Bishop Edwin de la Pena of Marawi assured Catholics in the region that other parishes not affected by the fighting will continue their ministries.

In their joint statement, the Texas bishops echoed Chief Manley’s appeal to the community. “We ask all people in our dioceses to remain vigilant, and to pray and work for peace,” the bishops said.

A small town Knights of Columbus council hopes to have a big impact halfway around the world.

"I think they have chosen Somalia because there is no central authority," Bishop Giorgio Bertin said.

The decree for their beatification should be published sometime in January, Trappist Father Thomas Georgeon said.

The St. Nicholas National Shrine next to the World Trade Center memorial plaza was to replace a tiny church obliterated when the trade center's south tower fell in 2001.