pewforum.org Religion News on the Web

Religion News on the Web

Selected religion-related news from around the Web
NYT: Eagerly awaiting release of Brazilian evangelical’s autobiography
The crowds of young people began arriving in SoHo in the dark, pitching portable chairs and passing cups of porridge among them.
Observer: As Africa rises, Europe loses grip on Catholic power base
The muted light of an African sunset filters into the high, pointed roof of Christ The King church in Accra, a wide, understated building just metres away from the seat of government in Ghana's capital city.
Observer: Latin America is home to almost half the world's Catholics, but will struggle to produce the next pope
Almost as soon as Benedict XVI announced his resignation, Latin America was abuzz with speculation that the Catholic church would finally choose a pope from the continent with the most believers.
OC Register: Don't count out mainline Protestants yet
Churches grow, churches die.
NYT: A laboratory for revitalizing Catholicism
At one new megachurch in São Paulo, a Roman Catholic priest who was a personal trainer before joining the clergy energetically belts out songs, rock-star style, before 25,000 worshipers.
WSJ: Europe remains challenge for church
As Pope Benedict XVI prepares to relinquish his office, church leaders planning for a new pontiff are sure to deliberate over one of his longtime goals: replenishing Europe's deserted pews.
AP: Pope's bombshell sends troubled church scrambling
With a few words in Latin, Pope Benedict XVI did what no pope has done in more than half a millennium, stunning the world by announcing his resignation Monday and leaving the already troubled Catholic Church to replace the leader of its 1 billion followers by Easter.
Reuters: With Benedict resigning, can Latin American claim papacy?
With Pope Benedict's stunning announcement that he will resign later this month, the time may be coming for the Roman Catholic Church to elect its first non-European leader and it could be a Latin American.
NYT: New Archbishop of Canterbury takes office
On the eve of a divisive vote in Parliament on the legalization of same-sex marriage, Justin Welby, the former bishop of Durham, on Monday took over formally as the 105th archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual head of the world’s 77 million Anglicans, saying he shares the Church of England’s opposition to marriage among people of the same gender.
NYT: More in France are turning to Islam, challenging a nation's idea of itself
The spacious and elegant modern building, in the heart of this middle-class suburb of Paris, is known as “the mosque of the converts.”
Toronto Star: Iraq’s Christians still searching for a home
Sitting in the living room of his home in Erbil, capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, 63-year-old Rostom Sefarian stops talking, struggling to hold back the tears.
NYT: Cardinal in Los Angeles is removed from duties
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, who retired less than two years ago as the leader of the nation’s largest Roman Catholic archdiocese, was removed from all public duties by his successor, Archbishop José H. Gomez, as the church complied with a court order to release thousands of pages of internal documents that show how the cardinal shielded priests who sexually abused children.
Times of India: For atheist China, religion is no longer a poison
Worried about the rise in people's interest in spiritualism six decades after the early Communists declared it to be evil, China's atheist government is calling for use of religion as a patriotic tool to rejuvenate the nation.
CNN: 'None' leaders to chart path for more political, cultural power for religiously unaffiliated
The religiously unaffiliated  the "nones"  – have noticed their ranks are growing.
AP: Pope on social networking: the virtual is real
Pope Benedict XVI put church leaders on notice Thursday, saying social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter aren't a virtual world they can ignore, but rather a very real world they must engage if they want to spread the faith to the next generation.
Star Tribune: Assemblies of God tends to a rapidly growing flock
Hands up and eyes closed, Ashley Ingram sways and sings along with the live band playing contemporary Christian music at River Valley Church.
AP: Kosher high-tech? Israel’s booming digital sector offers religious Jews the path to a job
In a chic auditorium typically reserved for late-night concerts, Israel’s next generation of high-tech entrepreneurs are gathered.
Telegraph: Christians face judgement day in Strasbourg 'right to wear the cross' case
Judges at Strasbourg will rule on Tuesday whether four Christians were discriminated against at work, including two women who claim they were forced out of their jobs for wearing the cross.
Wash Post: Egypt’s Christians worried by Islamists’ rise
Egypt’s Christians were worried about their safety on Monday as they marked the first Christmas under Islamist rule, with Coptic Pope Tawadros II urging worshipers “not to be afraid” and some complaining that their lives had gone from bad to worse in the nearly two years since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak.
AP: Philippines contraception law points to Catholic church's waning power
Twenty-six years after Roman Catholic leaders helped his mother marshal millions of Filipinos in an uprising that ousted a dictator, President Benigno Aquino III has picked a fight with the church over contraceptives and won a victory that bared the bishops' worst nightmare: They no longer sway the masses.
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