Beliefnet News

The Vatican said talks held Monday with a group of breakaway traditionalist Catholics were cordial and will continue over the coming months. The Vatican issued a statement at the end of an inaugural meeting between Vatican officials and a delegation from the Society of St. Pius X, which split from Rome following the modernizing reforms…

DHARMSALA, India – The Dalai Lama is going ahead with a scheduled visit to India’s remote northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh next month, ignoring protests by China, which claims the region as its territory, a spokesman said Thursday. The Tibetan spiritual leader will visit the Tawang Buddhist monastery in the state bordering China on Nov.…

(RNS) Religious institutions may be waning in the U.S, but private religious practices like prayer are actually on the rise, a new University of Chicago report reveals. While weekly attendees of religious services dropped from 32 to 26 percent of the population between 1983 and 2006, people praying daily rose from 54 to 59 percent…

VATICAN CITY (RNS) An international meeting of Catholic bishops called on Africa’s political leaders to be “saints” who “clean the continent of corruption.” The unusually strong language came in the official message of the Vatican’s Synod for Africa, which was released on Friday (Oct. 23), the day before the meeting’s concluding session. “We tried to…

(RNS) Religious leaders are urging their colleagues and politicians to keep comparisons to Nazism and the Holocaust out out of American public policy debates. The Interfaith Alliance responded to a recent onslaught of references to Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust, particularly as an analogy to the current discussion on health care reform. “There is no…

NAIROBI (RNS/ENI) An Anglican bishop in Uganda has rejected proposals that gays and lesbians should face the death penalty for sexual assault in some cases, but says prison terms should remain as a deterrent to homosexuality. “We want to state categorically that homosexuality is unacceptable,” Anglican Bishop Stanley Ntagali of Masindi-Kitara diocese said in an…

(RNS) The Department of Homeland Security has amended its uniform and grooming policies after a Sikh man lost his job for wearing a turban and refusing to shave. Federal standards had required security guards to be clean-shaven and to wear a specified uniform and hat, two things that conflict with Sikh requirements to wear a…

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – A woman who took part in an Arizona sweat lodge ceremony tells The Associated Press that the spiritual guru who led the event pushed participants too far in what was supposed to be a life-expanding experience that culminated with people vomiting and passing out on the floor. Texas resident Beverley Bunn is…

MINNEAPOLIS, Oct 21, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) — Six Muslim imams, forced off a flight in Minneapolis after other passengers voiced concerns, settled their lawsuit against the airlines and federal officials. The clerics called the settlement, awaiting approval by a federal judge, a victory, USA Today reported Wednesday. “The settlement of this case is a…

LOS ANGELES – His religious upbringing might well be as unorthodox as the psychedelic-inspired comic-strip characters that have made R. Crumb the most famous underground artist of his time. Which, come to think of it, may have made Crumb the perfect artist for his latest project, an illustrated, comic-book version of “The Book of Genesis,”…

More from Beliefnet and our partners