Catholic Church

By Regis Martin, Crisis Magazine - Christianity did not entirely disavow the world it came to replace. What it did was salvage all that was good in it, including the idea of memory, which underwent a kind of baptism thanks to the leaven of the Christian Gospel. It was the poet Pavese who perhaps expressed it best when, in describing the power of memory, he called it “a passion repeated,” the exercise of which effects an actual re-presentation of the event itself, thus repeating the passion first awakened by one’s encounter with it.

By Peter Pinedo, Catholic World Report, Catholic News Agency - Catholic and Nigerian leaders are demanding government action as Christian villages in the central Nigerian state of Plateau are reeling from a series of Christmas weekend attacks that left nearly 200 Christian Nigerians dead... “This indeed has been a gory Christmas for us,” Plateau governor Caleb Mutfwang said in a Tuesday statement that noted the attacks were “well-coordinated” and carried out using “heavy weapons.”

By Stephen P. White, The Catholic Thing - St. Stephen, the protomartyr, whose death by stoning is recorded in Acts, is celebrated on December 26. On December 27, the Church celebrates St. John the Apostle, who, though he did not die a martyr’s death... And today, the 28th of December, the Church marks the Feast of the Holy Innocents, who were martyrs in deed though not, being infants, in will.

By Msgr. Charles Pope - Many are shocked to walk into daily Mass on December 26 and instead of hearing more of the “Baby Jesus” we are confronted with Martyrdom, “The Feast of Stephen” is ancient on the Church’s calendar. More ancient than the Christmas cycle and hence it was not removed to another time... Bu the martyrdom does not stop there. We are in the midst of the Christmas Octave, an Octave filled with blood as we shall see.