A longstanding tax exemption preventing nonprofit organizations from engaging in political campaign activity that favors individual candidates has been reinterpreted — signaling that religious organizations may now be excluded from the rule.

The decades-old Johnson Amendment does not apply to speech by houses of worship to its congregation ...Read more

DOLTON, Ill. -- The village of Dolton, which is where you may find yourself if you’re traveling south through Chicago and run out of Chicago to travel through, which we have heard more about in the past 30 days or so than since it was established 130-odd years ago, which is now best known to the world as the hometown of Pope Leo XIV, is like a...Read more

LAS VEGAS — A megaresort on the Strip agreed to pay a six-figure sum to settle a religious discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The Venetian hotel-casino will pay $850,000 and implement “significant policy changes” via a three-year consent decree to settle the suit, the EEOC ...Read more

Officials in Dolton, Illinois, officials are moving ahead with plans to buy Pope Leo XIV’s childhood home in the village, hoping to snap up the modest brick home that has gained international attention ahead of a planned auction.

The Village Board at a special meeting Tuesday voted unanimously to move forward on buying the house at 212 East ...Read more

As Christianity declines in the West, the faith is flourishing in sub-Saharan Africa, which is seeing the fastest growth in Christianity the world over. By 2060, more than 4 in 10 Christians worldwide are expected to live in sub-Saharan Africa, compared with just 1 in 10 in 1970, according to Pew Research.

But this growth is coming at a cost. ...Read more

By a 6-3 ruling Friday, the Supreme Court sided with parents who sued Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland to opt their children out of mandatory LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum, overturning a 2023 federal court ruling and handing a legal victory to conservatives who opposed the district’s policies on religious grounds.

The case, Mahmoud v...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Friday that parents have a right to opt their schoolchildren out of classes and lessons that offend their religious beliefs.

The 6-3 ruling will have an impact nationwide because it empowers parents who object to books or lessons at school.

"A government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it ...Read more

As the decades-long debate over the role of religion in public school education continues to spark legislation and legal challenges in the United States, a new poll reveals the nuanced views held among the general public.

Americans are largely split on what they think about religion’s influence on public school curriculum, with 32% saying ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Friday that parents have a right to opt their schoolchildren out of classes and lessons that offend their religious beliefs.

The 6-3 ruling will have an impact nationwide because it empowers parents who object to books or lessons at school.

"A government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — More than a dozen religious leaders from an array of faiths marched to the steps of the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday night, flowers in hand, calling for an end to the federal immigration raids they say have torn families apart and resulted in racial profiling.

At the start of the procession in Plaza ...Read more

It has become an old joke in the Cuban American community to note that Cubans seem to be everywhere. And so, when Pope Leo was elected to lead the Catholic Church and traces of his rich heritage began to emerge, including an ancestor who had been born in Havana, a Cuban genealogist in Miami rushed to figure out if this was just an isolated case ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A prominent Catholic priest with ties to the Bay Area is behind bars in San Luis Obispo County facing charges of sexually abusing three boys starting in the early 1990s, and police think there are more victims.

Theodore Gabrielli, 61, was arrested June 12 in Los Osos, near Morro Bay, and charged with three counts of ...Read more

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