Islamist extremists attacked Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt last month, with the worst massacre claiming 47 lives on Christmas Day, according to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

Over the course of 2024 nearly 150 were killed in acts of terrorism.

The majority of deadly attacks took place in conflict-ridden Benue State, and violent atrocities also occurred in bordering Plateau State.

Father Isaiah Ter of the Gboko Diocese said the militants also “burnt down the eight Catholic churches of St. Mary’s Parish”, as well as “the parish house, clinics, schools and other houses.

“The parish priest and the assistant parish priest escaped and stayed in the bush for a whole day before they were finally rescued.”

At least 6,800 people were displaced as a result of the Christmas 2024 attacks.

According to government officials, more than 1.5 million have been driven from their homes in Benue State alone.

The opposition of every Democrat in the U.S Senate on Wednesday was sufficient to block legislation to require lifesaving health care for infants who are born after a failed abortion.

The “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act,” would have guaranteed equal protection under the law for “any infant born alive after an abortion.”

The proposed legislation would have required all health care practitioners present during such a birth to “exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a … health care practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age.”

Although a majority of senators voted to advance the legislation, the bill failed to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome the filibuster.

The vote was 52-47 in favour with every voting Republican supporting the bill and every Democrat in opposition. One Republican was not available for the vote.

Catholic emancipation was a “landmark civil rights achievement” and should be celebrated accordingly by the State, say leading academics.

The bicentenary of the historic 1829 milestone did not appear in the ‘Commemoration’ section of the programme for government which listed several events the new Government “could mark” in their 5-year term.

While it is implied that Catholic emancipation will be addressed as part of a 250th anniversary commemoration of the birth of Daniel O’Connell this year, Prof. Emeritus of History in UCD Maurice Bric told The Irish Catholic that he hoped a State commemoration of Catholic Emancipation would occur in 2029 as it is “such an important event in Irish history for a number of reasons, the main reason being it marks the repeal of the penal laws”.

Prof. Bric said that in addition Catholic emancipation is not “just a chapter in the history of Irish Catholicism, it’s part of the wider history of civil rights”.

The Government has been accused of a “profound ideological blind spot” after it announced no new supports to parents who wish to stay at home with their children.

Speaking to The Irish Catholic newspaper, Independent TD Carol Nolan said that it is “imperative” that “parents are not forced out of the home and essentially reduced to economic units of production”.

She said: “In terms of the provision of childcare, of course working parents and providers must be supported but it is equally important for Government to try and overcome its profound ideological blind spot on this issue with respect to parents who want to be supported while looking after their children in the home.

Writing in the Irish Catholic, columnist and barrister Maria Steen said that the wishes of many parents are being ignored.

“The voters made their position very clear when they rejected the attempt to remove from the Constitution the acknowledgment of the debt the State owes to women for the work they do in the home, yet the programme for government makes absolutely no mention of women who wish to stay at home with their children,” she said.

A parish priest in Spain could face criminal charges for prohibiting a small-town mayor in a same-sex relationship from receiving the Eucharist, according to the country’s equality minister.

“[Denying communion] is contrary to the Spanish constitution” Minister of Equality Ana Redondo said during an interview, adding that the Church “cannot, even if there is no specific law, be exempted from the constitutional rules, the principle of equality and non-discrimination of Article 14.”

“You cannot discriminate against an LGTBI citizen and require him to choose either his faith or his sexual condition. This is clearly discriminatory and I hope there will be a [legal] challenge,” she added.

The minister’s remarks come after Rubén García, mayor of the Segovian town Torrecaballeros, said that his parish priest denied him the Eucharist because of his public same-sex relationship.

Around 380 million Christians face “very high or extreme levels” of persecution or discrimination worldwide, according to Open Doors International, which advocates on behalf of persecuted Christians. That is one in seven Christians across the world. However, one in five Christians is persecuted in Africa and two in five in Asia.

The annual Open Doors World Watch List revealed that almost 4,500 Christians were killed for their faith in 2024, 69 per cent of whom were in Nigeria. Nigeria, ranked seventh, remains “among the most urgently dangerous places for Christians on earth,” according to the report, primarily because of violent attacks by Islamic, ethnic Fulani militias in the country’s northern states. The attacks are meant to drive Christian communities off the land they farm.

North Korea remains the most dangerous country to be Christian, followed by Somalia, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, Eritrea, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan.

Terminally ill patients given six months to live often survive for three years, official figures have revealed, fuelling fresh concern over euthanasia and assisted suicide becoming legal.

Patients who are given a prognosis of six months by their doctors are entitled to be fast-tracked onto universal credit.

But Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) data obtained by The Telegraph revealed that a fifth of those benefit claimants are living much longer than expected.

The disclosure, made under freedom of information laws, prompted palliative care medics to warn lives will be “tragically cut short” if Kim Leadbeater’s euthanasia bill becomes law.

The draft legislation, for which MPs voted in November, proposes granting people with six months to live – or less – medical assistance to die, given the approval of two doctors and a judge.

Hospital data previously indicated that doctors’ prognoses were wrong more than half the time, but this is the first government data to confirm the inaccuracy of NHS life expectancy estimates.

News that Trump has signed an executive order that mandates adherence to the biological reality of two sexes, rather than multiple genders, has been welcomed Ethics and Public Policy Center boss, Ryan Anderson, a leading Catholic thinker in the US.

The author of the book “When Harry Met Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment” posted “Thank you @realdonaldtrump” and added: “Does this mean Amazon will be selling my book again?” Sale of his book had been banned by Amazon.

Anderson underscored his point by also quoting Martin Luther King Jr., who said: “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with moral law. To put it in terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.”

Another leading Catholic thinker who welcomed some of Trump’s early decisions is University of Notre Dame professor, Patrick Deneen. He said: “We have been living under a lawless regime for quite some time,” referring to the outgoing Biden administration and praising the new president for a “common sense” approach to public policy.

Catholic schools benefit all of society by serving every person “regardless of creed, background, faith, social status or age,” according to the Bishop of Meath, Tom Deenihan.

He was speaking at the opening of Catholic Schools Week.

In a statement, Bishop Deenihan said this year’s theme “will explore how we exist for one another in Christ, building from the wellbeing of the individual, extending the notion of true wellbeing to others, to our families and communities, and to the Other, in God”.

“The 2025 theme will mediate on hope, the true purpose and meaning of human life, and, in the more senior years, on true freedom”.

Reflecting on the civic purpose of Catholic education, he said: “Generations of people have benefited from Catholic schools and our society is all the better for their contribution to the common good. Our schools, following the example of Jesus, serve every person regardless of creed, background, faith, social status or age”.

Deaths outnumbered births in China last year by almost 1.5m, while the number of marriages has almost halved since 2016.

The country’s just released population figures for 2024 show 9.54 million births and 10.93 million deaths, a decrease of 1.39 million.

The 530,000 additional births in 2024 births in 2023 were due to a 12% increase in marriages in 2023 after the end of the three-year Zero-Covid policy, but it is not arrested the sharp decline in the marriage rate.

But since then, marriages fell 16.6% in the first three quarters of 2024, including a 25.3% drop in the third quarter. The full year is projected to see a fall of 18.8%, meaning births will plummet in 2025, with little over 7 million expected.

There was an increase in the number of births in China by 5.8% to 9.54 million in 2024.

This put the total fertility rate at 1.10 children per woman about half what is needed for a population to simply replace itself.