(Staff) The only player in the entire minors with 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases last season is retiring from professional baseball in order to enter the priesthood. Outfielder Grant Desme, 23, a top prospect for the Oakland Athletics, startled the sports world when he announced his career change.

The Californian began his professional baseball career with the Short-Season Vancouver Canadians of the Northwest League in 2007. In 2009, Desme had what many called a break-out season. He hit a combined .288 with 31 doubles, six triples, 31 home runs, 89 RBIs and 40 stolen bases in 131 games with the Class-A Kane County Cougars and the Class-A Advanced Stockton Ports.

On Jan. 22 Desme announced that he plans to enter a Roman Catholic seminary this summer. “I was doing well at baseball. But I really had to get down to the bottom of things -- I love the game, but I aspire to higher things. I wasn't at peace where I was at. I have no regrets.

The Anglican bishop of the Diocese of Benin in Nigeria was abducted at gunpoint from his home Jan. 24 after returning from a Eucharist at St. Matthew's Cathedral in the nation's southern state of Edo. He was released three days later but no one is revealing whether or not a ransom was paid. The gunmen reportedly asked for a ransom of 15 million naira [about US$100,000] for the safe return of the Rt. Rev. Peter Imasuen, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria for Edo state. –ENS

Jos, Nigeria (circled)Two pastors and 46 other Christians have been confirmed killed in the outbreak of violence in Jos, Plateau State in Nigeria, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).

In the religious clash, triggered on Jan. 17 when Muslim youths attacked a Catholic church, 10 church buildings were burned and 27 Christians are still missing, CAN officials said at a press conference in Jos on Jan. 27.

Click to read more ...

On Feb. 2 a European court ordered Turkey to remove the religious affiliation section from citizens’ identification cards, calling the practice a violation of human rights.

Religious minorities and in particular Christian converts in Turkey have faced discrimination because of the mandatory religion declaration on their identification cards, which was enforced until 2006. Since then, citizens have been allowed to leave the “Religion” section of their IDs blank.

Click to read more ...

Jean Chamberlain Froese, an obstetrician and director of the international women’s health program at McMaster. PHOTO: FHS.McMasterA Canadian obstetrician/gynecologist working on the front lines of unsafe motherhood for 14 years says that the story of half a million mothers and four million babies dying every year has been grossly underreported and neglected.

Click to read more ...

The Archbishop of Canterbury with the Most Rev. Dr Mouneer Anis, Bishop of Egypt with North Africa & the Horn of Africa at Sabratha, Libya (29/01/09) Photo: Office of the Archbishop of CanterburyThe Archbishop of the Episcopal/Anglican Church of Egypt, the Most Rev. Dr. Mouneer Anis has resigned from the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion (SCAC) citing the ongoing revisions of The Episcopal Church and SCAC's failure to discipline TEC based on recommendations of the Windsor Report and the Primates’ Meetings in Dromantine and Dar es Salaam.

"I have come to realize that my presence in the current SCAC has no value whatsoever and my voice is like a useless cry in the wilderness," he wrote in a letter to the Primates and Moderators of the Anglican Communion.

Click to read more ...

On Nov. 25 a court in northern China sentenced five leaders of an unauthorized Protestant church to prison terms of up to seven years on charges including illegal assembly.

The sentences are among the harshest in recent years for members of house churches -- congregations that refuse to register and accept the authority of the government's Religious Affairs Bureau.

Click to read more ...

(Staff)  A British priest has updated a traditional back-to-work ceremony after Christmas called "Plow Monday" by encouraging city workers in London’s financial district to bring in their cellphones and laptops for a blessing.

Click to read more ...

FOR MORE THAN half a century, the United Nations and numerous international organizations have affirmed the principle of religious freedom

Click to read more ...

The Math of the Haitian Tragedy 

8 days later

7.0 magnitude earthquake strikes Haiti on 12^th Jan. 2010

            Epicenter 25 km WSW from the capital Port-au-Prince

200,000 people feared dead

1.5 million people left homeless  

3 million Haitians (1in 3) need emergency aid. Red Cross 

$10 billion projected cost to rebuild

Click to read more ...