Latest Religion News

Canada gets muted allied support after alleging India may have been involved in killing of Canadian

Sep. 21, 2023 14:49 PM EDT

TORONTO (AP) — When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stood up in Parliament and said India may have been involved in the killing of a Canadian citizen, the muted international response offered a lesson in modern geopolitics. India, it seems, may be too powerful to alienate. ...

In chic Soho, a Hindu temple offers itself as a spiritual oasis

Sep. 21, 2023 13:26 PM EDT

On Broome Street, in the heart of Manhattan’s fashionable Soho neighborhood, a Hindu temple dedicated to the elephant-headed deity Ganesha is striving to develop its own sense of cool. Its location allows it to draw guest teachers such as prominent spiritual author Deepak Chopra, and devotees —...

Iranian court gives a Tajik man 2 death sentences for an attack at a major Shiite shrine

Sep. 21, 2023 07:34 AM EDT

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An Iranian court has given two death sentences to a Tajik man convicted of carrying out a gun attack that killed two people at a major Shiite shrine in the southern city of Shiraz, the judiciary website reported Thursday. The website Mizan Online said the...

Iran's parliament passes a stricter headscarf law days after protest anniversary

Sep. 20, 2023 20:50 PM EDT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's parliament on Wednesday approved a bill to impose heavier penalties on women who refuse to wear the mandatory Islamic headscarf in public and those who support them. The move came just days after the anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini,...

Catholic priests bless same-sex couples in defiance of a German archbishop

Sep. 20, 2023 14:59 PM EDT

BERLIN (AP) — Several Catholic priests held a ceremony blessing same-sex couples outside Cologne Cathedral on Wednesday night in a protest against the city’s conservative archbishop, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki. Their protest was triggered by Cologne church officials' criticism...

Pope goes to Marseille to talk migration, but will Europe listen as it scrambles to stem an influx?

Sep. 20, 2023 03:50 AM EDT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Ten years after Pope Francis made a landmark visit to the Italian island of Lampedusa to show solidarity with migrants, he is joining Catholic bishops from the Mediterranean this weekend in France to make the call more united. The question is whether anyone in...

What to know about the Sikh movement at the center of the tensions between India and Canada

Sep. 20, 2023 02:29 AM EDT

NEW DELHI (AP) — Tensions between Canada and India have reached new heights with dueling diplomatic expulsions and an allegation of Indian government involvement in the killing of a Sikh activist on Canadian soil. The row centers around the Sikh independence, or Khalistan,...

Who was Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Sikh activist whose killing has divided Canada and India?

Sep. 20, 2023 02:27 AM EDT

NEW DELHI (AP) — Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh independence advocate whose killing two months ago is at the center of a widening breach between India and Canada, was called a human rights activist by Sikh organizations and a criminal by India’s government. Canadian Prime Minister...

A look at Canada and India and their relationship, by the numbers

Sep. 20, 2023 02:24 AM EDT

Tensions between Canada and India have escalated over the assassination of a Sikh independence advocate in June. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country was investigating credible allegations that Indian government agents were connected to the assassination of...

In Chile, justice eludes victims of Catholic clergy sex abuse years after the crisis exploded

Sep. 20, 2023 00:10 AM EDT

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Soon after she learned what happened, Helmut Kramer’s mother grabbed a pair of scissors and cut the priest out of photographs from her son’s baptism. “She kept the photos after that,” said Kramer, who was sexually abused at age 12 in a Jesuit school...