pewforum.org Religion News on the Web

Religion News on the Web

Selected religion-related news from around the Web
CS Monitor: Israel wields Bible's soft power as far afield as Brazil
On a crisp winter morning in Jerusalem, a group of American Christian leaders with Bibles under their arms walk the hilltop where many believe King David first established the Jewish capital some 3,000 years ago.
USA Today: Brazil turns to Catholic Church to quash crack epidemic
Wrapped in a Persian rug caked in dirt, a man addicted to crack cocaine listened as Elizeu Dias tried to persuade him to take the last spot available in an old Volkswagen van that is taking addicts to drug treatment.
Reuters: U.N. told atheists face discrimination around globe
Atheists, humanists and freethinkers face widespread discrimination around the world with expression of their views criminalized and subject in some countries to capital punishment, the United Nations was told on Monday.
Korea Herald: Could the next pope be from Asia?
Vatican watchers are abuzz about who will succeed Pope Benedict XVI when he officially steps down at 8:00 p.m. on Feb. 28, including the very real possibility that a cardinal from outside Europe could lead the Roman Catholic Church for the first time ever.
Wash. Post: For China’s Catholics, new pope brings hope
Of the long list of problems the next pope will inherit once the white smoke rises in Rome, few on the diplomatic front can rival the bitter, in­trac­table relationship between the Vatican and the Chinese government.
LA Times: As a new pope is chosen, Latin America hopes for more sway
They represent the region with more Roman Catholics than any other. And their to-do list for the next pope is a long one.
Boston Globe: What American nuns built
When Benedict XVI became the first pope in almost 600 years to resign earlier this month, most of the initial speculation had to do with obscure succession rules, and whether the next pope would be European, African, or even American.
Chicago Tribune: Cardinal George doesn't rule out an American pope
Fifteen years to the day that he became a prince of the Roman Catholic Church, Chicago's Cardinal Francis George said he wouldn't rule out the possibility of a fellow American becoming pope.
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.
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