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VATICAN CITY – An estimated 15,000 priests massed in St. Peter’s Square on Thursday in one of the largest such gatherings in a show of support for Pope Benedict XVI and the priesthood itself amid the clerical abuse scandal. Benedict was to answer some selected questions from the prelates in an eagerly anticipated vigil service…

ROME (RNS/ENInews) A group of women demonstrated in Rome’s St Peter’s Square on Tuesday (June 8), saying they want “full and equal participation” in the Roman Catholic Church. The small group held a banner stating, “Ordain Catholic Women,” to the apparent curiosity of passers-by in the Via della Conciliazione, the boulevard that leads to the…

NAIROBI (RNS/ENInews) African Christian and Muslim leaders are warning of increased vulnerability to HIV infections during the soccer World Cup in South Africa, which begins on Friday (June 11). The world soccer extravaganza is coming to Africa for the first time, and religious leaders want governments to help commercial sex workers and their clients protect…

AMESBURY, Mass. (RNS) When the Anglican Church in North America launched last year, founders were clear on what they didn’t want to be: the Episcopal Church. But as the ACNA marks its first anniversary with a meeting here this week, members are finding that carving out a new identity requires a good dose of patience,…

WASHINGTON (RNS) The National Religious Campaign Against Torture wants the government to investigate claims that doctors and medical professionals performed unethical experiments on detainees in CIA custody during the Bush administration. On Tuesday (June 8), members of NRCAT voiced their concerns over a report from the Physicians for Human Rights called “Experiments in Torture: Evidence…

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (RNS) Colby Rockhill was one of the 14,000 members of New Life Church who saw founding pastor Ted Haggard dramatically fall from grace in a 2006 scandal involving gay sex and drugs. Yet Rockhill never gave up on Haggard, even after he resigned the pulpit of New Life and the presidency of…

(RNS) The Episcopal Church has been removed from Anglican committees that engage in dialogue with other Christians and consider doctrinal issues, the latest fallout from the church’s consecration of a lesbian bishop last month. The Rev. Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, the worldwide fellowship that includes the Episcopal Church as its U.S.…

JERUSALEM – Archaeologists have unearthed a cache of rare, 35-century-old religious artifacts once used in pagan rituals, Israeli officials said Monday. The items were found during an excavation ordered by the Israel Antiquities Authority along the route of a new gas line in the country’s north. Excavating a rock hollow, archeologists found more than 100…

WASHINGTON (RNS) The “raghead” comment aimed at South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley was unfair, uncalled for and unreasonable, Sikh advocacy groups said. “It is a very unfortunate situation,” said Gurinder Singh Mann, director of the Center for Sikh and Punjab Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “The color of her skin or…

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI called for an “urgent international effort” to bring peace to the Middle East, especially for the region’s dwindling Christian population, in a Mass on Sunday (June 6) at the end of a three-day visit to Cyprus. Quoting from a working paper prepared for a summit of Middle East bishops…
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