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Super Bowl Caps Football Season Dogged by Prayer Controversy

The New York Giants and the New England Patriots face off February 5 in the NFL championship. The game, known as the Super Bowl, will be played in Indianapolis, Indiana and ends a season in which expressions of faith on the field by a player from another team ignited controversy.  Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow played with Bible verse numbers painted under his eyes.  After victories, he dropped down on one knee to pray and talked about his faith in ...

Submited at Friday, February 3rd, 2012 at 4:00 pm by ethan

French Court Convicts Church of Scientology for Fraud

Members of the Church of Scientology, protest outside Paris courthouse in Paris, Feb.

Submited at Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 at 5:00 pm by Gillan

US National Prayer Breakfast Continues to Stir Controversy

President Barack Obama is scheduled to appear at the annual National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday. It is but one of the regular displays of faith in which U.S. presidents have a prominent role. But while many Americans want their president to pray, some critics state the prayer breakfast is about hypocrisy. “I believe in the power of prayer because I felt it in my own life,” former President George W. Bush told the prayer breakfast in 2008. “Prayer has strengthened ...

Submited at Wednesday, February 1st, 2012 at 4:00 pm by Alina

Between the Kremlin and the Protesters: A Church Mediator?

Russian protesters are calling for democracy, while Russia’s prime minister, Vladimir Putin, is determined to stay in power. James Brooke reports from Moscow that Russia’s Orthodox Church might play a role as mediator. The patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church has a residence inside the Kremlin.  The church depends heavily on government funding.  When mass protests broke out this winter, few people expected sympathy from the church. So Patriarch Kirill’s January message came as a shock.  He warned Prime Minister ...

Submited at Saturday, January 28th, 2012 at 5:00 pm by chuck

Nigeria Struggles With Rise of Radical Islam

A series of bomb attacks by Nigeria’s radical Islamist sect Boko Haram is challenging President Goodluck Jonathan’s government.  The pace of the bombings has picked up in recent weeks, with attacks on police stations in the northern city of Kano and a Christmas Day suicide bombing at a Catholic church near the capital, Abuja.  In the entry way of St. Theresa’s church in Madalla, one can see worshippers coming in for Sunday mass just as they did on Christmas Day.  ...

Submited at Tuesday, January 24th, 2012 at 4:00 pm by madison

Voluntary ‘De-Baptism’ Rising in Europe

Father Benoist de Sinety, parish priest at Saint Germain for the past three years, states he has always had the good fortune of seeing crowds of young people seeking their bearings or rediscovering faith. But he knows it is not the same everywhere. Churches in France and elsewhere in Europe have been battling falling numbers, a trend evident not only in the empty pews, but in the sharp fall in baptisms. But “de-baptisms”, a church’s deletion of one’s name from ...

Submited at Saturday, January 21st, 2012 at 8:00 am by samantha

Pope Benedict Denounces Christmas Attacks in Nigeria

Pope Benedict has condemned the Christmas day attacks at churches in Nigeria, calling them an absurd gesture. Militants of the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram have claimed responsibility for the bombs.  For the second consecutive year, the extremist group Boko Haram has staged Christmastime attacks at Christian houses of worship in Nigeria. The group claimed responsibility for three church bombings on Sunday, Christmas Day. Security forces in Nigeria also blamed the group for two other explosions in the north of ...

Submited at Monday, December 26th, 2011 at 4:00 pm by ethan

Pope Prays For Peace in Christmas Message

Pope Benedict has called for an end to the bloodshed in Syria and the resumption of Middle East peace talks, as Christians across the world celebrate Christmas – the birth of Jesus more than 2,000 years ago. In his annual “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) Christmas message, Benedict also offered prayers for hundreds of thousands of flood victims in East Asia and for the people of the famine-stricken Horn of Africa. He spoke from a window ...

Submited at Sunday, December 25th, 2011 at 4:00 pm by madison

Pilgrims, Tourists Descend on Bethlehem for Christmas Celebrations

Thousands of pilgrims and tourists began arriving in Bethlehem Saturday, to spend Christmas in the town believed to be Jesus’ birthplace. Christmas Eve celebrations in the West Bank town culminate with a celebration of Midnight Mass at the Church of the Nativity. The Holy Land’s top Roman Catholic cleric, Latin Patriarch Fuad Twal, will lead the mass at the church built over the the spot where it is believed Mary gave birth to Jesus. Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh states this ...

Submited at Saturday, December 24th, 2011 at 4:00 pm by Gillan

US Faith-Based Organizations Increasingly Care for Poor, Elderly

David Azrak was once a highly-paid lawyer.  But after a series of medical and financial setbacks, things are so bad that he can’t afford to feed himself. Every other week, he receives free groceries at a food pantry in Cherry Hill, a suburb of Philadelphia, run by the Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Southern New Jersey (JFCS).  “If it was not for their help and their friendship and kindness to me in every way, not only financially, I could ...

Submited at Tuesday, December 20th, 2011 at 4:00 pm by Gillan