"Many of these victims suffer and perish anonymously," said George Marlin, chairman of Aid to the Church in Need-USA, the charity sponsoring the service.

"The Holy See reiterates its position of a two-state solution for two peoples as the only way to reach a complete solution to this age-old conflict."

Armed groups affiliated with ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, celebrating erroneously in a statement the killing of “two priests.”

Conditions in Lebanon have been so bad for so long that most people seemed to have come to accept a profound level of government dysfunction. But this summer a series of difficulties—from wildfires raging across the countryside to a national shortage in fuel—highlighted the costs of government mismanagement and financial ineptitude.

People in northeastern Syria say despite Erdogan's reassurances, the Turkish military and its allied Syrian armed groups are persecuting religious minorities.

Christianity is disappearing from towns and cities in parts of the Middle East, warns a new report from the papal foundation Aid to the Church in Need.