Religion News Service

Across the country and on many Zoom meetings, lay people and clergy are envisioning different possible scenarios — a Harris victory, a Trump win, a change in congressional leadership or an unclear outcome — and thinking, praying and determining how to respond to each.

The selection of bishops has been a debated issue since apostolic times. There is no perfect way to select bishops.

Pope Francis preaches about synodality, but canon lawyers are showing us how to make it more than a pious wish.

Most Catholics don't want politics to divide their parishes, but the wise pastor will prepare for the worst. What can pastors do to keep their parishes from turning into partisan war zones? Fr. Tom Reese has some tips.

Members of the transgender community, a U.S. doctor who provides gender-affirming care, and parents of a transgender daughter who struggled with her gender identity were among the 11 people present at the nearly 90-minute meeting.

"If we don’t learn how to speak to our children, well, then, we’re going to continue on the same path, and we’re going to continue to lose them," Espaillat warned.

For the first time in history, a majority of the cardinals at the next conclave will be from outside of Europe, writes Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese

Fr. Tom Reese was surprised by a recent Pew poll, where he sees that those supporting women priests have done a much better job convincing the laity in Latin America than have those who favor optional celibacy.

Responding to the crisis, a coalition of church-linked organizations is providing education, skills trainings and farming equipment to help refugees at the camps participate in the local economy and become self-reliant.

"Campaign coverage this year has certainly been light on attention to the religious lives of the candidates and their running mates," writes Mark Silk, Professor of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College. "The journalistic posture has pretty much been: 'If you don’t tell, we won’t ask.'"

The second session of the Synod on Synodality will take place this October as a follow-up to the first session that occurred last October. Here are five things to look for as the synod delegates gather in Rome.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance took the stage at Christian nationalist preacher Lance Wallnau‘s election-season revival tour on Saturday (Sept. 28), using the setting to make a theological defense of the GOP campaign’s controversial immigration policies and to appeal to Wallnau’s  conservative Christian crowd in a hotly contested swing state.

Must one vote for one or the other, as the pope suggests? Phyllis Zagano explores the basic question for both voters and bishops alike: Which team is more pro-life?

The survey also found that Francis’ popularity has dropped throughout Latin America in the last decade, though significant majorities of Latin American Catholics still view him favorably.

With more than 750,000 people displaced by annual flooding, churches in the country have become involved in constructing dikes to safeguard thousands of lives at risk.

Comfort and challenge from a superstar pope who is still up to the job: Here are seven things that stood out during Francis' visits to Asia and Oceania.

On Sept.10, Catholic Bishop Leonard Ndjadi Ndjate, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said the treaty was an ethical imperative that served the best interest of humanity.

Cardinal Marc Ouellet’s new book, "Word, Sacrament, Charism: Risks and Opportunities of a Synodal Church," hopes to offer a new perspective for synodal discussions by suggesting that the church should promote and enable charisms, intended as gifts by the Holy Spirit that are given to every baptized Catholic.

Marcellus "Khaliifah" Williams, an imam at Missouri’s Potosi Correctional Center, is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday (Sept. 24), despite a 2017 stay granted when evidence of an unknown individual’s DNA was found on the murder weapon and there was no trace of Williams’ DNA.

Leaders and writers from mainline Christian denominations, the Catholic and Greek Orthodox church, as well as Black Protestant and evangelical Christianity, signed the letter, which describes democracy as a "moral affirmation" and urges Christians to repudiate "anti-democratic sentiment" — namely, ideologies such as Christian nationalism and racism.