Religion News

Evangelical Christian conservatives have long had allies in top Republican leadership in Congress.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Amid the latest bloodshed in the Middle East, Pope Francis led special Friday evening prayers in St. Peter’s Basilica for a world “in a dark hour” and in “great danger” from what he described as the folly of war.

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s first official probe of sex abuse by clergy members or other people connected to the Catholic Church in the country included a survey that indicated that the number of victims could run into hundreds of thousands.

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has ordered the Vatican to reopen the case of a well-known priest-artist accused of sexually, psychologically and spiritually abusing adult women , and removed the statute of limitations that had previously prevented a church

Thanks to a rabble-rousing, socialist priest, it’s a milestone year for direct democracy in the U.S.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The Turkish Republic, founded from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire by the national independence hero Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, turns 100 on Oct. 29.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops and tanks briefly raided northern Gaza overnight, the military said Thursday, engaging with Hamas fighters and targeting anti-tank weapons in order to “prepare the battlefield” before an expected ground invasio

SHANGRI-LA TOWN, China (AP) — First-grade students, hands folded on their desks, watch a teacher write a brush-like stroke on a blackboard in their Tibetan alphabet. Outside, craggy mountains climb toward the brightest of blue skies.

JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — A man accused of murder, attempted murder and a hate crime in an attack on a Palestinian-American woman and her son was indicted Thursday by an Illinois grand jury.

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden reportedly withdrew the residence permit of an Iraqi man who staged a series of public desecrations of the Quran this year but put his deportation on hold, saying his life would be in danger if he were returned to Iraq.