The Vatican has released a statement calling for religious communities in Syria to bring peace to the country following reports of a recent massacre in the town of Houla that killed more than 100 people, including 49 children.

"This massacre causes pain and profound preoccupation to the Holy Father and the Catholic community as a whole," the Vatican's spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said in a statement.

"The Holy See renews its call for a cessation of all forms of violence and exhorts interested parties and the entire international community to spare no effort to resolve the crisis by dialogue and reconciliation".