Religion News Service

The second session of the Synod on Synodality will take place this October as a follow-up to the first session that occurred last October. Here are five things to look for as the synod delegates gather in Rome.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance took the stage at Christian nationalist preacher Lance Wallnau‘s election-season revival tour on Saturday (Sept. 28), using the setting to make a theological defense of the GOP campaign’s controversial immigration policies and to appeal to Wallnau’s  conservative Christian crowd in a hotly contested swing state.

Must one vote for one or the other, as the pope suggests? Phyllis Zagano explores the basic question for both voters and bishops alike: Which team is more pro-life?

The survey also found that Francis’ popularity has dropped throughout Latin America in the last decade, though significant majorities of Latin American Catholics still view him favorably.

On Sept.10, Catholic Bishop Leonard Ndjadi Ndjate, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said the treaty was an ethical imperative that served the best interest of humanity.

Cardinal Marc Ouellet’s new book, "Word, Sacrament, Charism: Risks and Opportunities of a Synodal Church," hopes to offer a new perspective for synodal discussions by suggesting that the church should promote and enable charisms, intended as gifts by the Holy Spirit that are given to every baptized Catholic.

Marcellus "Khaliifah" Williams, an imam at Missouri’s Potosi Correctional Center, is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday (Sept. 24), despite a 2017 stay granted when evidence of an unknown individual’s DNA was found on the murder weapon and there was no trace of Williams’ DNA.

Leaders and writers from mainline Christian denominations, the Catholic and Greek Orthodox church, as well as Black Protestant and evangelical Christianity, signed the letter, which describes democracy as a "moral affirmation" and urges Christians to repudiate "anti-democratic sentiment" — namely, ideologies such as Christian nationalism and racism. 

From divinity school hallways to organized seminars to governing bodies, professors of the art of preaching are considering about what AI means their students.

Many trend pieces about Latino voters claim that there has been a significant spike in the Latino evangelical population. However, that narrative doesn’t bear out in the polling. Instead, religious disaffiliation is chipping away at the Catholic base, as religiously unaffiliated Latinos are seeing the largest growth of any faith category among Latinos.

Catholic leaders throughout the Americas are expressing grief and outrage at the killing of Juan Antonio López, a Honduran environmental activist and local Catholic leader, in Tocoa, in northeastern Honduras, on Saturday (Sept. 14). López, described by friends as his local bishop’s right-hand man, was shot dead by several men as he left church Saturday night, according to Reuters. 

Autonomous AI is still designed by people. So who or what is really responsible for its actions? For centuries, theologians have posed similar questions about mankind and God.

Despite the Sudanese civil war that’s devastated the region, the All Saints Anglican Cathedral in Khartoum is still standing. But its compound is now a graveyard, with a vandalized altar and missing pews, which have been chopped by soldiers for firewood, according to Archbishop Ezekiel Kondo.

Polls show voters are concerned with other issues, such as inflation and immigration. But the environment continues to be a top concern for many voters, especially younger ones, and the issue crosses lines of faith and politics in ways that others don’t.

A group of evangelical Christians hoping to reclaim their tradition from the culture wars put out a call Monday (Sept. 9) for a broader understanding of evangelicalism urging a rejection of "political idolatry and its messengers" as well as the "false idols of power, wealth, and strength rather than the true God."

"The fathers of the Second Vatican Council threw out the documents drawn up by the Vatican Curia and set their own agenda," writes Thomas Reese. He wonders if history could repeat itself at the October synod on synodality.

The lawsuit is one of two in Maine that focus on the collision between the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling and the state law requiring that schools participating in the tuition program abide by the Maine Human Rights Act, which includes protections for LGBTQ students and faculty.

Too many people, when they grow older, give up on the God they learned about as children. What they really need to do is think about God in a more mature way.

At a conference at the Vatican, physicists and theologians made the case for cooperation between faith and science.

What I found was disturbingly out of step with the teachings I hold dear, and since all the commentaries on Project 2025 I've seen lack the perspective of nuns, I thought I'd offer a few observations.