WASHINGTON – Religion is big bucks — worth $1.2 trillion annually to the American economy, according to the first comprehensive study to tabulate such a figure.

Published in Faith

BONN, Germany – As Europeans planned weekend street protests against a controversial trade treaty with the United States, a European Church leader said intergovernmental agreements were worthwhile when they reflected ethical standards.

Published in International

BATON ROUGE, La. – The line of destruction caused by historic flooding in southern Louisiana stretches for 25 miles, and according to Red Cross officials, it is the worst natural disaster in the United States since Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

Published in International

Amid heightened tensions over Islamic State-fueled terror attacks and anti-Muslim rhetoric, a prominent American cardinal says Islam “wants to govern the world” and Americans must decide if they are going to reassert “the Christian origin of our own nation” in order to avoid that fate.

Published in International

A South African cardinal who recently rejected calls for the Catholic Church to apologize to gay people has said the abortion rate among black women in the U.S. is “a genocide” and added: “Isn’t this something we should be apologizing for?”

Published in International

WASHINGTON – It was the end of a long day of baseball under the late May sun in Santa Clara, Cuba, and Marilyn Santos found an unpainted, dented, wooden baseball bat among the shiny blue and black ones she had brought from the United States.

Published in Features

WASHINGTON – Talk in the U.S. presidential campaign about restricting entry of Muslims into the United States has some religious leaders concerned that the country's religious liberty heritage is under threat.

Published in International

BEIJING – China has lodged a diplomatic protest with the United States after a U.S. government commission said Chinese violations of religious freedom last year remained “severe,” the Foreign Ministry said.

Published in International

WASHINGTON – The American religious nonprofits challenging their participation in the contraceptive mandate under the Affordable Care Act agreed with a U.S. Supreme Court proposal that such coverage be provided through an alternative health care plan without involving the religious employers in a legal brief filed with the court.

Published in International

More than 50 conservative Catholic activists and political leaders have come out in support of Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz in an effort to shore up Catholic backing for Cruz as an alternative to Donald Trump.

Published in International

Anti-Semitism goes hand-in-hand with anti-Israel activities at U.S. colleges, according to a new report that one critic called a “crude rhetorical cudgel” against the so-called Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

Published in International

The headline was eye-catching, and most likely that was the goal: “Pope fires Vatican ambassador to U.S. over Kim Davis,” shouted the story this week in the left-leaning Daily Kos.

Pretty amazing, if it were true.

Published in Vatican

Salim Jaffer moved to the U.S. when he was 14 years old. His family, along with the rest of the Indian community, had been expelled from Uganda in 1972 under the violent dictator Idi Amin and sought a respite in America.

But he said he’s never felt in danger until this year.

Published in International

In an appeal to the faithful, 40 conservative Catholic leaders have denounced GOP frontrunner Donald Trump as a demagogue and danger to the nation and the Republican Party.

Published in International

WASHINGTON - The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee March 2 unanimously passed a bipartisan measure condemning as genocide the killing of Christians, Yezidis and other ethnic and religious minorities by Islamic State militants in the Middle East.

Published in International