BEIRUT – Cardinal Bechara Rai, patriarch of Maronite Catholics, welcomed the election of a new Lebanese president, ending a two-and-a-half-year power vacuum that had crippled the country's government institutions.

MANILA, Philippines – As Filipinos remembered their departed on All Souls' Day, the country's church leaders called on the faithful to also pray for those who fell victim in the government's all-out war against illegal drugs.

MANILA, Philippines – Close friends and associates of Cardinal-designate Anthony Soter Fernandez, retired archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, have been waiting for years for the 84-year-old prelate to receive a red hat.

MANILA, Philippines – The Archdiocese of Manila officially launched a drug rehabilitation program Oct. 23, with a heavy emphasis on spiritual formation in the wake of the Philippine government's war on drugs.

VATICAN CITY – As a military operation in northern Iraq fights to wrest control of areas held by retaliating Islamic State forces, Pope Francis criticized the "cruelty" and heinous violence waged against innocent civilians.

NEW YORK – Protecting Christianity and religious pluralism in the Middle East and respecting the rights of all would open the path to peace in the region, Supreme Knight Carl Anderson said at a dinner in New York Oct. 12.

NEW YORK – The Archdiocese of New York has initiated a voluntary Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program to promote healing and serve as a "tangible sign of the church's outreach and reparation" by providing compensation to victim-survivors of sexual abuse as minors by clergy of the archdiocese.

OSLO, Norway – Even though the people of Colombia rejected the terms of a peace accord ending more than 50 years of civil war, the Nobel committee chose Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos as winner of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.

KINSHASA, Congo – The Catholic Church has pulled out of a national dialogue in Congo.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine bishops' conference president has lamented "the slow erosion of Filipino values" as the Southeast Asian archipelago presses on with its war on drugs that has killed thousands.