By Trevor Grundy Religion News Service LONDON (RNS) Leaders of Britain’s 2.8 million Muslims reacted with horror and anger following Wednesday’s (May 22) slaughter with…
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By Kimberly Winston Religion News Service (RNS) Atheists and other nonbelievers largely welcomed Wednesday’s (May 22) remarks by Pope Francis that performing “good works” is…
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By David Gibson Religion News Service NEW YORK (RNS) When Cardinal Timothy Dolan used the morning talk shows on Easter Sunday to say the Catholic…
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Stoyan Zaimov (“The Christian Post,” May 22, 2013)
A Christian pastor at the Central Assemblies of God Church in Tehran was arrested during a prayer meeting at the church, which may be forced to close down in June due to pressure from Iranian authorities.
“There are lots of underground churches in Iran but the Assemblies of God, which the Church in Tehran is, is permitted to operate but with many restrictions.
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Geraldine Fagan (“Forum 18 News Service,” May 22, 2013)
Many hundreds of religious communities across Russia were among non-governmental organisations (NGOs) inspected by state officials this Spring, in a sweep apparently seeking to uncover foreign backing for political opposition initiatives.
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Stoyan Zaimov (“The Christian Post,” May 22, 2013)
Top Internal Revenue Service (IRS) official, Lois Lerner, has invoked the Fifth Amendment before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday, refusing to testify but simply saying that she had “not done anything wrong.
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Nicola Menzie (“The Christian Post,” May 22, 2013)
Prosecutors in Singapore have alleged that City Harvest Church founder and pastor Kong Hee and five other associates used dubious investments made to questionable companies to embezzle S$50.6 million ($41 million) from a church building fund to finance the pop music career of Kong’s wife, Sun Ho.
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(AP, May 22, 2013)
Vatican City – Pope Francis has issued his first appeal directed at Catholics in China, long the source of concern for his predecessor Benedict XVI.
Francis urged special prayers Wednesday for China’s faithful that they may “live t…
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(“The Economist,” May 21, 2013)
Istanbul – Today is the date when many Christians commemorate Emperor Constantine the Great and his mother Helen, central figures in the late Roman empire’s conversion to Christianity. Historians still argue about the significance of this change. Sceptical thinkers like Edward Gibbon and Friedrich Nietzsche deplored it as a way-station in imperial decline.
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Tom Heneghan (Reuters, May 22, 2013)
Ankara – Scholars around the Muslim world were alarmed five years ago by news reports that Turkey planned a new, possibly heretical compilation of the Prophet Mohammad’s sayings that might scrap those it thought wer…
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Fredrick Nzwili (“RNS,” May 22, 2013)
Nairobi, Kenya – An American missionary priest who is entangled in a dispute with the country’s top Catholic cleric and a group of nuns in Kenya over the ownership of two mission hospitals has been suspended from the priesthood by his order.
The New York-based Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers suspended the Rev. Dr.
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Paresh Dave (“RNS,” May 22, 2013)
Dublin – Patricia Wojnar left a 32-year career in interior design to pursue a degree that wasn’t in demand: a master’s in bereavement studies.
Having seen four family members die early, she wanted to understand how to adapt.
As it turned out, the degree perfectly prepared her to enter one of Ireland’s emerging professions.
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(Reuters, May 20, 2013)
Islamist rebels in the northern Syrian town of Saraqeb have publicly flogged two men for violating an Islamic ban on marriage to recently divorced women, according to an internet video uploaded this week.
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Ben Quinn & Conal Urquhart (“The Guardian,” May 23, 2013)
Scores of supporters of the English Defence League threw bottles at police and chanted anti-Muslim slogans in Woolwich hours after the murder of one man and the shooting of his two suspected assailants.
About 100 men, including some wearing balaclavas printed with “EDL”, engaged in running battles with police for less than an hour.
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William Booth (“The Washington Post,” May 22, 2013)
JERUSALEM — In a city where three major faiths guard their holy places with quarrelsome zeal and where moving a single stone can have deep religious and geopolitical implications, a proposal to double the area for Jewish prayer along the iconic Western Wall represents dramatic change for a place that does not easily embrace it.
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