The Columbian

Churches & Religion

An image of Christ is in place in the ceiling of the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, Monday, Aug. 3, 2020 at the World Trade Center in New York. The original church was destroyed in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The shrine is expected to open in 2021.

Church destroyed on 9/11 to be replaced

August 8, 2020, 6:02am Churches & Religion

After a three year halt due to financial problems, work resumed Monday on a Greek Orthodox church being built to replace one destroyed in the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Read story

Faustina Bema, a candidate for Novice of the Sisters of the Holy Family, prays inside a chapel during a retreat at its Mother House in New Orleans on July 23.

Black Catholics’ history: Will Catholic schools teach it?

August 1, 2020, 6:00am Churches & Religion

The history of Black Catholics in the U.S. is a dramatic mix of struggles and breakthroughs, but it has been largely ignored in the curriculum of Catholic schools. That may soon change. Read story

A man burns incense as the area around the Kaaba, the square structure in the Great Mosque, toward which believers turn when praying, is prepared for pilgrims, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, late Sunday, July 26, 2020. Anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 pilgrims will be allowed to perform the annual hajj pilgrimage this year due to the virus pandemic.

Pilgrims arrive in Mecca for downsized hajj amid pandemic

July 27, 2020, 7:36am Churches & Religion

Muslim pilgrims have started arriving in Mecca for a drastically scaled-down hajj, as Saudi authorities balance the kingdom’s oversight of one of Islam’s key pillars and the safety of visitors in the face of a global pandemic. Read story

FILE - In this Jan. 31, 2020 file photo, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., participates in a panel during a campaign event for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in Clive, Iowa. Several prominent Muslim American elected officials, including Omar, endorsed Joe Biden for president in a letter organized by Emgage Action ahead of an online summit that starts Monday, July 20 by the advocacy group and features the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Biden courts Muslim Americans

July 25, 2020, 6:04am Churches & Religion

Democrat Joe Biden urged Muslim Americans on Monday to join him in the fight to defeat President Donald Trump as he addressed an online summit hosted by the advocacy organization Emgage Action to mobilize Muslim voters ahead of the presidential election. Read story

FILE - In this Aug. 26, 2018 file photo, People gather to protest at the site of the former Tuam home for unmarried mothers in County Galway, Ireland. The Vatican has indicated its support for a campaign to exhume the bodies of hundreds of babies who were buried on the grounds of a Catholic-run Irish home for unwed mothers to give them a proper Christian burial. The Vatican's ambassador to Ireland, Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo, said in a July 15, 2020 letter to the amateur Irish historian behind the campaign that he shared the views of the archbishop of Tuam, Ireland, Michael Neary, who has said it was a "priority" for him to re-inter the bodies in consecrated ground.

Vatican indicates support to exhume babies at Irish home

July 17, 2020, 8:20am Churches & Religion

The Vatican has indicated its support for a campaign to provide a proper Christian burial for hundreds of babies and toddlers by first exhuming their bodies from the grounds of a Catholic-run Irish home for unwed mothers. Read story

FILE - In this Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019 file photo, Pope Francis, background third from left, attends a penitential liturgy in the wake of his extraordinary summit of Catholic leaders summoned to Rome for a tutorial on preventing clergy sexual abuse and protecting children from predator priests. The Vatican told bishops around the world on Thursday, July 16, 2020 they should report case of clergy sex crimes to police even when not legally bound to do so, in its latest effort to compel church leaders to protect minors from predator priests. The Vatican issued a long-awaited manual for bishops and religious superiors on conducting in-house investigations into allegations of priests who rape and molest minors and vulnerable adults.

Vatican tells bishops they should report clergy sex abuse to police

July 16, 2020, 3:52pm Churches & Religion

The Vatican told bishops around the world on Thursday they should report cases of clergy sex crimes to police even when not legally bound to do so, in its latest effort to compel church leaders to protect minors from predator priests. Read story

Lutheran minister Bethany Ringdal is one of the volunteer chaplains helping at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, which has been a major food distribution site since Lake Street burned. She kept a lookout for anyone who needed help or just a bottle of water on June 26.

Chaplains volunteer services in Minneapolis

July 11, 2020, 6:03am Churches & Religion

Kelly Sherman-Conroy felt the anguish on the streets following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, concluding that people were aching for more than food and emergency relief. Read story

People walk in 2017 backdropped by the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia, one of Istanbul's main tourist attractions, in the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul. The 6th-century building is now at the center of a heated debate between conservative groups who want it to be reconverted into a mosque and those who believe the World Heritage site should remain a museum.

Museum or mosque? Hagia Sophia in Istanbul focus of intense debate

July 4, 2020, 6:02am Churches & Religion

In its more than 1,400-year existence, the majestic domed structure of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul has served as the Byzantine Empire’s main cathedral, a mosque under the Ottoman Empire and a museum under modern Turkey, attracting millions of tourists each year. Read story

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.

Priest sues to stop federal execution over coronavirus risk

July 2, 2020, 9:16am Churches & Religion

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 pandemic. Read story

In this Saturday, June 6, 2020 photo provided by The Record, Black Catholics walk from the federal courthouse building in downtown Louisville, Ky., to 12th and Broadway, in the "Black Catholics Unite: Stand For Justice March" which was organized by young adults. Black Catholics across the U.S. hear their church's leaders once again calling for racial justice, but at this volatile moment they want action as well as words.

Black Catholics demand action against racism

June 27, 2020, 6:03am Churches & Religion

Black Roman Catholics are hearing their church’s leaders calling for racial justice once again after the killing of George Floyd, but this time they’re demanding not just words but action. Read story