Religion News Service

One of the most pressing questions about the clergy sexual abuse crisis is how the church should deal with bishops who are accused of covering up allegations of abuse or who have committed abuse themselves.

Signs of the Times: The most important result of this meeting would be to get other bishops, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America, not to make the same mistakes that U.S. bishops made.

A British government inquiry into the sexual abuse crisis that continues to shake the Catholic Church has focused on the actions of the Vatican’s diplomatic service — its network of papal nuncios around the world.

J.D. Greear, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, said the denomination’s executive committee should immediately investigate 10 churches named in a report by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Times-Express, including 2nd Baptist in Houston – one of the largest churches in the SBC.

The existence of clergy sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention provides no satisfaction to us Catholics, but it does allow us to test our theories about the causes of abuse.

If a special session of the United Methodist Church's legislative assembly votes to drop language in its rulebook that bars "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" from being ordained as ministers, a conservative evangelical church in the heart of South Carolina will likely cut the cord.

It's been 100 years since Germany's first democratic government decided to stop making generous payments to its Protestant and Roman Catholic churches — and did nothing about it.

No one has a greater impact on a Catholic parish than its pastor, which is why diocesan seminaries are key to the future of the church in America. 

Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention have called the reports by two Texas newspapers of hundreds of sex abuse cases in affiliated churches evidence of "pure evil" and "satanic" behavior within their ranks.

Pope Francis' 2018 trip to Peru included a visit to a biodiverse region, where a Swiss priest has sought to bring global attention to devastation caused by illegal gold mining. But despite the pope's visit, little has changed.

President Donald Trump began his remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast by renewing his commitment to the religious conservatives who helped lift him into office.

Every morning when Khadra Abdo wakes up, her mind turns to her children. "My first thought is that I hope they are safe today, and that stays on my mind throughout the whole day," Abdo told Religion News Service.

Hours before post-shutdown conversations began on immigration and border security on Capitol Hill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told a group of Christian educators gathering in the nation’s capital this week that she intends to uphold her responsibility to "act upon our beliefs in the dignity and worth of every person."

Signs of the Times: The meeting is not aimed at the American church, which has been working on the sex abuse crisis for decades. The meeting is aimed at bishops around the world who do not understand the crisis and are making the same mistakes that the American bishops made in the past.

An emotional debate over whether Muslim students may wear hijab in Christian schools took a new turn last week Jan. 24 when the Kenyan Supreme Court reversed a lower-court ruling that had allowed female students to wear Muslim headscarves to school.

Pakistan's Supreme Court has dismissed a petition by Islamists to overturn the acquittal of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman previously convicted of blasphemy, freeing her to leave the country and join her daughters in Canada.

Two reports on extremist attacks in the United States document a marked decline in the number of Muslim Americans associated with extremist acts.

Signs of the Times: There is something exciting about living in extraordinary times — times of surprises, special events and even challenges. These are the days when it is easier to get out of bed in the morning. You have something to look forward to.

“The issues of returning recent converts has been of great concern to us. As leaders, we have been talking about it and urging Christian communities to account for all the youth,” said the Rev. Wilybard Lagho, vicar general of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mombasa, which has experienced attack recently. “They can be very dangerous since they are hard to suspect.”

Nathan Philips, a Native American man seen in a viral video of an encounter with a group of Kentucky Catholic school students, says he wants to meet with them and church officials to discuss the incident and turn it into a “teachable moment.”