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(RNS) Members of Unitarian Universalist churches are unveiling a campaign against hate crimes at their General Assembly this week (June 24-29), calling on their congregations and those of other faiths to advocate for equality and to curb violence. The Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA) will include the grassroots campaign against social injustice in their…

WASHINGTON (RNS) Indian government officials have denied visas to commissioners of a U.S. religious freedom watchdog panel for the second time since 2001. Members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) were forced to cancel their plans to assess religious freedom in India. Panelists were scheduled to leave on June 12, and have…

(UNDATED) U.S. Catholic bishops tried Thursday (June 18) to clarify the Catholic Church’s relationship with Judaism, saying Jews will not be targets of evangelism, but the church reserves the right to share its faith and welcome Jewish converts. The bishops resurrected a 2002 statement that they called “insufficiently precise and potentially misleading” about whether Christians…

Religion News Service WASHINGTON — President Obama committed to comprehensive immigration reform Friday (June 19) at the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in a speech that was laden with religious language but short on policy specifics. “We know there is much more work to be done to extend the promise of a better life to all…

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — When Zahra Khan arrived at Massachusetts Institute of Technology from her native Ottawa, Canada, in 2005, she looked for a swimming pool where she wouldn’t have to worry about showing too much skin. The only options were mixed-gender pools, which Khan felt would violate beliefs about modesty grounded in her Muslim faith.…

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI deplored priests who were unfaithful to their vows and called Thursday for a “frank and complete acknowledgment” of the Catholic Church’s weakness in a letter to priests around the globe. The letter was the first public statement from Benedict since an independent commission in Ireland issued a report last…

WASHINGTON (RNS) President Obama signed an executive order Wednesday (June 17) expanding benefits available to same-sex partners of federal employees, a move that was not unexpected but nonetheless criticized by social conservative groups. “Many of our government’s hard-working, dedicated, and patriotic public servants have long been denied basic rights that their colleagues enjoy for one…

SRINAGAR, India – Thousands of Hindu devotees began an annual pilgrimage Tuesday to an icy cave in Indian-controlled Kashmir amid tight security in the Muslim-majority region, officials said. At least half a million devotees are expected to make the pilgrimage to the Amarnath shrine over the next two months. Thousands of army and paramilitary troops…

JERUSALEM (RNS) A new Internet search engine is making it possible for ultra-Orthodox Jews who use computers to obtain information online– but not on the Sabbath, when the site shuts down. Dubbed Koogle (a cross between Google and kugel, the name of a Jewish noodle pudding), the Hebrew-language search engine is being touted as a…

(RNS) A hugely popular Miami priest, who left the Catholic Church when he could no longer abide by his vow of celibacy and his romantic relationship became tabloid fodder, married his girlfriend of two years Tuesday (June 16). The Rev. Alberto Cutie, 40, and Ruhama Canellis, 35, took their vows in front of a judge…
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