The Columbian

Churches & Religion

An estimated 380,00 people gather May 23, 2015, as El Salvador celebrates the beatification ceremony and Mass announcing the beatification of Archbishop Oscar Romero. The archbishop was slain at the altar of his Church of the Divine Providence by a right-wing gunman in 1980.

Advocate for poor was slain by El Salvador death squads

March 9, 2018, 10:13am Churches & Religion

Pope Francis has cleared the way for Archbishop Oscar Romero, an advocate for the poor who was slain in 1980 by right-wing death squads in El Salvador, to become a saint, the Vatican announced Wednesday. Read story

In this Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2018, photo, pillars and the spiral ceiling of the Vali-e-Asr mosque are seen, in Tehran, Iran.

Minarets absent from new mosque

March 3, 2018, 6:05am Churches & Religion

A newly built avant-garde mosque in the heart of Iran’s capital would have hard-liners shouting from the minarets — if there were any. Read story

Donatella Versace poses next to one of the Tiara (1877) of pope Pius IX in Rome, Monday, Feb. 26, 2018. The Vatican is loaning some of its most beautiful liturgical vestments, jeweled miter caps and historic papal tiaras for an upcoming exhibit on Catholic influences in fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Vatican culture minister, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, joined Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour and designer Donatella Versace in Rome on Monday to display a few of the Vatican treasures at the Palazzo Colonna, a onetime papal residence. “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” is set to open May 10 at the Met’s Costume Institute in New York.

Vatican, Versace set for exhibit

March 3, 2018, 6:01am Churches & Religion

The Vatican, Versace and Vogue are joining forces to show off the Catholic influences in fashion. Read story

The casket of The Rev. Billy Graham is moved during a funeral service at the Billy Graham Library for the Rev. Billy Graham, who died last week at age 99, on Friday in Charlotte, N.C.

Songs, heartfelt words start funeral for the Rev. Billy Graham

March 2, 2018, 12:05pm Churches & Religion

The Rev. Billy Graham’s funeral began Friday with a rousing song and heartfelt words from his adult children in the culmination of more than a week of tributes to “America’s Pastor.” Read story

A couple walks past the casket after paying respects to Billy Graham during a public viewing at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C., Monday.

Thousands pay their respects to the Rev. Billy Graham

February 26, 2018, 10:07am Churches & Religion

Thousands of people from all walks of life filed slowly past the casket of the Rev. Billy Graham on Monday to pay their final respects to a man who reached millions with his message of salvation through Jesus Christ. Read story

Members of Divine Hope on February 13, 2018, in Akron, Ohio, at Arlington Church of God. Seated is Charles Myricks, Jr. Standing from left, Carla Conley Davis, John Christopher Davis, Leslie Parker Barnes, Robin Parker-Davis, Samuel Gordon, Victor Head, and Stan Davis.

Gospel Meets Symphony marks 25 years

February 24, 2018, 6:05am Churches & Religion

Back in 1993, a team of leaders from various Akron communities dreamed up a concert. Read story

Nine men show their facial hair in Jerusalem’s Old City. For men of all faiths in the holy city, a beard can be an important statement of religious devotion.

Beards shape face of Jerusalem

February 24, 2018, 6:00am Churches & Religion

Facial hair is trendy worldwide these days, but in Jerusalem beards have never gone out of style, projecting religious mysticism, nationalism and ideals of masculinity. Read story

Story of monks who kept rabbits just that

February 24, 2018, 6:00am Churches & Religion

The story of how rabbits supposedly became domesticated animals is a strange one. Around the year 600, the tale goes, Pope Gregory the Great issued a papal edict declaring that fetal rabbits were not meat. Because fluid-filled amniotic sacs surrounded rabbit fetuses, they counted as fish. Eaten this way the… Read story

Billy Graham preaches during his 1996 crusade in his hometown of Charlotte, N.C.

Rev. Billy Graham, known as ‘America’s Pastor,’ dies at 99

February 21, 2018, 7:34am Churches & Religion

The Rev. Billy Graham, who transformed American religious life through his preaching and activism, becoming a counselor to presidents and the most widely heard Christian evangelist in history, died Wednesday. He was 99. Read story