"The wounds of the Islamic State have not been healed yet, together with the ongoing violence, poverty, unemployment and poor services that have pushed thousands of people, especially youth, to demonstrate peacefully, demanding the right to live with dignity and freedom in a stable, secure and strong independent homeland," Cardinal Louis Sako, patriarch of Chaldean Catholics, said of anti-government protests.

Lawmakers recently agreed to begin the lengthy process of amending the state constitution to allow a two-year window for civil suits otherwise barred by the statute of limitations, but there's no guarantee that effort will bear fruit.

The Washington Post published the 60-page document on Dec. 23 on its website, which describes previously published accounts of alleged abuse and financial misconduct by retired Bishop Michael J. Bransfield, including "troubling incidents" that caused concern by some church workers that he may have targeted minor altar servers for abuse.

Members of St. Anne Parish in Cow Island, Louisiana, gave their neighbors a Christmas blessing from the heavens, so to speak.

Visitors converged on the town's large Christmas tree in Manger Square, near the spot believed to mark Jesus' birthplace.

A strong typhoon that barreled through the central Philippines left at least 20 people dead and forced thousands to flee their homes.