Thousands have been forced to forgo an annual pilgrimage to a revered waterfall in central Haiti, now in territory held by gangs, where they would splash among sacred waters and rub their bodies with aromatic leaves.

In Uganda, politics often intertwines with spiritual beliefs, as many politicians secretly consult traditional healers or witch doctors for perceived advantages.

France’s prime minister has proposed cutting two public holidays to save money in next year’s budget.

The U.N. reports that child malnutrition in Gaza has doubled since Israel restricted food entry in March.

The Rev. John MacArthur, an influential and exacting evangelical preacher, has died at the age of 86.

An Israeli ultra-Orthodox party has announced plans to leave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government.

Josep Lluís Iriberri is a Jesuit priest who designed a pilgrim path for St. Ignatius in northern Spain more than a decade ago.

A man accused of killing two women at a Kentucky church on Sunday had been scheduled for a domestic violence hearing the following day.

Clashes between Syrian government forces and Druze armed groups have escalated, drawing Israeli intervention and raising fears of a breakdown in the country’s fragile postwar order.

Many Native Americans are marking ceremonies like graduations with bald eagle feathers, a form of reverence for the bird they have always held sacred as a messenger to the Creator.

Health officials in Gaza say Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 32 people, including six children at a water collection point.

White Sox great Paul Konerko got a present from one No. 14 to another in honor of the 20th anniversary of the 2005 World Series championship run — a jersey signed by noted Chicago fan Pope Leo XIV.

Witnesses and health workers say at least 31 Palestinians have been shot dead in Gaza while seeking food aid.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee warns that Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi faces threats to her life from Iranian security services.

Lebanon's president says his country has no plans to have normal relations with Israel at the present time.

A small town in Tennessee courted national publicity a century ago when it recruited a local teacher to challenge a state law banning the teaching of evolution.

Thousands of people from Bosnia and around the world are gathering in Srebrenica to mark the 30th anniversary of the massacre of more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim boys and men.

Broken glasses, watches, combs and crumpled, faded identification documents.

An independent investigator is being sanctioned by the United States over her work scrutinizing human rights abuses in the Palestinian territory.

The 1925 Scopes “Monkey Trial” in Tennessee, where a teacher was prosecuted for teaching evolution, continues to influence debates on religion in public schools.

Rescuers have found four more crew members from the ship Eternity C, which Yemen's Houthi rebels sank in the Red Sea.

A report is recommending Australian universities lose government funding unless they address attacks on Jewish students and for potential immigrants to be screened for political affiliations.

A surprise move by the IRS that would allow pastors to back political candidates from the pulpit without losing their organization’s tax-exempt status is drawing praise from conservatives and even some progressive religious groups but concern from other leaders of faith, along with tax and legal experts.

Catastrophic flooding in Texas has devastated faith-based summer camps, including Camp Mystic, where at least 27 people have died.

A brawl erupted in Armenia’s National Assembly involving an opposition lawmaker who later was stripped of his parliamentary immunity and faces prosecution for calling for the ouster of President Nikol Pashinyan.

A new AP-NORC poll finds most Americans do not want the government to focus on increasing birth rates, despite efforts by the Trump administration to make this a priority.

Erton Köhler, a pastor from Brazil, has been elected president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church General Conference.

The IRS says pastors endorsing political candidates during services should not risk losing their tax-exempt status.

The death toll from catastrophic flooding in Texas over the July Fourth weekend has surpassed 100.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is telling President Donald Trump that he is nominating the U.S. leader for a Nobel Peace Prize.

The death toll from flash floods that raged through central Texas has risen to 82 after searchers found more bodies.

Pope Leo XIV has arrived at the papal summer retreat of Castel Gandolfo to start a six-week vacation.

Los Angeles is home to the largest Iranian community outside Iran.

Pope Leo XIV is signalling his commitment to continuing the fight against clergy sexual abuse.

The Dalai Lama says he hopes to live until he is over 130 years old, a remark he made during a ceremony organized by his followers to offer prayers for his long life as he prepares to celebrate his 90th birthday.

Pope Leo XIV is starting a six-week vacation this weekend at the papal summer retreat south of Rome.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised continued trade and investment in Trinidad and Tobago in an address to the nation’s parliament.

President Donald Trump says he didn’t know that the term “shylock” is considered antisemitic when he used it in a speech to describe unscrupulous moneylenders.

The Supreme Court will consider whether to revive a lawsuit from a man barred from evangelizing outside a small-town Mississippi amphitheater after authorities say he shouted insults at people over a loudspeaker.

Amnesty International has issued a report saying a controversial system to distribute aid in Gaza uses starvation tactics against Palestinians to continue to commit genocide in the Gaza Strip during Israel’s war with Hamas.

Israeli airstrikes and shootings have killed 94 Palestinians in Gaza, including 45 who were attempting to get much-needed humanitarian aid.

A volunteer searching the archives of the American Baptist in Massachusetts has found a nearly 180-year-old document shedding light on the church's support for ending slavery.

Iran’s president has ordered the country to suspend its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency after American airstrikes hit its most-important nuclear facilities.

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has said the centuries-old Tibetan Buddhist institution will continue after his death, ending speculation ignited by his remark that he might be the last person to hold the role.

Iran is assessing the damage and lashing out over the American and Israeli airstrikes that damaged its nuclear sites.

Witnesses and medics in Gaza say an Israeli airstrike on a seaside cafe has killed at least 30 people in Gaza City.

Zohran Mamdani, an outspoken critic of Israel, is the expected Democratic nominee for mayor in America’s most Jewish city and that's raising alarms among some in the New York's Jewish community.

Pope Leo XIV is marking a feast day as the Vatican launches a new campaign to boost donations from the faithful.

U.S. President Donald Trump is urging a ceasefire deal on the war in Gaza.

The Rev. James Kelly baptized and married thousands of people, ministered to the ill at hospitals, and traveled the world.

Health workers in Gaza say Israeli strikes killed at least 72 people across Gaza overnight and into Saturday.

Israeli leaders are denying claims that soldiers were ordered to shoot at Palestinians approaching aid sites in Gaza.

A lawyer says the Supreme Court's ruling that Maryland parents who have religious objections can pull their children from public school lessons using LGBTQ storybooks is a historic victory for parental rights.

The Supreme Court has preserved a key part of the Affordable Care Act’s preventive health care coverage requirements, rejecting a challenge from Christian employers to the provision that affects 150 million Americans.

Security forces faced off with crowds at the headquarters of the Armenian Apostolic Church as the government sought to arrest a cleric in the latest move against outspoken critics of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The U.S. Catholic Church is grappling with a severe priest shortage.

The Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, recently ordained 12 new Catholic priests in a joyful Mass at its cathedral.

Israel’s air force has carried out intense airstrikes on mountains overlooking a southern Lebanon city.

Palestinian hospital officials say an Israeli airstrike has hit a street in central Gaza, killing 18 people.

The Vatican Museums has unveiled the last and most important of the restored Raphael Rooms.

A new poll finds few Americans support allowing religious schools to become tax-funded public charter schools.

The first female Orthodox saint in North America was an Indigenous woman who spent her entire life with her Yup'ik family and neighbors in a village in southwest Alaska.

The Orthodox Church in America has its first female saint from North America.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says his country has delivered a "slap to America’s face” with its strike on an American base in Qatar and warned against any further U.S. attacks on Iran.

The families of hostages held in Gaza have faced a 20-month-long nightmare.

The bombing has quieted in Iran’s 12-day conflict with Israel, but the battle over the future of Tehran is likely to soon begin.

Zohran Mamdani had been a state lawmaker unknown even to most New Yorkers before announcing his run for mayor.

A group of Dallas-area families and faith leaders has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block a new Texas law requiring the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.

One of Armenia’s top religious leaders was arrested on terrorism charges and accused of plotting to overthrow the government, the second arrest in a week of a prominent political opponent.

Pope Leo XIV has affirmed that priests must be celibate.

The fast-changing war between Israel and Iran, which the U.S. recently inserted itself in by targeting Iran’s nuclear sites, has caused a mix of emotions among many in the Iranian diaspora in America.

The fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran appeared to be holding on Wednesday while U.S. President Donald Trump said that U.S. and Iranian officials will talk next week.

Israel is reporting one of its deadliest days in Gaza in months as its military says seven soldiers have been killed in a bomb attack.

Charities received $592.5 billion in donations in 2024, a 3.3% increase over 2023, after adjusting for inflation, according to the most recent ”Giving USA″ report, which takes a comprehensive look at U.S. philanthropy.

Pope Leo XIV is kicking off a weeklong celebration of Catholic clergy for the Holy Year.

Palestinian witnesses and hospitals say Israeli forces and drones have opened fire toward hundreds of people waiting for aid in southern and central Gaza, killing at least 44 people.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal of a former Louisiana prison inmate whose dreadlocks were shaved by guards in violation of his religious beliefs.

A pastor says God had a hand in preventing a mass shooting at his suburban Detroit church where more than 100 people had gathered to worship.

The death toll from a suicide bomb attack on a church in Syria has risen to 25, state media say.

Muslims will soon welcome a new lunar year in what's known as the Hijri calendar.

Texas will require all public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments under a new state law that will make the state the nation’s largest to attempt to impose such a mandate.

Pope Leo XIV has said there should be no tolerance in the Catholic Church for any type of abuse.

A panel of three federal appellate judges has ruled that a Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in each of the state’s public school classrooms is unconstitutional.

Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil has been released from federal immigration detention.

A week into their war, Israel and Iran have exchanged more strikes while diplomatic efforts led by the Europeans took place in Geneva.

Iranian missiles have hit a major hospital in southern Israel and struck residential buildings in Tel Aviv, wounding 240 people and causing extensive damage.

Ground had been broken in Virginia for the rebuilding of one of the nation’s oldest Black churches.

A televangelist in Kenya who was notorious for claiming to cure infertility in women died in a car crash on Tuesday.

U.S. efforts resulted in the release of 135 Nicaraguan political prisoners including faith leaders in September 2024.

Hundreds of Jews from the United States and elsewhere have been evacuated from Israel aboard a cruise ship to Cyprus.

Explosions were heard in Iran's capital as Israeli warplanes pounded Tehran throughout the day and night.

Mother Emanuel AME church made an ecumenical gesture for the commemoration of a racist shooting that killed nine of its Black members 10 years ago on Tuesday.

In the south of Italy, Matera is known as the “City of Stones” for its architecture.

U.S. President Donald Trump has posted an ominous message on his social media site, calling for the immediate evacuation of Tehran but later denied reports that he'd rushed back to Washington to work on a ceasefire.

Residents of Iran’s capital were seen leaving the city and shops and the historic Grand Bazaar were closed Tuesday, the fifth day of the intensifying conflict started by Israel.

Intense Israeli airstrikes targeted Iran’s capital early Wednesday after it issued a warning about a new area it could target, a day after U_S_ President Donald Trump demanded “unconditional surrender.”.

New Jersey’s Supreme Court says the state can have a grand jury investigate allegations of clergy sexually abusing children and report findings.

Israel's opposition leader pushed just days ago to topple Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

Officials in Ireland are starting work to excavate the site of a former church-run home for unmarried women and their babies to identify the remains of some 800 infants and young children who died there.

The Vatican has beatified a Congolese government worker who was killed for resisting corruption, giving young people in a part of the world wracked with violence a new model of holiness.