Religion News Service

Rain is beautiful and nourishing, to be appreciated and celebrated. Rain can also be inconvenient and destructive in our climate-challenged world. What is it that enables some people to see the same phenomenon as something to endure, while others see it as something to celebrate?

For two marketing classes taught at North Catholic High School in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, a career and college counselor at the school invited three owners of a local store to talk about how they run their small business. As part of their visit in December, the store owners offered each student a small crystal.

Critics are questioning whether the change is a full departure from the past or merely cosmetic.

Congress approved the transfer of the land at Oak Flat to Resolution Copper in 2014 in exchange for 6,000 acres elsewhere, but the Western Apache claim that the site has unique spiritual meaning.

Australian Cardinal George Pell was cowardly and disloyal in authoring an anonymous memorandum attacking Pope Francis.

So-called traditionalists have lost two icons in recent weeks, deflating opposition to reform on women's roles.

A new report looking at in-person worship attendance patterns found that a third of those surveyed never attend worship services, up from 25% before the start of the pandemic.

Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops Jan. 5 to recognize a 36-hour truce throughout Ukraine during the Orthodox Christmas holiday weekend. The announcement came in response to an appeal by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, who called for a cease-fire lasting from noon Jan. 6  through Jan. 7.

In the West, the Epiphany is about the Magi. In the East, it is about the baptism of the Lord. But it is also about the second coming of Christ.

The religious makeup of the new Congress bucks the trends seen in American religious life, a new report finds.

After the Second Vatican Council open discussion was suppressed by Joseph Ratzinger under the papacy of John Paul. If you did not agree with the Vatican, you were silenced.

Benedict XVI's great failing was surrounding himself with acolytes who would never challenge him and would insulate him from challenge.

Conservatives, reading the Second Vatican Council's documents like biblical fundamentalists, miss what it meant to participants.

Over 1,000 U.S. faith leaders are calling for a Christmas cease-fire in Ukraine 10 months after Russia invaded its neighbor. The leaders, who represent a broad range of faiths, said they hoped a temporary truce could lead to the negotiation of permanent peace.

This December, Christian congregations will belt “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” and priests will wax poetic about Old Testament prophecies. As they do so, a group of Jewish, Christian and Muslim educators is calling on them to examine where antisemitic ideas might be lurking undetected.

A "biblical backstager," the new audio drama "Almelem" features "a small group of con artists and true disciples fumbling toward the greatest story ever told."

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff opened a White House roundtable on antisemitism Dec. 7 by declaring his steadfast commitment to his Jewish identity and to fighting the scourge of hatred toward Jews.

The pope's recent interview in America magazine comes across as a first draft in need of editing.

Tensions between LGBTQ students and administrations endure at many of the hundreds of U.S. Catholic and Protestant universities. The Christian teachings they ascribe to differ from societal values over gender identity and sexual orientation, because they assert that God created humans in unchangeable male and female identities, and sex should only happen within the marriage of a man and a woman.

"There was only one person who could really fulfill that requirement, and that was Amy," Kennedy Center's board chair, in an interview, said of "long overdue" recognition.