Philippine rebels declare Christmas truce
MANILA (UCAN): Church leaders in The Philippines have welcomed ceasefire declarations from both the government and insurgents from the Communist-led New People’s Army (NPA), expressing hope that this would lead to the resumption of peace talks.
 

 
Pope meets with Palestinian leaders

 
Arrests at abortion clinic
WASHINGTON (SE): Father Stephen Imbarrato, from of Priests for Life, together with Julia Haag and Joan McKee, was arrested inside an abortion clinic in Washington DC in the United States of America on December 4, during what he calls the Red Rose Rescue.
 

 
Complaints against Qatar shelved
DOHA (AsiaNews): The International Labour Organisation has concluded that the pressure that has been put on Qatar to improve the treatment of migrant workers labouring on the building of facilities for the 2022 World Cup has been successful.
 

Zimbabwe arrests Brazilian Franciscan
HARARE (SE): Brother Rodrigo Peret, a Franciscan from Brazil and member of the Pastoral Land Commission of Uberlândia in Zimbabwe, was arrested along with 20 other international mining advocates in the town of Mutare on November 6.
 

 
Do hidden problems go away?
DUBLIN (SE): Priests from the archdiocese of Dublin in Ireland are saying that the repeated failure of the archdiocese to publish annual changes in the appointments of priests is a cover up for serious shortages.
 

A brave chaplain honoured
OPELOUSAS (SE): Father Joseph Lafleur, a chaplain in the United States of America (US) military forces during World War II has been posthumously honoured with the Distinguished Service Cross and Purple Heart.
 
On October 17, in the church where he celebrated his first Mass in 1938, the medals were presented to descendants of his relatives.
 

 
Communion overdose
ABUJA (SE): Nigeria has experienced a rash of kidnappings of priests recently, but on October 15 Father Timothy Nwanja escaped after his captors found the altar wine and fell into a drunken sleep.
 

 
Fifty years of Catholic-Methodist dialogue
VATICAN (AsiaNews): A half a century of formal Methodist-Catholic dialogue was celebrated on October 19 when Pope Francis met with leaders of the World Methodist Council at the Vatican as a sign of the desire of the two Churches to end the rupture that has seen siblings separated for so long.
 

 
Rethink rescinding Deferred Action programme pope says
Rome (CNS): Politicians who call themselves pro-life must be pro-family and not enact policies that divide families and rob young people of a future, Pope Francis said when asked about the decision of United States of America (US) president, Donald Trump, to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme.