Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia church has reached its maximum height with the placement of a cross on its central Tower of Jesus Christ.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered under heavy Israeli restrictions at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for the first Friday prayers of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, including some who were allowed to enter from the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Health Ministry and a witness say that Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank shot and killed a Palestinian American in an attack on a village.

The same travertine quarries near Rome that built St. Peter’s Basilica and the Colosseum are still being dug out today, providing the distinctive pock-marked rock to build a new generation of churches, temples and mosques worldwide.

Pope Leo XIV has opened the church’s penitential Lenten season by presiding over Ash Wednesday.

Eulogies are pouring in after the death of the Rev. Jesse L.

Many people who knew and worked with the Rev. Jesse L.

As the sun rose in New Orleans, rows of parade-goers already lined the street.

A man accused of killing 15 people in a mass shooting at a Jewish festival on Sydney’s Bondi Beach has appeared in court for the first time since his release from the hospital.

Israel is beginning a land registration process in the occupied West Bank that critics say can shift large areas into state control.

Indonesia is training troops for a new peacekeeping force in Gaza, backing a key part of President Donald Trump’s postwar plan.

New Zealand's Court of Appeal has finished hearing an appeal from the Christchurch mosque gunman, in proceedings that were quiet and tightly controlled.

The Great Omari Mosque in Gaza City was hit by an Israeli strike during the war with Hamas.

The Vatican has warned a breakaway traditionalist Catholic group that it risked renewed schism if it goes ahead with plans to consecrate new bishops without papal consent.

The chairman of the federal Religious Liberty Commission ousted a member after a hearing that featured tense exchanges on the definition of antisemitism.

Activists have planned protests at more than two dozen Target stores around the United States to pressure the discount retailer into taking a public stand against the 5-week-old immigration crackdown in its home state of Minnesota.

Two Palestinian men riding bicycles were killed in an Israeli drone strike Tuesday, hospital officials said, as deadly violence continued in Gaza despite an October ceasefire.

A new wave of Christian artists from various backgrounds is drawing young audiences to faith-based rap, Afrobeats and R&B.

A group of Buddhist monks has finally reached Washington, D.C., after completing a 15-week trek from Texas that captivated the country.

Brenton Tarrant, the white supremacist who murdered 51 Muslims in New Zealand's deadliest mass shooting, wanted to be described as a terrorist and always intended to admit to his crimes, his former lawyer says.

Israeli military strikes on Monday killed three people west of Gaza City, according to the hospital where the casualties arrived.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has started a state visit to Australia, aiming to console grieving Jews and improve bilateral relations.

Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 Muslim worshipers in New Zealand’s deadliest mass shooting, is asking an appeals court to discard his guilty pleas.

Israel's security cabinet has approved measures to strengthen control over the occupied West Bank and weaken the powers of the Palestinian Authority.

Pakistani security forces have arrested four suspects linked to a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque near the capital that killed 31 people.

In the Nigerian villages of Woro and Nuku, attackers arrived on motorbikes, going door to door, shooting and setting homes ablaze.

The Angel Meloni is no more.

Attacks on Bangladesh’s Hindu minority have surged since the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in an uprising in 2024.

Palestinians have gathered at Gaza’s Rafah crossing with Egypt, hoping to pass through after it reopened.

Defense lawyers in the Vatican’s “trial of the century” have argued that Pope Francis violated the fundamental rights of their clients by issuing four secret decrees that gave prosecutors “surreal carte blanche” to investigate.

Independent journalist Don Lemon says about a dozen federal agents came to his Los Angeles hotel to arrest him last week.

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from ending temporary protections that have allowed roughly 350,000 Haitians to live and work in the United States.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has announced two more arrests in the protest at a church in Minnesota against the immigration enforcement crackdown.

As a teenager in India, Susai Jesu led prayer services in his small Catholic village, helped at Mass and soon began training for the priesthood.

Rabbis and rabbinical students in the United States are more diverse than ever.

Journalist Don Lemon has been released from custody after being charged with federal civil rights crimes in connection with an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted services at a Minnesota church.

South Africa has declared Israel’s deputy ambassador persona non grata and ordered him to leave the country within 72 hours.

Two neighboring towns on the Arizona-Utah border that once served as a haven for a polygamous religious sect have entered a new era.

Israel says it will reopen Gaza’s border crossing with Egypt over the weekend.

A man has been arrested after repeatedly crashing his car into the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters in New York City.

Sarah Mullally was confirmed as archbishop of Canterbury on Wednesday, becoming the first woman to lead the Church of England.

Israel is marking the end of a painful chapter after the return of the remains of the last hostage held in Gaza.

People across Europe and beyond are commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Ilana Kantorowicz Shalem was born in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945, and is one of the youngest Holocaust survivors.

Israelis expressed relief as the remains of Ran Gvili, the last hostage taken into Gaza, were recovered Monday.

Israel says the remains of the final hostage in Gaza have been recovered, clearing the way for the next phase of the ceasefire that stopped the Israel-Hamas war.

Priests and priestesses of the Afro-Cuban religion known as Santería have offered gifts to deities and asked for peace as tensions rise between the United States and Cuba and the island braces for more economic difficulties.

Israel says its military is conducting a large-scale operation to locate the last hostage in Gaza.

Top U.S. envoys have met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging him to advance the ceasefire in Gaza.

Syria's government forces have taken control of a prison housing Islamic State group members in the country's north.

Desperate Palestinians at a garbage dump in a Gaza neighborhood are digging with their bare hands for plastic items to burn to keep warm in the cold and damp winter in the enclave, battered by two years of the Israel-Hamas war.

Iraq has asked that Islamic State group prisoners be moved from northeast Syria to its detention centers.

Divisions have emerged over U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace as its ambitions have grown beyond Gaza.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a bombing at a Chinese restaurant in Afghanistan’s capital that killed at least seven people including a Chinese national and wounded more than a dozen others.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has welcomed Parliament's passing anti-hate speech and gun laws following a deadly shooting at a Jewish festival on Sydney's Bondi Beach last month.

Several faith leaders are urgently calling for protecting the rights of worshippers while also expressing compassion for migrants.

Three U.S. Catholic cardinals have urged the Trump administration to use a moral compass in foreign policy.

An Israeli official says the nation has been asked to join U.S. President Donald Trump’s new Board of Peace that will supervise the next phase of the Gaza peace plan.

At least eight more countries say the United States has invited them to join President Donald Trump’s new Board of Peace overseeing next steps for Gaza.

The Syrian government has announced a ceasefire with the Syrian Democratic Forces, taking almost full control of the country.

Business owners in a Minneapolis Somali mall are feeling the impact of an immigration crackdown.

Hundreds of people in Spain have watched horses gallop through flames as part of the centuries-old tradition called Las Luminarias.

A British police force chief has retired following criticism over a decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from a match against Aston Villa last year.

Israeli strikes in Gaza have killed nine people, including three women, following the U.S. announcement of a second phase in the fragile ceasefire.

The Department of Homeland Security is making it easier for visa-holding religious workers to serve U.S. congregations with less disruption.

The U.K.'s home secretary has urged the head of West Midlands Police to resign following a report on the banning of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from a match against Aston Villa.

Strong winds have caused at least four deaths in Gaza as walls collapsed onto tents in the coastal territory.

Organizers of Australia’s largest free literary festival have canceled the weeklong event after most writers withdrew over the removal of an Australian Palestinian writer.

The FBI says that an arson suspect admitted to targeting a historic Mississippi synagogue because it's a Jewish house of worship.

A Minneapolis church opened its doors for a special Sunday service of ‘Lament and Hope’ amid the ongoing federal immigration crackdown in the city.

Hamas says it will dissolve its government in Gaza once a Palestinian technocratic leadership committee takes over as part of a U.S.-brokered peace plan.

A group of Buddhist monks is getting viral attention with their 2,300-mile Walk for Peace from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C. The monks say their aim is to promote mindfulness and healing and finding inner peace.

Pope Leo XIV has baptized 20 babies in the Sistine Chapel, continuing an annual tradition marking the end of the Christmas holiday at the Vatican.

British-born Thomas Paine helped inspire the 13 English colonies to declare independence and form the United States of America.

As Milan prepares to host the 2026 Winter Olympics, the city’s Catholic archdiocese launched a multi-year program that uses sport to promote values such as inclusion and solidarity among children and adolescents.

Pope Leo XIV has denounced how nations are increasingly using force to assert their dominion worldwide.

Hundreds of demonstrators have gathered in Somalia’s capital to protest Israel’s recognition of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland.

Health officials say at least 13 people were killed by Israeli strikes across Gaza as U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to announce his Board of Peace to oversee the fragile ceasefire.

A massive crowd of mostly barefoot Filipino Catholics is joining an annual procession of a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ in the Philippine capital, with some using the gathering to express outrage over a corruption scandal involving influential legislators.

Investigators say a shooting outside a church in Salt Lake City that killed two people and injured six others grew out of a dispute between people who knew each other and were attending a funeral.

Israel’s prime minister says a former U.N. Mideast envoy, Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov, has been chosen to serve as the director-general for U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace aimed at overseeing the peace process in Gaza.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a royal commission into antisemitism, weeks after a deadly attack at a Jewish holiday event in Bondi Beach.

Police say a shooting outside a church building in Salt Lake City has killed two people and injured six others.

The Noquisiyi Mound in Franklin, North Carolina, is close to being returned to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

The final pilgrims of the 2025 Holy Year have passed through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Several court hearings and policies affecting education, health and more will roll out in the new year.

A grandmother and her 5-year-old grandson have burned to death in Gaza when their tent caught fire.

Incoming New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is making history not only as the city's first mayor to take the oath of office on a Quran but also as the first Muslim, South Asian, and African-born mayor.

Incoming New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will make history as the city's first mayor to take the oath of office on a Quran.

Pope Leo XIV has closed out 2025 with a prayer that the city of Rome might be a welcoming place for foreigners and fragile people young and old.

Eight-time Grammy-nominated gospel singer Richard Smallwood has died at 77.

Israel says it will suspend several humanitarian organizations for failing to meet its new rules to vet international organizations working in Gaza.

Faith leaders across the United States face challenges as they support anxious immigrants.

Police say an investigation that extended to the Philippines of two men accused of killing 15 people at a Sydney Jewish festival has found no evidence they were part of a “broader terrorist cell.”.

Winter rain has lashed the Gaza Strip and flooded camps with ankle-deep puddles as Palestinians displaced by war try to stay dry in fraying tents.

At least four people have been killed and dozens wounded in clashes on Syria’s coast.

Barefoot children played on chilly sand as Gaza’s thousands of displaced people prepared threadbare tents for another round of winter rain.

Jeffrey R.

Comedian Mo Amer is gaining attention for his show “Mo,” which explores the journey of a Palestinian refugee family seeking asylum in the U.S. The series is part of a wave of TV shows by Arab or Muslim American creators that aim to tell authentic stories without relying on stereotypes.

Hundreds of mourners have gathered outside a mosque in Homs, Syria, after a bombing killed eight people and wounded 18.