At his daily morning Mass Thursday, Pope Francis preached on false models of Christian living, warning his hearers against privatizing salvation and forming elite church cliques, rather than living as members of the people of God.
Pope Francis pulled off his kid gloves Wednesday, denouncing in the strongest terms what he called a “society without fathers.”
With the rise of the Islamic State, the rich, 2,000-year history of Christianity in Iraq–historically home to a large Christian population–has been significantly threatened. Many historic Christian monuments have been targeted for destruction, leaving the responsibility to preserve the nation’s Christian history to the monks remaining there.
“God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline,” said Pope Francis Monday, citing Saint Paul. The Pope went after spiritual wimpiness, saying that timidity and shame are the enemies of Christians.
We are accustomed to hearing Democrats blame everything–from the moon rising to the sun setting–on Republicans, but now, former Harry Reid aide Ari Rabin-Havt has made a claim that takes the cake.
A Christian woman is taking her employer, an NHS Trust, to an employment tribunal after they disciplined her for misconduct because she prayed for a Muslim colleague who was unwell. She is accusing the trust of discrimination, and wants them
In Sunday’s Mass in Rizal Park, Manila, Pope Francis told the throng of some 6 million that the devil’s lies are the greatest threat to God’s plan for our lives. “Often he hides his snares behind the appearance of sophistication, the allure of being ‘modern,’ ‘like everyone else,’” the Pope said.
Following Wednesday’s Islamist attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, the Associated Press has removed an image of Andres Serrano’s 1987 photograph Piss Christ from its image bank.
Wednesday’s attack on the Paris offices of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, in which 12 people were killed, caused “abhorrence” in the Vatican, according to sources at the Holy See press office.
In a significant gesture, the Turkish government has authorized the construction of a Syriac Christian church in Istanbul, the first to be built since the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923. The decision came during a meeting on Friday
After his midday “Angelus” prayer Tuesday, Pope Francis urged the tens of thousands gathered in Saint Peter’s Square to carry the Bible with them wherever they go.
Among the tens of thousands of Iraqi refugees and displaced people sheltered in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, forty babies were baptized Tuesday, on the Christian feast of Epiphany. “Today,” said Emil Shimoun Nona, the Chaldean archbishop of Mosul,
A new study in the China Economic Review exploring the impact of religious beliefs on economic development has found that “Christianity has the most significant effect on economic growth” and that the steady increase of Christianity has played an important role in China’s economic rise.
National Public Radio aired a remarkable interview on Sunday’s Weekend Edition with Allan Edwards, a Presbyterian pastor who is gay, yet lives a heterosexual life. The conversation between NPR’s Renee Montaigne and Edwards–and his wife–sheds light on an often overlooked constituency in the debate over gay marriage.
Pope Francis announced his list of fifteen new cardinals-to-be Sunday, concentrating on developing nations, some of whom have never had a cardinal before. They will be made cardinals at Saint Peter’s Basilica on February 14. The Pope’s picks for the
Iran’s “morality police” arrested nine Christians on Christmas Day, presumably for celebrating the seminal holiday, though authorities did not give reason for the arrest. Heavily armed agents transferred the nine people to an unnamed location.
A substantial majority of Americans believe in life after death, according to a new study by the Austin Institute for the Study of Family and Culture.
Roberts’s new message of “positive faith,” in which religion could help with personal needs—from addictions to job searches—took him to a larger congregation in Tulsa and eventually around the world and on television.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei decided to jump into the American debate on Twitter concerning police shootings of black criminal suspects.
Though the Chinese Communist Party is the largest explicitly atheist organization in the world, with 85 million official members, it is now overshadowed by an estimated 100 million Christians in China. It is no wonder Beijing is nervous and authorities are cracking down on Christian groups.
Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish man who fired two bullets at point blank range into Pope John Paul II’s body in May 1981, paid a visit to the Pope’s grave on Saturday, laying two bunches of white roses at the site. It was Ali Agca’s first visit to the Vatican since the assassination attempt.
According to Joshua DuBois, a longtime spiritual adviser to Obama who led the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships during the president’s first term, the reason President Obama does not regularly attend church is that he worries that his presence detracts from other worshipers’ experience.
The Pope compared the witness of Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr, to the many Christians of today “who are discriminated against, persecuted and killed for their testimony to Christ.” There are “many, many” martyrs today, the Pope insisted. “I
HAVERHILL, Mass. (AP) — Police say someone stole a baby Jesus statue from a Nativity scene on Christmas morning and replaced it with a real pig’s head.
Egyptian authorities have raised their terror alert status to the highest level and are reportedly prepared for potential attacks on Christmas and New Year’s Eve from radial Islamic groups in the nation’s places of worship.
