Religion News Service

Faith leaders and congregations are responding to what they see as a human-engineered spiritual, moral and humanitarian crisis, especially as ICE activity stepped up over the weekend.

"In talking to the Canaanite woman, Jesus sounds like Donald Trump and JD Vance," Thomas Reese writes. 

Faith-based anti-death penalty activists have used the bell-tolling tactic throughout the country. Bells ran again Aug. 13, a day when three death row inmates were executed.

"The Bible teaches us not to put our leaders on pedestals, free from criticism. A nationalism that ignores the failings of leaders and people," writes Thomas Reese, "is not biblical."

The largest portion of the funding — $1.4 billion — is expected to support some 2,500 faith-based hospitals and clinics and train and pay tens of thousands of community health workers to provide healthcare services.

Across East Africa, young Catholics are transforming Pope Francis' call to care for creation into climate education and advocacy, arguing that protecting the environment is as much a religious obligation as attending church.

Tens of thousands of migrants recently crossed from Morocco into Ceuta, leaving scores dead and overwhelming the small Spanish territory in North Africa.

The nuns are safe for now, but anyone else who won't abide by the law risks losing their individual and/or facility licenses and ending up in jail.

Modern popes tend to stay out of partisan politics, but when Leo speaks, he certainly sounds like a Democratic Socialist.

As prominent prelates clash over the traditional Latin Mass, Pope Leo XIV's response may reveal his deepest instincts about authority, unity and tradition.

Allies of the older Latin Mass community had called for expanded access in the wake of the recent schism brought on by the ordination of four bishops without papal approval by the ultra-traditionalist SSPX. 

Some see the facilities' construction as a sign of the apocalypse, while others see it as an opportunity to advocate for environmental stewardship. 

The parishes that won Socorro, Texas, running water in the 1980s are now fighting ICE's plan to convert warehouses into a mega detention center. And the town's water system is at issue again.

"The Eucharist opens us to justice and sharing, with a preferential concern for those who are burdened by poverty or marginalization," the pope writes.

Sister Theresa Aletheia and Sister Danielle Lussier are the only community of religious sisters in the Catholic Church fully dedicated to serving abuse victims.

The artistic phenomenon of irony collapsing into sincerity is being interpreted by some as a way for younger generations to grapple with ritual, meaning and authenticity, even as participation in organized religion in the United States has dropped dramatically in recent decades.

The Georgetown University scholar was distinguished for his sensitive and nuanced portrayal of Islam and his desire to build bridges between Westerners and Muslims.

Back in 2009, Burnham recalled that important influences on him were, in order: the Everton FC soccer team, the Labour Party and the Catholic Church.

As Argentina's national team advanced in the World Cup, spiritual beliefs have become increasing visible among many soccer fans in the South American nation.

Technology, detached from ethics and responsibility, will make wartime decisions about life and death more rapid and impersonal, the pope writes in the final chapter of Magnifica Humanitas.