VATICAN CITY - Paying homage to the suffering and martyrdom of Ukrainian Catholics who refused to give up their fidelity to the pope despite harsh Soviet repression, Pope Francis also paid tribute to the Eastern Catholics' efforts today to alleviate the suffering of those impacted by the war in Eastern Ukraine.

Nobody wants the Pope to meet Moscow’s Orthodox patriarch more than the Ukrainian Catholics, but the Eastern-rite Catholics want to be sure their Church is treated as a full partner in the dialogue between Rome and Moscow.

VATICAN CITY - Although the conflict between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists continues, Pope Francis and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko still share hope that a political solution can be found, the Vatican said.

WASHINGTON - "Time is of the essence" to get humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine as winter sets in, a group of Ukrainian religious leaders said in a Nov. 9 appeal to U.S. President Barack Obama.

LVIV, Ukraine- Rebuilding in Ukraine does not just mean construction.

KIEV, Ukraine - Ukraine's Catholic bishops have urged citizens to back a "profound transformation" by voting in upcoming elections in areas controlled by the national government.

OTTAWA - While the world’s attention is focused on Russia propping up the “atrocious Assad regime” in Syria, President Vladimir Putin continues to foment the crisis in the Ukraine through an exploitation of religious allegiances, said a Canadian historian.

HIROSHIMA, Japan - For a long minute on a sunny morning, silence fell over the memorial park that commemorates the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bombing of the city.

Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) for 44 tumultuous years, has been decreed by the Vatican to be worthy of sainthood, needing only an approved miracle for him to be beatified.

WARSAW, Poland - A Ukrainian bishop said a Russian-backed separatist rebellion has plunged his country into its worst humanitarian crisis since the Second World War and warned that "millions of refugees" could soon head for Europe to escape starvation.

LVIV, Ukraine - Ludvika Sarah Leah Schein, who survived the Holocaust, hadn’t been to her hometown in 70 years. But she still vividly remembers the day Germans came to Rava-Ruska.

WARSAW, Poland - Ukrainian church leaders condemned plans to permit same-sex partnerships under a series of constitutional reforms.

LVIV, Ukraine - Ukrainian Catholic Father Tykhon Kulbaka was headed to the chapel in the room rented by the local Catholic community. En route, he stopped at a grocery store, where four men grabbed him, blindfolded him and made him breathe chloroform.

WARSAW, Poland - The head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church expressed concern that the world's richest countries are failing to honour a 1994 agreement that promised Ukraine security for giving up its Soviet-era nuclear weapons.

VATICAN CITY - Prime Minister Stephen Harper discussed the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission when he met with Pope Francis at the Vatican today.