Just a few days before news emerged that the city of Falluja in Iraq’s Anbar Province had fallen into Al Qaeda hands on Jan. 3, the Web site Iraqbodycount.com released its report on the annual death toll in Iraq. Its researchers found that 9,500 civilians died in violence in Iraq in 2013, the

Fides, the Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies, reports that 22 pastoral care workers were killed worldwide in 2013, almost double the number who were killed the year before. For the fifth consecutive year, Latin America had the highest number of such deaths. In 2013, 19 priests,

United Nations peacekeepers and officials struggled to contain two ongoing crises in Africa as the New Year began. Hastily arranged peace talks to end the sudden conflict in South Sudan began in Ethiopia as the world’s newest nation sank deeper into a de facto civil war. Meanwhile, in the neig

In 2013 the use of the death penalty continued its steady decline by almost every measure, according to a report released in December by the Death Penalty Information Center. Executions in the United States dropped by about 10 percent from 2012, to 39 from 43, marking only the second time in the pas

The bishops and others advocated for a “circle of protection” around poverty programs.

As fighting continued in Juba, the capital city of South Sudan, and spread to other Sudanese cities, Catholic, Anglican and Presbyterian leaders urged reconciliation and offered to serve as mediators in the conflict. Thousands have fled to the presumed safety of U.N. compounds after street fighting