When Jean-Charles de Castelbajac saw Notre Dame cathedral burn in April 2019, he felt compelled to act.

The office of the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, says he will wrap up his official duties in early January amid an abuse scandal in the Church of England.

Pope Francis has revised the funeral rites that will be used when he dies.

Pope Francis will make late teen Carlo Acutis the Catholic Church’s first millennial and digital saint next year.

The Texas State Board of Education has given initial approval to a Bible-infused curriculum that would be optional for public schools to adopt for lessons from kindergarten through fifth grade.

It’s not the holiday season until the house is full of festive music, from classics to covers and reimaginations across genres, for all to enjoy.

The leader of a New York City church where pop star Sabrina Carpenter filmed scenes for a music video has been stripped of his duties.

Survivors of clergy sexual abuse are urging the Vatican to adopt the same zero-tolerance policy that it approved for the U.S. Catholic Church in 2002.

A U.S.-born Buddhist lama celebrated his 18th birthday with an elaborate enthronement ceremony.

Pope Francis has called for an investigation to determine if Israel’s attacks in Gaza constitute genocide.

Religion is well-suited for terrifying and entertaining thrill-seeking moviegoers.

Oklahoma's education superintendent has sent an email to public school superintendents requiring them to show students his video announcement of a new Department of Religious Freedom and Patriotism.

A medieval statue of the Virgin Mary and Child, known as the “Virgin of Paris,” has returned to Notre Dame cathedral, five years after surviving the devastating fire of 2019.

Pope Francis is asking the diocese of Rome to help alleviate a growing housing crisis in the Eternal City.

The manager of a small hotel in northern Italy has refused a reservation made by a couple of Israeli tourists and accused Israeli people of being “responsible for genocide.”.

A delegation of former hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and their relatives have met with Pope Francis.

A year after the release of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Martin Scorsese is still looking for his next feature.

Several U.S. Catholic bishops on Wednesday encouraged the church to boldly share Vatican teachings on a range of hot-button issues, including the condemnation of abortion, euthanasia, surrogacy and gender-affirming surgery.

Nearly $1 billion in donations were pledged within days of the fire that ravaged Paris' Notre Dame cathedral five years ago.

The only Church of England bishop to publicly demand the resignation of former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby says his departure wasn't enough to solve the church’s “profound failure" in safeguarding vulnerable people or ease the trauma suffered by victims of abuse.

Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill says the state will ask a federal appeals court to quickly stay a lower court's order declaring unconstitutional a law requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public classroom by Jan. 1.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, resigned Tuesday after an investigation found he failed to tell police about serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps as soon as he became aware of it.

As U.S. Catholic bishops gather for their annual fall meeting this week in Baltimore, the specter of President-elect Donald Trump’s resounding victory hangs over the proceedings.

Authorities in Pakistan say a key suspect in connection with a deadly attack at a mosque in a police compound nearly two years ago has been arrested and has been identified as a police officer.

Survivors have attended a formal apology from New Zealand's leaders at Parliament for the abuse of thousands of children and vulnerable adults in state, foster and faith-based care.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has made a “formal and unreserved” apology in Parliament for the abuse, torture and neglect of an estimated 200,000 children and vulnerable adults in care.

A digital twin of St. Peter’s Basilica has been created using artificial intelligence to explore one of the world’s most important monument’s.

Paris police say that 4,000 officers and 1,600 stadium staff will be deployed for a France-Israel soccer match to ensure security in and around the stadium and on public transportation.

Police have detained dozens of people for taking part in a demonstration in central Amsterdam that had been outlawed following violent clashes targeting fans of an Israeli soccer club.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof has canceled his planned trip to United Nations climate talks in Azerbaijan so he can stay in the Netherlands to deal with the fallout from assaults on fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team in Amsterdam that authorities condemned as antisemitic.

The decadeslong ban of Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses” in his native India is now in doubt.

In a story published Nov. 8, 2024, about how different religious groups voted in the presidential election, The Associated Press erroneously used 2020 numbers when reporting the results of the AP VoteCast survey related to Jewish voters.

It’s Friday night in Downtown Santiago, the capital of Chile, and a group of 15 people gather around a table.

The New Orleans Saints may be one of the worst teams in the NFL this season.

Former President Donald Trump once again won the support of about 8 in 10 white evangelical Christian voters in his election to a second term.

Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral, whose historic bells were silenced following 2019’s devastating fire, will soon echo again with fresh chimes.

A Texas appeals court has ordered a new trial for a Jewish man on death row because of antisemitic bias by the judge in his case.

Paolo Sorrentino’s latest film “Parthenope,” has gotten mixed reviews and an early thumbs down from Italy's Catholic Church.

The trial of eight people in Paris on terrorism charges started on Monday over the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty.

Authorities say a local leader of the Mexican folk saint cult “La Santa Muerte” has been gunned down at an altar to the skeletal figure.

Christians in many countries around the world are celebrating All Saints’ Day, a somber and spiritual day in the church’s liturgical calendar that shares pagan roots with Halloween.

For the first time, New York City’s public school students have the day off to mark the holiday of Diwali, celebrated in India and among the global Indian diaspora as the victory of light over darkness.

Immigration from around the world has transformed the rural Minnesota town of Worthington.

At noon on Sundays in Worthington, Minnesota, an overflow crowd is still swaying to the Guatemalan band at Spanish-language Catholic Mass, Ethiopian Orthodox Christians are wrapping up their six-hour-long service, and at town’s edge among the cornfields, refugees from Southeast Asia gather to pray and sing in Karen at the Baptist church founded by Swedish farmers.

Immigration is a core issue for voters.

Immigration is a core issue for voters.

Just four years ago, most U.S. Muslim voters supported Democratic President Joe Biden.

A Washington state man who authorities say led a wildlife trafficking ring on a Native American reservation in Montana that killed thousands of eagles and hawks was sentenced to nearly four years in prison.

The Vatican tribunal says it convicted a cardinal of aggravated fraud and other charges because of his “objectively inexplicable behavior” in paying a self-styled intelligence analyst more than a half-million euros (dollars) in Vatican money.

Diwali is the most important festival of the year in India and for Hindus in particular.

Indians are celebrating the Hindu festival of lights, Diwali, by symbolically lighting a record 2.51 million clay oil lamps at dusk on the banks of the river Saryu in a city they believe to be the birthplace of the deity Lord Ram.

The nationwide debate over transgender rights is playing out on a personal level in a federal court lawsuit filed by a former Liberty University employee fired by the Christian school after disclosing her identity as a transgender woman.

Latinos are the fastest-growing group of American evangelicals.

Pennsylvania’s State Capitol could be a crucial venue if the upcoming election leads to worsening political divisions in the most pivotal of swing states.

A Taliban government minister says Afghan women are forbidden from praying loudly or reciting the Quran in front of other women.

“Pan de muerto," or “bread of the dead,” is freshly baked in Mexico ahead of Day of the Dead celebrations.

Nationally, Catholic voters have been a crucial swing constituency in recent presidential elections.

Pope Francis’ child protection board has issued its first-ever global assessment of the Catholic Church's efforts to address the clergy sex abuse crisis.

Four Roman Catholic bishops in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero called Monday for civilian and military authorities to take steps to protect residents of a region rocked by violence that has left more than a dozen dead in recent days.

The Amish are numerous in the all-important swing state of Pennsylvania, and yet only a small minority of them vote in elections.

The Rev. David Peck is an Episcopal priest in the heartland of Pennsylvania, a swing state at the center of the tense presidential election.

With Pope Francis a few weeks away from his 88th birthday, the plotting for his successor is well underway at the Vatican.

Pope Francis’ yearslong process to reform the Catholic Church has closed with recommendations that fell far short of giving women more equity as hoped.

Christ Church is so symbolic to the birth of America that it's called the Nation's Church.

The two historic churches are less than a mile apart in Philadelphia.

President Biden is expected to issue an historic apology Friday for the 150-year government effort to break up Native American culture, language and identity by forcing children into abusive boarding schools.

President Joe Biden said he will formally apologize on Friday for the nation's role in forcing Indigenous children into boarding schools, where for more than 150 years, many were physically, emotionally, and sexually abused and more than 950 died.

Ukrainian evangelicals are lobbying their American counterparts for continued support of their homeland in its war with Russia.

A bunch of old men in robes sitting inside and picking a pontiff is not your average pitch in Hollywood.

Peruvian theologian the Rev. Gustavo Gutiérrez, the father of the social justice-centered liberation theology that the Vatican once criticized for its Marxist undercurrents, has died.

Louisiana’s 2020 Teacher of the Year, has filed a lawsuit challenging a new state law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom by Jan. 1.

Customarily, Simchat Torah is one of the most joyous days of the Jewish calendar, highlighted by exuberant dancing around a Torah.

Hundreds of people have turned out for the burial of Catholic priest Marcelo Pérez, an activist for Indigenous peoples and farm laborers who was killed in the southern Mexico state of Chiapas.

Indonesian officials say about 140 weak and hungry Rohingya Muslims, mostly women and children, are on a wooden boat anchored about 1 mile off the coast of Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh, and local residents refused to allow them onto land.

At dawn, pilgrims like Ernesto Troya undertook the hardest stretch of their journey to reach the image of the Black Christ of Portobelo in Panama.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is focusing his official office on fighting an abortion rights amendment.

Pennsylvania has the biggest Jewish population of any swing state, and any shift could have enormous implications in a state decided by narrow margins the past two presidential elections.

A federal judge has heard arguments on whether he should temporarily block a new Louisiana law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom by Jan. 1.

Catholic priest Marcelo Pérez has been killed in Mexico.

Donald Trump’s campaign has nourished a fusion of hard-right politics and theology to energize evangelical Christians in swing states.

A group of Orthodox monks in upstate New York takes the Christian imperative to care for creation more literally than most religious communities.

Kamala Harris has visited two Atlanta-area church where she summoned Black members of the congregations to turn out at the polls.

King Charles III and Queen Camilla have been greeted by children outside a Sydney church in their first public appearance of their Australian visit.

Christian nationalist leaders are telling followers that Vice President Kamala Harris is under the influence of a “Jezebel spirit."

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to hundreds of victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades.

A group of Oklahoma parents, teachers and ministers are suing to stop the state's top education official from forcing schools to incorporate the Bible into their lesson plans.

A revered soul and gospel singer and the mother of Whitney Houston, Cissy Houston’s life was celebrated nearly a week after her death at 91.

Former President Donald Trump laced into Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats in a pointed and at times bitter speech as he headlined the annual Al Smith charity dinner in New York.

Asian American evangelical Christians are an evolving group of voters who are increasingly seeking to distinguish themselves from their white counterparts.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades.

The hidden annex where the young Jewish diarist Anne Frank hid from Nazi occupiers during World War II is heading to New York.

When Elton John was on tour in America during the 1970s, there was someone on TV who caught his eye.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says it’s important that allies’ aid to Ukraine doesn’t decrease next year.

Many Jews worldwide will mark Yom Kippur in fasting and prayer at their synagogues this weekend.

The 2024 race to the White House has already seen unexpected twists and turns.

Pope Francis has named 21 new cardinals.

For generations, many people in Lebanon have wrestled with whether to leave to seek better opportunities or escape various times of tumult.

A new round of airstrikes has hit Beirut suburbs.

Members of a pacifist Christian sect that emerged in 18th century Russia were expelled to the fringes of the Russian Empire almost two centuries ago for rejecting the Orthodox church and refusing to serve in Czar Nicholas I’s army.

A top leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is urging members to “avoid what is harsh and hateful” in the heat of election season.