"We want human rights, indigenous rights, food security and gender equality in Article 2" of the accord's text, said Bernd Nilles, head of CIDSE, an alliance of Catholic development agencies present at the conference site in Le Bourget on the outskirts of Paris.

"We need funding, we are small-scale farmers (and) we don't have much resources. How do we adapt," she asked, from inside an antiquated and ornate room belonging to a Paris syndicate. She sat surrounded by other, mostly African women farmers and their advocates who, like Chidararume, had traveled thousands of miles to France in an attempt to sway U.N. negotiators.

Group believes Middle East Christians should be included in any listing of genocide victims based on their treatment by the Islamic State.

"A great deal is at stake for every country. Progress has too long been based on fossil energy, to the detriment of the environment. This is the moment to take action," Cardinal Peter Turkson told a high-level segment of the U.N. climate change conference taking place on the outskirts of Paris.

If temperatures increase by 4 degrees Celsius, "projections for Africa suggest sea levels could rise faster than the global average and reach 80 cm above current levels by 2100 along the Indian and Atlantic Ocean coastlines, with particularly high numbers of people at risk of flooding in the coastal cities of Mozambique, Tanzania, Cameroon, Egypt, Senegal and Morocco."

"Like Bishop Barnes said, this is a time for prayer, a time to pray for peace...I know there are many people all over who are praying for us here in such a terrible time, and I want to extend my thanks to all of them. We don't need any more violence."

North Americans and Salvadorans gathered Dec. 2 at the precise spot where four churchwomen were killed 35 years ago to emphasize that their work for the country's poor remains alive.

With the recent increase in deadly attacks and kidnappings linked to the Islamic State and other militant groups, however, Imam Shareef has increasingly found himself tasked with the additional—and often daunting—challenge of distancing the "Islam of peace," as his community knows and practices it, from that of what he calls a minority of extremists giving Islam a bad name.

AIDS poses major health challenges on the continent. With about 10 percent of the world's population living in sub-Saharan African, the region accounts for about 70 percent of global AIDS cases, according to the World Health Organization.

"It is profoundly disquieting that the decision of the High Court in Belfast has effectively weighed up one life against another and said to our society" that the lives of some children are "more worthy of our protection, love and care than others."