Yet (following on from this post's title) our neighbours in France are grieving over some of the most violent atrocities committed there for years. Gruesome murders being so close to home, bring to mind especially today to those in and about France, how vulnerable all human beings are and how susceptible we can be to the unhinged characters of a tiny few of our fellow human beings.
Such murders locally can but not always, make more headlines than equally vile murders committed further afield. For example at about the same time hideous atrocities and killings apparently with not too dissimilar deranged motivation took place in Africa- as reported in the Guardian today:
Hundreds of bodies – too many to count – remain strewn in the bush in Nigeria from an Islamic extremist attack that Amnesty International described as the “deadliest massacre” in the history of Boko Haram...“The human carnage perpetrated by Boko Haram terrorists in Baga was enormous,” Muhammad Abba Gava, a spokesman for poorly armed civilians in a defence group that fights Boko Haram, told the Associated Press. He said the civilian fighters gave up on trying to count all the bodies. “No one could attend to the corpses and even the seriously injured ones who may have died by now,” Gava said. An Amnesty International statement said there are reports the town was razed and as many as 2,000 people killed. If true, “this marks a disturbing and bloody escalation of Boko Haram’s ongoing onslaught,” said Daniel Eyre, Nigeria researcher for Amnesty International."
But the African continent Nigerian tragedy was reported on page 25 of the Guardian with the European French atrocities covering much of page one and pages immediately following - that in my opinion is natural as one is often more alert to events taking place in areas one lives in or frequently visits than places elsewhere in the world which one may never see first hand.
The 9/11 hideousness in the USA was an exception to this local headlines point as the hijacking of planes and the destruction of the New York skyscrapers in which the hideous deaths occurred were dramatically broadcast on TV as they happened whereas most of man's inhumanity to man takes place where no TV cameras are present to witness events eg Boko Haram's horrific murders this week in the Nigerian bush.
Yet 2015 has many potential positives which may yet make the headlines such as the climate change talks likely to take place during December 2015 in Paris.
Closer to home yet still also with an international aspect, Father Sam one of the 3 new priests of the Sacred Heart Parish Wimbledon who at age 30 has only been ordained for a year, was along with 29 other catholic priests of his age or younger from around the world invited to lunch with Pope Francis in Rome this week.
The shaking up of the Vatican curia/civil service by Pope Francis and his wish to devolve more authority to local dioceses around the world also promise interesting developments for the year ahead.
Likewise in the UK the general election fixed to take place in May 2015 will be of considerable interest with another coalition or 'hung parliament', unusually for this country again being a distinct possibility.
Hopefully too the annual HCPT pilgrimage to Lourdes over Easter Week will take place with some 5000 children and adults again participating in that unusual and happy time in France.
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