A papal delegation of bishops, including Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, will travel to the capital of war-torn Syria in late October.
Jacques Berthieu, a French Jesuit (1838–96) and missionary in Madagascar, was canonized in Rome on Oct. 21 together with six other blessed.
Some of Egypt’s Christians are concerned about Islamists in power, but there is greater freedom of speech than before the revolution.
Western nations must resist the pressure to “scapegoat, abandon, even kill, the elderly as a cost-cutting measure,” an Australian bishop said.
Radical Islamists who seized northern Mali earlier this year are imposing an extremist version of Shariah law.