Some of the Catholic Church's best-known approved, and not approved, reports of apparitions of Mary

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican has revised how it evaluates purported supernatural events, such as reported visions of the Virgin Mary, to guard against hoaxes and account for news going viral. Previous approved apparitions have turned these sites into major pilgrimage...

Georgia's prime minister joins tens of thousands in a march to promote 'family purity'

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Georgia's prime minister joined tens of thousands of people on a march through the capital on Friday to mark the Day of Family Purity, which celebrates so-called traditional family values in the country where animosity toward sexual minorities is strong. ...

Vatican moves to adapt to hoaxes, Internet and overhauls its process for evaluating visions of Mary

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican on Friday overhauled its process for evaluating alleged visions of the Virgin Mary, weeping statues and other seemingly supernatural phenomena that have marked church history, putting the brakes on making definitive declarations unless the event is obviously...

French police fatally shoot a man suspected of setting fire to a synagogue

ROUEN, France (AP) — French police shot and killed a man armed with a knife and a metal bar who is suspected of having started a fire that charred and blackened the insides of a synagogue in the Normandy city of Rouen early Friday, an attack the interior minister said was “clearly”...

He feared coming out. Now this pastor wants to help Black churches become as welcoming as his own

It was daunting when the Rev. Brandon Thomas Crowley, at age 22, replaced a beloved pastor who had ministered to one of suburban Boston’s most famed Black churches for 24 years. It was more daunting — at times agonizing — to reach the decision six years later, in 2015, that God...

Why the speech by Kansas City Chiefs kicker was embraced at Benedictine College's commencement

Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker may have stirred controversy in some quarters for his proclamations of conservative politics and Catholicism on Saturday, but he received a standing ovation from graduates and other attendees of the May 11 commencement ceremony at Benedictine College in...

Vatican overhauls process to evaluate claims of apparitions, weeping statues to adapt to Internet age, punish hoaxers

The late Rev. Billy Graham is immortalized in a statue unveiled at the US Capitol

A bronze sculpture of the late Rev. Billy Graham was unveiled at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, with Christianity's most prolific evangelist once known as “America’s Pastor” immortalized in the halls of Congress on behalf of his native North Carolina. Graham's likeness,...

Chiefs kicker Butker congratulates women graduates and says most are more excited about motherhood

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The commencement speaker at Kansas' Benedictine College, a private Catholic liberal arts school, congratulated the women receiving degrees — and said most of them were probably more excited about getting married and having children. Harrison Butker, the...

A Palestinian converted to Judaism. An Israeli soldier saw him as a threat and opened fire

JERUSALEM (AP) — At first, it seemed like the kind of shooting that has become all too common in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. A Palestinian aroused suspicions and an Israeli soldier killed him. But then the deceased was identified as David Ben-Avraham, a Palestinian who had made...