World

France’s top administrative court ruled Tuesday against allowing body-covering “burkini” swimwear in public pools for religious reasons, arguing that it violates the principle of government neutrality toward religion. While worn by only a small number of people in France, the head-to-ankle burkini draws intense political debate in the country.

Pope Francis has taken another step to reign in new religious groups in the Catholic Church after their unregulated proliferation in recent decades led to abuses in governance that allowed spiritual and sexual misconduct to go unchecked.

Gunmen opened fire on worshipers and detonated explosives at a Catholic church in southwestern Nigeria on Sunday, leaving dozens feared dead, state lawmakers said. 

Reconfirming the status quo in Jerusalem will require some hard diplomacy and a lot of goodwill. King Abdullah II of Jordan is the custodian of Muslim holy places in Jerusalem, via a religious trust known as the Waqf Council.

Alejandro Clemente González was talking with an electrician while preparing for weekend services at Cuba's most important Baptist church when an enormous explosion shook the building and shattered the 19th century dome towering far above the pews. 

The European Union is reportedly considering the prospect of imposing sanctions on Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, as part of a larger package designed to weaken Russia in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

From attacks on “wokeism” to crackdowns on mosques, France’s presidential campaign has been especially challenging for voters of immigrant heritage and religious minorities, as discourse painting them as “the other” has gained ground across a swath of French society. 

The dean of a small evangelical seminary in Kyiv is among more than 400 civilians found dead on the streets in and around the capital city, the seminary confirmed early April 4 on Facebook.

Pope Francis on Friday made a historic apology to Indigenous peoples for the “deplorable” abuses they suffered in Canada’s Catholic-run residential schools and said he hoped to visit Canada in late July to deliver the apology in person to survivors of the church's misguided missionary zeal.

The top-ranking Ukrainian Catholic cleric in the United States warned Thursday that religious minorities in the Eastern European country stand to be “crushed” if Moscow gains control, as fighting raged on more than a month after the Russian invasion began.