DOHUK, Iraq - Dozens of Assyrian Christians were abducted by Islamic State forces during a new offensive against a string of villages in northeastern Syria, aid and civil rights organizations reported.

WASHINGTON - The new movie Fifty Shades of Grey is "a direct assault on Christian marriage and on the moral and spiritual strength of God's people," Cincinnati's archbishop told pastors in his archdiocese.

LONDON - A Chaldean Catholic archbishop called for the redeployment of American and British troops in Iraq to prevent the “genocide” of Christians and other minorities by Islamic State militants.

BANGALORE, India - Church leaders criticized police manhandling of Christians who gathered Feb. 5 at the gate of Sacred Heart Cathedral in New Delhi to protest recent attacks on churches.

BEIRUT - Catholic and Orthodox patriarchs called for an end to financing terrorists and suggested that borders be closed when necessary to prevent their movement.

AINKAWA, Iraq - One of Iraq's Christians chased out of her historic homeland quietly prayed the rosary as a bishop who traveled halfway around the world to meet her and others displaced celebrated Mass for them.

ARLINGTON, Va. - When Felicia and Ethan Carr began searching for a high school for their eldest son, they wanted a school with a top-notch college preparatory program.

But the Carrs, who are Baptist, sought something else as well.

Steve Bell was ready to face the music: his decade-long career as a nightclub musician was over.

OXFORD, England - An international report has warned that Christians face worsening mistreatment worldwide and called for "urgent action" by Western governments and church leaders.

A few weeks ago, I attended a special prayer service. Led by two bishops (one anglophone, one francophone), it gathered Church dignitaries to celebrate an anniversary. The service was surprisingly moving: a remarkable result at the commemoration of a Church document not so many of us, even within the Church, have ever heard of. The two bishops, and three other Church leaders, reflected on passages from Ephesians and John.

SED EL BOUSHRIEH, Lebanon - Aramaic, Syriac and different Arabic dialects from Iraq and eastern Syria can be heard on the narrow hilly streets of Sed El Boushrieh. Strings of Christmas lights adorn neighborhood churches and hang from balconies of apartments, whose residents many never return to their own homes in Iraq and Syria.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis deplored the "abuses and inhuman acts" of Islamic State militants, and called on all religious leaders to condemn them "unanimously and unambiguously." He also said he hoped to travel to the Middle East to comfort persecuted Christians there.

VATICAN CITY - Christianity has something to say about human dignity, and "it would be a shame" if differing positions on the sanctity of all human life or on marriage were to increase the divisions among Christian churches and communities, Pope Francis said.

THRISSUR, India - The Catholic Church in Pakistan has presented a series of demands to the government, calling for a fair and thorough investigation into the beatings and burning of a young Christian couple accused of desecrating the Quran.

In Michael Coren’s new book, Hatred: Islam’s War on Christianity, The Catholic Register’s award-winning columnist examines the relationship between Islam and Christianity and minces no words in decrying widespread Christian persecution. Here is an excerpt from his book.