Religion News Service

I decided to give up Donald Trump for Lent, the 40-day period from Ash Wednesday (Feb. 26) to Easter Sunday when Catholics traditionally do penance.

In one of my earliest memories, my father is warning me about a famous man, "Remember, he still puts his pants on one leg at a time." I remembered this warning when I heard about the fall of another famous icon, Jean Vanier.

As the star of the play "Tolton: From Slave to Priest," actor Jim Coleman was portraying the life of the Rev. Augustus Tolton, the first known African American to serve as a Catholic priest in the United States.

One year after Pope Francis called for a summit of Catholic bishops at the Vatican, abuse survivors flocked to the Eternal City on Feb. 20 to report a lack of progress and accountability in the fight against clergy sex abuse.

Signs of the Times: Netflix's new series about the return of Jesus to contemporary times is good television but bad theology.

Though 500 years have passed since the Protestant Reformation began in the eastern German town of Wittenberg, traditional and conservative Catholics find themselves eyeing the German church with concern once again.

Alana Chen's death has focused attention on how religious institutions handle the question of sexuality in their counseling, especially when the counselor's faith teaches that homosexuality is wrong or sinful. Last year, Colorado banned gay conversion therapy for minors. That ban, however, exempts religious counselors.

India's Citizenship Amendment Act, an initiative of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, fast-tracks citizenship for refugees of all major South Asian faiths from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who have been in India since before 2015 — all faiths, that is, except Muslims.

It was disappointing but not a surprise that Pope Francis decided not to respond to the Amazon synod's recommendation that the Catholic Church ordain mature, married men to make up for the huge shortage of priests in the Amazon region. Francis did not say yes to married priests, but neither did he really say no. Discussion of the matter will continue, whereas previous papacies said no to even discussing the topic. 

Excommunication is the latest step in a long journey by the three companions who, for years, have tried to cut themselves off from the sins of the world, as they see it, so they can live closer to God.

While the newly elected Pope John Paul II stood before Catholic cardinals in the Sistine Chapel on the 16th of October 1978, half a world away in Argentina a middle-aged priest named Jorge Mario Bergoglio was following the election on the radio of his car.

One of the challenges of preachers in Catholic churches and many Protestant churches is that they must preach each Sunday on the Scripture readings in the Common Lectionary rather than simply use their favorite passages of the Bible.

A new survey by the California-based Christian research firm found that Protestant pastors are worried less about hot topics like religious liberty than they are about the decline of religion in America.

Monday, February 10, is Tu B'Shvat, the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shvat and a minor Jewish holiday. Its significance originally had to do with agricultural taxes: You calculated your annual tithe on fruit according to whether a given fruit began developing before or after that date.

Religious rhetoric is not uncommon on Capitol Hill, where politicians often thread references to the Almighty into speeches while participating in political theater. But in the drama-filled final week of President Trump's impeachment trial, God was essentially a supporting character.

The Catholic Church teamed up with sports celebrity Tim Tebow on Feb. 4 night and set formalities aside to give people with special needs a night to remember.

Utah senator and Republican Mitt Romney declared his intention to vote to convict President Donald Trump of abuse of power, explaining he is compelled to do so in part by his faith as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A letter from young Christians to those attending the National Prayer Breakfast.

President Donald Trump delivered a State of the Union address peppered with religious references and ideas on Feb. 4 evening, laying out a sweeping vision for the United States that evoked old (and contested) religious ideas and catered directly to conservative Christians who make up his base of support.

An Arizona federal judge has reversed the convictions of four faith-based volunteers who were fined and put on probation for aiding migrants at the border, saying that the activists were simply exercising their “sincerely held religious beliefs.”