June 27, 2016 New archbishop may transform Cuban church with modest style In the mid-1970s, a recently ordained priest trekked the Cuban countryside, defying the communist government by distributing hand-printed religious pamphlets to townspeople bold enough to open their doors.
June 26, 2016 Gays and others marginalized deserve an apology, Pope Francis says Pope Francis says gays — and all the other people the church has marginalized, such as the poor and the exploited — deserve an apology.
June 26, 2016 Pope visits Armenia's closed border with Turkey on last day Pope Francis is wrapping up his trip to Armenia with a Sunday liturgy in the Apostolic cathedral celebrated by his Orthodox hosts and a visit to Armenia's closed border with Turkey amid new tensions with Ankara over his recognition of the 1915 "genocide." Turkey issued a harsh rebuttal late Saturday to Francis' declaration upon arrival in Armenia that the slaughter was a planned genocide to exterminate Armenians.
June 26, 2016 Yemeni officials: at least 55 killed in 2 days of fighting Yemeni security and health officials say two days of fierce fighting between Shiite rebels and forces loyal to the internationally recognized government has killed at least 55 people from both sides.
June 26, 2016 Vatican denies pope has 'Crusades' mentality over genocide The Vatican on Sunday strongly dismissed Turkish claims that Pope Francis has adopted a "Crusades" mentality by recognizing the Ottoman-era genocide of Armenians, insisting that Francis's three-day visit to the Orthodox country was one of peace and reconciliation.
June 26, 2016 Orthodox Christian leaders end historic meeting The leaders of the world's Orthodox Christian churches ended a historic gathering on the Greek island of Crete on Sunday hoping to repeat the meeting within a decade, despite a boycott by the Russian church — the most populous in a religion of some 300 million people — and three other churches.
June 26, 2016 Vatican names Italian as acting Latin Patriarch The Vatican has put its longtime protector of Church holy sites in the Middle East in charge of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem — a sensitive position that serves as the chief clergyman to the local Catholic population.
June 26, 2016 Jerusalem gay pride parade attacker given life sentence A Jerusalem court has sentenced to life in prison a radical ultra-Orthodox Israeli Jew who fatally stabbed a teenage girl at a gay pride parade last year.
June 26, 2016 Kuwait mosque hit by IS suicide bomb reopens as fears remain The wood paneling bearing Quranic verses gleams inside the Imam Sadiq Mosque and the carpeting is soft underfoot for worshippers who come to pray in what is one of Kuwait's oldest Shiite mosques — and the site of the country's worst militant attack in modern history.
June 25, 2016 Iran's leader slams Bahrain's treatment of Shiite cleric Iran's supreme leader has accused Bahrain's Sunni-led government of "blatant foolishness and insanity" for stripping a prominent Shiite cleric of his citizenship.
