Churches & Religion

A sister wears headwear showing a picture of The Last Supper, as she and a group of the Catholic faithful from the town of Rumbek arrive after walking for more than a week to reach the capital for the visit of Pope Francis, in Juba, South Sudan Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023. Pope Francis is due to travel to South Sudan later this week on the second leg of a six-day trip that started in Congo, hoping to bring comfort and encouragement to two countries that have been riven by poverty, conflicts and what he calls a "colonialist mentality" that has exploited Africa for centuries.

Pope lands in South Sudan to urge peace as fighting kills 27

February 3, 2023, 8:14am Churches & Religion

Pope Francis arrived in South Sudan on Friday for the second and final leg of his African pilgrimage, seeking to encourage the young country’s stalled peace process and to draw international attention to the continued fighting and a worsening humanitarian crisis here. Read story

President Joe Biden speaks at the National Prayer Breakfast on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023, in Washington.

Biden urges unity at prayer breakfast under new management

February 2, 2023, 8:14am Churches & Religion

President Joe Biden delivered a message of unity at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, the first time the annual event has been held since its leadership and structure were overhauled to distance it from a controversial private religious group. Read story

In this Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023 photo, Beth Caruso, author and co-founder of the CT Witch Trial Exoneration Project, which was created to clear the names of the accused, stands on the Palisado Green in Windsor, Conn., where in 1651, an accident during a local militiamen training exercise led to the accusation of witchcraft and hanging of Lydia Gilbert. Now, more than 375 years later, amateur historians, researchers and descendants of the accused witches and their accusers, from across the U.S., are urging Connecticut officials to officially acknowledge this dark period of the state's colonial history and posthumously exonerate those wrongfully accused and punished.

Connecticut may exonerate accused witches centuries later

February 1, 2023, 6:17pm Churches & Religion

Decades before the infamous Salem witch trials in Massachusetts, Alse Young was killed at the gallows in Connecticut, becoming the first person on record to be executed in the American colonies for witchcraft. Read story

A woman prays outside the Cathedral Notre Dame du Congo in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo Saturday Jan. 28, 2023. Pope Francis will be in Congo and South Sudan for a six-day trip starting Jan, 31, hoping to bring comfort and encouragement to two countries that have been riven by poverty, conflicts and what he calls a "colonialist mentality" that has exploited Africa for centuries.

‘Hands off Africa!’: Pope blasts foreign plundering of Congo

January 31, 2023, 11:05am Churches & Religion

Pope Francis demanded Tuesday that foreign powers stop plundering Africa’s natural resources for the “poison of their own greed” as he arrived in Congo to a raucous welcome by Congolese grateful he was focusing the world’s attention on their forgotten plight. Read story

FILE - President Joe Biden speaks at the National Prayer Breakfast, Feb. 3, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Concerns over prayer breakfast lead Congress to take it over

January 29, 2023, 1:28pm Churches & Religion

The National Prayer Breakfast, one of the most visible and long-standing events that brings religion and politics together in Washington, is splitting from the private religious group that had overseen it for decades, due to concerns the gathering had become too divisive. Read story

16 objects from Germany tell story of Holocaust

Holocaust survivor Lore Mayerfeld poses next to her doll Inge as part of an exhibition with items from Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in the German parliament Bundestag in Berlin, Germany on Monday.

Lore Mayerfeld was 4 years old when she escaped from the Nazis in 1941. Together with her mother, the little Jewish girl ran away from her German hometown of Kassel with nothing but the clothes she wore and her beloved doll, Inge. Read story

Auschwitz anniversary marked as peace again shattered by war

Zvika Karavany, 72, a Yemeni-born Israeli, wipes his tears in front of the Death Wall in the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz during ceremonies marking the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the camp in Oswiecim, Poland, Friday, Jan. 27, 2023.

Auschwitz-Birkenau survivors and other mourners commemorated the 78th anniversary Friday of the liberation of the Nazi German death camp, some expressing horror that war has again shattered peace in Europe and the lesson of Never Again is being forgotten. Read story