The newly appointed Pope Leo XIV has several star-studded branches on his family tree.

The New York Times took deep dive into the new pope’s lineage and found that his cousins include Madonna, Justin Bieber and Angelina Jolie.

The Catholic leader, who made history by becoming the first American pope following the death of Pope Francis, also ...Read more

Louisiana televangelist Jimmy Swaggart remained in critical condition Tuesday, two days after he suffered a cardiac arrest and collapsed at his home.

Swaggart, 90, was found at his Baton Rouge residence around 8 a.m. Sunday, with first responders immediately administering CPR and taking him to a hospital, his family said on Facebook.

“He ...Read more

Catholics make up one of the largest religious groups in the United States — more than any Protestant denomination — and many who don’t identify with the faith still said they have a personal or family connection to it, according to a new survey.

Nearly half of Americans, 47%, said they have a relationship to the Catholic faith, with 20% ...Read more

BOSTON — City officials in Salem, Massachusetts, are under fire as they push to ban churches and religious groups from renting public school space.

While the Salem School Committee moves forward with the proposal, a free speech and religious liberty group is threatening that it will sue The Witch City for “anti-Christian witch hunts.”

...Read more

DULUTH, Minn. – A procession of hundreds of Catholics carried a small casket with the remains of the “Patriarch of the Diocese of Duluth” to a new resting place this week, as church officials prepare to lobby for his inclusion among the saints.

The short procession to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary was led by priests, deacons and...Read more

Anyone looking to drench themselves in the 1950s nostalgia currently favored by the religious right in America should consider watching “Leave It to Beaver” stoned. Which is what I did with an old friend in the 1980s while attending graduate school at the University of California-Berkeley.

Nostalgia for the ’50s — that land beyond time ...Read more

Christianity declined more than any other religious group in the United States in the past decade, but remains the majority, according to a new analysis.

The share of Christians making up the country’s population decreased by 14.3 percentage points between 2010 and 2020, according to a Pew Research Center study released June 9 describing ...Read more

MIAMI — President Donald Trump’s top spiritual adviser visited a southwest Miami-Dade County megachurch to outline a vision of a Christian-dominated world and urge believers, particularly Evangelicals, to help make it a reality.

In a two-hour sermon on Thursday, Florida Pastor Paula White-Cain — a prominent televangelist and senior ...Read more

MIAMI — After a lengthy and tangled dispute over ownership of one of South Florida’s oldest Christian Orthodox churches, its long-time leadership has lost a pivotal legal battle — and the keys to the sanctuary, at least for now.

Former leaders of the Saints Peter & Paul Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, a 70-year-old congregation ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — For the last three decades, the Rev. Damone Jones has worked to build relationships with Philadelphia's most troubled children, the teens he says "typically nobody else loves": those charged with murder.

Several days per week, the West Philadelphia pastor visits the young men under 18 who are held in a city jail, and offers ...Read more

The Department of Justice under the Trump administration is going after a tiny Idaho town you’ve probably never heard of.

The Justice Department filed a religious liberty lawsuit against the town of Troy in Latah County, just outside Moscow, saying that the denial of a permit for Christ Church’s proposed move was unlawful, according to ...Read more

BALTIMORE — A data breach that exposed confidential information about survivors of sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore has not resulted in the data appearing online, according to attorneys for the consulting firm that was hacked.

The breach was first discovered in March at Berkeley Research Group, which serves as a financial ...Read more

Since news of the new pope, Robert Prevost, who assumed the name Leo XIV, hit the wires, he has been universally celebrated as being an American from Chicago.

But he’s also another important first, something that wasn’t divulged at the same time or with the same fanfare: the first known pontiff of demonstrable African descent. This is ...Read more

VATICAN CITY — When 15-year-old Maria Izworska from Poland hears the word Chicago, the first thing that comes to mind is “O Block,” the notoriously high-crime strip of South King Drive that’s been immortalized in rap songs and social media.

“I also think about food,” said the teen, who was sitting on the steps of St. Peter’s ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court dealt an unexpected blow Thursday to the conservative drive for religious charter schools, with the justices splitting 4-4 and unable to rule in a case from Oklahoma that had the effect of blocking a proposed new Catholic charter school.

If upheld, it would have been the nation’s first tax-funded, church-run ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court dealt an unexpected blow Thursday to the conservative drive for religious charter schools, with the justices splitting 4-4 and unable to rule in a case from Oklahoma that had the effect of blocking a proposed new Catholic charter school.

If upheld, it would have been the nation's first tax-funded, church-run ...Read more

The Supreme Court dealt an unexpected blow Thursday to the conservative drive for religious charter schools.

The justices announced they were split 4-4 in a test case heard last month from Oklahoma, which blocks the new Catholic charter school in the state.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett had announced in advance she would not participate in the ...Read more

While the Illinois village of Dolton is moving ahead with negotiations to buy Pope Leo XIV’s childhood home in the village, it’s unclear how trustees were consulted about the decision, which hasn’t been discussed at an open meeting.

As Mayor Jason House seeks to come to terms with the home’s owner, at the same time the village attorney ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas has revealed what it says are recent substantiated allegations of sex abuse involving three priests, bringing to nearly 30 the number of credibly accused clergy who have served in the archdiocese.

The priests all have died in recent years, according to an announcement last week by ...Read more