The ruling Communist Party has long feared that opposition to its rule could be spread by religious and other civic groups outside its control.

Cardinal Bechara Rai, patriarch of Maronite Catholics, appealed to the international community to work to end terrorism "that is killing and displacing families and depriving them of their rights and dignities."

Those killed were mostly women and children. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday.

“I am very aware that my ethnicity is dying.”

Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami was one of the first Catholic Church officials to respond on Nov. 26 after the death of Fidel Castro. “The death of this figure should lead us to invoke the patroness of Cuba, the Virgin of Charity, calling for peace for Cuba and its people,” he said

Deep inside Syria, a bishop worked around the blurred edges of international law to save the lives of more than 200 people.