News
The as yet unnamed baby born to Ruth Carter and partner John Traverse from Warrington, Cheshire, England, who are the first in the world to give birth to a baby using EEVA IVF technology, the baby girl, as yet unnamed, weighing 5lb 15oz was born today at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital.
As a homebirth midwife struggling with infertility, Abby Hall Luca intimately knows the gaps in fertility and maternity care. For 12 years she guided couples through the journey of growing their families while not being able to grow her own.
Pope Francis attends the consistory ceremony to elevate Roman Catholic prelates to the rank of cardinal, in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Sept. 30, 2023. REUTERS/Remo Casilli
Before he was hospitalized for double pneumonia, Pope Francis was battling firm resistance from some of his own cardinals about how to plug a widening gap in the Vatican’s finances.
Former U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power hugs a person after laid-off USAID workers cleared out their desks and collected personal belongings, during a sendoff in Washington, D.C., Feb. 27, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
On Feb. 13, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze the billions of dollars in life-sustaining foreign aid suspended by executive order in January. The order, which cited “enormous harm” to global networks of relief agencies and the populations they serve, was met with relief by Christian anti-poverty and anti-hunger ministries. But even amid relief, the chaos of the last month has been relentless, say direct aid providers like World Vision and advocates like Bread for the World.
Hats with the slogan 'Make America Pray Again' are displayed at the 2024 National Religious Broadcasters Association International Christian Media Convention in Nashville, Tenn., on Feb. 22, 2024. REUTERS/Seth Herald
In late January, the Pew Research Center released a study of religious nationalism worldwide, including in the U.S. The results? Only 6% of Americans fit Pew’s definition of “Christian nationalist.” That's a smaller number that several previous estimates, but sociologists and researchers suggest it may just provide a shade of nuance to the way we think about religious nationalism in America.
A guide walks through the olive orchard at Babylonstoren at the foot of Simonsberg in the Franschhoek wine valley in Cape Town, South Africa, Sept. 12, 2024. REUTERS/Esa Alexander
An executive order from the White House took aim at recent policies in South Africa designed to heal old wounds left over from apartheid. Now, a group of white South African religious leaders are pushing back on President Donald Trump's claims.
Volunteers help unload supplies from a truck organised by World Vision International to be distributed to people affected by the Eaton fire in Pasadena, Calif., Jan. 10, 2025. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
Pastor Ben Squires did not have “baseless allegations of money laundering by Lutheran social service agencies” on his 2025 bingo card.
And yet, in the early hours of Sunday morning, Feb. 2, Squires found himself reading a flurry of social media posts about Mike Flynn’s unfounded accusations and billionaire Elon Musk’s promise that the Department of Government Efficiency would be “rapidly shutting down” supposedly “illegal payments” to a list of Lutheran groups including Global Refuge (formerly Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services), Pacific Lutheran University, and Lutheran Social Services organizations in Florida, Wisconsin, and South Dakota.
A faithful from Bolivia holds lit candles with the portrait of Pope Francis outside the Gemelli Hospital, where Pope Francis is admitted to continue treatment for a respiratory tract infection, in Rome, Italy, Feb. 18, 2025. REUTERS/Remo Casilli
Pope Francis has shown the onset of double pneumonia, further complicating treatment for the 88-year pontiff, the Vatican said on Tuesday.
The Albuquerque headquarters of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. Nadav Soroker/Searchlight New Mexico republished with permission.
Across the U.S., 40 dioceses and religious orders have declared bankruptcy. The first was the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, in 2004. The most recent was the Diocese of Burlington, Vermont, in late September 2024. The cases vary, but they have one thing in common: The day the diocese filed its petition for bankruptcy is a new benchmark — no one is allowed to file claims against the church for abuses that happened before that date, even if a given state retroactively extends the statute of limitations.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers carry out a raid as part of Operation Cross Check in Sherman, Texas, on June 20, 2019. Picture taken on June 20, 2019. Courtesy Charles Reed/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Handout via Reuters Connect
More than two dozen Christian and Jewish groups are suing the Department of Homeland Security over President Donald Trump’s decision to allow law enforcement raids and arrests in churches and other sensitive locations.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk arrives to the inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. Chip Somodevilla/Pool
Our team has spent a lot of time watching our activity on X, especially following Elon Musk's series of dramatic renovations. Now, our audience engagement manager explains why we've decided to move on to other platforms.
A damaged children’s toy sits on the lawn of a devastated home, as the Eaton Fire continues, in Altadena, Calif., Jan. 12, 2025. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
When Shimica Gaskins first saw the single-story green ranch style house in Altadena, Calif., she wasn’t in love with the color. But she was in love with Altadena, a community where the Black middle class was not only thriving but creating the kind of social fabric where she and her husband dreamed of raising their two kids. Eight years later, the citrus trees, native plants, and family memories had made the little green house a home. And then it burned down.
A sign prohibiting ICE and Homeland Security from entering without a warrant is posted on a door at St. Paul and St. Andrew United Methodist Church while a woman exits the church in New York City, Jan. 23, 2025. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Now that President Donald Trump has rescinded longstanding policy limiting U.S. immigration enforcement in churches and other sensitive locations, some church leaders are wondering what they should do if an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer comes knocking.
President Donald Trump speaks during the annual National Prayer Breakfast at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Feb. 6, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would create a White House faith office and direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead a task force on eradicating what he called anti-Christian bias within the federal government.
Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), left, Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), second from left, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), second from right, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), right, attend a press conference on a resolution condemning restricting weapons for Israel by the Biden Administration, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on May 9, 2024. Rod Lamkey / CNP/Sipa USA via Reuters.
While policies and culture associated with the Christian Right often value men’s leadership and patriarchal structures, it’s a misconception that men entirely run the movement. From the beginning, women have been influential leaders in right-wing Christian movements.
The badge of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent is seen during an operation with migrants being transferred to a plane to be expelled under U.S. Title 42 from the United States to their country by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and Border Patrol agents, at the airport in El Paso, Texas, May 10, 2023. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez
Within hours of coming into office, President Donald Trump rescinded a 14-year policy prohibiting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from arresting migrants near “sensitive locations,” including schools, hospitals, and places of worship. Here’s how church leaders responded
President Donald Trump sits after signing Doug Burgum’s commission as Interior Secretary in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 31, 2025. Photo by Yuri Gripas/ABACAPRESS.COM
“It was chaos,” sighed Stacey Hall Burge, CEO of Found House Interfaith Housing Network, which provides emergency shelter and programs for families dealing with housing loss and insecurity in the Cincinnati area.
“From Monday to Friday, we had no specifics, no clarity,” said Burge, recounting the past week at her organization. “There are rents and supports for hundreds of families I am not sure how to pay right now. Families that worked hard to get off the streets, who may go right back. Many of them working, but unable to fully afford rent in the current housing crisis,” she told Sojourners in an interview over Zoom.
U.S. President Donald Trump stands near Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde as he attends the National Day of Prayer Service at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, U.S., January 21, 2025. Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque.
But before her sermon concluded, Budde addressed the president directly:
“Let me make one final plea, Mr. President: Millions have put their trust in you, and as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families, some who fear for their lives.
President Donald Trump takes the oath of office as Melania Trump, Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Eric Trump look on during inauguration ceremonies in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Pool/CNP/ABACAPRESS.COM via Reuters.
President Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th president was filled with religious imagery that often projected God’s blessing on Trump’s promises of American domination, expansion, and nationalism.
President-elect Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump arrive for a service at St. John's Church on Inauguration Day of Donald Trump's second presidential term. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon
Rev. Robert W. Fisher, the rector of the church, told Sojourners in an email before the service that the church was making a concerted effort to return the service to its traditional roots. “The service is meant to be centered on God and humility before the almighty, and to be a call to ‘the better angels of our nature’ for those who are entering into a new season of service,” Fisher wrote in an email.
Firefighters work near a church destroyed in the Palisades Fire, in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood in Los Angeles, Calif., Jan. 10, 2025. REUTERS/David Ryder
As images from the cataclysmic firestorms engulfing Los Angeles County emerged, one word came up consistently in the captions: apocalyptic. The devastating effects of unusually wet winters followed by record-dry foliage and the incendiary whip of Santa Ana winds created the conditions for what Sammy Roth, the Los Angeles Times’ climate columnist, called “apocalyptic infernos.” But for faith and justice leaders in LA, the fires were apocalyptic in another way.