Top Religion News

Horse mounted police officers patrol Via della Conciliazione, the street leading to St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, on the occasion of the Feast of Rome's Patrons Saints Peter and Paul, in Rome Monday, June 29, 2020. (Mauro Scrobogna/LaPresse via AP)

Vatican watchdog sees record cooperation levels despite raid

Jul. 3, 2020 9:13 AM EDT

The Vatican’s financial watchdog agency has reported record levels of internal cooperation despite being thrown into turmoil in October when Vatican police raided its offices as part of an investigation into a 350 million-euro (nearly $400 million) London real estate deal. The Financial Information...

FILE In this file photo taken on Wednesday, June 17, 2020, Father Sergiy, a Russian monk who has defied the Russian Orthodox Church's leadership, right, speaks to journalists in Russian Ural's Sredneuralsk, Russia. The Russian Orthodox Church on Friday July 3, 2020, defrocked Father Sergiy, who has defied the coronavirus lockdown orders and has taken control over a monastery. (AP Photo/Vladimir Podoksyonov, FILE)

Russian Orthodox Church defrocks coronavirus-denying monk

Jul. 3, 2020 12:41 PM EDT

MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian Orthodox Church on Friday defrocked a coronavirus-denying monk who has defied Kremlin lockdown orders and taken control of a monastery. A church panel in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg ruled to defrock 65-year-old Father Sergiy, who has attracted nationwide attention by...

Founder of German Schoenstatt Movement accused of abuses

Jul. 2, 2020 3:18 PM EDT

Another founder of a 20th century lay Catholic movement has been accused of abusing his power, including sexually and spiritually, with nuns in his care. A German researcher says she found evidence in newly released Vatican archives that the Holy See investigated the Rev. Josef Kentenich during the 1950s and...

FILE - In this May 16, 2001, file photo, the entrance to the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind. A Zen Buddhist priest wants a federal judge to stop the execution of a federal death row inmate he’s been counseling and argues he would be put at high risk for the coronavirus if the execution happens this month. Dale Hartkemeyer goes by the religious name Seigen. He filed a lawsuit Thursday in federal court in Indiana. The 68-year-old wants the court to delay Wesley Ira Purkey’s execution until a coronavirus vaccine is available or there’s a widespread effective treatment. Purkey is one of four federal death row inmates scheduled to be executed in July and August. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

Priest sues to stop federal execution over coronavirus risk

Jul. 2, 2020 11:08 AM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Zen Buddhist priest, who is a spiritual adviser to one of three federal death row inmates scheduled to be executed this month, filed a lawsuit Thursday arguing the Bureau of Prisons is putting him at risk for the coronavirus by moving forward with executions during a nationwide...

Nightbird Restaurant chef and owner Kim Alter, left, mimics giving a hug to nurse practitioner Sydney Gressel, center, and patient care technician Matt Phillips after delivering dinner to them at University of California at San Francisco Benioff Children's Hospital in San Francisco, March 27, 2020. A group of tech-savvy, entrepreneurial San Francisco friends wanted to help two groups devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. They came up with a plan that involved soliciting donations, tapping friends in the restaurant world and getting San Francisco hospitals to accept free food cooked up by some of the city's top chefs. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Not so random acts: Science finds that being kind pays off

Jul. 2, 2020 11:08 AM EDT

Acts of kindness may not be that random after all. Science says being kind pays off. Research shows that acts of kindness make us feel better and healthier. Kindness is also key to how we evolved and survived as a species, scientists say. We are hard-wired to be kind. Kindness “is as bred in our bones as...

Latest Religion News

FILE In this file photo taken on Wednesday, June 17, 2020, Father Sergiy, a Russian monk who has defied the Russian Orthodox Church's leadership, right, speaks to journalists in Russian Ural's Sredneuralsk, Russia. The Russian Orthodox Church on Friday July 3, 2020, defrocked Father Sergiy, who has defied the coronavirus lockdown orders and has taken control over a monastery. (AP Photo/Vladimir Podoksyonov, FILE)

Russian Orthodox Church defrocks coronavirus-denying monk

Jul. 3, 2020 12:41 PM EDT

MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian Orthodox Church on Friday defrocked a coronavirus-denying monk who has defied Kremlin lockdown orders and taken control of a monastery. A church panel in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg ruled to defrock 65-year-old Father Sergiy, who has attracted nationwide attention by...

Horse mounted police officers patrol Via della Conciliazione, the street leading to St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, on the occasion of the Feast of Rome's Patrons Saints Peter and Paul, in Rome Monday, June 29, 2020. (Mauro Scrobogna/LaPresse via AP)

Vatican watchdog sees record cooperation levels despite raid

Jul. 3, 2020 9:13 AM EDT

The Vatican’s financial watchdog agency has reported record levels of internal cooperation despite being thrown into turmoil in October when Vatican police raided its offices as part of an investigation into a 350 million-euro (nearly $400 million) London real estate deal. The Financial Information...

FILE - In this May 28, 2020, file photo provided by the Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, talks during his speech at the presidential palace in Manila, Philippines. Duterte on Friday, July 3,2020, has signed a widely opposed anti-terror law which critics fear could be used against human rights defenders. President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Anti-Terrorism Act after weighing the concerns of different groups, his spokesman said. (Ace Morandante/Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division via AP, File)

Philippine president signs widely opposed anti-terror law

Jul. 3, 2020 8:43 AM EDT

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine president on Friday signed a widely opposed anti-terror law which critics fear could be used against human rights defenders and to muzzle dissent. President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Anti-Terrorism Act after weighing the concerns of different groups, demonstrating...

In this June 29, 2020, photo provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a field operations officer inspects a suspect hair accessory at a centralized exam station in Newark, N.J. On Wednesday, July 1, 2020, U.S. Customs and Border Protection detained a shipment of weaves believed to be made in a Chinese detention camp. The shipment is suspected to be human hair. Some information on the package was blurred by the source. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection via AP)

AP Exclusive: Hair weaves from Chinese prison camps seized

Jul. 3, 2020 12:34 AM EDT

Federal authorities in New York on Wednesday seized a shipment of weaves and other beauty accessories suspected to be made out of human hair taken from people locked inside a Chinese internment camp. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials told The Associated Press that 13 tons (11.8 metric tonnes) of hair...

FILE - This undated photo provided by the Edwardsville Police Department shows former Kansas City, Kansas Police detective Roger Golubski. A coalition of Kansas lawmakers, religious leaders and racial justice advocates called Thursday, July 2, 2020, for an investigation into the retired police detective accused of preying on Black women for sex over decades and framing for murder the son of one of them. Numerous residents have said Golubski wielded his power to terrorize the Kansas City, Kansas Black community for years, and the local prosecutor asked for help with a probe more than two years ago. (Edwardsville Police Department via AP, File)

Kansas legislators seek investigation into former detective

Jul. 2, 2020 5:40 PM EDT

BELLE PLAINE, Kan. (AP) — A coalition of Kansas lawmakers, religious leaders and racial justice advocates called Thursday for an investigation into a retired white police detective accused of preying on Black women for sex over decades and framing for murder the son of one of them. A letter signed by 27...

Founder of German Schoenstatt Movement accused of abuses

Jul. 2, 2020 3:18 PM EDT

Another founder of a 20th century lay Catholic movement has been accused of abusing his power, including sexually and spiritually, with nuns in his care. A German researcher says she found evidence in newly released Vatican archives that the Holy See investigated the Rev. Josef Kentenich during the 1950s and...

The U.S. Supreme Court is seen Tuesday, June 30, 2020 in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Supreme Court agrees to hear Nazi art case

Jul. 2, 2020 1:44 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed Thursday to hear a case involving the descendants of a group of Jewish art dealers from Germany who say their ancestors were forced to sell a collection of religious art to the Nazi government in 1935. The justices will decide whether the dispute involving...

People visit a mass grave for the victims of the Islamic State group in Mosul, Iraq on Thursday, July 1, 2020. A human skull, a pair of worn trousers and a shoe were among the remains unearthed from a mass grave discovered this week in northern Iraq, a remnant of the brutal rule of the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Farid Abdulwahed)

New mass grave unearthed in Iraq's north from brutal IS rule

Jul. 2, 2020 12:42 PM EDT

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — A human skull, a pair of worn trousers and a shoe were among the remains unearthed from a mass grave discovered this week in northern Iraq, a remnant of the brutal rule of the Islamic State group, Iraqi officials said Thursday. The new mass grave was discovered on Monday in the village...

Nightbird Restaurant chef and owner Kim Alter, left, mimics giving a hug to nurse practitioner Sydney Gressel, center, and patient care technician Matt Phillips after delivering dinner to them at University of California at San Francisco Benioff Children's Hospital in San Francisco, March 27, 2020. A group of tech-savvy, entrepreneurial San Francisco friends wanted to help two groups devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. They came up with a plan that involved soliciting donations, tapping friends in the restaurant world and getting San Francisco hospitals to accept free food cooked up by some of the city's top chefs. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Not so random acts: Science finds that being kind pays off

Jul. 2, 2020 11:08 AM EDT

Acts of kindness may not be that random after all. Science says being kind pays off. Research shows that acts of kindness make us feel better and healthier. Kindness is also key to how we evolved and survived as a species, scientists say. We are hard-wired to be kind. Kindness “is as bred in our bones as...

FILE - In this May 16, 2001, file photo, the entrance to the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind. A Zen Buddhist priest wants a federal judge to stop the execution of a federal death row inmate he’s been counseling and argues he would be put at high risk for the coronavirus if the execution happens this month. Dale Hartkemeyer goes by the religious name Seigen. He filed a lawsuit Thursday in federal court in Indiana. The 68-year-old wants the court to delay Wesley Ira Purkey’s execution until a coronavirus vaccine is available or there’s a widespread effective treatment. Purkey is one of four federal death row inmates scheduled to be executed in July and August. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

Priest sues to stop federal execution over coronavirus risk

Jul. 2, 2020 11:08 AM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Zen Buddhist priest, who is a spiritual adviser to one of three federal death row inmates scheduled to be executed this month, filed a lawsuit Thursday arguing the Bureau of Prisons is putting him at risk for the coronavirus by moving forward with executions during a nationwide...

LOADING MORE STORIES