Mass Murder in Canada. Police Still Under Fire. Fines for Uninsured Skyrocket…

 

VATICAN CITY

Pope Francis calls murder of Mexican priest "unjustifiable violence" 
RADIO VATICANA

 

"Right to die campaigners are peddling a great lie" — Pope Francis 
CATHOLIC HERALD

 

Franics’ agenda for 2015: Curial reform, the environment and religious persecution 
THE TABLET

 

Cardinal Baselios protests against forced conversions to Hinduism — The president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India has criticized the forced conversions of Christians to Hinduism 
CATHOLIC HERALD

 

New auxiliary bishop in Yangon, Myanmar — Pope Francis has appointed an auxiliary bishop to the Archdiocese of Yangon in Myanmar 
RADIO VATICANA

 

Vatican honors murdered missionaries, kidnapped priests, Ebola victims — In addition to its annual report on Church workers murdered during the year, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples highlighted the sacrifice of pastoral workers who died of Ebola contracted while caring for others and reminded Catholics that the fates of five kidnapped priests remain unknown 
CNS

 

The trio of anniversaries commemorated by the Holy See in 2014 — This past year witnessed the 85th anniversary of the Lateran Pacts, the 50th anniversary of the Holy See presence at the UN, and the 30th anniversary of the restoration of full diplomatic recognition by the US 
CWR

 

Vatican visitors almost treble since election of Pope Francis — Numbers taking part in papal events at the Vatican have almost trebled since the election of Pope Francis in March 2013 
IRISH TIMES

 

NORTH AMERICA

Eight murdered in Edmonton, Canada — Six adults and two children have been found dead in the Canadian city of Edmonton after a man carried out what police called a
"senseless mass murder" linked to what they believe is a case of "extreme domestic violence." The gunman is believed to have killed himself.  
BBC

 

 

The New America: Penalties for uninsured to skyrocket in 2015 — This new year millions of taxpayers will face steep fines if they were uninsured in 2014. The coming year is the first year all taxpayers must report to the IRS whether they had health insurance for the previous year, as required under Obamacare 
CBN

 

New York racial attack: An elderly man was brutally savaged by a street thug as he walked through a Bronx neighborhood in broad daylight 
IW

 

The Christian Heart of American Exceptionalism: Democrats should take note: Religious belief is strong in the US, and it cuts across party lines 
WALL STREET JOURNAL

 

Another quake hits Texas 
BB

 

The New America: The seven worst anti-religious discriminations of 2014 — #7 Mikey Weinstein’s Military Religious Freedom Foundation — For complaining to the US Air Force Academy that a cadet had written a Bible verse on the dry erase board 
in his own room 
CHARISMA

 

Catholic Diocese sells Portland church to Jewish group — St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Portland is to be sold to the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine 
MAINE NEWS

 

Nun who helped others cope with death faces her own with grace — In her last words before her death two days before Christmas, Sister Norma Gutierrez announced to those standing around her bed: "I’m ready." She had spent over two decades working as a hospital chaplain — much of it in hospice care
— and continued to perform her job at St. Luke’s Woodlands hospital while taking morphine until four days before her death from renal cancer that had spread throughout her body. Gutierrez was 59 
HOUSTON CHRONICLE

 

ISRAEL

UN rejects Palestinian resolution to end "Israeli Occupation" — The UN Security Council on Tuesday rejected a Palestinian resolution calling for Israel to withdraw from Palestinian territories by late 2017 
JERUSALEM POST

 

The Top 10 worst attacks on Jews and Judaism in 2014 — #1 The Belgian doctor who refused to treat a 90-year-old Jewish woman in pain, saying: “Send her to Gaza for a few hours, then she will get rid of the pain” 
RNS

 

Woman likely murdered in Eilat 
JERUSALEM POST

 

Egypt to begin expanding Gaza buffer zone next week — In bid to crackdown on Sinai terror groups, Egypt begins work on doubling the width of the buffer zone surrounding the Gaza Strip 
YNET

 

RUSSIA

Putin critic being detained in Moscow 
BBC

 

Why we need to pray for Russia #1 
DAILY MAIL

 

Why we need to pray for Russia #2 
DAILY MAIL

 

RECOMMENDED ON ALETEIA

Pope Francis’ message on the World Day of the Sick. Caring for the sick might not "leap out" as something we are instinctively drawn to (as a mission), more often than not this care is something thrust upon us when those near and dear to us suffer. All the more reason then that we should consider the Pontiff’s words as he reflects upon the sufferings of Job in his most recent message where he says, "Time spent with the sick is holy time. It is a way of praising God who conforms us to the image of his Son, who "came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Francis additionally remarked, "Occasionally our world forgets the special value of time spent at the bedside of the sick, since we are in such a rush; caught up as we are in a frenzy of doing, of producing, we forget about giving ourselves freely, taking care of others and being responsible for others"
 ALETEIA

 

BRITAIN

Bishop backs gay clergy who marry and praises them for opposing Church of England’s "institutional homophobia" — An Anglican bishop has said gay clergy should be permitted to enter same-sex marriages and urged Christians to pray for those fighting the Church of England’s “serious institutional homophobia.” 
THE TABLET

 

EUROPE

Italian writer stirs up hornet’s nest with doubts about Pope Francis — For those in and around the Vatican, the most talked-about piece of rhetoric during the holiday season has been Pope Francis’ Christmas blast at the Roman Curia. A close second, however, has been Vittorio Messori’s fusillade at the pope, published in the Italian paper, Corriere della Sera under the headline, “Doubts about the turning point of Pope Francis.” Messori wrote that “my evaluation of this papacy oscillates continually between adhesion and perplexity,” and also asserted that Francis’ unpredictability has caused even “some of the cardinals who were among his electors to have second thoughts.”  
CRUX

 

AFRICA

15 more killed by Boko Haram — Islamist militants have opened fire in a town in northeast Nigeria, killing at least 15 people. The attack targeted Kautikari, near the Cameroon border, just 10 km (6 miles) from the village of Chibok, where more than 200 schoolgirls were abducted in April 
REUTERS

 

Islamic insurgency isn’t just a Middle East problem, as Africans know only too well — In 2014, Africans suffered dozens of deadly terror attacks by groups either allied with Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi or using similarly bloody tactics 
CH

 

Boko Haram’s bloodiest year yet: Over 9,000 murdered, 1.5 million displaced and 800 schools destroyed in 2014  
CHRISTIAN POST

 

How poverty is crippling the Church in Zimbabwe — “While administering pastoral care we clearly see just how deeply the majority of people are suffering” 
CNA

 

MIDDLE EAST

Islamic Values? Woman tortured for breastfeeding in public 
DAILY MAIL

 

Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei using Twitter to snipe at America — Iran’s supreme leader has stepped into the debate over police violence and race in America, likening police shootings of black people in Ferguson and elsewhere to the Palestinian struggle in Gaza in a series of tweets using the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter 
THE GUARDIAN  GOSPEL HERALD

 

ISIS executes nearly 2,000 in six months — A watchdog group says the Islamic State has killed nearly 2,000 people over the past six months, the majority of them civilians 
CBN

 

"We will conquer Europe"—
ISIS — “We WILL conquer Europe. It is not a question of IF we will conquer Europe, just a matter of when. But it is certain. For us, there is no such thing as borders. There are only front lines." 
CHRISTIAN POST

 

Ancient Lebanese Christian town fears conquest by Islamist militants — “Our great fear is that they will sneak in at night and take the whole village hostage” 
CATHOLIC CULTURE

 

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is reported to have been admitted to a hospital in Riyadh 
JERUSALEM POST

 

ASIA & PACIFIC

Thousands of Papuans celebrate as Bible is made available in their language — "We’re here to celebrate the finishing of the complete Bible in the Hupla language. This project has been in the works since 1980" 
BCN

 

Burma: the Church at work for national reconciliation — Burma, a country ‘for 50 long years nailed to a cross of sufferings, injustice and oppression’ is born again today and ‘lives a hopeful dawn’. A new democratic season, the glimmers of freedom of thought and expression, a new openness to the rights and requests of civil society… These are all signs of a rebirth, in which the Church plays a protagonist role. The wishes for the new year, expressed by the Archbishop of Yangon, Salesian Charles Maung Bo, are more than positive 
VATICAN INSIDER

 

FAMILY MATTERS

Publix to offers benefits to gay couples — Publix, one of the largest grocery chains in the south, will begin offering health benefits to employees married to someone of the same sex—even in states that do not recognize same-sex marriage—in January. “It’s good for business for us to offer benefits to all employees, not just those in states that recognize it.” Maria Brouse, Publix’s director of media relations, said 
TDB

 

ADDITIONAL

The assault against Christianity: Churches vandalised, Christian symbols destroyed, services disrupted — Not the Middle East, but Europe and America during the Christmas of 2014! 
CATHOLIC CULTURE

 

On taking communion while not Catholic — The holidays always bring out these sorts of conversations. A Catholic friend who confesses to being “lukewarm” to the faith “because it’s so crazy, with all the people who are not welcome” expressed some consternation at the idea that there are actual “rules” about receiving Holy Communion. The rules, she complained, “get in the way of a person and Jesus” 
PATHEOS

The biggest threat to humanity? The INTERNET: Experts raise concerns about the web’s potential to incite violence, bring down governments and wipe us all out 
DAILY MAIL

 

Biblical archaeology’s Top Ten discoveries of 2014 — #4 Stone rejected by the builders and Western Wall coins 
CHRISTIANITY TODAY