News/International

ROME – After political outcry and personal threats, an Italian priest has replaced a Christmas Nativity scene that critics said depicted Mary, the mother of Jesus, with a Muslim body covering.

VATICAN CITY – Salesians in the Bangalore province of India held a prayer vigil Jan. 4 for the release of Salesian priest Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil, who was kidnapped in Yemen March 4, 2016.

MOSUL, Iraq – As villages on Iraq’s Nineveh Plain are liberated from Islamic State forces, the Christians who lived there have returned, only to find destruction and betrayal.

WASHINGTON – The religious makeup of the 115th Congress is significantly Christian – 91 per cent – with Catholics comprising one-third of the House of Representatives and about a quarter of the Senate.

VATICAN CITY – In the wake of a deadly riot in a Brazilian jail, Pope Francis called for all prisons to offer dignified living conditions and be places for true rehabilitation.

KAFANCHAN, Nigeria – Islamist violence and terrorism has killed more than 12,000 Christians in Nigeria, destroying some 2,000 churches. Boko Haram has perpetrated the bulk of the killings, but in the past year a new source of Islamist terror has hit the country in the form of the Fulani Herdsmen Terrorists (FHT).

OXFORD, England – Catholic leaders in Congo said they hope for lasting peace, after the bishops' conference helped mediate a government-opposition accord.

COCHIN, India – The church in India's Kerala state has formed a group of priests, nuns and laypeople to respond to the pastoral needs of transgender people, reported ucanews.com.

ADEN, Yemen – A Salesian priest kidnapped in Yemen on March 4 personally appealed for Pope Francis’ help in a

BERLIN – As traditional family holiday celebrations continued with the coming of the New Year, an official with the German bishops' conference encouraged Catholic families to read Pope Francis' exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia ("The Joy of Love").