Religion News

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI will meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy and representatives of the country's Jewish community during a stop in Paris on his September pilgrimage to the Roman Catholic shrine of Lourdes, the Vatican said Friday.

DENVER - As clergy involvement in politics stirs debate, Roman Catholic priests and deacons in the Denver Archdiocese are being instructed not to endorse or donate money to political candidates.

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Plans to translate the Bible into patois — Jamaica's unofficial language — have ignited a fiery debate that stretches beyond the shores of this island nation.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia is one of the least religious nations in the western world, research showed Friday, as the country prepares to host Pope Benedict XVI and Catholic World Youth Day celebrations this month.

MEXICO CITY (AFP) - Republican presidential hopeful John McCain visited the Basilica of Guadalupe, home to Mexico's most revered icon, a stop likely aimed at Roman Catholics and Mexican-Americans voters in the United States.

CLEVELAND - A federal jury on Thursday convicted the former top accountant at the Cleveland Catholic Diocese of tax charges and acquitted him of more serious charges related to alleged kickbacks.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of a 19th century Belgian priest who ministered to leprosy patients in Hawaii — opening the way for him to be declared a saint.

With the economy and Iraq topping voter concerns, abortion has receded into the political background. As a TIME poll shows, that has put the Catholic vote up for grabs

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - It's a wonder vacation Bible school made it out of the 1960s.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - A U.N. appeals court on Thursday overturned the war crimes conviction of Naser Oric, a Bosnian Muslim considered a war hero by many in his country for fighting Serbs in the embattled Srebrenica enclave during Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

Kind of blue — Obama hopes to flip Republican red states ... McCain to meet Mexican president on Thursday at end of Latin American trip ... Obama, McCain competing for the center, an elusive, disengaged yet crucial crowd

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - A U.N. appeals court on Thursday overturned the war crimes conviction of Naser Oric, a Bosnian Muslim considered a war hero by many in his country for fighting Serbs in the embattled Srebrenica enclave during Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

Conservative evangelical leaders met privately this week to discuss putting aside their misgivings about John McCain and coalescing around the Republican's presidential bid while urging him to consider social conservative favorite Mike Huckabee as a running mate.

LONDON (AFP) - A divisive row over homosexuality and women bishops has left the worldwide Anglican Communion facing one of its worst ever crises, to the point where there is talk of an irrevocable schism.

RICHMOND, Va. - Catholic leaders in Richmond are apologizing after a mix up enabled a 16-year-old illegal immigrant in a Catholic charity's care to get an abortion with help from charity staffers.

ZANESVILLE, Ohio - Taking a page from President Bush, Democrat Barack Obama said Tuesday he wants to expand White House efforts to steer social service dollars to religious groups, risking protests in his own party with his latest aggressive reach for voters who usually vote Republican.

ZANESVILLE, Ohio (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama promised a more active approach to faith-based social programs on Tuesday in a bid to bolster his support among evangelical and religious voters.

VATICAN CITY (AFP) - Pope watchers have been put on notice that the Vatican does not take kindly to facile labels like "retro" or "vintage" when discussing the sartorial choices of Pope Benedict XVI.

LONDON - The spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans raised questions Monday about the legitimacy of plans to create a global network of conservative Anglicans that would challenge his authority and the teachings of liberal North American churches.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A just-concluded meeting of conservative church leaders in the worldwide Anglican Communion will have little lasting impact, the head of the Episcopal Church, the faith's U.S. branch, said on Monday.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Dutch legislator Geert Wilders will not be prosecuted for inciting hatred of Muslims with his film denouncing the Quran, prosecutor said Monday.

DOTHAN, Ala. - An 11-year-old Georgia boy has died from injuries he suffered when the truck he was riding in collided with a church bus from Kentucky, authorities said Monday.

GEE'S BEND, Ala. - John McCain squinted in the midday sunshine as he crossed the meandering Alabama River aboard the Gee's Bend ferry, smiling at a dozen elderly black women who clasped his hands and crooned gospel hymns.

PRUSAC, Bosnia-Hercegovina (AFP) - Thousands of Muslims converged on a central Bosnian village Sunday in a pilgrimage that was banned for almost half a century under Communist Yugoslav rule.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Conservative Anglican leaders vowed on Sunday to stay in the worldwide Anglican Communion but form a council of bishops to provide an alternative to churches they say are preaching a "false gospel" of sexual immorality.

SALT LAKE CITY - Lester Leavitt has made a request of his family: oppose their church's opposition to gay marriage.

NEW YORK - Conservatives from the world's largest Anglican provinces who are angered by liberal thinking in churches in North America and elsewhere plan to create a global fellowship that challenges worldwide Anglican unity but stops short of a formal split.

RICHMOND, Va. - Eleven conservative Episcopal churches won a legal victory Friday when a circuit court judge upheld a Virginia law allowing congregations to vote to secede from their parent denominations.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Eleven conservative congregations that broke with the U.S. Episcopal Church and want to keep property worth millions of dollars have won a second court decision, the dissident churches said on Friday.