Religion News Service

Soon, Pope Francis will have chosen almost half the men who will pick his successor. On June 29, he will create 14 new cardinals, continuing to break tradition by passing over the archbishops of large European and American archdioceses. 

Signs of the Times: The pope acknowledges that living the Beatitudes means "going against the flow" of the world. Francis urges us to let the Lord's words "unsettle us, to challenge us and to demand a real change in the way we live."

Tony Perkins, the head of the conservative Christian lobbying group Family Research Council, has been appointed to a U.S. government commission dedicated to "defending the universal right to freedom of religion or belief abroad."

Under sweltering 94-degree heat in front of the General Assembly building, a hardy group of progressive activists gathered to revive the 40-day Poor People's Campaign.

Signs of the Times: As a spiritual guide to those seeking to be better Christians, Pope Francis recognizes that many are tempted to follow the wrong paths to holiness. These are not bad people following the path of sin, but good people getting lost in the woods without a map.

The project showcases artwork made in Israel by African women seeking asylum in that country. They are part of Kuchinate, a collective that helps migrant women, including many victims of sexual violence, earn a living, receive counseling and find healing through art.

Militants killed a Roman Catholic priest this week in Bangui, Central African Republic where Catholic and other faith leaders had made headway recently mediating between factions.

From Washington to Wyoming, well-known clergy and grass-roots people of faith plan to gather Thursday (May 3) for the annual National Day of Prayer.

President Trump plans to unveil a new initiative that aims to give faith groups a stronger voice within the federal government and serve as a watchdog on religious liberty issues.

Most religious groups now support same-sex marriage being legal, according to a study released May 1 from the Public Religion Research Institute.

James H. Cone, the scholar known as the "founder of black liberation theology," died April 28, Union Theological Seminary announced.  He was 79.

Before he was pope, before he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis spent much of his Jesuit life as a spiritual guide to young Jesuits. He was not a great theologian, although he was well read in theology. 

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom cited more than two dozen countries as main contributors to an "ongoing downward trend" in religious liberty worldwide.

A new Pew Research survey finds that a slim majority of Americans believe in the God of the Bible, while about one-third of Americans believe in another higher power or spiritual force.

The tables have turned under Pope Francis. And a new type of Catholic has formed: the conservative dissenter.  In the past, conservatives prided themselves on loyalty to the pope and being in lockstep with all papal teachings, while progressives called for limits to papal power.

About 50 evangelical Christian leaders gathered to discuss the future of evangelicalism amid concerns their movement has become too closely associated with President Trump.

The catchphrase "Love means never having to say you’re sorry" was more memorable than the film "Love Story," where it was uttered twice. At first the words sounded nice, but on reflection they made no sense at all, especially to a Christian.

A municipal council in a West London suburb voted this week to allow a buffer zone around an abortion clinic — the first such zone of its kind in Britain, where abortion has been legal for 50 years.

Despite the slaughter of nearly a million Jews — as well as hundreds of thousands of Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and others — at the World War II Nazi death camp, a survey found that 66 percent of Americans ages 18 to 34 "cannot identify what Auschwitz was." 

A group of religious leaders is condemning a Missouri bill to permit people to carry concealed firearms in church without permission from clergy.