Religion News Service

Signs of the Times: The meeting is not aimed at the American church, which has been working on the sex abuse crisis for decades. The meeting is aimed at bishops around the world who do not understand the crisis and are making the same mistakes that the American bishops made in the past.

An emotional debate over whether Muslim students may wear hijab in Christian schools took a new turn last week Jan. 24 when the Kenyan Supreme Court reversed a lower-court ruling that had allowed female students to wear Muslim headscarves to school.

Pakistan's Supreme Court has dismissed a petition by Islamists to overturn the acquittal of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman previously convicted of blasphemy, freeing her to leave the country and join her daughters in Canada.

Two reports on extremist attacks in the United States document a marked decline in the number of Muslim Americans associated with extremist acts.

Signs of the Times: There is something exciting about living in extraordinary times — times of surprises, special events and even challenges. These are the days when it is easier to get out of bed in the morning. You have something to look forward to.

“The issues of returning recent converts has been of great concern to us. As leaders, we have been talking about it and urging Christian communities to account for all the youth,” said the Rev. Wilybard Lagho, vicar general of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mombasa, which has experienced attack recently. “They can be very dangerous since they are hard to suspect.”

Nathan Philips, a Native American man seen in a viral video of an encounter with a group of Kentucky Catholic school students, says he wants to meet with them and church officials to discuss the incident and turn it into a “teachable moment.”

A Catholic high school in Kentucky is apologizing after videos surfaced of students dressed in the school's garb confronting and mocking a group of Native Americans in Washington, D.C.

Advocates and legal scholars say that for arguably the first time since 1973, undoing Roe isn’t just a dream of anti-abortion activists and the faith-based groups that back them — it’s likely to happen in some form. Less clear is what this possible dismantling will look like, how long it will take and what happens afterward

Signs of the Times: There are five reasons why next month's meeting in Rome, called by Pope Francis to deal with the sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, may well be a failure before it even starts.

For nearly 30 years, the Rev. Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral was not only a religious landmark, but an architectural wonder and an embodiment of flush times in Southern California's Orange County. Now Crystal Cathedral is almost ready to open as a church again — this time as Christ Cathedral, seat of the Diocese of Orange.

The Northeast province of the Society of Jesus has released the names of 50 men it says have been credibly accused of child sex abuse since 1950.

Analysts argue Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò's controversial letters — and the international media firestorm they sparked — are a sign of the National Catholic Register's growing influence alongside its parent organization, the Eternal Word Television Network, which also owns the Catholic News Agency. 

Signs of the Times: Most bishops do not oppose making Catholic clergymen mandatory reporters except when it comes to what a priest hears in the sacrament of confession. 

Signs of the Times: "Grossly misleading, irresponsible, inaccurate, and unjust" is how former New York Times religion reporter Peter Steinfels describes last August's Pennsylvania grand jury report in its sweeping accusation that Catholic bishops refused to protect children from sexual abuse.

Cardinal Walter Kasper practically bounds down Borgo Pio as he heads to lunch at a favorite trattoria a few blocks from the Vatican, a broad smile on his face.

When the 116th Congress was sworn in, it became one of the most religiously diverse delegations in American history. But the incoming class of legislators is predominantly Christian — even more so than the country itself.

Shortly before Christmas, Pope Francis declared in response to the sexual abuse crisis that "the church will spare no effort to do all that is necessary to bring to justice whosoever has committed such crimes."

In a few days, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew, the foremost leader in the Eastern Christian church, is scheduled to recognize the newly founded Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake, a 5-year-old nonprofit organization, has gathered volunteers, often across the religious spectrum, to work on restoration projects, ripping up pavement, installing water gardens and, yes, planting trees.