Middle East

For the second year in a row, few foreign pilgrims were in attendance at the traditional Palm Sunday procession from the Mount of Olives into the Old City of Jerusalem due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. But even the grey skies that threatened rain didn't dampen the spirit of the 4,000 participants.

A Chaldean Catholic archbishop denies claims by an Iraqi-American businesswoman that he "aided and abetted" acts of "international terrorism," including her alleged kidnapping and torture, amid political infighting and turmoil in Iraq in 2014.

Churches in Jerusalem are in dire financial straits and Church-run institutions such as schools and hospitals are in danger of closing as they struggle with a renewed barrage of demands by the city to pay a tax called “Arnona.”

The fall of Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria in December was viewed by the country’s minorities with a mixture of cautious optimism and apprehension. Just three months later, a wave of violence has made their worst nightmares come true.

Syria's top Christian leaders have condemned the killing and wounding of hundreds of Alawites, many of them civilians, by security forces and gunmen linked to the country's new Islamist rulers.

Despite reassurance from Catholic leaders in the Holy Land, planned pilgrimages from Canada to the land of Christ's birth will likely remain unavailable for the foreseeable future.

While Pope Francis was hospitalized in Rome's Gemelli hospital, one of the cardinals closest to him traveled to Lebanon to demonstrate the pope's ongoing concern for refugees and for peace in the Middle East.

The body of Shiri Bibas -- the mother of two red-headed boys who became a symbol of Israeli hostage suffering, both confirmed dead -- was eventually returned Feb. 21, with the Bibas family confirming Feb. 22 that it was the body of the boys' mother.

One out of four people living in Lebanon is a refugee, and the majority of children born in refugee camps are unregistered at birth, said Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

The election of Joseph Aoun, a Maronite (Eastern-rite Catholic), as the 14th president of Lebanon and a fragile ceasefire have raised hopes that the war-ravaged and crisis-ridden country will finally reverse its steep descent into chaos.