The Associated Press

Under the tall prairie grass outside this southwestern Minnesota town lies a precious seam of dark red pipestone that, for thousands of years, Native Americans have quarried and carved into pipes essential to prayer and communication with the Creator. Only a dozen Dakota carvers remain.

Pope Francis gave in July 15 to China’s unilateral appointment of a new bishop in Shanghai, formally recognizing Beijing’s installation of Bishop Shen Bin three months after the fact.

Competing interests have ignited a tug of war between the town of about 3,000 people who want a huge copper mine built there for its economic benefits, and Native American groups that consider the land sacred and are fighting to protect it from disturbance.

Oak Flat, a piece of national forest land in central Arizona, is at the heart of a years long struggle between Native American groups and mining interests that both consider it important for their future. Here is how developments have played out over nearly a decade.

"I respect the (Catholic) religion because we grew up in this place, but the mountain speaks to us in the words of our grandparents, not in the words of the conquerors," said Moisés Vega, a 64-year-old "granicero" who says he can speak the sacred language of volcanoes to ask for good weather and a good crop.
 

Hawaii tourism officials urged tourists to be respectful when flocking to a national park on the Big Island to get a glimpse of the latest eruption of Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes.

About 500 Catholic mission churches anchor a uniquely New Mexican way of life for their communities. But it's becoming increasingly difficult to find the necessary resources to preserve the churches.

Charred, drained or swamped, built up, dug out or taken apart, blue or green or turned to dust: this is the Earth as seen from above.

Many in Louisville turned to their faith for impromptu services Monday night, hours after a gunman killed five of his co-workers at Old National Bank downtown and injured eight others.

Pope Francis urged world leaders April 12 to use reason and not arms to resolve differences, evoking memories of the 1960s Cold War between Washington and Moscow.

More than 150 Catholic priests and others associated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore sexually abused more than 600 children over the past 80 years, according to a state report released April 5 that accused church officials of decades of cover-ups.

Bundled in a long, white coat and battling a hoarse voice, Pope Francis presided over Mass in St. Peter's Square before tens of thousands of faithful on Palm Sunday, a day after he left a Rome hospital where he was treated for bronchitis.

Posters calling on Pope Francis to stop his crackdown on the old Latin Mass were plastered around the Vatican on March 28, in the latest display of conservative opposition to the pontiff.

On Sunday, around 250 residents brought back the faded practice of a special Mass and procession to pray to Our Lady of the Torrents, a local virgin associated with rainfall.

Pope Francis on March 25 accepted a resignation request from a German bishop who asked to step down because of his mistakes in handling sexual abuse cases.

Apache Stronghold sued the U.S. government under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to protect the place tribal members call Chi’chil Bildagoteel, an area dotted with ancient oak groves and traditional plants the Apaches consider essential to their religion. Some say it's the most important Native American religious liberty case in 15 years.

The Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is taking action to address the realities of a rapidly approaching, drier future by donating water rights to the Great Salt Lake, replacing grass with rocks and water-wise landscaping around neatly manicured churches and reducing water use by more than one-third outside the headquarters in Salt Lake City's Temple Square.

The Vatican said March 18 it had closed its embassy in Nicaragua after the country's government proposed suspending diplomatic relations, the latest episode in a yearslong crackdown on the Catholic Church by the administration of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

The Vatican Museums officially reopened its African and American ethnographic collections March 16 by showcasing intricately restored Rwandan raffia screens that were sent by Catholic missionaries to the Vatican for a 1925 exhibit.