VATICAN – Pope Francis' call for a day of prayer and fasting for peace in war-torn countries like South Sudan and Congo is also a reminder for world leaders to protect their countrymen from violence and injustice, a Vatican official said.

UNITED NATIONS – Migration is not a crime and vulnerable migrant and refugee children should not be detained as if they were criminals, speakers said at a U.N. program Feb. 21.

AMMAN, Jordan – A Syrian Christian political leader has joined the growing ranks of international condemnation over violent attacks in Syria's northwestern area of Afrin and the Damascus enclave of Eastern Ghouta.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – About 100 students from Parkland arrived in Tallahassee the evening of Feb. 20, highly motivated to press their state lawmakers in person to reform gun laws after the deadly shooting rampage at their high school.

VATICAN – It's time to break free from fear, fake online personas and looking at the world through a digital screen display, Pope Francis told young people.

NEW YORK – A former Chilean seminarian who accused a current bishop of abuse cover-up met with a Vatican investigator and said he finally felt he had been heard.

WASHINGTON – After the Senate failed Feb. 15 to garner the 60 votes needed to move a bill forward to protect the "Dreamers," officials of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced a "National Catholic Call-In Day to Protect Dreamers" Feb. 26.

JERUSALEM – The heads and patriarchs of Christian churches in Jerusalem strongly denounced the city of Jerusalem's plan to force churches to pay property taxes.

WASHINGTON – If Christians in the Middle East are going to be "honest" with their Muslim dialogue partners, said Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda of Irbil, Iraq, Muslims will have to acknowledge that the persecution of Christians in the region did not start with the Islamic State's rise to power in 2014.