RELIGION

When Brazilian soccer player Paulinho scored a goal at the Tokyo Olympics, he celebrated by pointing an imaginary arrow at the flashing cameras as homage to a deity in his persecuted Afro-Brazilian faith.

Early next month, the Vatican will open an unprecedented gathering of Catholic clergy and laypeople from around the world.

Pope Francis is labeling the weapons industry as being a key driver of the “martyrdom” of Ukraine’s people in Russia’s war.

The landmark Washington National Cathedral has unveiled new stained-glass windows with a theme of racial justice.

Pope Francis is challenging French President Emmanuel Macron and other European leaders to open their ports to people fleeing hardship and poverty.

A human rights foundation says a prominent Uyghur scholar specializing in the study of her people’s folklore and traditions has been sentenced to life in prison in China.

Catholic church officials in Germany say a statue of late Cardinal Franz Hengsbach will be removed from outside a cathedral after allegations of sexual abuse against him surfaced.

A United Methodist Church court has acquitted a California bishop of all charges in the first trial of one of the church’s bishops in nearly a century.

Pope Francis has blasted what he calls the “fanaticism of indifference” that greets migrants seeking a better life in Europe.

The Biden administration has pledged over $200 million toward reintroducing salmon in the Upper Columbia River Basin in an agreement with tribes that includes a stay on litigation for 20 years.

Several Catholic priests have held a ceremony blessing same-sex couples outside Cologne cathedral in a protest against the city’s conservative archbishop Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki.

Iran’s parliament has approved a bill to impose heavier penalties on women who refuse to wear the mandatory Islamic headscarf in public and those who support them.

Pope Francis is travelling to the French port city of Marseille to join Catholic bishops in a meeting focusing on the Mediterranean and migration.

A clergy sex abuse scandal involving Chile’s most notorious pedophile, the priest Fernando Karadima, shook the South American country in 2010 in a way never seen in Latin America.

Tunisian President Kais Saied’s remarks that have been denounced as antisemitic have prompted an uproar on social media across the world.

Women who say they were abused by a once-prominent Jesuit artist say they are now being revictimized by his superiors.

India has expelled a senior Canadian diplomat and is accusing Canada of interfering in its internal affairs.

Some of Donald Trump’s top Republican rivals addressed a large, influential gathering of Iowa evangelical Christians on Saturday night.

Hundreds of people have gathered in central London to mark the anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini.

Newly discovered correspondence in the Vatican archives suggests that Pope Pius XII had detailed information from a trusted German Jesuit that up to 6,000 Jews and Poles were being gassed each day in German-occupied Poland.

Pope Francis’ Ukraine peace envoy has discussed the need to resume the stalled Ukraine grain export deal to feed the world’s hungry during a meeting with a Chinese official in Beijing.

In the small town of Lamego in Portugal's Douro River Valley, where harvesting grapes for wine is in full swing in early September, one of Portugal’s largest and oldest religious festivals draws thousands.

Ahead of the High Holidays that begin this week, a network of Jewish security experts and religious leaders in the U.S. hosted several webinars to help prepare for the season.

The Vatican has beatified a Polish family of nine including children who were all executed for having sheltered Jews during World War II.

Paris has rescinded a special honor it bestowed on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas because of recent antisemitic comments minimizing the Holocaust.

India, the host nation of this year’s Group of 20 summit, has two official names.

A Louisiana grand jury has charged a now-91-year-old disgraced priest with sexually assaulting a teenage boy in 1975.

Researchers have discovered new documentation that substantiates reports that Catholic convents and monasteries in Rome sheltered Jews during World War II.

The archive of the Vicariate of Solidarity gives an account of a painful episode in Chile’s history: 47,000 instances of human rights violations during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, who took power after a military coup that deposed President Salvador Allende 50 years ago.

Ukraine’s Greek Catholic bishops have brought their complaints about the Vatican's diplomatic neutrality in Russia's war on their country to the Holy See itself.

Pope Francis has defended the decision to keep the discussions of a big Vatican meeting on the future of the Catholic Church behind closed doors.

Pope Francis is wrapping up the first-ever papal visit to Mongolia.

Pope Francis has sent a special greeting to China’s “noble” people.

Iraqi medical officials say 18 people have been killed after a bus carrying pilgrims to the Iraqi city of Karbala overturned north of Baghdad.

Pope Francis has praised Mongolia’s tradition of religious freedom dating to the times of founder Genghis Khan during the first-ever papal visit to the Asian nation.

French President Emmanuel Macron says public school students won’t get past the door if they show up dressed in long robes mainly worn by Muslims.

An assistant high school football coach in Washington state who lost his job during a controversy over his public post-game prayers was back on the field after the U.S. Supreme Court held his practice was protected by the Constitution.

Pope Francis has arrived in Mongolia to encourage one of the world’s smallest and newest Catholic communities.

Faith has a deep-rooted presence at the Minnesota State Fair, from the decades-old Lutheran and Methodist dining halls to an evangelical chapel handing out thousands of free Bibles to a booth seeking to combat misinformation about Islam.

A Massachusetts judge has ruled that a once-powerful Roman Catholic cardinal is not competent to stand trial on charges he sexually assaulted a teenage boy decades ago.

Pope Francis is travelling to Mongolia this week to minister to one of the world's tiniest and newest Catholic communities, the first-ever visit by a Roman pontiff to the East Asian country.

The government of President Daniel Ortega described the Jesuit-run University of Central America in Nicaragua as a “center of terrorism” and seized its property, buildings and bank accounts on August 16.

France’s education minister has announced a ban on long robes in classrooms starting with the new school year, saying the garments worn mainly by Muslims are testing secularism in the nation’s schools.

Pope Francis has blasted the “backwardness” of some conservatives in the U.S. Catholic Church.

An Australian court has allowed a civil case to proceed against a Catholic archdiocese involving child sex abuse allegations against late Cardinal George Pell.

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition says it will digitize 20,000 archival pages related to Quaker-operated Indian boarding schools.

Bagungu people who farm and worship in an oil-rich, remote region in Uganda are worried about the future of their sacred natural sites.

South Carolina Republicans Nikki Haley and Tim Scott once were allies and now they're rivals in the race to be the next president.

The March on Washington of 1963 is remembered most for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

A Swiss citizen has been arrested in military-ruled Myanmar for creating a film that allegedly insulted Buddhism.

After Bradley Cooper’s prosthetic nose in the trailer for the upcoming Leonard Bernstein biopic “Maestro” stoked criticism of antisemitism, the conductor’s children have come to the defense of the actor.

Sweden has raised its terrorism alert level one notch, to the second highest following recent Quran burnings in the Scandinavian country, which sparked angry demonstrations in Muslim nations.

Police in eastern Pakistan have arrested 129 Muslims after a mob angered over an alleged desecration of a Quran by two men attacked more than a dozen churches and homes of minority Christians.

Hillsong Church founder Brian Houston has been ruled not guilty of an Australian charge of concealing his father’s child sex crimes.

The Jesuits say Nicaragua's government has confiscated the University of Central America in Nicaragua, which is one of the region’s most highly regarded colleges.

A court watchdog has filed a complaint against the federal judge who ordered “religious-liberty training” for a trio of Southwest Airlines lawyers.

An ancient Holy Land mosaic inscribed with an early reference to Jesus as God is at the center of a controversy that has riled archaeologists.

Thousands of people representing scores of religions and belief systems are expected to convene in Chicago for a weeklong event.

A senior Swedish official says Swedes abroad and businesses linked to Sweden “should observe increased vigilance and caution,” following recent Quran burnings in the country and protests in the Muslim world.

For scores of families still hoping to reunite with loved ones, it was not yet time to give up, even as Hawaii authorities predict that more remains would be found in the ashes left behind by a wildfire that gutted the once-bustling town of Lahaina.

A small number of Russian Orthodox priests are publicly opposing their leader's support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and they're suffering the consequences.

A judge's order requiring “religious-liberty training” by a conservative Christian group is stirring debate among legal scholars.

A summer sleepaway camp in California serves as a haven for Jewish children of color.

When Makkabi Berlin takes the field this weekend, the soccer club founded by Holocaust survivors will become the first Jewish team to play in the German Cup.

Pope Francis says his recovery from his latest abdominal surgery is going well.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the 37-year-old biotech entrepreneur, is hovering among the top contenders as a Republican presidential candidate while being open about his Hindu faith.

Pope Francis has announced World Youth Day is returning to Asia for the first time in three decades.

An estimated 1.5 million young people filled a field in the Portuguese capital for Pope Francis’ World Youth Day vigil.

Authorities say a Tennessee man who attempted to enter a Jewish school with a gun fired shots at a contractor there and later pointed his weapon at an officer before police wounded him on a residential street.

Pope Francis has led an estimated 800,000 people in a meditation on the scourges of violence, poverty and intolerance at World Youth Day.

The gunman who stormed a synagogue in the heart of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community and killed 11 worshippers has been formally sentenced to death.

Hundreds of thousands of flag-waving young people have given Pope Francis a raucous welcome to the World Youth Day festival in Portugal’s capital.

Russian shelling has damaged a landmark church in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson that held the remains of Prince Grigory Potemkin until last year.

An Indian court says officials can conduct a scientific survey of a 17th-century mosque in northern India to determine if it was built over Hindu temple.

Last October, sportswear giant Adidas cut ties with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, due to his antisemitic comments.

The gunman who stormed a synagogue in the heart of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community and killed 11 worshippers will be sentenced to death.

Pope Francis is beginning a five-day trip to Portugal for World Youth Day.

Pope Francis has met with survivors of clergy sexual abuse in Portugal, and the Vatican says he listened intently to them.

A jury is deliberating whether the man who killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue should receive the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

Indian authorities have imposed a curfew, suspended internet service and deployed thousands of paramilitary forces to parts of northern Haryana state after deadly communal clashes.

Memphis, Tennessee, police say officers shot a suspect after he attempted to enter a Jewish school with a gun and fired shots after he couldn’t get into the building.

A jury is set to deliberate whether to impose the death penalty or a sentence of life in prison without parole on a truck driver who fatally shot 11 worshippers at a synagogue in the heart of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community.

Pope Francis is embarking this week on a five-day trip to Portugal for World Youth Day.

Denmark’s foreign minister says the government will seek to make it illegal to desecrate the Quran or other holy books in front of foreign embassies.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday signed a law moving the official Christmas Day holiday to Dec. 25 from Jan. 7, the day when the Russian Orthodox Church observes it.

Compared with the devil, angels carry more credence in America.

The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group says that if governments of Muslim-majority nations do not act against countries that allow desecration of the Quran, Muslims should “punish” those who facilitate attacks on Islam's holy book.

A federal trial for a man who fatally shot 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue is approaching its conclusion as the defense makes its case that mental illness spurred the United States’ deadliest antisemitic attack.

A University of Notre Dame professor has filed a defamation lawsuit against a student-run publication over coverage of her abortion-rights work.

Millions of Shiite Muslims in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and around the world are commemorating Ashoura.

In 1992, Sinéad O’Connor destroyed a photo of Pope John Paul II on U.S. national television.

Pope Francis is making a five-day visit next week to Portugal, where a scandal that erupted earlier this year over Catholic Church sex abuse is still simmering.

In an escalation of Russia’s anger at Ukraine and its Western backers, Russia refused to speak at a U.N. Security Council meeting called to discuss Moscow’s recent attacks on Odesa.

Lawyers for the gunman who killed 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue have requested a court order to exhume the body of his long-dead father.

Pakistani police say a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest inside a roadside mosque when a police officer tried to arrest him after a chase in northwestern Pakistan, killing the officer.

The festival of Guelaguetza – the biggest cultural event in southwestern Mexico – showcases the traditions of 16 Indigenous ethnic groups and the Afro-Mexican community.

The military-controlled government of strife-torn Myanmar has unveiled a new giant statue of a sitting Buddha that is scheduled to be consecrated on Aug. 1.

For eight years, Donald Trump has managed to secure the support of many evangelical and conservative Christians despite behavior that has often seemed at odds with teachings espoused by Christ in the Gospels.

Thousands of people took to the streets in a handful of Muslim-majority countries to express their outrage at the desecration of a copy of the Quran in Sweden.

The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem made their way to Israel from the United States in the 1960s.