Every August, thousands of pilgrims travel to Copacabana, a Bolivian town on the shores of Lake Titicaca, to honor Our Lady of Copacabana, one of Mary's titles and a revered figure believed to grant miracles.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is hinting at wider military action in devastated Gaza even as some former army and intelligence chiefs call for an end to the war.

Witnesses and health officials say dozens of Palestinians have been killed or wounded as desperate crowds headed toward food distribution points or airdrops in Gaza.

Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has led prayers at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site, sparking international condemnation.

New outbreaks of violence overnight into Sunday have rocked Syria at two distinct flashpoints, straining a fragile ceasefire and calling into question the ability of the transitional government to exert its authority across the whole country.

A far-right Israeli minister has visited and prayed at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, sparking regional condemnation.

Pope Leo XIV has told over a million Catholic youths they are a sign that a different world is possible.

Pope Leo XIV urges young people to make radical choices for good during a major event in Rome.

Witnesses and health workers say Israeli forces opened fire near two aid distribution sites run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as crowds of hungry Palestinians sought food.

Abeer and Fadi Sobh spend their days seeking food for themselves and their six children.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy has visited a food distribution site in the Gaza Strip operated by an Israeli-backed American contractor whose efforts to deliver food to the hunger-stricken territory have been marred by violence and controversy.

Plans announced by France, the United Kingdom and Canada to recognize a Palestinian state won’t bring one about anytime soon, though they could isolate Israel and strengthen the Palestinians' negotiating position over the long term.

A survivor of clergy sex abuse in Peru brought her public campaign for reform to the American hometown of Pope Leo XIV.

A growing number of Jewish Americans are urging Israel to ensure humanitarian aid reaches Gaza, though the ongoing war with Hamas remains a tension point.

In the 1970s, two boys in Ireland discovered a pile of bones at a former mother and baby home.

At least 48 Palestinians have been killed while waiting for food at a crossing in the Gaza Strip.

French government ministers say a summer camp counselor has accused Spanish police of using brute force against her during the removal of a group of French Jewish teenagers from a plane bound for Paris from Spain.

Demonstrators calling for an end to the war in Gaza have protested the arrival of an Israeli cruise ship on another Greek island.

Throughout his new term, President Donald Trump has said he was “saved by God” to make America great again.

Pope Leo XIV has surprised tens of thousands of young Catholics by showing up unexpectedly at a Holy Year welcome ceremony.

As Israel has announced steps to increase humanitarian aid in Gaza, former hostage Iair Horn knows firsthand the impact of aid.

Faith leaders across the U.S. are hoping a bipartisan bill in Congress might finally provide relief to an immigration issue that has been vexing them for more than two years.

The Israeli military has intercepted a Gaza-bound aid ship, detaining 21 international activists and journalists and seizing all cargo, including baby formula, food, and medicine, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.

A crowd surge at a popular Hindu temple in northern India has left at least six people dead and dozens others injured, local authorities say.

Long-festering tensions over border territory have escalated into armed conflict between Cambodia and Thailand, leading to dozens of deaths on both sides and displacing tens of thousands of people.

Harold Terens fought in World War II.

After vandalism reports involving graffiti at a few mosques in Texas and California, Muslim leaders there have stepped up existing efforts to keep their sacred spaces and community members safe.

Israel's military says airdrops of aid will begin in Gaza, and humanitarian corridors will be established for United Nations convoys.

The Trump administration is investigating the Oregon Department of Education after receiving a complaint from a conservative non-profit group alleging the state was violating civil rights law by allowing transgender girls to compete on girls sports teams.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his government is considering “alternative options” to ceasefire talks with Hamas.

Academics around the country are raising alarm about growing efforts to define antisemitism on terms pushed by the Trump administration.

Early Hawaiian petroglyphs have resurfaced on a beach in Waianae, Hawaii.

International Criminal Court judges have found two leaders of a predominantly Christian rebel group in the Central African Republic guilty of multiple counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff says the U.S. is cutting short Gaza ceasefire talks and bringing home its negotiating team from Qatar for consultations.

For six hours every day after school, Nahideh works in a cemetery, collecting water from a nearby shrine to sell to mourners visiting loved ones’ graves.

The United Nations human rights office says more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food in the Gaza Strip.

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan has expressed concern about the Taliban's arrest of women and girls for alleged failure to comply with the authorities’ dress code.

Israeli ground troops for the first time have pushed into areas of a central Gaza city where several aid groups are based.

Pope Leo XIV has marked the 56th anniversary of man’s arrival on the moon Sunday with a visit to the Vatican astronomical observatory in Castel Gandolfo and a call to astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

A diverse group of volunteers from faith leaders to grandmothers to retired lawyers have been escorting people to immigration courts across the country.

Pope Leo XIV has renewed his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Hundreds of thousands of supporters of Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami have held a major rally in Dhaka.

Top church leaders have visited Gaza after its only Catholic church was struck by an Israeli shell the day before.

Thousands have been forced to forgo an annual pilgrimage to a revered waterfall in central Haiti, now in territory held by gangs, where they would splash among sacred waters and rub their bodies with aromatic leaves.

In Uganda, politics often intertwines with spiritual beliefs, as many politicians secretly consult traditional healers or witch doctors for perceived advantages.

France’s prime minister has proposed cutting two public holidays to save money in next year’s budget.

The U.N. reports that child malnutrition in Gaza has doubled since Israel restricted food entry in March.

The Rev. John MacArthur, an influential and exacting evangelical preacher, has died at the age of 86.

An Israeli ultra-Orthodox party has announced plans to leave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government.

Josep Lluís Iriberri is a Jesuit priest who designed a pilgrim path for St. Ignatius in northern Spain more than a decade ago.

A man accused of killing two women at a Kentucky church on Sunday had been scheduled for a domestic violence hearing the following day.

Clashes between Syrian government forces and Druze armed groups have escalated, drawing Israeli intervention and raising fears of a breakdown in the country’s fragile postwar order.

Many Native Americans are marking ceremonies like graduations with bald eagle feathers, a form of reverence for the bird they have always held sacred as a messenger to the Creator.

Health officials in Gaza say Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 32 people, including six children at a water collection point.

White Sox great Paul Konerko got a present from one No. 14 to another in honor of the 20th anniversary of the 2005 World Series championship run — a jersey signed by noted Chicago fan Pope Leo XIV.

Witnesses and health workers say at least 31 Palestinians have been shot dead in Gaza while seeking food aid.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee warns that Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi faces threats to her life from Iranian security services.

Lebanon's president says his country has no plans to have normal relations with Israel at the present time.

A small town in Tennessee courted national publicity a century ago when it recruited a local teacher to challenge a state law banning the teaching of evolution.

Thousands of people from Bosnia and around the world are gathering in Srebrenica to mark the 30th anniversary of the massacre of more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim boys and men.

Broken glasses, watches, combs and crumpled, faded identification documents.

An independent investigator is being sanctioned by the United States over her work scrutinizing human rights abuses in the Palestinian territory.

The 1925 Scopes “Monkey Trial” in Tennessee, where a teacher was prosecuted for teaching evolution, continues to influence debates on religion in public schools.

Rescuers have found four more crew members from the ship Eternity C, which Yemen's Houthi rebels sank in the Red Sea.

A report is recommending Australian universities lose government funding unless they address attacks on Jewish students and for potential immigrants to be screened for political affiliations.

A surprise move by the IRS that would allow pastors to back political candidates from the pulpit without losing their organization’s tax-exempt status is drawing praise from conservatives and even some progressive religious groups but concern from other leaders of faith, along with tax and legal experts.

Catastrophic flooding in Texas has devastated faith-based summer camps, including Camp Mystic, where at least 27 people have died.

A brawl erupted in Armenia’s National Assembly involving an opposition lawmaker who later was stripped of his parliamentary immunity and faces prosecution for calling for the ouster of President Nikol Pashinyan.

A new AP-NORC poll finds most Americans do not want the government to focus on increasing birth rates, despite efforts by the Trump administration to make this a priority.

Erton Köhler, a pastor from Brazil, has been elected president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church General Conference.

The IRS says pastors endorsing political candidates during services should not risk losing their tax-exempt status.

The death toll from catastrophic flooding in Texas over the July Fourth weekend has surpassed 100.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is telling President Donald Trump that he is nominating the U.S. leader for a Nobel Peace Prize.

The death toll from flash floods that raged through central Texas has risen to 82 after searchers found more bodies.

Pope Leo XIV has arrived at the papal summer retreat of Castel Gandolfo to start a six-week vacation.

Los Angeles is home to the largest Iranian community outside Iran.

Pope Leo XIV is signalling his commitment to continuing the fight against clergy sexual abuse.

The Dalai Lama says he hopes to live until he is over 130 years old, a remark he made during a ceremony organized by his followers to offer prayers for his long life as he prepares to celebrate his 90th birthday.

Pope Leo XIV is starting a six-week vacation this weekend at the papal summer retreat south of Rome.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised continued trade and investment in Trinidad and Tobago in an address to the nation’s parliament.

President Donald Trump says he didn’t know that the term “shylock” is considered antisemitic when he used it in a speech to describe unscrupulous moneylenders.

The Supreme Court will consider whether to revive a lawsuit from a man barred from evangelizing outside a small-town Mississippi amphitheater after authorities say he shouted insults at people over a loudspeaker.

Amnesty International has issued a report saying a controversial system to distribute aid in Gaza uses starvation tactics against Palestinians to continue to commit genocide in the Gaza Strip during Israel’s war with Hamas.

Israeli airstrikes and shootings have killed 94 Palestinians in Gaza, including 45 who were attempting to get much-needed humanitarian aid.

A volunteer searching the archives of the American Baptist in Massachusetts has found a nearly 180-year-old document shedding light on the church's support for ending slavery.

Iran’s president has ordered the country to suspend its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency after American airstrikes hit its most-important nuclear facilities.

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has said the centuries-old Tibetan Buddhist institution will continue after his death, ending speculation ignited by his remark that he might be the last person to hold the role.

Iran is assessing the damage and lashing out over the American and Israeli airstrikes that damaged its nuclear sites.

Witnesses and medics in Gaza say an Israeli airstrike on a seaside cafe has killed at least 30 people in Gaza City.

Zohran Mamdani, an outspoken critic of Israel, is the expected Democratic nominee for mayor in America’s most Jewish city and that's raising alarms among some in the New York's Jewish community.

Pope Leo XIV is marking a feast day as the Vatican launches a new campaign to boost donations from the faithful.

U.S. President Donald Trump is urging a ceasefire deal on the war in Gaza.

The Rev. James Kelly baptized and married thousands of people, ministered to the ill at hospitals, and traveled the world.

Health workers in Gaza say Israeli strikes killed at least 72 people across Gaza overnight and into Saturday.

Israeli leaders are denying claims that soldiers were ordered to shoot at Palestinians approaching aid sites in Gaza.

A lawyer says the Supreme Court's ruling that Maryland parents who have religious objections can pull their children from public school lessons using LGBTQ storybooks is a historic victory for parental rights.

The Supreme Court has preserved a key part of the Affordable Care Act’s preventive health care coverage requirements, rejecting a challenge from Christian employers to the provision that affects 150 million Americans.

Security forces faced off with crowds at the headquarters of the Armenian Apostolic Church as the government sought to arrest a cleric in the latest move against outspoken critics of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The U.S. Catholic Church is grappling with a severe priest shortage.

The Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, recently ordained 12 new Catholic priests in a joyful Mass at its cathedral.