Religious Articles

(RNS) — Oliver Ortega, a doctoral English student at the University of Notre Dame, said he began attending Mass regularly after arriving on campus, immersing himself in a faith he held only loosely while growing up in Queens, New York. “ I’ve become more Catholic, I...

LONDON (RNS) — In the heart of the city, on one of its most iconic streets, the side of a small, Baroque-style church has recently been draped in a shimmering curtain that casts a lavender-like hue at night. The dramatic installation, titled “Decades,” by the...

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — A Lithuanian court on Thursday convicted the leader of one of the parties in the country’s coalition government for making antisemitic comments and fined him 5,000 euros (about $5,800). The district court in the capital, Vilnius, found that...

LONDON (AP) — London’s Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square was lit up Thursday as part of a British tradition with roots in the Norwegian forest. The tree symbolizes the friendship between London and Oslo in an annual ceremony that highlights the history of the...

(RNS) — At first glance, the Nativity scene outside Lake Street Church in Evanston, Illinois, has all the traditional hallmarks: Figures resembling Mary and Joseph stand near a baby Jesus, who rests in a manger. But this year, the details are decidedly different. For...

JERUSALEM (AP) — Remains that militants in Gaza handed to Israel were those of Thai agricultural worker Sudthisak Rinthalak, Israeli and Thai officials said Thursday. The confirmation brought the first phase of Gaza’s tenuous 8-week-old ceasefire a step closer to...

(RNS) — In recent days, faith leaders across the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area have organized to protect Somali communities and houses of worship as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents launched an operation targeting undocumented Somali immigrants.  The...

(RNS) — The Vatican released a document Thursday (Dec. 4) stating that current church teaching does not permit women to be ordained as deacons, while emphasizing that the opinion is not a final ruling. The document, however, a summary of the work of a...

(RNS) — More than 50 faith, civil rights and other organizations launched a joint initiative to oppose the death penalty in the United States as the groups’ leaders say they have been alarmed by increases in its use over the past year. Laura Porter, executive director...

This article is one of a series on Catholic higher education. You can view all the stories here. (RNS) — Once a week the Rev. Mitchell J. Stevens, a Baptist minister and the interfaith chaplain at Xavier University of Louisiana, hosts an intimate gathering for...

(RNS) — When John Cooper, the frontman of Christian rock band Skillet, first saw that some called the band’s new cover of the Christian hymn “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” “demonic,” he thought it was a joke. “Truthfully, we haven’t had any pushback like that, probably in...

An instructor at the University of Oklahoma has been placed on leave after a student complained that she received a failing grade on a paper that cited the Bible to assert that the “belief in multiple genders” was “demonic.” Samantha Fulnecky, 20, filed a complaint...