Religious Articles

JERUSALEM (RNS) — Every year before Easter, Elias Hazin’s phone would ring with pilgrims booking trips to visit Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus. This year, Hazin says, there have been only cancellations. The tourism industry in Bethlehem is “basically dead,” said...

(RNS) — Influenced by a prominent pastor and a layman who led a prison ministry, George W. Bush in his first presidential administration embarked on an ambitious goal: to partner the federal government with faith-based groups. The concept already existed during the...

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — On the 10th anniversary of “Amoris Laetitia,” Pope Francis’ 2016 apostolic exhortation on marriage and family, Pope Leo XIV announced he will hold a gathering of presidents of bishops’ conferences at the Vatican to address the same topics in...

NEW YORK (RNS) — Since the start of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting and prayer, once lively group chats among New York’s West African Muslims have grown quieter. Fearing immigration enforcement operations, mosques have scaled back gatherings — even encouraging...

NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — As Pope Leo XIV prepares to travel to Africa, its Catholic leaders are underlining the significance of the visit to the continent, where Christianity is on an upsurge. Leo will visit Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea from April...

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Three suspected suicide bombings have killed at least 23 people and wounded 108 others in northeastern Nigeria, police said Tuesday. It was one of the deadliest attacks targeting the city of Maiduguri in recent history. Residents and...

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. human rights office Tuesday expressed concerns about possible “ethnic cleansing,” denouncing an acceleration of Israeli settlements and displacements of thousands of Palestinians in large parts of the occupied West Bank that has grown “more...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel killed two senior Iranian security officials in a major blow to the Islamic Republic’s leadership as it faces its greatest test in decades, and Iran responded Wednesday with renewed missile and drone attacks on its Gulf Arab...

(AP) – A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Texas to extend the application deadline for private school vouchers until March 31 due to the state’s exclusion of Islamic schools from the program. The extension comes after four Muslim parents and three Islamic private...

ST. LOUIS (RNS) — By day, he’s a third‑year medical student, hustling between operating rooms and cramming for exams. By night, he trades his scrubs for a thobe — an Islamic robe for men — and steps to the front of a carpeted prayer hall, leading rows of worshippers...

(RNS) — This week’s photo selection includes the final week of Ramadan, an attack on a Michigan synagogue and more. Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source

SÃO PAULO (RNS) — Once hailed by evangelical Christian leaders of different stripes for his support of their churches, Venezuela’s former President Nicolás Maduro, currently awaiting trial in a Brooklyn jail along with his wife, Cilia Flores, has apparently lost most...