David Crary

Throughout history, solar eclipses have had profound impact on adherents of various religions around the world. They were viewed as messages from God or spiritual forces, inducing emotions ranging from dread to wonder.

In the United States, the national conference of Catholic bishops rejects the concept of gender transition, leaving many transgender Catholics feeling excluded. On Nov. 8, the Vatican made public a sharply contrasting statement, saying it's permissible, under certain circumstances, for trans Catholics to be baptized and serve as godparents.

More than 6,000 people representing scores of religions and belief systems are expected to convene in Chicago starting August 14 for what organizers bill as the world’s largest gathering of interfaith leaders.

After weeks of controversy, LA Dodgers honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence during their Pride Night, while Catholics for Catholics protested.

A new poll found 63% of U.S. Catholic adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and 68% say Roe should be left as is. Those views were in line with the overall American public on the issues.

Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention stonewalled and denigrated survivors of clergy sex abuse over almost two decades while seeking to protect their own reputations, according to a scathing 288-page investigative report issued Sunday.

For transgender Catholics across the United States, retaining their faith can entail complex calculations. They face rebukes from some fellow Catholics, including many bishops, yet find full acceptance in some premises of the church.

According to a survey released Dec. 14 by the Pew Research Center, the group commonly known as the "nones" — the religiously unaffiliated — now constitute 29% of American adults. That's up from 23% in 2016 and 19% in 2011.

No matter how the current conservative-dominated Supreme Court decides pending high-profile abortion cases — perhaps weakening Roe v. Wade, perhaps gutting it completely — there will be no monolithic, nationwide change. Fractious state-by-state battles over abortion access will continue.

The social media giant Facebook has rolled out a new prayer request feature, a tool embraced by some religious leaders as a cutting-edge way to engage the faithful online. But others are eying it warily.

The organization overseeing Catholic schools in the United States gets a new chief executive this week as it seeks to rebound from its biggest one-year enrollment drop since the 1970s.

When his bishop demanded his resignation – after a series of divisive remarks about politics and the pandemic – Altman refused to oblige and has since raised more than $640,000 from his conservative supporters to defend himself.

In agreeing to hear a potentially groundbreaking abortion case, the Supreme Court has energized activists on both sides of the long-running debate who are now girding to make abortion access a major issue in next year's midterm elections.

Enrollment in Catholic schools in the U.S. dropped 6.4% from the previous academic year amid the pandemic and economic stresses — the largest single-year decline in at least five decades.

Many religious leaders — some admired worldwide, others beloved only locally — died in 2020. Here are some of them.

These efforts reflect a widespread surge of interest among many U.S. religious groups in the area of reparations, particularly among long-established Protestant churches that were active in the era of slavery. 

Child-protection policies adopted by Roman Catholic leaders to curb clergy sex abuse in the United States are inconsistent and often worryingly incomplete, according to a think tank's two-year investigation encompassing all 32 of the country's archdioceses.

Roman Catholics account for a bit more than 20% of the U.S. population, yet they are on track to hold six of the Supreme Court's nine seats now that President Donald Trump has nominated Amy Coney Barrett to fill its vacancy.

For decades, Roman Catholic voters have been a pivotal swing vote in U.S. presidential elections, with a majority backing the winner — whether Republican or Democrat — nearly every time.

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.