CHEAT SHEET
TOP 10 RIGHT NOW
Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters
Pope Francis denounced the violent attacks committed by ISIS. "I ask him, the savior of the world, to look upon our brothers and sisters in Iraq and Syria, who for too long now have suffered the effects of ongoing conflict, and who, together with those belonging to other ethnic and religious groups, are suffering a brutal persecution," he said in Christmas Eve, which brought tens of thousands of people to St. Peter's Square. The Pope used the annual Christmas mass to tackle global violence, condemning the recent attacks at a Peshawar school in Pakistan and Nigeria where “too many people are being held hostage or massacred.” On Christmas Eve, the Pope phoned Iraqi refugees and compared them to Jesus.