Ezra Jin, founder of Zion Church, lands in the US and reunites with family who are ‘overwhelmed with joy’
The founder of one of China’s most prominent underground churches has been released from prison and reunited with his family in the United States.
Ezra Jin, the founder of Zion Church, landed in the US on Friday evening. He was one of dozens of church members who were detained in a sweeping crackdown on Christians in October.
Continue reading...Pope Leo urges Americans to live up to ideals of Declaration of Independence in first key address to US
Pope Leo has used his first key address to his home country to praise the US history of welcoming migrants, urging Americans to live up to the ideals put forward in the Declaration of Independence.
In his latest implicit rebuke to Donald Trump, the first US leader of the Roman Catholic church said the word “America” had become a “byword for freedom” across the world because of the way the country welcomed migrants.
Continue reading...Concerns Catholic order’s historical transfers of millions in assets were potentially inappropriate, NSW supreme court hears
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Lawyers for the federal government say they are concerned at the “disturbing” potential that the Christian Brothers Catholic order may have inappropriately transferred property to another entity years before claiming it was broke and couldn’t afford to pay abuse survivors’ civil claims.
The New South Wales supreme court on Thursday ordered a moratorium on all abuse claims against the Christian Brothers, a Catholic order that played a significant role in the church’s child sexual abuse scandal.
Continue reading...Church sues excommunicated member over Mormon Stories podcast but John Dehlin says name free for all to use
Trademark changes and copyright infringement disputes take many forms. Dunkin’ Donuts changed its name to Dunkin’ because Donuts did not suggest the vigorous, on-the-go attitude the coffee company wants to project.
But what happens when a church changes its name, but former adherents continue to use the original term in ways it may not like?
Continue reading...Critics say mandating Bible reading for over five million students breaches constitutional separation of church and state
The Texas education board has approved a broad new statewide reading list that, for the first time, will make passages from the Bible required reading for more than 5 million public school students.
Under the new initiative, Bible stories will become mandatory reading for millions of public school students in addition to a more standard collection of books, renewing debate over growing efforts in the US to increase the role of religion in classrooms.
Continue reading...Dormition Cathedral at Unesco world heritage site struck along with residential buildings across capital
A massive Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv has badly damaged the Dormition Cathedral in the Pechersk Lavra monastery complex, a Unesco world heritage site and one of Ukraine’s most significant religious and cultural sites.
Five people were killed in Kyiv, where waves of drones and missiles drove residents to underground shelters and heavy explosions echoed throughout the capital. Kyiv’s Oleksandr Dovzhenko national film studio, which houses Ukraine’s largest and oldest costume collection, was also hit.
Continue reading...As completion of 144-year basilica nears, questions swirl over resemblance of church to architect’s original plans
It has been a long wait but 144 years after work began, Pope Leo XIV has blessed the recently completed central tower of Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Família church in the presence of members of the Spanish royal family, the prime minister and hundreds of bishops.
With the completion of the Jesus Christ tower, the tallest of 18 in the temple, the basilica has reached its full height of 172.5 metres. It is now not only the world’s tallest church but Barcelona’s tallest building. It was consecrated in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI.
Continue reading...Pontiff to make marginalised a focus of first papal visit since 2011 including meeting with migrants in the Canaries
Pope Leo has urged political leaders to seek unity, rather than divide their populations for political gain, and said they must fight for peace, in the opening speech of his tour in Spain.
The pope has made the marginalised a focus of his visit – his first tour of an EU country, apart from Italy – including meeting homeless people in Madrid and migrants in the Canary Islands. The pope, who has clashed with the US president, Donald Trump, over his immigration policies and war with Iran, said his visit was aimed at setting an example of respecting “every human being”.
Continue reading...St Anthony of Padua asks for prayers for survivors after removing Anthony Odiong’s name from list of intentions
A Louisiana Catholic church that solicited prayers for a former pastor recently sentenced to life imprisonment for criminal clerical sexual assault, then backed off having offended his victims, is asking its community to pray for survivors of clergy abuse.
The shift took place in an updated 7 June parochial bulletin published by St Anthony of Padua church in the New Orleans suburb of Luling, Louisiana, where priest Anthony Odiong was pastor from 2015 to late 2023.
Continue reading...Draft treaty claims sexual and reproductive health and rights are an existential threat to the African family
An African treaty that rejects longstanding international human rights obligations moved a step closer to becoming policy this week as governments across the continent met in Ghana.
The draft African charter on family, sovereignty and values, seen by the Guardian, asserts that African values and culture are under attack from “foreign ideologies” and urges states to withdraw from any agreements that do not align with the principles of the charter, including the 2003 Maputo protocol, which promotes gender equality and protects the reproductive and health rights of women and girls.
Continue reading...Pontiff’s resolve to highlight plight of migrants has aligned him with Spanish PM, whose inner circle and party are mired in corruption allegations
While Pope Leo XIV isn’t due to touch down in Madrid until 10.30am on Saturday, his presence in the Spanish capital is already verging on the ubiquitous.
The smiling, avuncular face of the first US pontiff greets visitors from posters, from the sides of buses, from commemorative travel cards and even from the digital screens on the metro system, where it flickers up between adverts for sun cream and banking deals.
Continue reading...IDF says two soldiers will spend weeks in military prison over incident it said was viewed with great severity
Two Israeli soldiers will spend weeks in military prison for the desecration of a Christian object after one stuck a cigarette in the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary in southern Lebanon and the other photographed it.
The photo of the soldier, a cigarette dangling from his own mouth, went viral and sparked widespread outrage. It was the latest act by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon to be denounced as anti-Christian.
Continue reading...US president directs fresh criticism at pontiff days before secretary of state Marco Rubio’s visit to Vatican
Donald Trump has issued another verbal attack against Pope Leo, accusing the pontiff of “endangering a lot of Catholics” because “he thinks it’s fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon”.
The remarks come two days before Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, meets Leo at the Vatican in an effort to ease the tensions sparked by Trump’s previous broadside against the Chicago-born pontiff over his condemnation of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Continue reading...US secretary of state’s two-day visit reportedly intended to thaw Washington’s frosty relations with Vatican and Italy
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will meet Pope Leo on Thursday, weeks after Donald Trump’s unprecedented broadside against the pontiff.
Rubio will meet the first US-born pope privately in the Vatican’s apostolic palace at 11.30am (10.30 GMT), the Holy See’s press office confirmed on Monday after media reports on Sunday.
Continue reading...Leo, who has criticized Trump’s hardline immigration policy, selected Evelio Menjivar-Ayala as state’s new bishop
Pope Leo XIV has appointed a man who had once entered the United States as an undocumented immigrant, hidden in the trunk of a car, as the new bishop of West Virginia.
The pope approved the resignation of Bishop Mark E Brennan of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, and selected Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, 55, of Washington to take his place, reported OSV News.
Continue reading...Israeli foreign ministry denounces ‘shameful act’ after video shows man pushing woman to ground and kicking her
A video of an attack on a French Catholic nun and archeological researcher in Jerusalem has caused widespread revulsion and been denounced as a “shameful act” by Israel’s foreign ministry.
In the video, a man runs up behind the nun as she walks down a street and pushes her over with force, so that the victim comes close to hitting her head on a block of stone. After walking away a few paces, the attacker, who appears to be Jewish, returns to kick the nun as she lies on the ground and only stops when a passerby intervenes.
Continue reading...Israel Defense Forces say the ‘soldiers’ conduct completely deviated from IDF orders and value’
Two Israeli soldiers have been removed from combat duty and sentenced to 30 days in jail after one used a sledgehammer to smash a statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon while the other filmed him, the Israel Defense Forces have said.
An image circulating on social media on Monday showed an Israeli soldier using a sledgehammer to strike the head of a statue of a crucified Jesus that had fallen from its cross in a Christian village in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, prompting outrage among Christian communities worldwide.
Continue reading...Pontiff makes first papal visit to country as he starts 11-day tour that will also include stops in Cameroon and Angola
Pope Leo XIV has arrived in Algeria for the first papal visit to the country, calling for peace on the opening stop of a tour of Africa that signals the continent’s growing importance to the Catholic church.
The 11-day trip, which will include stops in Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea, is the longest by Pope Leo since being elected to the papacy in May last year.
Continue reading...Leader of Catholic church says he will continue to speak out against war after president’s extraordinary criticism
Pope Leo said he did not fear the Trump administration and would continue to speak out against war after Donald Trump delivered an extraordinary broadside against him in which he said he did not think the Chicago-born pontiff was “doing a very good job”, while also suggesting he should “stop catering to the radical left”.
In remarks that have been widely criticised, the US president used a lengthy social media post to sharply criticise Leo while he flew from Florida to Washington on Sunday night, then continued in comments on the tarmac to reporters. “I’m not a fan of Pope Leo,” he said.
Continue reading...Archbishop of Canterbury to issue urgent call for peace, as PM exhorts Britons to ‘choose community over division’
Religious and political leaders in the UK are highlighting the conflict in the Middle East in their Easter messages, calling for “peace, justice and freedom” in the region.
The archbishop of Canterbury will deliver her first Easter sermon at Canterbury Cathedral on Sunday as the Church of England’s top bishop. Dame Sarah Mullally will call “with renewed urgency” for peace in the Middle East and pray for “an end to the violence and destruction” in the region.
Continue reading...