BALTIMORE — The Archdiocese of Baltimore’s bankruptcy case moved closer to the critical mediation phase Monday, as attorneys for the Catholic Church, its insurance carriers and a committee of sex abuse survivors reached a tentative agreement on the terms for upcoming negotiations.

The agreement is tentative because the lawyers still need ...Read more

Oklahoma is mandating Bible lessons in public schools. Louisiana is requiring display of the 10 commandments in classrooms.

As the national debate churns over the role of religion in public schools, Florida, too, stands near the center of the storm.

Its law to permit chaplains in classrooms, which took effect July 1, has gained wide attention ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — New substantiated sexual abuse allegations have surfaced against a former priest in the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas who served prison time after being convicted in 2002 of indecent liberties with a child, church officials say.

“With deep sorrow for the suffering of victims and survivors of abuse, the Archdiocese...Read more

BALTIMORE — Baltimore Archbishop William Lori struck a unified tone with the chair of the committee representing sex abuse victims in the Catholic Church’s bankruptcy case at a news conference Monday, as both men acknowledged the number of survivors who filed claims is not yet known.

Lori and Paul Jan Zdunek, chair of the creditor’s ...Read more

In the Catholic faith, sainthood is reserved for those who have lived a life of heroic virtues, acted as a martyr or taken part in miracles. The designation typically comes after the person has been dead for decades, even hundreds of years.

That changed last week, when Pope Francis recognized the first saint of the millennial generation in the ...Read more

During his Sunday sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock spoke out against the U.S. Supreme Court ruling about presidential immunity, saying the court is “mired in corruption” and encouraged his flock to pray, organize and vote.

“I came to warn you we are in dangerous territory,” Warnock said. “If ever we needed ...Read more

As the Archdiocese of New York and its insurance company, Chubb, battle over who is responsible for millions in potential payouts to survivors of clergy sexual abuse, a new group has entered the picture.

Announcing its presence in November with a full page ad in The New York Times, the Coalition for Just and Compassionate Compensation, which ...Read more

FORT WORTH, Texas — Southlake’s Gateway Church is reeling from the shocking child sex abuse allegations against its founder Robert Morris, prompting questions of how one of the country’s largest churches will weather the scandal.

Morris resigned from the church last week after allegations surfaced that he sexually abused a 12-year-old ...Read more

COLUMBIA, N.J. — Somewhere in this random, run-of-the-mill truck stop full of things truckers need, like CB radios and corned beef hash, and stuff no one needs, like dragon sculptures or New Jersey-themed shot glasses, a local tanker driver found something he wasn’t looking for: God.

Mike Eurich was so sure that a higher power touched him ...Read more

On June 15, Amy Smith had the police called on her as she stood outside Gateway Church in Southlake, protesting the sex abuse scandal involving the church’s founder and then-senior Pastor Robert Morris.

A week later — with Morris no longer the pastor after confessing to molesting a girl in Oklahoma starting when she was 12 years old in the ...Read more

Southlake’s Gateway church conducted its first weekend of services since Robert Morris, the founder and senior pastor resigned after confessing to molesting a child in the 1980s, starting when the girl was 12.

The megachurch’s main Southlake campus was full on Saturday night and there were protesters outside; Sunday was a different story.

...Read more

Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert were among the many comedians from around the world who visited the Vatican on Friday morning at the behest of Pope Francis.

More than 100 humorists hailing from 15 countries were invited to meet the pontiff for a meeting organized to “establish a link” between the entertainers and the ...Read more

Pope Francis made his debut at the Group of Seven summit, landing in a white helicopter and rolling into a room of world leaders to deliver a warning about artificial intelligence being “fascinating and terrible.”

Anticipation of the leader of the Catholic church had already infused an air of religiosity into a gathering that is typically ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego announced Thursday that it plans to return to U.S. bankruptcy court to help manage its response to hundreds of lawsuits filed by people who say they were sexually assaulted by Catholic priests when they were young.

It is the second time San Diego church officials have gone to bankruptcy ...Read more

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Five former priests who have been deemed “credibly accused” abusers by church officials and who previously worked in Minnesota aren’t listed on the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ public list, clergy abuse victims said Wednesday.

That needs to change, said organizers with the Survivor Network of those Abused...Read more

A day after the Southern Baptist Convention expelled a Virginia church for affirming women in pastoral roles, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination voted down a resolution to add an amendment banning the roles in its constitution.

The amendment failed to meet the two-thirds threshold necessary for adoption, a vote that surprised many ...Read more