The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano reported that the 14 Catholics, several of them very young, were killed in North Kivu by members of the ISIS-affiliated militia called the "Allied Democratic Forces."

Diverging from his prepared statements on May 25, the pope said: "I would like to stop and thank God for the testimony of martyrdom that a group of Catholics from Congo, from North Kivu, have given in recent days."

Francis added that "their throats were slit simply because they were Christians and didn't want to convert to Islam."

According to a report by International Christian Concern (ICC), the Allied Democratic Forces also carried out an attack on the Christian village of Ndimo in Ituri state.

Read More