GOMA, Congo (RNS) — As gunfire and explosions echo across eastern Congo’s hills amid the ongoing violent conflict, another sound moves more quietly through the neighborhoods of Goma and surrounding displacement camps: the knock of faith leaders moving from door to door.

Goma, the eastern Congolese city near the Rwandan border, has long stood at the center of the region’s recurring conflict and displacement crises. Once again, the city has become a refuge for families fleeing fresh violence in North and South Kivu.

Each morning, pastors, priests, Catholic sisters and imams travel through conflict-hit streets, displacement camps and broken communities with Bibles, rosaries and words of peace.…