News/International

An Iraqi Christian refugee girl holds a souvenir of the Holy Family Dec. 12 as a boy looks on at a church in Hazmiyeh, near Beirut.

As some Mideast countries empty of Christians, Lebanese numbers swell

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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.

People gather in Manger Square and the Church of Nativity on Christmas Eve in Bethlehem, West Bank.

Jesus' message resonates with Palestinians who seek justice, Abbas says

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JERUSALEM - Jesus' message of love and peace resonates among Palestinians seeking justice, said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his Christmas message.

An artisan from Manos Amigas in Lima, Peru, creates an ornament that will be sold through fair trade retailer Ten Thousand Villages.

This Christmas, shop fair trade

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In Pope Benedict’s 2009 encyclical Caritas in Veritate, he wrote, “It is good for people to realize that purchasing is always a moral — and not simply economic — act. Hence the consumer has a specific social responsibility, which goes hand-in-hand with the social responsibility of the enterprise.”

Souvenirs are displayed in early November in preparation for Pope Francis' Jan. 13-15 papal visit to Sri Lanka, at the Catholic Bookshop in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Church officials confirmed the visit will proceed as scheduled, despite its proximity to presidential elections.

Papal visit on schedule, say Sri Lankan church officials

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NEW DELHI - Sri Lankan church officials confirmed that Pope Francis' January trip to the country is on schedule, despite calls by Catholic clergy and organizations to postpone the visit because it is being politicized as the country prepares for a presidential election.

An elderly woman in a wheelchair is pushed near an improvised church in the area occupied by pro-democracy protesters in Mongkok shopping district in Hong Kong Oct. 30.

Hong Kong Christian leaders urge reconciliation at Christmas

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HONG KONG - Hong Kong Christian leaders urged reconciliation in their Christmas messages, issued within a week of the end of a 79-day protest.

Fadi Hazboun, 20, takes a selfie of with his Catholic family from Nazareth in front of the Christmas tree in Manger Square outside the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, West Bank, Dec. 21. Pictured with him are his father, Afif, mother, Nardin, and his 8- year-old brother, Jowan.

For Arab Christians, getting to Bethlehem involves checks, imbalances

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BETHLEHEM, West Bank - Coming to Bethlehem during Christmas is like a family reunion for Afif Hazboun.

Oregon Ducks quarterback Marcus Mariota kisses the Heisman Trophy during a Dec. 13 news conference at the New York Marriott Marquis after he was named the recipient of the trophy. Mariota is not Catholic but he regularly attends team Masses and graduated from an all-boys Catholic high school in Honolulu.

2014 Heisman Trophy winner says everything he does is for God's 'glory'

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PORTLAND, Ore. - The winner of college football's 2014 Heisman Trophy attended Hawaii's only all-boys Catholic high school, the successor to the school St. Damien of Molokai briefly attended in preparation for his ordination in Honolulu.

olice officers stand solemnly by a makeshift memorial solemn during a late night vigil Dec. 22 at the site where two police officers were shot in the head in the Brooklyn borough of New York. An armed man walked up to two New York Police Department offi cers sitting inside a patrol car and opened fire Dec. 20, shooting both of them fatally before running into a nearby subway station and committing suicide, police said.

Fatal shooting of New York police officers called 'brutal, irrational'

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NEW YORK - New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan joined in mourning what he called the "brutal and irrational execution of two young, promising and devoted police officers" fatally shot Dec. 20 as they sat in their New York Police Department cruiser on a Brooklyn street.

Downstairs from the living quarters, a traditional Palestinian house - like the one where Jesus was likely born - was a "manger" where animals would be gathered at night. When the angel tells the shepherds, "This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." (Luke 2:12) the shepherds would have gone looking for a room like this.

Away in a real manger

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At some point, this Christmas season most people will almost certainly receive a Christmas card, or e-card, depicting a plump, blue-eyed baby Jesus lying in an impoverished crib lined with hay and surrounded by friendly farm animals. There might be a barn in the background, beneath an enormous star and framed by pine trees with snow bending the branches. If it's the thought that counts, somebody hasn't thought this through.

A woman prays with others in the rain outside Myongdong Cathedral in Seoul, South Korea, as Pope Francis celebrates a Mass for peace and for the reconciliation of North and South Korea inside Aug. 18. Many Catholic and non-Catholics braved the pouring ra in to try to get a glimpse of the pontiff at his last Mass before leaving South Korea.

At Christmas, Korean cardinal prays for reunification, ferry victims

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SEOUL, South Korea - A South Korean cardinal prayed for reunification with the North so that, "through trust and reconciliation, may we become one big family again."

Israeli police officers carry the flag-draped coffin of Officer Zidan Nahad Seif in the northern village of Yanuh-Jat Nov. 19. Seif, a Druze, was wounded Nov. 18 while trying to stop a synagogue attack by two Palestinians armed with a meat cleaver and a gun. Four Israeli Jews with dual citizenship were killed in the attack. Latin Patriarch denounces violence in his Christmas message.

In Christmas message, Jerusalem patriarch criticizes all violence

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JERUSALEM - Ending a year that saw the papal visit, a war in Gaza and a resumption of violence in Jerusalem, Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal's Christmas message condemned all instances of violence.

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