Staff Reporter

“I have only one concern,” Pope Francis said, although he acknowledged “there are many reasons to be concerned” about the Vatican’s communication efforts. “But it is one that I have very much to heart: How many people listen to the Radio? How many read L’Osservatore Romano?”

Written by more than 30 experts and running to more than 700 pages all told, the report looks at religious freedom violations in 196 countries – basically every country on earth – and covers trouble spots both on and off journalists’ radar screens.

In a statement issued Friday, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Myanmar asked Catholics -- a tiny minority in the mostly Buddhist nation of 53 million -- to participate in an hour of adoration while keeping a fast.

"Recognition should be given to those lay men and women who feel called by virtue of their baptism to cooperate in the work of catechesis,” says Pope Francis

March 15th is widely used as a date to mark the beginning of the war, which erupted in 2011 when demonstrations against the rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began in cities across the country.