1. Francis X. Maier’s On the Ninth Day of Christmas:

In our home, the Christmas season anchors our year. Bethlehem’s manger held the Savior of the world. The Christ Child is the season’s only real and enduring gift. And if we really believe that, then there’s no moving past it, no forgetting it, and nothing is more important. Today, January 3, is the ninth day of Christmas. In our house, we’ll treasure every moment of it. We wish you the same.

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4. Catholic World Report: Safety concerns escalate for Christians in historic Syrian town

5. National Catholic Register: 13 Catholic Missionaries and Pastoral Workers Reportedly Killed Worldwide in 2024, Africa and America each recorded five deaths, while two priests were killed in European countries.

6. Angelus: Gunmen shoot Catholic priest dead in Nigeria on Boxing Day

7. Open Doors: Christmas attacks kill 46 in Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo

8. David Trimble: U.S. Must Acknowledge and Address Religious Persecution in Nigeria

9. OSV News: Indigenous Christian village in Bangladesh burned down on Christmas

The attack occurred while residents were away attending midnight Mass in a neighboring village, as there is no church in their village. Nobody was in the village when the attack took place, the OpIndia website reported.
“There are 19 families living in the … village and 25 houses of 19 families are totally gutted due to the arson attack. Now they are out of the village and living in their relatives’ villages,” Father Rocky Costa, parish priest of the local St. Peter’s Catholic Church told OSV News.
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Christians account for less than half a percent of more than 170 million people in the Muslim-majority South Asian nation of Bangladesh.

10. Becket: Parents & Catholic school in court to stop Maine’s attack on faith-based education

Appeals court to decide if religious schools can participate in state tuition assistance program

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11. Larissa Phillips in the Free Press: I Took Religion Out of Christmas. I Regret It.

12. Peggy Noonan: Signposts on the Wisdom Trail

Clichéd phrases endure for a reason. Don’t be embarrassed by them. The other night a big-brained writer texted to tell me about a packed theater as the movie neared its end. “You could’ve heard a pin drop.” Some genius made that up centuries ago, and people still use it because it says it all.