Religion News Service

Catholic theology affirms that confession is good for the soul, so it's a bit of paradox that the last thing the American Roman Catholic bishops or the Vatican want to do is publicly confess everything they know about clergy sex abuse.

Roman Catholic churches have increasingly come under attack in France, a country so long identified with Christianity that it used to be called "the eldest daughter of the church."

It's a simple, if radical, idea. And one that some critics of Richard Rohr, the 76-year-old Franciscan who founded the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque 32 years ago, have described as "dangerous" and even "heretical."

Signs of the Times: When people were first confronted with the extent of Catholic priests' sexual abuse of children, they were angry. But when, in the early 2000s, they learned that their bishops knew about the abuse and did little to stop it, Catholics and even the wider public were outraged.

President Donald Trump is working on a plan for peace in the Middle East. And if Trump unveils a plan evangelicals hate, they could turn on him — or at least not turn out as enthusiastically for his re-election next year. So it's important to him to hear the concerns, hopes and input of evangelical leaders now.

A new survey finds that Americans continue to oppose the idea that small-business owners should be able to refuse products or services to gay or lesbian people due to their religious beliefs.

The Dallas Holocaust Museum Center for Education and Tolerance and other museums across the country are benefiting from hologrammic technology which allows them to preserve the images and voices of Holocaust survivors in a way that brings them alive for museum visitors.

Signs of the Times: Last month’s summit in Rome on child sex abuse did not break new ground for those who have been following this crisis for more than 30 years, but it did made clear — again — that the sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church has been devastating for the victims of abuse and for the church as a whole.

Scores of religious and civil rights organizations have asked U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to request an evaluation by a U.N. expert of the scope of racism in the country.

In a shift that stands to impact religion and politics, survey data suggests that the percentage of Americans who don't affiliate with any religious tradition is roughly the same as those who identify as evangelical or Catholic.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended his department’s decision to drop the word “occupation” from its description of the Golan Heights and Palestinian territories.

A federal appeals court has ruled that the clergy housing allowance authorized by the Internal Revenue Service is constitutional.

A Dartmouth College professor who says he is a religious agnostic but whose work has focused on the links between science and the mysteries of creation is the winner of the 2019 Templeton Prize.

At a small tent on the edge of the U.N. campus, environmental activists from the world's faith traditions huddled on the sidelines of last week's March 11-15 meeting of some 5,000 environmental scientists, politicians and civil society.

The power granted us by new technologies doesn't give users the power to regulate themselves. Instead, the platforms' relative anonymity means that people say what they want, whenever they want, without repercussions.

Signs of the Times: Francis has successfully rebranded the Catholic Church, which had come to be regarded as a clerical institution that stressed rules and uniformity. If you wanted to be a good Catholic, you were given the catechism to memorize and told to follow the rules.

A new survey reveals that more U.S. Catholics are questioning whether they should remain in the church today than when news of the "Spotlight" child sex abuse scandal broke in the Boston Archdiocese in 2002.

A new report from the Public Religion Research Institute finds that strong majorities within all religious groups, including white evangelicals and Jehovah’s Witnesses, show sustained support for LGBT nondiscrimination policies.

The Catholic Church in Kenya has refuted claims that it has been condoning corruption and allowing corrupt politicians to donate what they have stolen from public coffers to the church.

While white evangelicals have garnered more attention than other faith groups over the past few decades, pollsters and political activists believe white Catholics and mainline Protestants could have an outsized impact in November 2020.