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By YONAT SHIMRON c. 2011 Religion News Service (RNS) Harold Camping’s campaign to warn Christians that the rapture is coming on Saturday (May 21) may have won him a band of followers, especially among those who have reportedly quit jobs or used up their life savings. But Camping’s acolytes may pale in comparison to the…

By JUDITH SUDILOVSKY c. 2011 Religion News Service QASR EL YAHUD, West Bank (RNS/ENInews) Pilgrims are flowing back to the traditional site of Jesus’ baptism on the Jordan River as Israel removes 40-year-old land mines and makes improvements to the area. “It is a very sensitive place politically and religiously and is of importance to…

By FRANCIS X. ROCCA c. 2011 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY (RNS) Amnesty International has criticized the Vatican for falling short of its commitments to protect children from sex abuse. “The Holy See did not sufficiently comply with its international obligations relating to the protection of children,” the human rights group said in its latest…

By GREG GARRISON c. 2011 Religion News Service BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS) Mormon missionaries are often unwelcome guests when they knock at local front doors wearing white dress shirts and holding a Book of Mormon. But after a tornado, when Mormon missionaries arrive in work clothes carrying chainsaws to help clear fallen trees, they are a…

By ADELLE M. BANKS c. 2011 Religion News Service (RNS) Religious and human rights activists are asking U.S. churches to invite Jewish and Muslim clergy to their sanctuaries to read from sacred texts next month in an initiative designed to counter anti-Muslim bigotry. The June 26 initiative, called “Faith Shared: Uniting in Prayer and Understanding,”…

By AL WEBB c. 2011 Religion News Service LONDON (RNS) Professor Stephen Hawking, one of the world’s most eminent scientists, says the concept of heaven is “a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.” In an interview with London’s Guardian newspaper, the 69-year-old Cambridge University cosmologist said that as a victim of motor neuron…

By FRANCIS X. ROCCA c. 2011 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY (RNS) The world’s Catholic bishops have one year to set national policies on clerical sex abuse of minors, the Vatican said on Monday (May 16), but such policies may vary significantly in each country, and will not be binding on individual bishops. All national…

By ADELLE M. BANKS c. 2011 Religion News Service (RNS) Evangelist Billy Graham returned home Sunday (May 15) after a five-day hospital stay for pneumonia. Graham, 92, has regained strength after treatment with antibiotics, according to his doctors at Mission Hospital in Asheville, N.C. “He has responded very well to treatment, with progressive improvement since…

By DAVID GIAMBUSSO c. 2011 Religion News Service NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) The Dalai Lama says peace in the world begins with peace in oneself. Some of his fellow Nobel laureates, however, aren’t convinced. “It isn’t that I’m just an angry human being, it’s anger at injustice,” said Jody Williams, who won the Nobel Peace Prize…

By A. JAMES RUDIN c. 2011 Religion News Service (RNS) When the Vatican beatifies someone and places the person just one step away from sainthood, it usually attracts scant attention among Jews because it is correctly perceived as an internal church process. But the recent beatification — and likely canonization — of the late Pope…
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