Vatican revamps norms to evaluate visions of Mary as it adapts to internet age and combats hoaxers

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

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...

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...

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...

Afro-Cuban drums, Muslim prayers, Buddhist mantras: Religious diversity blooms in once-atheist Cuba

HAVANA (AP) — The 1959 Castro-led revolution installed an atheist, Communist government that sought to replace the Catholic Church as the guiding force in the lives of Cubans. But 65 years later, religion seems omnipresent in Cuba, in dazzling diversity. The bells...

Chasing Amy: How Marisa Abela became Amy Winehouse for 'Back to Black'

LONDON (AP) — There’s no point asking Marisa Abela to sing Amy Winehouse songs at karaoke. Her friends have already tried and failed. But you can see her sing — and become — Winehouse in the new film “Back to Black,” which opens in the U.S. on Friday. ...

Mosque attack in northern Nigeria leaves 8 people dead. Police say the motive was a family dispute

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — At least eight worshippers were killed and 16 others injured early Wednesday morning after a man attacked a mosque with a locally made explosive in northern Nigeria’s Kano state, resulting in a fire outbreak, the police said. The suspect, a 38-year-old local...