Religion

Smoke and explosions rise inside the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Sunday, Sunday, March 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israel launches another raid on Gaza’s main hospital, charging that Hamas has regrouped there

Israeli forces have launched another raid on the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital. The army says Hamas militants had regrouped inside Shifa Hospital, without providing evidence, and that gunmen fired on its forces from inside the hospital.

An Israeli soldier on top a tank on the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Sunday, Sunday, March 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Netanyahu snaps back against growing US criticism after being accused of losing his way on Gaza

Orthodox clergy, official, honour guards and people walk along with the coffin of the Bulgarian Patriarch Neophyte during his funeral with honours procession, in Sofia, Saturday, March 16, 2024. Bulgarians have lined the streets of Sofia to bid farewell to the late Orthodox Patriarch Neophyte. The spiritual leader of Bulgaria’s Orthodox Christians died on Wednesday at the age of 78 after a long illness. Neophyte, who became patriarch in 2013, was the first elected head of the Bulgarian church after the fall of communism in 1989. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)

Bulgarians line the streets of the capital to bid farewell to Orthodox Patriarch Neophyte

Adam Alcodray stands outside Dearborn High School on Wednesday, March 13, 2024 in Dearborn Mich. Alcodray, 14, is a 9th grader at the school which makes certain allowances for students observing Ramadan. Alcodray says Ramadan carries more significance this year given the plight of people in Gaza. “When you look at what the children are eating in Gaza, you appreciate what your mom makes,” he said. “When you’re having a bad day, realize what they are going through.”

Fasting at school? More Muslim students in the US are getting support during Ramadan

FILE - Stacey Peterson and Kevin McGuire take a selfie in front of the green Chicago River to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, Saturday, March 17, 2018. The Chicago River has been dyed a bright shade of green, kicking off the city's St. Patrick's Day festivities. The day honoring the patron saint of Ireland is a global celebration of Irish heritage. And nowhere is that more so than in the United States, where parades take place in cities around the country and all kinds of foods and drinks are given an emerald hue. (James Foster/Chicago Sun-Times via AP, File)

From 4-leaf clovers to some unexpected history, all you need to know about St. Patrick’s Day

FILE - This photo released Aug. 9, 2022, by the Albuquerque Police Department shows Muhammad Syed. Syed, an Afghan refugee accused in the slayings of three Muslim men in Albuquerque, N.M., will be in court Tuesday, March 12, 2024, as attorneys are expected to deliver opening statements in the first of three trials. (Albuquerque Police Department via AP, File)

Jurors weigh fate of Afghan refugee charged with murder in a case that shocked Muslim community

Prosecutors have wrapped up their case against an Afghan refugee in the first of three trials stemming from allegations that he gunned down three Muslim men over the course of several days in 2022.

In this image provided by MUBI is fashion designer John Galliano in the documentary film, “High & Low --John Galliano," directed by Kevin Macdonald. In the photograph by David Harriman John Galliano returns to the Dior archive for the first time since 2011. (David Harriman/MUBI via AP)

‘High & Low — John Galliano’ explores the rise and fall of a controversial designer

The new documentary “High & Low — John Galliano” covers all the complexities of the famous British designer, one of the most celebrated and controversial figures in the fashion industry.

Bulgarian Orthodox Priests pay their last respects to Bulgarian patriarch Neophyte at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia, Friday, March 15, 2024. National mourning was declared by the Bulgarian government on March 15 and 16 to honour Patriarch Neophyte of Bulgaria. Neophyte who was the first elected head of the Orthodox Church in the post-communist Balkan country, died at a hospital in Sofia on March 13. He was 78. .(AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)

Bulgarians pay their last respects to the late Orthodox patriarch

Thousands of Orthodox Christians from across Bulgaria have flocked to Sofia’s Alexander Nevski Cathedral to pay their respects to their late spiritual leader, Patriarch Neophyte, who passed away on Wednesday.

A group of Amish arrive at the Crawford County Judicial Center in Meadville, Pa., for the preliminary hearing for Shawn Christopher Cranston on Friday Mar. 15, 2024. Cranston is being held in connection with the murder of Rebekah A. Byler and her unborn child in her home in Spartansburg, Pa., on Feb. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Husband of slain pregnant Amish woman testifies his young children told him of the killing

The criminal homicide case against a truck driver accused of killing a pregnant Amish woman is headed to county court for trial.

Ishmael Chokurongerwa, 56, a "self styled" prophet is seen at his shrine on a farm about 34 kilometers (21 miles) north of the capital, Harare, Wednesday, March, 13, 2024. Chokurongerwa led a sect with more than 100 members. Zimbabwean police on Wednesday said they arrested the man claiming to be a prophet of an apostolic sect at a shrine where believers stay in a compound and authorities found 16 unregistered graves, including those of infants, and more than 250 children used as cheap labor. (AP Photo)

‘Prophet’ charged in Zimbabwe court after police say his reclusive sect used 251 children as workers

A man claiming to be a prophet has been charged in a Zimbabwean court after police raided the compound where he led a religious sect and found more than 250 children being kept away from school and used as workers.

FILE - The Jasna Gora Monastery, Poland's most revered Catholic shrine, during a sunset in Czestochowa, Poland, on Sept. 23, 2023. The leaders of Poland’s influential Catholic Church on Thursday, March 14, 2024 chose moderate Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda to be their new principal, at a time when the church is still struggling to reckon with the abuse of minors by some Polish clergy, while the number of Poles going to church has fallen sharply. (AP Photo/Michal Dyjuk, File)

Polish Catholics get a new leader as the church struggles to reckon with sexual abuse

The leaders of Poland’s influential Catholic Church have chosen moderate Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda to be their new principal, at a time when the church is struggling to reckon with the abuse of minors by some Polish clergy.

The entrance to the Wisconsin Supreme Court chambers in the state Capitol in Madison, Wis. The court on Thursday, March 14, 2024 ruled that religious exemptions to the state's unemployment tax don't apply to a Superior-based Catholic charities ministry. (AP Photo/Todd Richmond)

A Wisconsin ruling on Catholic Charities raises the bar for religious tax exemptions

A ruling by the Wisconsin Supreme Court is raising the bar for religions to show that their charity arms deserve tax exemptions.

FILE - Bishops kneel on the forecourt of the Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire basilica in the sanctuary of Lourdes, southwestern France, Saturday, Nov. 6, 2021. More than 500 victims of child sexual abuse by priests or other church representatives have received financial compensation from France's Catholic Church under a sweeping reparations program, the independent body in charge of the process said Thursday March 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bob Edme, File)

Nearly 500 victims of church sex abuse in France have received financial compensation

An independent French body in charge of a reparation program for victims of child sexual abuse by priests or church representatives says that nearly 500 people have so far received financial compensations from France’s Catholic Church.

Members of the Saint Mark the Apostle and Saint Samuel the Confessor Monastery sit at the magistrate court in Cullinan, a town east of Pretoria, South Africa, Thursday, March 14, 2024. Two suspects appeared at the court for the murder of three Egyptian monks belonging to the Coptic Orthodox Church at a monastery in South Africa. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

2 men accused of murdering 3 Egyptian Coptic monks appear in a South African court

Two men accused of fatally stabbing three Egyptian monks belonging to the Coptic Orthodox Church in South Africa have appeared in court.

Italian journalist and writer Fabio Marchese Ragona holds a copy of "Life: My Story Through History" as he poses for a picture prior to the start of an interview with the Associated Press, in Rome, Thursday, March 13, 2024. Pope Francis says he has no plans to resign and isn't suffering from any health problems that would require doing so, in an autobiography, "Life: My Story Through History," which is being published Tuesday and written with Italian journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope acknowledges criticism and health issues but says in his new memoir he has no plans to retire

Pope Francis says he has no plans to resign and isn’t suffering from any health problems that would require doing so.

Jessie Wooden, owner of the Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery, sits on a crypt, Monday, Feb. 26, 2024, in the Brownsville neighborhood of Miami. Wooden bought the cemetery after finding out that his mother, who died when he was an infant, was buried there. “All my life I didn’t know her. All I knew that mom was gone,” he says. “For me to be able to come where she’s resting at and be able to just to say a little prayer and talk to her, oh, that means so much to me.” (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

As threats to Black cemeteries persist, a movement to preserve their sacred heritage gains strength

As the national debate over Black history continues, one aspect of the legacy of race in America is undergoing something of a rebirth: Black cemeteries that were established in the era of segregation.

Britain's Prime Minster Rishi Sunak departs 10 Downing Street to go to the House of Commons for his weekly Prime Minister's Questions in London, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

The British government wants to define extremism. Critics say it risks creating more division

The British government has published a new official definition of “extremism.” Groups that get the label will be barred from receiving government funding.

FILE - Clergymen and the head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Neophyte, center, take part in the festive midnight Mass in front of Alexander Nevsky cathedral in Sofia, Bulgaria, Sunday, April 19, 2020. Patriarch Neophyte of Bulgaria, who was the first elected head of the Orthodox Church in the post-communist Balkan country, died at a hospital in Sofia, at age 78. The Orthodox Holy Synod said Wednesday, March 13, 2024, in a statement that the patriarch had been hospitalized for four months for lung ailments. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova, File)

Patriarch Neophyte, leader of Bulgaria’s Orthodox Church, dies at 78

Patriarch Neophyte of Bulgaria, who was the first elected head of the Orthodox Church in the post-communist Balkan country, died at a hospital in Sofia. He was 78.

Police with dogs are seen at a shrine on a farm about 34 kilometers (21 miles) north of the capital, Harare, Wednesday, March, 13, 2024. Zimbabwean police on Wednesday said they arrested a man claiming to be a prophet of an apostolic sect at a shrine where believers stay in a compound and authorities found 16 unregistered graves, including those of infants, and more than 250 children used as cheap labor.(AP Photo)

Zimbabwe police rescue 251 children used as labor and find graves in religious sect compound raid

Zimbabwe police say they have rescued dozens of children used as labor at a religious sect compound.

FILE - Jamaican Reggae singer Bob Marley performs in front of an audience of 40,000 during a festival concert of Reggae in Paris, France, July 4, 1980. The biopic “Bob Marley: One Love” has been a box office hit in the United States and several other countries. The film, starring Kingsley Ben-Adir, is focused on the Rastafari legend’s story during the making of his 1977 album “Exodus” while leading up to his impactful concert in his native Jamaica. (AP Photo/Jacques Langevin, File)

In ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ film, what’s his faith? And why is marijuana deemed holy to the Rastafari?

Exceeding expectations, the biopic “ Bob Marley: One Love ” has been a box-office hit in the United States and several other countries.

The original statue of the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre stands behind the altar at her shrine in El Cobre, Cuba, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024. The Vatican-recognized Virgin, venerated by Catholics and followers of Afro-Cuban Santeria traditions, is at the heart of Cuban identity, uniting compatriots from the Communist-run Caribbean island to those who were exiled or emigrated to the U.S. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Revered by Hemingway and visited by popes, why Cuba’s small patron saint is such a huge symbol

One religious icon unites Cubans: The Virgin of Charity of Cobre. The patron saint of the Caribbean island nation is venerated by observant Catholics and followers of Afro-Cuban Santeria traditions; by Cubans in exile and back home.

Brine evaporates in pools at the lithium extraction plant facilities of the SQM Lithium company near Peine, Chile, Tuesday, April 18, 2023. In the “lithium triangle” – a region spanning Argentina, Chile and Bolivia – native communities sit upon a treasure trove of the stuff: an estimated trillion dollars in lithium. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Native groups sit on a treasure trove of lithium. Now mines threaten their water, culture and wealth

In the “lithium triangle” – a region spanning Argentina, Chile and Bolivia – native communities sit upon an estimated trillion dollars in lithium.

A youth flies a kite outside the shrine of the Virgin of Charity of Cobre in El Cobre, Cuba, on Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024. The Vatican-recognized Virgin, venerated by Catholics and followers of Afro-Cuban Santeria traditions, is at the heart of Cuban identity, uniting compatriots from the Communist-run Caribbean island to those who were exiled or emigrated to the U.S. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Virgin of Charity unites all Cubans — Catholics, Santeria followers, exiled and back on the island

Cubans are often divided on many issues. One religious icon unites them: The Virgin of Charity of Cobre is venerated by observant Catholics and followers of Afro-Cuban Santeria traditions; by Cubans on the island, emigrants and those in exile.

FILE - A sign advertises Yeezy shoes made by Adidas at Kickclusive, a sneaker resale store, in Paramus, N.J., on Oct. 25, 2022. Adidas said Wednesday March 13, 2024 that it's donated or is planning to give away more than $150 million to groups fighting antisemitism and other forms of hate from the sales of Yeezy shoes last year after it severed ties with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Yeezy shoe sales lead Adidas to plan to donate $150 million to anti-hate groups

Adidas says it’s donated or is planning to give away more than $150 million to groups fighting antisemitism and other forms of hate from the sales of Yeezy shoes last year.

The Saint Mark the Apostle and Saint Samuel the Confessor Monastery in Cullinan, a town east of Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. Three Egyptian monks belonging to the Coptic Orthodox Church were fatally stabbed in an attack at a monastery in South Africa and a suspect has been arrested, police said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

3 Egyptian Coptic church monks are killed in an attack at a monastery in South Africa

Police say three Egyptian monks belonging to the Coptic Orthodox Church were fatally stabbed in an attack at a monastery in South Africa, and a suspect has been arrested.

FILE- Rabbi Abraham Cooper, center, of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, speaks in front of civic and faith leaders outside City Hall, Thursday, May 20, 2021, in Los Angeles. A U.S. Congress-mandated group cut short a fact-finding mission to Saudi Arabia over officials in the kingdom ordering a Jewish rabbi to remove his kippah in public, highlighting the religious tensions still present in the wider Middle East. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

US-mandated religious freedom group ends Saudi trip early after rabbi ordered to remove his kippah

A U.S. Congress-mandated group cut short a fact-finding mission to Saudi Arabia after officials in the kingdom ordered a Jewish rabbi to remove his kippah in public.

Elisabeth Odegaard poses for a portrait with necklaces as she prepares food for Israeli soldiers on a brief respite from combat operations in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Wednesday, March 6, 2024. Her visit to Israel is part of a wave of religious "voluntourism" to Israel, organized trips that include some kind of volunteering aspect connected to the ongoing war in Gaza. Israel's Tourism Ministry estimates around a third to half of the approximately 3,000 visitors expected to arrive each day in March are part of faith-based volunteer trips. Prior to Oct. 7, around 15,000 visitors were arriving in Israel per day, according to Tourism Ministry statistics. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Evangelical Christians are fierce Israel supporters. Now they are visiting as war-time volunteers

Evangelicals have been among Israel’s fiercest foreign supporters for years. This is particularly true in the United States, where their political influence has helped shape the Israel policy of recent Republican administrations.

FILE - Participants carry flags past the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist while marching in the St. Patrick's Day parade, March 17, 2023, in historic downtown Savannah, Ga. Savannah, Georgia's oldest city, is planning a supersized celebration as it marks the 200th anniversary of its beloved St. Patrick's Day parade. City Manager Jay Melder says he's expecting historic crowds for the Irish-themed parade Saturday, March 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton)

Savannah plans a supersized 200th anniversary celebration of its beloved St. Patrick’s Day parade

Savannah, Georgia’s oldest city, is planning a supersized celebration as it marks the 200th anniversary of its beloved St. Patrick’s Day parade.

Melissa Nelson, chair of the board of directors of the Sogorea Te' Land Trust, middle, gestures while speaking at a news conference in Berkeley, Calif., Wednesday, March 13, 2024. Berkeley's City Council voted unanimously Tuesday, March 12, 2024, to adopt an ordinance giving the title of the land to the Sogorea Te' Land Trust, a women-led, San Francisco Bay Area collective that works to return land to Indigenous people and that raised the funds needed to reach the agreement. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Indigenous people rejoice after city of Berkeley votes to return sacred Native land to Ohlone

Ohlone people and others are rejoicing over the return of sacred Native land dating back thousands of years.

People gather for an auction of farm equipment during 56th annual mud sale to benefit the local fire department in Gordonville, Pa., Saturday, March 9, 2024. Mud sales are a relatively new tradition in the heart of Pennsylvania's Amish country, going back about 60 years and held in early spring as the ground begins to thaw but it's too early for much farm work. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Spring for Amish people in Pennsylvania means ‘mud sales,’ from pitchforks to pies

Spring in southcentral Pennsylvania brings an annual tradition in Amish communities: mud sales. That’s what they call the country auctions that began in Lancaster County in the 1960s.

Students perform a prayer during the first day of the holy fasting month of Ramadan at Ar-Raudlatul Hasanah Islamic Boarding School in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)

Muslims around the world observe holy month of Ramadan with prayer and fasting

Muslims around the world are observing the holy month of Ramadan, with worship, charity, dawn-to-dusk fasting and nightly feasts.

Dozens allege child sexual abuse in Maryland treatment program under newly filed lawsuits

More than three dozen people allege in lawsuits filed this week that they were sexually abused as children inside a Maryland residential program for youths that closed in 2017.

Balinese Hindus participate in a purification ceremony during sunrise on Melasti at Padanggala beach in Bali, Indonesia on Friday, March 8, 2024. Melasti is a day leading up to the New Year where Balinese Hindus perform rituals as an act of symbolic cleansing. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

Balinese celebrate New Year with firefights, sword-piercing and a sacred Day of Silence

DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) — Airports closed for 24 hours, the internet was turned off and streets were empty as the predominantly Hindu island of Bali in Muslim-majority Indonesia marked its New Year with an annual Day of Silence as part of six days of extensive rituals.

FILE - Pope Francis greets Vatican Secretary of State Monsignor Pietro Parolin, left, as he arrives to board a plane to Amman, Jordan, for a three-day trip to the Middle East including the West Bank and Israel, at Rome's Fiumicino international airport, Saturday, May 24, 2014. The Vatican secretary of state is trying to defuse Pope Francis' latest diplomatic kerfluffle, insisting in media interviews that a primary condition for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine is an end to Russia’s aggression and that any peace must be a “just peace.” (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca, File)

Vatican diplomats seek to defuse outrage over Pope Francis’ Ukraine ‘white flag’ comments

The Vatican secretary of state is trying to defuse outrage over Pope Francis’ latest diplomatic foray.

Students protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Guwahati, India, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. India has implemented a controversial citizenship law that has been widely criticized for excluding Muslims, a minority community whose concerns have heightened under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government. The Citizenship Amendment Act provides a fast track to naturalization for Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who fled to Hindu-majority India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan before Dec. 31, 2014. Banner in Assamese reads, "we will not accept CAA " (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

India’s new citizenship law excludes Muslims. Here’s what to know

India has implemented a citizenship law that excludes migrants who are Muslims, a minority community whose concerns have heightened under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government.