RELIGION

The Vatican cardinal accused in a class-action lawsuit in Canada of sexual assault against a woman has denied any inappropriate behavior.

Nicaraguan police have raided the residence of a Roman Catholic bishop, detaining him and several other people holed up inside for two weeks.

The Osun River flows through a forest designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Italian environmental activists have staged a second museum protest in as many months.

An Arizona judge has ruled that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints may not use the state's “clergy-penitent privilege” to refuse to answer questions or turn over documents in a child sex-abuse case.

The Vatican says a preliminary church investigation into sexual assault allegations by a Canadian woman against a top cardinal has determined the case doesn’t warrant further investigation.

After Roe v. Wade was overturned, some faith leaders in Texas rallied in favor of abortion access and offer supportive spiritual counsel for those who have sought abortion.

Thousands of Unification Church followers have rallied in South Korea protesting negative Japanese media coverage after the suspect in the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe blamed the church for his family’s troubles.

Symbolically and spiritually, the Jordan River in the Middle East is of mighty significance to many as where the Bible says Jesus got baptized.

Nepal’s most sacred river is also its most polluted.

Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, the leader of the San Antonio Archdiocese and one of the top two Catholic leaders in Texas, shared his thoughts about Gov. Greg Abbott’s handling of the Uvalde school shooting massacre in an emotional interview.

Last year, U.S. Jesuits announced a racial reconciliation initiative in partnership with descendants of people once enslaved by the Catholic order.

A mural painted by a Lithuanian immigrant in a Vermont synagogue more than 100 years ago has been painstakingly restored and moved.

In the 1980s, Wilbur Slockish Jr. served 20 months in federal prison on charges of illegally poaching salmon from the Columbia River.

The Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest, which Natives call Nch’i-Wána, or “the great river,” has sustained Indigenous people in the region for millennia.

Five years ago, the Whanganui River was recognized as a living person in a groundbreaking New Zealand law.

In 2017, New Zealand passed a groundbreaking law granting personhood status to the Whanganui River.

Nicaragua’s government recently shuttered seven radio stations belonging to the Catholic Church.

Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention say that several of their denomination’s major entities are under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

New Mexico prosecutors are amassing evidence they hope will convince a judge that the Afghan refugee suspected of killing four Muslim men should remain jailed pending his trial.

Pope Francis has met with a fourth group of transgender people who found shelter at a Rome church.

A top Lutheran bishop issued a public apology to a majority Latino congregation in California for how they were treated after their pastor was fired by the denomination's first transgender bishop.

A Vatican cardinal has marked the 80th anniversary of the gas chamber killing of the Jewish-born Catholic convert Edith Stein.

Police have announced a breakthrough in the killings of four Muslim men in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Pope Francis is offering support to firefighters and search crews in Cuba following explosions at a big oil tank farm in the western province of Matanzas.

Authorities have identified the fourth victim in a series of killings of Muslim men in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as the deaths sent ripples of fear through Islamic communities nationwide.

Worshippers, tourists and visitors around the world are increasingly joining virtual reality spiritual trips to some of Earth’s most sacred sites.

Residents of the impoverished Baghdad suburb of Sadr City say they support an influential Shiite cleric who called on thousands of his followers to storm Iraq's parliament.

Pope Francis has promoted a Vatican nurse to be his “personal health care assistant” The Vatican announced the appointment of Massimiliano Strappetti on Thursday.

Pope Francis has marked the second anniversary of the Lebanon port explosion by insisting that truth and justice “can never be hidden.”.

Britain’s Supreme Court has refused to prevent a hospital withdrawing life support from a 12-year-old boy with catastrophic brain, damage.

The Vatican says Pope Francis will travel next month to Kazakhstan.

More than 1,000 years after his death in what is now Poland, a Danish king whose nickname is known to the world through wireless Bluetooth technology is at the center of an archaeological dispute.

Pope Francis says he can no longer travel like he used to because of his strained knee ligaments.

Pope Francis says the attempt to eliminate Indigenous culture in Canada through its residential school system amounted to a cultural “genocide.”.

Pope Francis wrapped up his Canadian pilgrimage by meeting with Indigenous delegations and visiting Inuit territory in northern Nunavut.

Pope Francis has come face-to-face with a long-standing demand from Indigenous peoples during his Canada pilgrimage.

The Canadian government says Pope Francis’ apology to Indigenous peoples for abuses they suffered in the country’s church-run residential schools didn’t go far enough.

Pope Francis has arrived in Quebec at a time when many French Canadians are not only continuing to move away from religion but explicitly rejecting it.

It was a stunning image: Pope Francis briefly wearing a full Indigenous headdress, after he apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s “disastrous” residential school system for Indigenous children.

Pope Francis is visiting a Canada that is less Catholic, more secular and more religiously diverse than the last time the country hosted a pontiff two decades ago.

Pope Francis is praying in Canada for healing from the “terrible effects of colonization.”.

Pope Francis's apology for the Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s abusive residential schools was a full-throated denunciation of a decadeslong policy of forced assimilation that aimed to strip Indigenous children of their culture and traumatized generations.

Pope Francis has apologized for the Catholic Church’s cooperation with Canada’s “catastrophic” policy of Indigenous residential schools.

Across the U.S., numerous Republican-governed states are pushing for sweeping bans on abortion.

Pope Francis plans to apologize to Indigenous groups on Canadian soil for harms inflicted at church-run residential schools.

Pope Francis has landed in Canada, beginning a historic visit to apologize to Indigenous peoples for abuses by missionaries at residential schools.

Police in Mecca say they have arrested a Saudi man who helped an Israeli-Jewish reporter sneak into Islam's holiest city where only Muslim are allowed to enter.

Pope Francis’ trip to Canada to apologize for the horrors of church-run Indigenous residential schools marks a radical rethink of the Catholic Church’s missionary legacy in the Americas.

Indigenous Canadians are voicing a range of skepticism, wariness and hope as Pope Francis prepares to arrive in their country next week.

She’s a vegetarian recovering from a C-section. Her in-laws are bringing meals to "help" her and her husband, but they all contain meat.

She is one of Californias two elected members of the Republican National Committee, and shes a co-chair of Women for Trump that is part of the presidents reelection campaign. She chaired the city's Republican Party before winning election as vice chair of the state GOP in 2013. The governor's policies and the policies of counties are falling more heavily on Democrats than Republicans because there are more Democrats than Republicans in the state, Dhillon said. Dhillon represented the California Republican Party in a successful challenge last year to a law aimed at requiring Trump to release his tax returns to be on the California ballot. In fact its reinforcing the bad image of the Republican Party," he said of Dhillon's recent lawsuits.

(AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)ATHENS One by one, the children and adults line up for the centuries-old ritual of Holy Communion, trying to keep a proper social distance. Contrary to what science says, the Greek Orthodox Church insists it is impossible for any disease including the coronavirus to be transmitted through Holy Communion. In mid-March, the Russian Orthodox Church released instructions on adjusting the sacrament during the pandemic. In Ethiopia, which has the largest Orthodox Christian flock outside Europe, the ritual is unchanged, as it is in the Georgian Orthodox Church. For scientists, concern is tempered by knowing that opposing the powerful Orthodox Church, with a majority of Greeks as believers, could be counterproductive.

(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)CONSTANTA Stretching the church calendar, Orthodox Easter arrived over a month late in a Romanian city on the shores of the Black Sea. Wanting to give worshippers the opportunity to take part in what is considered to be the most important Christian celebration, Romanian Orthodox Archbishop Teodosie held an unprecedented Easter service Tuesday night that continued into the early hours of Wednesday. The rescheduled event, which was frowned upon by the leaders of Romanias Orthodox Church, the countrys dominant faith, was attended by hundreds of people. Christ is risen.The great majority of worshippers used masks to cover their faces, though Archbishop Teodosie and many of the services other celebrants did not. Some people traveled to the service, held outside the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, from as far away as Romanian capital Bucharest, about 225 kilometers (140 miles) to the west.

VATICAN CITY The founder of the Knights of Colombus, the influential U.S.-based lay Catholic organization, is moving a step closer to possible sainthood. Michael McGivney, a Connecticut priest who died at age 38 of pneumonia in 1890 during a pandemic similar to the current coronavirus outbreak. He would be the first U.S. parish priest to be beatified, the first major step before canonization. The organization is also an insurer, boasting more than $100 billion in financial protection for members and their families. No date has been set for the beatification, which the Knights said would be held in Connecticut.

On Monday, the state released a framework that will permit counties to allow in-person worship services. Orange County supervisors may consider a resolution being introduced Tuesday to reopen houses of worship next weekend under federal and state health guidelines. The state guidelines limit gatherings to 25% of building capacity or 100 people, whichever is lower. Our church and places of worship across California have suffered greatly because our leaders chose to marginalize and criminalize faith-based gatherings," Pastor Jon Duncan said in a statement. Two church services that already were held without authorization have been sources of outbreaks; one in Mendocino County and the other in Butte County.

The Trump administration is warning Nevada's Democratic governor that his plan for reopening the state during recovery from the coronavirus fails to treat religious and secular gatherings equally. That phased-in reopening restricts the size of in-person worship services, while allowing restaurants and other secular establishments to reopen with less stringent occupancy restrictions, the federal official said. We are concerned, however, that the flat prohibition against ten or more persons gathering for in-person worship services regardless of whether they maintain social distancing guidelines impermissibly treats religious and nonreligious organizations unequally." Gavin Newsom later released guidelines for resuming in-person religious services in his state. A spokeswoman for Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford referred a request for comment to the governor.

Published: May 25, 2020, 1:53 am Updated: May 25, 2020, 8:02 amIndian Muslims gather for Eid al-Fitr prayers inside their house in New Delhi, India, Monday, May 25, 2020. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)DHAKA Muslims in India and Bangladesh joined prayers to celebrate a subdued Eid-al Fitr on Monday, marking the end of the Ramadan holy month by seeking blessings for a world free from coronavirus. Across India, government leaders and imams appealed to Eid celebrants to follow lockdown norms and maintain social distance. Its been 1,400 years since the Islam religion was founded, ... even our elders could never imagine that we will have to celebrate Eid in such a way, said businessman Shehzad Khan. "That money we have given them so that they too can celebrate Eid with us, Khan said.

FILE - In this April 6, 2020 file photo, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, front, celebrates the Chrism Mass for the faithful of the nation's largest Catholic Archdiocese in Los Angeles. Others with outbreaks such as Los Angeles County, which has about 60% of Californias roughly 3,800 deaths may choose to delay. Two church services that already were held without authorization have been sources of outbreaks; one in Mendocino County and the other in Butte County. The nonprofit Center for American Liberty, which has filed several lawsuits over church restrictions, said the guidelines dont go far enough. More than 150 employees at a Farmer John meatpacking plant in Vernon, an industrial city south of Los Angeles, contracted the coronavirus.

Andy Beshears temporary ban on mass gatherings from applying to in-person religious services, clearing the way for Sunday church services, with guidelines. They made their plans to hold in-person services three weeks ago. Copeland said Fridays CDC release of religious guidelines made it all the more legit for the timing of their return to in-church services. While many announced they would resume in-person services next Sunday on Pentecost, others joined Stithton today in returning to their places of worship. Many in California had already announced they would violate the state order and hold in-person services next Sunday, on Pentecost.

Organizers hand out treats during a drive through Eid al-Fitr celebration outside a closed mosque in Plano, Texas, Sunday, May 24, 2020. Many Muslims in America are navigating balancing religious and social rituals with concerns over the virus as they look for ways to capture the Eid spirit this weekend. The Eid prayer normally attracts particularly large crowds. The Fiqh Council of North America, a body of Islamic scholars, encouraged Muslims to perform the Eid prayer at home. In Florida, the Islamic Center of Osceola County, Masjid Taqwa held the Eid prayer outdoors in the parking lot after announcing social distancing rules.

WYLIE, Texas The mayor of a Dallas suburb told a fellow City Council member in an email that women shouldnt be allowed to lead prayer at public meetings because he believes it goes against teachings in the Bible. Wylie Mayor Eric Hogue quoted two New Testament scriptures in the email sent to City Council member Jeff Forrester in which he suggested that the council instead select young men to give the invocation at the next meeting on May 26. All I ask is that those leading the public prayer be young men, Hogue, who is currently serving his last term as mayor after 12 years, wrote on May 17. I believe a lady can be CEO of a company, the superintendent of a school district. But I believe, and this is me, when it comes to (picking) somebody to lead the invocation at a City Council meeting, because of those two sets of verses, Im going to choose a male.

We got to get our churches open.The church guidance is coming out hopefully soon, CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said Thursday afternoon. More than a month ago, the CDC sent the Trump administration documents the agency had drafted with specific steps different types of organizations could follow as they gradually reopened. The Trump administration initially shelved all the documents, but they were obtained by The Associated Press and other news organizations. But on Thursday, Trump painted a different picture, suggesting he had prodded CDC to put out guidance to help churches reopen. Two senior administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations, said administration officials did have concerns on religious freedom but those were resolved.

Martinez lost both parents to the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit New York's Hispanic population particularly hard. With her parents now gone, Martinez and her daughter dont have family in the U.S. When pandemic restrictions ease, she said she hopes to send the ashes of her parents to the Mexican countryside they loved. The family has been helped by the Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Academy, where Stephany attends third grade. My parents, my grandparents just died,' said Jeanette Felix, the schools administrative assistant.

(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)NEW YORK U.S. health officials have quietly released more reopening guidance that was created more than a month ago but initially shelved. More than a month ago, CDC gave White House officials a more detailed version of decision tools and additional pages of guidance. The White House initially shelved all the guidance, though news organizations including The Associated Press obtained copies. Since then, the White House authorized release of some of the information. But the faith-related guidance was taken out after the White House raised concerns about the recommended restrictions.

(AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)NEW YORK New York will allow religious gatherings of up to 10 people as hospitalization rates continue to decline. More tests and outreach efforts are planned for hard-hit New York City neighborhoods. Coronavirus developments in New York:___RELIGIOUS SERVICESNew York will allow small religious gatherings starting Thursday as the state gradually loosens pandemic restrictions, Gov. Religious gatherings of up to 10 people will be allowed statewide as long as participants wear masks and practice social distancing. ___MORE NEIGHBORHOOD TESTINGCuomo said targeted testing and outreach will be expanded in low-income New York City neighborhoods that have been hotbeds of the outbreak.

ATLANTA Evangelist Ravi Zacharias, who built an international ministry that strives to defend Christianity on intellectual grounds, has died in Georgia. Zacharias died Tuesday at his home in Atlanta after a brief battle with sarcoma, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries said in a statement. Billy Graham invited Zacharias to preach at the inaugural International Conference for Itinerant Evangelists in Amsterdam in 1983, the organization said. The ministry's mission is helping the thinker believe and the believer think," it said in announcing the death of Zacharias. In an emotional video message, professional athlete Tim Tebow asked for prayers for Zacharias' family and ministry.

This combination of photos shows selfies of, Clarence Allen Rainwater and Dawn Burton Rainwater, from left, Robert Onishi and Chris Onishi, Kathryn Ray, Quinten Daulton and Eric Little. As the pandemic has changed the world, it has also revealed surprising traits within ourselves, both dormant and newly discovered. I may not be the smartest person, but I know I have a huge heart and a lot of empathy. Most of them had to use their time much differently than when we had school, Little said. Wright, a clinical psychologist and the APA's senior director for health care innovation, also studies the effects of trauma.

BEIJING China said Tuesday that a boy who disappeared 25 years ago after being picked by the Dalai Lama as Tibetan Buddhisms second-highest figure is now a college graduate with a stable job. He is generally viewed as a political figure under Beijing's control and shares none of the Dalai Lama's global fame. The Dalai Lama named the original Panchen Lama with the help of Tibetan lamas trained in reading portents and signs. Traditionally, the Panchen Lama has served as teacher and aide to the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhisms highest leader who is now 84 and is accused by Beijing of seeking independence for Tibet. The Dalai Lama denies that and says he advocates greater autonomy for the region.

The Sri Lankan couple cancelled a wedding party and instead, shared their wedding day with some of their neediest neighbors who have been economically hit due to the lock down following the new Coronavirus. (Darshana Kumara Wijenarayana via AP)COLOMBO As couples do all over the world, Darshana Kumara Wijenarayana and his fiance, Pawani Rasanga, spent months planning a grand wedding. And everything was on course for the Sri Lankan couple until the coronavirus struck the island nation off India's southern tip, leading to an indefinite lockdown. Then on March 11, the first Sri Lankan a tour guide tested positive for the virus, triggering fear and the closure of schools and universities and many businesses. As the couple's wedding day approached, the local curfew was lifted during daytime hours, so they were free to host the wedding as planned, albeit under strict social distancing guidelines.

FILE - In this 1979 file photo, Pope John Paul II, left, poses with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was elected Pope on April 19, 2005 and chose Benedict XVI as his papal name. Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI is honoring St. John Paul II on the centenary of his birth and floating the idea that he should be called the Great, as only two other popes have been. (AP Photo/File)WARSAW St. John Paul II was honored on the centennial of his birth Monday with special Masses at the Vatican and in his native Poland, an anniversary that comes as the Polish church finds itself confronted by new allegations of clerical sex abuse. Celebrating the memory of Saint John Paul II lets remember this: The Lord loves his people, he visited his people, he sent a shepherd.To Poles, John Paul is best remembered for using the papacy to shake the foundations of an oppressive communist system that was toppled across Eastern Europe 11 years into his papacy. And that issue has also been on people's minds in recent days because of a new documentary exposing alleged sex abuse in Poland's church.

Italy partially lifted lockdown restrictions Monday after a two-month coronavirus lockdown. Before I became a priest I was a surgeon, so for me gloves are normal, he joked afterward. The Vatican has its own post-lockdown reopening norms, and as a sovereign state, is not beholden to the Italian government measures. But Wodzisz was thrilled anyway to be able to celebrate the centenary of John Paul's birth by visiting his tomb. We came to be close to the tomb, but we got a Mass!"

He delivered victorious graduation marches and bellowing birthday celebrations, blaring the pipes and vibrating the pews every Sunday in between. He was unassuming, egoless and largely anonymous, but in the lives of generations of Catholics in communities around Massachusetts, Joseph Policelli played the soundtrack. Richard Fitzgerald, pastor of St. Columbkille Parish in Brighton, where Policelli was music director. At St. Columbkilles, Policelli was mostly out of sight in the choir loft, his back to the congregation. But as Christianity's biggest week of the year approached, he fretted one last time about his duty.

In this April 7, 2020, handout photo, Japneet Singh, right, delivers pizza to health care workers at Kings County Hospital in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Now, hes all about pizza. Singh and his family have paid for and delivered hundreds of pies to hospitals, police stations and fire departments since the gurdwara suspended in-person services. In New York, 25-year-old Japneet Singh, a fellow Sikh, also thought of pizza for under-resourced hospitals and overworked, minimum wage employees in the crosshairs of the virus. These are minimum-wage workers, Singh said.

Tibets self-declared government-in-exile marked the 25th anniversary of the disappearance of the boy named as Tibetan Buddhisms second highest figure by calling on China on Sunday, May 17, 2020 to account for his whereabouts. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia, File)BEIJING Tibets self-declared government-in-exile marked the 25th anniversary of the disappearance of a boy named as Tibetan Buddhisms second highest figure by calling on China on Sunday to account for his whereabouts. The dispute mainly focuses on political power and the arcane rituals for naming a new Panchen Lama, believed to be the reincarnation of his predecessor. Traditionally, the Panchen Lama has served as teacher and aide to the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhisms highest leader who is now 84 and accused by Beijing of seeking independence for Tibet. The 10th Panchen Lama was imprisoned by China and died under what some consider suspicious circumstances in 1989 after making speeches calling for greater religious and social freedoms for Tibetans.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)NEW YORK The coronavirus has prompted almost two-thirds of American believers of all faiths to feel that God is telling humanity to change how it lives, a new poll finds. Even some who dont affiliate with organized religion, such as Lance Dejesus of Dallastown, Pa., saw a possible bigger message in the virus. Forty-seven percent say they feel that strongly, compared with 37% of Latino and 27% of white Americans. But the virus has prompted negligible change in Americans overall belief in God, with 2% saying they believe in God today, but did not before. Overall, 82% of Americans say they believe in God, and 26% of Americans say their sense of faith or spirituality has grown stronger as a result of the outbreak.

Fabian Arias, from Buenos Aires, Argentina, is a Lutheran pastor at Saint Peters Church in Manhattan, and has performed funeral services 14 times in the last two months. Saturdays service for Lpez was the first hes been able to perform in a private residence. Were trying to get him to our town, for his mom, his dad, who are still alive in Mexico. Everybody is afraid, not only for ourselves, but for our community and especially Father Fabian and all the services hes doing.Its very dangerous for him. He is an ordained Lutheran pastor, not a Roman Catholic priest and hes a pastor at Saint Peters Church not Iglesia de Sion.

Win McNamee/Getty ImagesJACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A newly proposed bill in Florida would require public school districts across the state to offer Bible study courses as high school electives. The bill, 'Study of the Bible and Religion,' was filed last week by State Rep. Kimberly Daniels, a Democrat who represents the Jacksonville area. Under the bill, schools districts would be required to "offer specified courses relating to religion, Hebrew Scriptures, and the Bible to certain students as elective courses." The courses would include:An objective study of religion An objective study of the Bible, including, but not limited to, a course on the Hebrew Scriptures and Old Testament of the Bible, a course on the New Testament of the Bible, and a course on the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament of the Bible, and the New Testament of the Bible. The courses would be offered to high school students in grades 9 through 12.

Thursday on the "CBS Evening News," Scott Pelley sits down with five millennial Muslims to discuss what it's like being Muslim in America. One panelist explains why ISIS' actions go against the teachings of Islam.

Robber finds religion, turns himself in A robbery suspect in Louisiana has turned himself in for two crimes after religion turned him around. WAFB's Graham Ulkins reports.