PHILADELPHIA — A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that Safehouse, the nonprofit aiming to open a supervised drug consumption site in Philadelphia, is legally entitled to argue that it has a religious right to prevent overdoses by operating a facility where people can use drugs under medical supervision.

The decision overturns a previous ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Amid a wave of arrests and apprehensions of undocumented immigrants, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced plans to bolster delivery of hot meals, groceries and prescription medicines to parishioners living in fear of deportation and ongoing enforcement raids.

The archdiocese’s donation-funded Family ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson Pérez has released a letter calling for solidarity with immigrants, as ICE increases its enforcement in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

“You are not alone. The Church is a community of faith, and the divine person of Christ, who was forced to flee his homeland as a child, holds you in his ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Joseph O’Connor, pastor of the Sacramento Fijian Seventh-day Adventist Church, doesn’t mind that his congregation meets in a rented space off Arden Way.

On Saturdays, the church is one of many spaces where Sacramento’s Fijian community explores fellowship, food and faith within California’s capital city. Sacramento...Read more

The Internal Revenue Services is reversing a long-standing policy and will now allow religious institutions to endorse political candidates without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status — a move that has divided faith leaders and advocacy groups.

Earlier this month, the IRS sided with the National Religious Broadcasters, an evangelical media ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Rev. John MacArthur, among the country’s most influential evangelical pastors with a prolific media reach — and whose San Fernando Valley megachurch became the face of religious resistance to California’s COVID-19 public health orders — died Monday. He was 86.

MacArthur’s death was announced on the website of Grace...Read more

MIAMI -- Most people who show up to meditation class over what used to be a popular Thai restaurant in Coral Gables are just looking to relieve some stress.

The spiritual part may come later, says Buddhist monk and resident teacher Gen Kelsang Tashi. Or it may not.

Either way, it’s all good here. After all, the mission of the Kadampa ...Read more

A longstanding tax exemption preventing nonprofit organizations from engaging in political campaign activity that favors individual candidates has been reinterpreted — signaling that religious organizations may now be excluded from the rule.

The decades-old Johnson Amendment does not apply to speech by houses of worship to its congregation ...Read more

DOLTON, Ill. -- The village of Dolton, which is where you may find yourself if you’re traveling south through Chicago and run out of Chicago to travel through, which we have heard more about in the past 30 days or so than since it was established 130-odd years ago, which is now best known to the world as the hometown of Pope Leo XIV, is like a...Read more

LAS VEGAS — A megaresort on the Strip agreed to pay a six-figure sum to settle a religious discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The Venetian hotel-casino will pay $850,000 and implement “significant policy changes” via a three-year consent decree to settle the suit, the EEOC ...Read more

Officials in Dolton, Illinois, officials are moving ahead with plans to buy Pope Leo XIV’s childhood home in the village, hoping to snap up the modest brick home that has gained international attention ahead of a planned auction.

The Village Board at a special meeting Tuesday voted unanimously to move forward on buying the house at 212 East ...Read more

As Christianity declines in the West, the faith is flourishing in sub-Saharan Africa, which is seeing the fastest growth in Christianity the world over. By 2060, more than 4 in 10 Christians worldwide are expected to live in sub-Saharan Africa, compared with just 1 in 10 in 1970, according to Pew Research.

But this growth is coming at a cost. ...Read more

By a 6-3 ruling Friday, the Supreme Court sided with parents who sued Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland to opt their children out of mandatory LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum, overturning a 2023 federal court ruling and handing a legal victory to conservatives who opposed the district’s policies on religious grounds.

The case, Mahmoud v...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Friday that parents have a right to opt their schoolchildren out of classes and lessons that offend their religious beliefs.

The 6-3 ruling will have an impact nationwide because it empowers parents who object to books or lessons at school.

"A government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it ...Read more

As the decades-long debate over the role of religion in public school education continues to spark legislation and legal challenges in the United States, a new poll reveals the nuanced views held among the general public.

Americans are largely split on what they think about religion’s influence on public school curriculum, with 32% saying ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Friday that parents have a right to opt their schoolchildren out of classes and lessons that offend their religious beliefs.

The 6-3 ruling will have an impact nationwide because it empowers parents who object to books or lessons at school.

"A government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — More than a dozen religious leaders from an array of faiths marched to the steps of the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday night, flowers in hand, calling for an end to the federal immigration raids they say have torn families apart and resulted in racial profiling.

At the start of the procession in Plaza ...Read more

It has become an old joke in the Cuban American community to note that Cubans seem to be everywhere. And so, when Pope Leo was elected to lead the Catholic Church and traces of his rich heritage began to emerge, including an ancestor who had been born in Havana, a Cuban genealogist in Miami rushed to figure out if this was just an isolated case ...Read more