather outside a church after a bomb attack in the Nile Delta town of Tanta, Egypt, Sunday, April 9, 2017. The attack took place on Palm Sunday, the start of the Holy Week leading up to Easter, when the church in the Nile Delta town of Tanta was packed with worshippers. (AP Photo/Ahmed Hatem)

News, Politics & Society

Pope Francis on Palm Sunday decries attack on Coptic church in Egypt

by Daniela Petroff - Associated Press and Hamza Hendawi - Associated Press April 9, 2017

Pope Francis asked God “to convert the hearts of those who spread terror, violence and death, and also the hearts of those who make, and traffic in, weapons.”

The USS Porter, in the Mediterranean Sea, fires a Tomahawk missile April 7. The U.S. Defense Department said it was a part of missile strike against Syria. (CNS photo/Ford Williams, U.S. Navy handout via Reuters)

Dispatches, Politics & Society

Syrian Catholic leaders criticize U.S. missile strikes, experts question larger strategy

by Kevin Clarke April 7, 2017

“We need to have a national debate on these things; it’s not a decision for the president to make in the dead of night.”

In this image provided by the U.S. Navy, the guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) transits the Mediterranean Sea on March 9, 2017. The United States fired a barrage of cruise missiles into Syria Thursday night in retaliation for this week’s gruesome chemical weapons attack against civilians, the first direct American assault on the Syrian government and Donald Trump’s most dramatic military order since becoming president. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Ford Williams/U.S. Navy via AP)

News, Politics & Society

US blasts Syria base with cruise missiles

by Lolita Baldor - Associated Press April 6, 2017

The strikes hit the government-controlled Shayrat air base in central Syria, where U.S. officials say the Syrian military planes that dropped the chemicals had taken off.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters in Antalya, Turkey, on March 25, 2017. (Kayhan Ozer/Presidential Press Service, Pool Photo via AP)

Dispatches, Politics & Society

Erdoğan referendum threatens democracy in Turkey

by Ryan Richardson April 4, 2017

If the referendum is approved, Turkey’s parliamentary system would be scrapped in favor of an executive presidency.

Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad is seen at the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ainkawa, Iraq, on Oct. 25, 2016. (CNS photo/Amel Pain, EPA)

Faith, News

Holy Week peace march in Iraq receives Chaldean patriarch support

by Dale Gavlak - Catholic News Service April 3, 2017

For the patriarch, Holy Week culminating in the Easter celebration offers a fresh hope to breathe new life into prayer and reflection, reconciliation and dialogue.

Pope Francis greets Syrian refugees he brought to Rome from the Greek island of Lesbos in April 2016 at Ciampino airport in Rome. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Faith, News

Vatican welcomes three new Syrian refugee families

by Junno Arocho Esteves - Catholic News Service April 3, 2017

The Vatican welcomed the refugee families after an appeal made by Pope Francis on every parish, religious community, monastery and shrine in Europe to take in a family of refugees.