MIAMI — After an Evangelical pastor presided over the unveiling of a golden statue of President Donald Trump at his Doral golf course last week, several Florida religious leaders are likening the homage to idolatry and a violation of the biblical prohibition against worshiping false idols.

At a ribbon-cutting ceremony last Wednesday at Trump ...Read more

CHICAGO — The Archdiocese of Chicago removed a Little Italy priest accused of “improper and inappropriate conversations and communications” with children and adult women, Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, wrote in a Saturday letter.

The Rev. Jose Molina had been serving as the temporary minister at St. Francis of Assisi...Read more

Haiti Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé discussed his country’s ongoing security and sociopolitical crisis, as well as humanitarian and migration challenges, during an audience with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Saturday.

The visit came a day after the first American pontiff marked the first anniversary of his election as head of the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Scientology “speed running” trend isn’t slowing down.

Since the first incidents in Los Angeles in late March, large groups of people — some in costumes — have tried to race through buildings belonging to the church in New York, San Diego, San Francisco and countries outside the U.S., even as Scientology’s lawyers...Read more

Shortly after white smoke billowed from the Sistine Chapel chimney, the May 8 announcement from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican rocked the world: Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost — born in Chicago and raised in south suburban Dolton — became the first American pope in the church’s 2,000-year history.

The ...Read more

As Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with Pope Leo XIV this week, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski said he hopes the two leaders can move forward on one issue of particular interest to South Florida: humanitarian aid to Cuba.

The meeting came amid an escalating conflict in the Middle East and an increasingly public feud between President ...Read more

Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican to discuss the conflict in the Middle East, following a public clash between the pontiff and President Donald Trump in recent weeks.

Rubio and the pope spoke about “topics of mutual interest in the Western Hemisphere,” the State Department said in a statement Thursday. “...Read more

CHICAGO — It was a class reunion like no other.

Ten 1969 graduates of St. Mary of the Assumption school on the city’s Far South Side traveled to Vatican City to reconnect with a fellow alum whom they now call Holy Father.

Pope Leo XIV, once a choir boy and top student at the now-defunct church, embraced his grammar schoolmates from more ...Read more

In the early 2000s, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were the most Republican-leaning religious group in the country.

Those days are over, a new study found. Between 2007 and 2025, the percentage of Mormons who reported leaning Republican dropped by 12%, according to an analysis by market research firm YouGov of data ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A new ordinance allowing a religious blade inside Sacramento City Hall went into effect Tuesday, and members of the Sikh community who carry the article of faith packed the council chambers for the occasion.

Some members of the Sikh community carry five religious items as a formal recognition of their religion. One of ...Read more

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Growing up on a farm in Pearl Lake, John Wicker went to Holy Cross Catholic Church every Sunday.

He attended the church’s parochial school, played softball on the parish’s ballfield and still raises money for the annual fall fish fry. And he’s already purchased his plot in the parish cemetery.

But now that church —...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Hollywood Walk of Fame is known for its colorful cast of characters. But even by those standards, the scenes of Jesus Christ and Sonic the Hedgehog racing past security guards employed by the Church of Scientology in recent days were a little bizarre.

On Saturday afternoon, someone dressed as the Christian messiah was among ...Read more

BALTIMORE — The Maryland Supreme Court ruled Monday that prosecutors may not publicly identify more than a dozen clergy and laypeople accused of concealing or failing to report child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore, finding that such disclosures would violate long-standing grand jury secrecy rules.

In a decision reinforcing ...Read more

MIAMI — Weeks before the clash between Pope Leo XIV and President Donald Trump began, the pope called on all Catholics and people of good will to contact their political leaders to demand an end to the war in Iran. The plea came days after Trump threatened to destroy the entire Iranian civilization — an attack the pope described as “truly ...Read more

A jury in Alameda County, California, on Wednesday delivered a $16 million verdict against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, in a key lawsuit that could have far-reaching consequences for hundreds of people claiming decades of abuse by the church’s priests.

The jury ordered the payout to a former Union City altar boy — now a 61-year-...Read more

North Carolina evangelist Franklin Graham took to social media Thursday to express solidarity with President Donald Trump amid widespread backlash over recent posts by the president.

Trump shared an AI-generated image to his Truth Social platform late Sunday that depicted him as a Jesus-like figure in robes with light emitting from him as he ...Read more

The Trump administration’s decision to shut down a refuge run by the Catholic Church in Miami for migrant children who come to the U.S. alone will traumatize kids who have already experienced extreme hardship on their journeys here, Catholic leaders said on Thursday

During a press conference, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski and Catholic ...Read more

MIAMI — The Trump administration’s decision to abruptly cancel an $11 million contract with Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami to shelter and care for unaccompanied migrant children is drawing a raft of criticism from South Florida political and religious leaders – including members of the president’s own party.

Archbishop ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Sen. Thom Tillis didn’t hold back his opinion of President Donald Trump posting an image of himself as Jesus or attacking Pope Leo.

Early Monday, Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself dressed in a white robe with a red shawl draped over it. Jesus is often depicted wearing the same garments in Western art, a symbol of ...Read more