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FILE - In this Monday, Sept. 1, 2014 file photo, Diego Armando Maradona, left, greets Pope Francis in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, ahead of an inter-religious match for peace. Diego Maradona has died. The Argentine soccer great was among the best players ever and who led his country to the 1986 World Cup title before later struggling with cocaine use and obesity. He was 60. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

Vatican: Pope prays for Maradona, fondly recalls meeting him

Nov. 25, 2020 4:18 PM EST

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has remembered Diego Maradona in his prayers after learning of the soccer legend’s death on Wednesday, the Vatican said. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said that the pope, after being informed of Maradona's death, “thinks back fondly to the times they met in...

The head of Cyprus Orthodox Church Archbishop Chrysostomos II, facing, presides over a meeting of other bishops composing the Holy Synod, the Church's highest decision-making body at the Church's headquarters in the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. The Holy Synod convened to discuss issues relating to the Cyprus Church's position on the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Cyprus Orthodox Church backs Ukrainian Church's independence

Nov. 25, 2020 11:40 AM EST

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The Cypriot Orthodox Church’s top decision-making body on Wednesday backed the Archbishop’s move to effectively recognize the new Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s independence, overturning an earlier position of neutrality on the thorny issue. Of the Holy...

FILE - In this Nov. 22, 2020, file photo, Pope Francis incenses the altar as he celebrates Mass on the occasion of the Christ the King festivity, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. China criticized Pope Francis on Tuesday over a passage in his new book in which he mentions suffering by China’s Uighur Muslim minority group. (Vincenzo Pinto/Pool Photo via AP, File)

China criticizes pope over comment on Uighur Muslim minority

Nov. 24, 2020 1:28 PM EST

BEIJING (AP) — China criticized Pope Francis on Tuesday over a passage in his new book in which he mentions suffering by China’s Uighur Muslim minority group. Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Francis’ remarks had “no factual basis at all.” “People of all...

Moderate traffic as the sun sets on Piccadilly, in London, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020. Haircuts, shopping trips and visits to the pub will be back on the agenda for millions of people when a four-week lockdown in England comes to an end next week, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Monday. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

UK eases restrictions so families can gather over Christmas

Nov. 24, 2020 2:24 PM EST

LONDON (AP) — British authorities gave the green light Tuesday to holiday reunions, relaxing restrictions on social mixing over Christmas and offering arriving international travelers a way to cut short quarantine if they test negative for COVID-19. The U.K. government and administrations in Scotland,...

Germany warns of anti-Semitism among lockdown protests

Nov. 24, 2020 11:07 AM EST

BERLIN (AP) — A German government official warned Tuesday that anti-Semitism is emerging as a common position among people protesting pandemic lockdown measures who otherwise come from widely differing political backgrounds. Felix Klein, who was appointed in 2018 to head the government's efforts to combat...

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FILE - In this Monday, Sept. 1, 2014 file photo, Diego Armando Maradona, left, greets Pope Francis in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, ahead of an inter-religious match for peace. Diego Maradona has died. The Argentine soccer great was among the best players ever and who led his country to the 1986 World Cup title before later struggling with cocaine use and obesity. He was 60. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

Vatican: Pope prays for Maradona, fondly recalls meeting him

Nov. 25, 2020 4:18 PM EST

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has remembered Diego Maradona in his prayers after learning of the soccer legend’s death on Wednesday, the Vatican said. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said that the pope, after being informed of Maradona's death, “thinks back fondly to the times they met in...

The head of Cyprus Orthodox Church Archbishop Chrysostomos II, facing, presides over a meeting of other bishops composing the Holy Synod, the Church's highest decision-making body at the Church's headquarters in the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. The Holy Synod convened to discuss issues relating to the Cyprus Church's position on the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Cyprus Orthodox Church backs Ukrainian Church's independence

Nov. 25, 2020 11:40 AM EST

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The Cypriot Orthodox Church’s top decision-making body on Wednesday backed the Archbishop’s move to effectively recognize the new Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s independence, overturning an earlier position of neutrality on the thorny issue. Of the Holy...

Former Rapid City priest pleads not guilty to sex charges

Nov. 25, 2020 8:01 AM EST

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — A former Rapid City priest has pleaded not guilty to federal charges alleging he had sexual contact with a minor and possessed child pornography. Marcin Garbacz, 42, entered his not guilty plea Tuesday to one count of possessing child pornography between July 2011 and May 2019 and...

FILE- In this March 28, 2019, file photo, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, right, speaks with Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh state Yogi Adityanath during an election campaign rally in Meerut, India. India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party has approved legislation in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state, that lays out a prison term of up to 10 years for anyone found guilty of using marriage to force someone to change religion. The decree was passed Tuesday and follows a campaign by Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party against interfaith marriages. The party describes such marriages as “love jihad,” an unproven conspiracy theory used by its leaders and Hindu hard-line groups to accuse Muslim men of converting Hindu women by marriage. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File)

Indian state outlaws religious conversion by marriage

Nov. 25, 2020 2:34 AM EST

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party has approved legislation in the country’s most populous state that lays out a prison term of up to 10 years for anyone found guilty of using marriage to force someone to change religion. The decree for the state of Uttar Pradesh was...

Nisara Gill, right, leads a prayer service at Pakistan's first church for transgender worshippers, in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, Nov. 13, 2020. Transgender Pakistanis are often mocked, abused and bullied, and Christians among them are a minority within a minority, often shunned even in churches. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Transgender Pakistanis find solace in a church of their own

Nov. 25, 2020 1:04 AM EST

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan’s Christian transgender people, often mocked, abused and bullied, say they have found peace and solace in a church of their own. Shunned by other churches, they can raise their voices high here. During a recent service, transgender women, flowing scarves loose over...

Members of the San Jose Police Department investigate a homicide scene at Grace Baptist Church on Monday, Nov. 23, 2020, in San Jose, Calif. Two people died and multiple others were injured in a stabbing Sunday night at the church, where homeless people had been brought to shelter from the cold weather, police said. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group via AP)

Pastor: Church employee among 5 stabbed in homeless shelter

Nov. 24, 2020 7:49 PM EST

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — One of the people wounded in a stabbing attack at a San Francisco Bay Area church that was being used as a homeless shelter was a church employee who tried to intervene, the church's pastor said. Rev. David Robinson of San Jose's Grace Baptist Church told KGO-TV Monday that the...

Church organization in Kansas, Oklahoma pays medical debts

Nov. 24, 2020 4:51 PM EST

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Medical debts totaling more than $5.2 million owed by more than 3,200 families in Kansas and Oklahoma have been paid through a project of the United Church of Christ Kansas-Oklahoma Conference, church officials said Tuesday. “As a result of our campaign that netted $40,000, with...

A student of the Emile Dubois high school takes part to a COVID-19 antigen test in Paris, Monday Nov. 23, 2020. Experts said they are less accurate than the standard PCR test, which detects even the tiniest genetic trace of the virus. Many governments including in France have started deploying them as a precursor to PCR tests.( Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP)

Macron outlines France's baby steps out of lockdown

Nov. 24, 2020 3:07 PM EST

People in France will be able to go back to their favorite shops and attend religious services again next week after a month of partial virus lockdown — but they’ll have to wait until at least Jan. 20 to savor a meal in a restaurant or enjoy a gym workout. President Emmanuel Macron laid out new...

In this March 30, 2018 photo the Rev. Robert

Church review finds Iowa professor misbehaved but can return

Nov. 24, 2020 1:39 PM EST

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A well-known Roman Catholic professor will be allowed to return to teaching and the ministry with restrictions after an inquiry found he misbehaved sexually in the 1990s but not against minors, church officials in Iowa announced Tuesday. The investigation found that the allegation...

FILE - In this Tuesday, April 14, 2020 file photo, a man wearing face mask walks past Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Officials say restorers at Paris’ fire-damaged Notre Dame cathedral have completed key preliminary work by successfully removing all the perilous roof scaffolding. It was thought that the scaffolding might have melded to the cathedral in the fire, and be keeping it in place. When the Notre Dame fire broke out on April 15 last year destroying the spire, the cathedral was already under restoration. The scaffolding previously installed resisted collapse, “but was deformed by the heat of the fire” Notre Dame restoration officials said in a communique. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)

Restorers remove dangerous Notre Dame cathedral scaffolding

Nov. 24, 2020 1:35 PM EST

PARIS (AP) — Restorers at Paris’ fire-damaged Notre Dame cathedral have completed key preliminary work by successfully removing all the perilous roof scaffolding, officials said Tuesday. The removal of the 200 tons of scaffolding was considered dangerous, with some experts fearing that it could...

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