March 2, 2019, 6:00am Churches & Religion
For decades, Betsy Ross’ Bible sat open to the same page inside the narrow Arch Street row house where she is said to have sewn the nation’s first flag. On the exposed paper was the Ross family tree, written in script but rendered illegible in places, a faded and discolored… Read story
February 26, 2019, 10:04pm Churches & Religion
The United Methodist Church, America’s second-largest Protestant denomination, faces a likely surge in defections and acts of defiance after delegates at a crucial conference voted Tuesday to strengthen the faith’s divisive bans on same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBT clergy. Read story
February 26, 2019, 8:47am Churches & Religion
The most senior Catholic cleric ever charged with child sex abuse has been convicted of molesting two choirboys moments after celebrating Mass, dealing a new blow to the Catholic hierarchy’s credibility after a year of global revelations of abuse and cover-up. Read story
February 25, 2019, 2:05pm Churches & Religion
Pope Francis’ summit on preventing sexual abuse was never going to meet the expectations placed on it by victims groups, the media and ordinary Catholics outraged over a scandal that has harmed so many and compromised the church’s moral authority so much. Read story
February 23, 2019, 5:14am Churches & Religion
The United Methodist Church’s top legislative assembly convenes Sunday for a high-stakes, three-day meeting likely to determine whether America’s second-largest Protestant denomination will fracture due to divisions over same-sex marriage and the ordination of gay clergy. Read story
February 21, 2019, 12:58pm Churches & Religion
U.S. and Italian advocates for victims of pedophile priests are pressing for Italy to overhaul legislation that allows bishops to dodge accountability for predator clergy in the predominantly Roman Catholic country where the church wields considerable political influence. Read story
February 21, 2019, 9:36am Churches & Religion
Pope Francis opened a landmark sex abuse prevention summit Thursday by warning senior Catholic figures that the faithful are demanding concrete action against predator priests and not just words of condemnation. Victims then told the bishops of the searing emotional pain of their abuse. Read story
February 20, 2019, 8:30pm Churches & Religion
Survivors of clergy sex abuse on Wednesday demanded transparency, zero tolerance for abuse and accountability for religious superiors who cover up for rapists, setting a confrontational tone on the eve of Pope Francis’ high-stakes abuse prevention summit. Read story
February 20, 2019, 8:29pm Churches & Religion
The head organizer of the Vatican’s sex abuse summit has met with an Irish activist who is seeking to draw attention to another issue the Vatican has long sought to keep quiet: the plight of children of priests. Read story
February 16, 2019, 6:03am Churches & Religion
Dozens of people packed into the one-room chapel recently to pray that the 19th century mission known as La Lomita, perched on a hill above the Rio Grande, won’t be sealed off behind a border fence. Read story
