Churches & Religion

A poster showing a picture of Pope Francis and announcing World Youth Day 2023 hangs outside a church in Lisbon, Tuesday, July 25, 2023. Pope Francis is going on a five-day visit next week to Portugal, where a scandal that erupted earlier this year over Catholic Church sex abuse is still simmering, to attend international World Youth Day.

Church sex abuse revelations are unwelcome distraction as Pope Francis visits scandal-hit Portugal

July 27, 2023, 8:05am Churches & Religion

When a panel of experts read aloud some of the harrowing accounts they had collected from recently discovered victims of child sex abuse in the Portuguese Catholic Church, the country’s senior bishops squirmed in the auditorium’s front-row seats. Read story

On Saturday, Living Hope Church and Thrive2Survive will hosts its second annual car show. Proceeds will go toward the church and nonprofit.

Vancouver car show to aid homelessless nonprofit, church

July 25, 2023, 6:30pm Churches & Religion

Rev your engines and support those in need. Read story

FILE - Pope Francis presides over a mass on St. Peter and Paul's Day in St. Peter's Basilica at The Vatican on June 29, 2023. The Jesuits said Monday, July 24, that a famous artist priest had been definitively expelled from the religious order for sexually, spiritually and psychologically abusing women, and lamented they couldn't prosecute him more vigorously under the Vatican's internal procedures.

Jesuits confirm expulsion of a priest artist and lament that Vatican norms block harsher sanctions

July 24, 2023, 8:01am Churches & Religion

The Jesuits said Monday that a famous artist priest is definitively expelled from the religious order for sexually, spiritually and psychologically abusing women, and lamented they couldn’t prosecute him more vigorously under the Vatican’s internal procedures. Read story

Strips of cloth and pouches of tobacco and sage, hung as offerings made by Indigenous people in prayer, blow in the wind at Pipestone National Monument in Pipestone, Minn.

Pipestone carvers preserve Native spiritual tradition

July 22, 2023, 6:04am Churches & Religion

Under the tall prairie grass outside this southwestern Minnesota town lies a precious seam of dark red pipestone that, for thousands of years, Native Americans have quarried and carved into pipes essential to prayer and communication with the Creator. Read story

Hezbollah supporters trample representations of the Swedish flags during a rally denouncing the desecration of the Quran after Friday prayers in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, Lebanon, Friday, July 21, 2023. Muslim-majority nations expressed outrage Friday at the desecration of the Islamic holy book in Sweden. Following midday prayers, thousands took to the streets to show their anger, in some cases answering the call of religious and political leaders.

Thousands of Muslims take to the streets to express outrage over Quran desecration in Sweden

July 21, 2023, 7:42am Churches & Religion

Thousands of people took to the streets in a handful of Muslim-majority countries Friday to express their outrage at the desecration of a copy of the Quran in Sweden, a day after protesters stormed the country’s embassy in Iraq. Read story

‘Heal Me with Your Mouth. The Art of Kissing.’ An old book sparks a new controversy in the Vatican

Monsignor Victor Manuel Fernandez, archbishop of La Plata, officiates Mass at the Cathedral in La Plata, Argentina, Sunday, July 9, 2023. Fernandez was appointed by Pope Francis to head the Holy See's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican.

Three decades ago, when he was a parish priest in Argentina, the man named by Pope Francis to be the Catholic Church’s new guardian of doctrinal orthodoxy wrote a short book about kissing and the sensations it evokes. Read story

Religious freedom vs. ‘gray water.’ AP explains ruling favoring Amish families who shun septic tanks

A long-running religious freedom case has come full circle, with court ruling this week that a deeply conservative Amish community in Minnesota cannot be threatened with the loss of homes if its members don’t install septic systems to dispose of their bath, laundry and dish water. Read story