Religion News Service

The Democratic Party has hired a new religious outreach director and launched a round of listening sessions with faith leaders in the lead-up to the 2020 election.

A genealogical association has launched a new website detailing the family histories of slaves who were sold to keep Catholic-run Georgetown University from bankruptcy in the 1800s.

There are seven Friendship Houses in the U.S. and one in Scotland. The one in Fayetteville, North Carolina, opened late last year, and is the newest and most novel. It is intended to allow students in health care professions the opportunity to learn from disabled people.

Signs of the Times: Although Francis places a very high value on celibacy, he is also a pragmatist who recognizes that indigenous communities are being denied the Eucharist and the sacraments because they don’t have priests.

Charitable giving by individual Americans in 2018 suffered its biggest drop since the Great Recession of 2008-09, in part because of Republican-backed changes in tax policy, according to the latest comprehensive report on Americans' giving patterns.

A number of Democratic presidential candidates addressed a group of faith leaders and activists during a gathering hosted by the Poor People's Campaign. 

Everyone, it seems, has an idea for how to rebuild Notre Dame.

In response to recent accusations of episcopal misconduct, the U.S. Catholic bishops have adopted a process for reporting and investigating allegations of sexual misconduct and coverup by bishops.

Finally, 17 years to the month after a major clergy sex scandal forced them to crack down on priests who abuse children, the Catholic bishops of the United States have set up a system designed — at least in theory — to hold their own feet to the fire if they cover up abuse.

A diverse band of faith leaders and at least one presidential candidate descended on a park outside the White House on Wednesday (June 12), gathering to decry what organizers called the "evil" policies of the Trump administration.

A new Southern Baptist Convention report on sex abuse, filled with the voices of survivors, acknowledges numerous ways the denomination has failed to protect members of its churches.

Religious convictions compelled many to campaign for women's suffrage, seeing it as a matter of divine justice. Religious convictions also inspired many to fight hard against it.

Signs of the Times: On the plane returning to Rome from Romania, Pope Francis made an extraordinary statement on the role of theology in ecumenical relations at his press conference June 2.

The Field Hospital: The U.S. Treasury has walked back on a redesign plan, but Hope Central Church moves ahead, stamping all $20 bills from its offering plates with Tubman's face — a "worthy replacement," says the pastor.

After years of advocating by community and faith organizations, the city of Los Angeles is officially requiring an oil and gas company to close and clean up a neighborhood drill site.

Southern Baptists hope to take steps at their upcoming annual meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, to address continuing reports of sexual abuse in their denomination.

After her unexpected death at age 37 at the beginning of May, Rachel Held Evans' loved ones gathered June 1 to remember her in a funeral service.

Much ink has been spilled describing the priest in the BBC/Amazon Studios series "Fleabag" as cool. The hard-drinking, foulmouthed priest joined the show’s second season as a foil for Fleabag, the main character.

In the past few decades, Brazil has experienced an unexpected Jewish resurgence fueled by the descendants of Portuguese and Spanish Jews forced to convert to Christianity in colonial times.