Religion News Headlines

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) —         When it comes to Venezuela's growing scarcities, not even the Roman Catholic Church has received a dispensation.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The new head of the Vatican bank says his top priority is to clean up the bank's reputation, saying the institution hasn't served the pope well but provides valuable financial services to the Holy See and its clients that should continue.

By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican bank is checking the account of every client including Holy See employees, its new chief said, in a campaign to root out any money-laundering at an institution prone to scandals for decades. Ernst von Freyberg's predecessor was dismissed for poor management, and the …

Despite a rise religiously-motivated violence at home, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono addressed a wealthy crowd at New York’s Pierre hotel on Thursday night and accepted an award from an interfaith group for his work promoting religious freedom and human rights.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel police say an investigation is underway to find vandals who defaced one of Jerusalem's best known churches.

NEW YORK (AP) — Indonesia's president has accepted a statesmanship award from a U.S. interfaith foundation that says it hopes to encourage him to promote freedom of worship and tolerance in the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation.

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has again broken with the practice of his predecessors, walking the full length of an annual 1.5 kilometer (mile-long) procession from one Roman basilica to another.

In many professional fields, from neuroscience to evolutionary biology, it’s popular today to build entire careers on the study of religion. Where does faith come from? What does it achieve? Why is it so prevalent? And so on.

By Mary Wisniewski CHICAGO (Reuters) - Father Andrew M. Greeley, an outspoken Roman Catholic priest who wrote more than 50 novels and publicly feuded with his superior John Cardinal Cody, died at the age of 85 in his Chicago home, a spokeswoman said Thursday. "Father Andrew Greeley was the most influential American Catholic …

Religious groups sponsor nearly 70 percent of Boy Scout troops nationwide. But the reaction among these groups was as diverse as the congregations themselves when the Boy Scouts of America recently voted to allow openly gay boys to join.

By Andrew Cawthorne CARACAS (Reuters) - With no miracle in sight, Roman Catholic churches are being asked to ration wine in the latest shortage to illustrate Venezuela's economic troubles. "We're asking the priests and bishops to ration wine and look for alternatives during this emergency," said Jose Antonio Da Conceicao, …

NEW YORK (AP) — Indonesia's president is receiving an award for promoting religious freedom from a New York-based foundation, prompting anger from human rights groups that say the country is not doing enough to prevent attacks on religious minorities in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

By Alexandria Sage PARIS (Reuters) - A Muslim convert arrested on suspicion of stabbing a French soldier in a Paris suburb was motivated by religion and had shown some signs of radicalization, French authorities said on Wednesday. The attack took place on May 25, three days after attackers chanting Islamist slogans killed …

The war in Syria, which began in April 2011 with peaceful protests against the oppressive regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is no longer just a struggle between opposition forces and the government. It has now also become a religious, sectarian civil war.

A Boston church official who claimed in an autobiography that he was a leg-breaker for reputed gangster James "Whitey" Bulger pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that he looted the church's ...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The rain hasn't stopped Pope Francis.

BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) — A Southeast Texas school district is appealing a court ruling that allowed high school cheerleaders to display at football games banners emblazoned with Bible verses.

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor PARIS (Reuters) - Close to half the staff managers at companies in French urban areas have seen problems arising from religious demands by employees and expect them to increase in future, according to a new study issued on Tuesday. Listing faith-related problems, the new study said some …

By James Grubel CANBERRA (Reuters) - The head of the Catholic Church in Australia on Monday blamed a former culture of silence for the cover-up of child abuse by clergy, making it difficult to know the full extent of abuse, but added that the number of cases had dropped significantly since the church started taking stronger …

A series of violent riots against Pakistani Christians in the past decade has concerned human rights watchers and religious minorities in Pakistan.

ROME (Reuters) - Pope Francis spoke out against mafia organizations exploiting and enslaving people, calling on mafiosi on Sunday to repent in words that recalled an impassioned plea by Pope John Paul II 20 years ago. Speaking off the cuff after his weekly Angelus blessing in St. Peter's Square, Francis spoke about the …

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis paid tribute to a courageous priest murdered by the Sicilian Mafia as a martyr and urged mobsters on Sunday to abandon their evil ways, particularly the exploitation of people in trafficking rackets such as prostitution.

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court ruled on Saturday against parts of an election law approved by the Islamist-led legislature that had lifted a long-standing ban on the use of religious slogans during campaigning.