Associated Press

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Rome and Vatican City this week in a bid to ease rising tensions between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV over U.S. policies, particularly the Iran war.

The Council of Melkite Greek Catholic Bishops in Lebanon urged the Lebanese government and the United Nations to protect the property of civilians and religious institutions in southern Lebanon, citing in particular the village of Yaroun where officials said Israeli troops destroyed a Melkite convent earlier this month among other demolition.

Worldwide, the landscape of religion is not serene. Many denominations have been racked by divisions. In some regions, believers are targeted with violence. Countless faith leaders have betrayed their flocks via corruption or sexual abuse. Against this backdrop, there has been a long-running discussion about the role that religion can play in enhancing personal well-being and lowering the risk of mental health problems.

Vatican prosecutors on Thursday seemingly defied an appeals court order to turn over to the defense all the evidence gathered in the Vatican’s big financial trial, setting the stage for another clash in the long-running case.

Pope Leo XIV prayed Monday in the Vatican with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, and vowed to keep working to overcome differences "no matter how intractable they may appear," in a historic meeting with the first female leader of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion.

The scriptural passage that President Donald Trump read in a livestreamed Bible-reading marathon dates back to the depiction of an ancient event — but it's one that carries a highly charged significance in the current religious and political climate.

Pope Leo XIV told inmates at one of Equatorial Guinea's notorious prisons on Wednesday that they are not alone, as he delivered a message of hope during a visit that drew attention to prison conditions, human rights abuses and injustices that campaigners have denounced for years here.

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear from Catholic preschools that say it's unconstitutional to exclude them from a state-funded program because they won't admit kids from LGBTQ+ families.

Pope Leo XIV's visit to an African church linked to slavery reflects on his own complex heritage
 

Chinese authorities are increasing pressure on underground Catholic communities to join the state-controlled official church while tightening surveillance and travel restrictions on all of China's estimated 12 million Catholics, a rights group said Wednesday.

The artwork illustrates the biblical account of Jesus announcing that one of his apostles will betray him and is located in the convent's original refectory.

Pope Leo XIV expressed hope that the U.S.-Israel war on Iran could be finished before Easter in remarks to reporters as he left the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo outside of Rome on Tuesday.

Spain's Catholic bishops and the Spanish government took another step Monday toward compensating victims of sexual abuse by clergy members who have died or whose possible crimes are too old to be prosecuted.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled against a law banning "conversion therapy" for LGBTQ+ kids in Colorado, one of about two dozen states that ban the discredited practice.

Vice President JD Vance has a new book coming out that will explore his religious faith and his conversion to Catholicism as an adult.

Although Sarah Mullally, 63, formally became the archbishop of Canterbury in January, Wednesday’s event marks the beginning of her public ministry as both the head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Bishop Anthony Randazzo, bishop of Broken Bay, was named prefect of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts. 

Over the past five years at the U.S.-Mexico border, Jesuit Fr. Brian Strassburger has gone from ministering to throngs of asylum-seekers in overcrowded shelters to celebrating Mass with detained and deported migrants.