Tiffany Stanley

Thousands of people streamed onto the National Mall for a daylong prayer rally Sunday billed as a "rededication of our country as One Nation under God."

The Christian rhetoric of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has taken on new meaning after the U.S. and Israel went to war with Iran, an Islamic theocracy.

In 1989 members of AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) disrupted a Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. They faced minor charges under state law.

For faith leaders supporting and ministering to anxious immigrants across the United States, 2025 was fraught with challenges and setbacks. For many in these religious circles, the coming year could be worse.

The immigration raids have upended lives and worship at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart. Families grieve for missing loved ones. Attendance at Masses, which are held in several languages, has dropped dramatically, visible in the many empty pews under the domed church's colorful mosaics.

As if the slaughter of children amid screams and shattered stained glass wasn't cause enough for grief, American opinion makers were convulsed once again this week in a debate over the role of prayer in the wake of a mass shooting, this time at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis.

Prominent figures on the right like Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance have espoused pronatalist beliefs, arguing more children are good for society.

"I really just want to make Catholicism warm," one of the men said.

When the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are considered children under state law, Chief Justice Tom Parker cited verses from the Bible and Christian theologians in his concurring opinion.