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(RNS) Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday (April 6) named Mexican-born Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of San Antonio as the next archbishop of Los Angeles, placing him in charge of the nation’s largest diocese and in line to become the nation’s first Hispanic cardinal. Gomez, who has served in San Antonio since 2004, was named coadjutor…

LONDON (RNS) The leader of the global Anglican Communion has been forced to apologize for claiming the Catholic Church in Ireland had lost “all credibility” over the clerical child abuse scandal. The Easter weekend dust-up was triggered when Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams claimed on BBC radio that recent sexual abuse revelations had been a…

WASHINGTON (RNS) Muslim and Sikh groups praised the Transportation Security Administration for rolling back screening rules on passengers arriving from 14 primarily Islamic countries, even as some worry that profiling will continue. The new rules had been enacted after a Nigerian Muslim man tried and failed to explode a bomb onboard a Northwest Airlines jet…

c. 2010 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY (RNS) When Pope Benedict XVI stepped out on the balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square on Sunday (April 4), his Easter blessing followed traditional form: prayers for parts of the world wracked by war, crime and natural disaster. It also followed the style of Benedict himself as he remained…

(RNS) To the untrained eye, the graceful lilies that arrive on church altars each year on Easter Sunday are a familiar symbol of resurrection and renewal. Like poinsettias on Christmas, it just wouldn’t be Easter without them. But for the people who get them there — on a date that shifts from year to year…

(RNS) Siddhartha Gautama was suffering. For six long years the young spiritual seeker had practiced strict asceticism: surviving on one grain of rice a day, sleeping on nails, drinking his own urine. His arms were thin as vines; his spine looked like a thread of beads. But none of these yogic practices had pacified his…

(RNS) The number of churches that reported a drop in giving due to the sour economy rose nearly 10 percent last year, according to new survey. In 2009, 38 percent of churches reported a decline in giving, versus 29 percent in 2008. Megachurches — those with 2,000 members are more — were hit hardest, with…

VATICAN CITY – Cardinals across Europe used their Holy Thursday sermons to defend Pope Benedict XVI from accusations he played a role in covering up sex abuse scandals, and an increasingly angry Vatican sought to deflect any criticism in the Western media. The relationship between the church and the media has become increasingly bitter as…

WASHINGTON (RNS) In an open letter sent to President Obama on Tuesday (March 30), 29 human rights groups and faith leaders pressed the president to fill the vacant position of ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. “The absence of senior level leadership in your administration on this critical issue is of grave and urgent concern,” said…

(RNS) Minnesota megachurch pastor John Piper, a prolific author whose staunch Calvinist views have made him a popular leader in Christian Reformed circles, is taking an eight-month leave of absence to address unspecified “sins” that have “taken a toll” on his marriage. “I am not making peace, but war, with my own sins,” said Piper,…
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