Religion News Service

Long a staple of Catholic life, the rosary is back in the spotlight with the election of Joe Biden, who will become the nation’s second Catholic president when he is inaugurated in January. The president-elect often carries a set of rosary beads with him that once belonged to his son Beau, who died in 2015.

As cases of COVID-19 spike in the U.S. just weeks before major religious holidays, questions abound as to whether attending religious services in person can, in fact, be safe.

Sad because the bishops failed to communicate that they understood the report's implications; predictable in that some bishops defended John Paul II against the report's finding that the pontiff shared culpability in the McCarrick case.

With anti-Semitism on the rise globally, the Vatican and the United States partnered at a virtual conference on Nov. 19 to condemn hate crimes and violence against Jews in both Europe and the U.S. 

The recent report detailing the Vatican’s response to the scandal surrounding ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick shows why it’s a mistake to canonize popes (or anyone) quickly after their deaths.

For a group that is majority Catholic — and thus often expected to vote primarily against abortion — Latino residents in Arizona largely voted Democrat in this presidential election, helping to turn the state blue for the first time since 1996.

It makes one wonder how many other accusations against bishops were treated in the same way.  

In this time of division, pandemic, racism and global warming, we could do worse than implementing a truly Catholic agenda.

Look for Biden to listen to key voices — some of whom may disagree with him on many issues — from his own Catholic community, from Judaism and, yes, evangelicals, but of a different ilk than those who counseled Trump.

The letter accuses "some elected officials" of making "the immoral choice to hold onto power at any cost, including disenfranchising thousands, denying their most sacred gift: their voice."

Signs of the Times: It's the eternal conundrum of the so-called Catholic vote — Catholics no longer vote as a bloc as they once did, nor do they necessarily support candidates who favor the bishops' agenda, such as being anti-abortion. 

In an exclusive interview with Religion News Service, President Trump said in a written statement that he no longer identifies as a Presbyterian and now sees himself as a non-denominational Christian.

Signs of the Times: Pope Francis, in a surprise announcement on Sunday, Oct. 25, named 13 new cardinals, nine of whom will be able to vote for a new pope when Francis dies or resigns.

Signs of the Times: Francis is not changing dogma or doctrine or even canon law. He is talking about civil law, an area of prudential judgment.

Signs of the Times: Dear Pope Francis, it is extremely disappointing that almost all the photos of you since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic have shown you without a mask.

The Catholic Church’s most recent candidate for sainthood is also its most modern.

As they head to the polls, nearly all religious Americans say the coronavirus is the most critical issue facing the country, a new study by PRRI shows. But there's one notable exception: white evangelicals.

Patrick O'Neill, who together with the Rev. Stephen Kelly, cut a padlock to Kings Bay Naval Base in Georgia to protest its stockpile of hundreds of Trident nuclear weapons two years ago, was sentenced Oct. 16 to 14 months in federal prison.

Catholic missions are struggling amid dwindling vocations and the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data released Oct. 18 by the Vatican ahead of the World Mission Day.

The most important religious group to the 2020 presidential election is not really a religious group at all.