Pope Leo XIV, during his first Christmas Day message, has urged the faithful to shed indifference toward those who are suffering.
King Charles III has urged people to focus on kindness instead of conflict in his annual Christmas address.
An explosive device has detonated in Gaza and wounded one Israeli soldier, prompting Israel to accuse Hamas of violating the U.S.-brokered ceasefire.
On Christmas Eve, thousands of people flocked to Bethlehem's Manger Square and other Holy Land sites, after two years of subdued Christmas celebrations because of the war in Gaza.
Pope Leo XIV says he's “very disappointed” that his home state of Illinois has approved medically assisted suicide.
Gaza’s tiny Palestinian Christian community is trying to capture some of the Christmas spirit under a fragile ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
The Australian state of New South Wales is proposing a ban on public displays of Islamic State group flags and extremist symbols.
Originally a Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus, Christmas has evolved into a global cultural event.
Pope Leo XIV has summoned the world’s cardinals for meetings to help him govern the church, marking the unofficial start of his pontificate.
Pope Leo XIV has made another high-profile appointment that signals a generational shift in the English-speaking Catholic hierarchy.
Thousands of people have returned to Australia's Bondi Beach in the first full day of opening since a mass shooting killed 15 people.
Hundreds of mourners have gathered in Sydney for the funeral of a 10-year-old girl killed in an antisemitic massacre during a Hanukkah celebration.
Israel’s military says troops fired a mortar shell into a Palestinian residential area in the Gaza Strip, in the latest incident to rock the tenuous ceasefire with Hamas.
In 2018, German artist Michael Triegel asked a homeless man in Rome to pose for a drawing, thinking that he would make an ideal model for St. Peter if he ever needed to paint the first pope.
An accused gunman in Sydney’s Bondi Beach massacre has been charged with 59 offenses including 15 charges of murder as hundreds of mourners gathered in Sydney to begin funerals for the victims.
Ahmed al Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian tobacco shop owner, has become a national hero in Australia, with an online fundraiser for him raising millions of dollars.
Palestinians in Gaza are struggling to recover from torrential rains that have battered the enclave for days, flooding camps for the displaced, collapsing buildings already badly damaged in the two-year war and leaving at least 12 dead, including a two-week-old baby.
Australia is preparing for the funerals of some of the victims of an antisemitic mass shooting during a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
Leading Jewish groups in the United States are urging all Jewish organizations to ratchet up security at public events following the weekend's mass shooting attack on a Hanukkah celebration on a beach in Australia.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called an attack on a Hanukkah celebration at a Sydney beach that killed at least 11 people an act of antisemitism and terrorism.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has criticized Australia's leader, linking calls for a Palestinian state to rising antisemitism.
Archaeologists in Turkey have uncovered a significant fresco of Jesus as the "Good Shepherd" from Anatolia's early Christian era.
New footage shows six Israeli hostages celebrating Hanukkah while held captive in Gaza months before they were killed.
In a story published Dec. 12, 2025, about Nativity scenes portraying immigration enforcement, The Associated Press erroneously reported that the Rev. Jillian Westerfield’s church is United Methodist.
A Hamas leader is calling for international pressure on Israel before the Palestinian militant group moves forward with the next phase of the ceasefire in the territory.
Hundreds of Nicaraguans caroled the Virgin Mary at flower-and-light-filled altars set up in church parking lots as well as the back of vehicles on the streets of Miami to mark the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has designated one of the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy groups in the U.S. a “foreign terrorist organization,” following a similar step by Texas last month.
A federal judge has approved a federal settlement that will clear the way for the New Orleans Archdiocese to pay at least $230 million to hundreds of victims of clergy sexual abuse.
A Harvard visiting law professor from Brazil who told police he was shooting at rats when he fired a pellet gun near a synagogue on Yom Kippur has left the United States after his visa was revoked.
Pope Leo XIV has taken his biggest step yet to correct one of Pope Francis’ more problematic financial moves.
In the Ecuadorian Andes, young Otavalo Indigenous people are using anime to inspire pride in their culture and language.
Lebanon’s prime minister says his country is “far from” diplomatic normalization or economic relations with Israel.
A graduate student instructor at the University of Oklahoma was placed on administrative leave after a student claimed she was religiously discriminated against for receiving a “zero” on an assignment.
Pope Leo XIV has shared his thoughts during the conclave that elected him, saying he resigned himself to the inevitable and put the rest in God’s hands.
Pope Leo XIV has offered a silent prayer at the site of the 2020 Beirut port explosion as he wrapped up his first foreign trip to Turkey and Lebanon.
Pope Leo XIV has celebrated Lebanon's tradition of interfaith coexistence as a beacon of hope for a conflict-torn region.
Pope Leo XIV's visit to Lebanon highlights the country's religious pluralism and sends a message to Christians not to abandon the region.
Pope Leo XIV has doubled down on the Holy See’s insistence on a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Pope Leo XIV has challenged Lebanon’s political leaders to be true peacemakers and put their differences aside.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says the Palestinian death toll has surpassed 70,000 since the Israel-Hamas war began.
Pope Leo XIV has visited Istanbul’s Blue Mosque without praying there as he focused on strengthening ties with Orthodox patriarchs.
Israeli forces have raided a village in southern Syria, killing at least 13 people, according to Syrian officials.
Pope Leo XIV has marked a significant moment in his first foreign trip to Turkey by visiting the site of the historic Council of Nicaea.
Pope Leo XIV has joined Orthodox patriarchs and ecumenical leaders in Turkey to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea.
People who work with refugees are worried about backlash after authorities say an Afghan national shot National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C., this week.
Israel has returned the bodies of 15 Palestinians, following Hamas' return of the remains of an Israeli hostage.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson's family says that the civil rights leader has been released from a hospital where he was treated for a rare neurological disorder.
As travel picks up for the season, flyers can find a moment of quiet and relaxation at interfaith chapels or meditation spaces in many U.S. airports.
The Vatican has doubled down on the value of monogamous marriage between a man and woman.
Pope Leo XIV is set to embark on his first trip abroad with a visit to Turkey, marking a key event in Catholic and Orthodox Christianity.
President Donald Trump’s administration is promoting efforts to work with Nigeria’s government to counter violence against Christians.
Israel's military says it has launched new airstrikes against Hamas militants in Gaza, testing the ceasefire that began on Oct. 10.
The daughter of a detained Chinese Christian pastor is urging U.S. lawmakers to help free her father at a time when President Donald Trump has vowed to “save our Great Christian population” worldwide.
A group of Buddhist monks walking from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., on a cross-country peace journey received unexpected help after their escort vehicle was destroyed in a crash in Dayton, Texas.
A new Texas law says every public school classroom must display a poster listing the Ten Commandments.
Ukraine has asked the Vatican to formalize its role facilitating negotiations for the return of Ukrainian children and civilians taken by Russia during the war.
Pope Leo XIV has strongly backed U.S. bishops who condemned the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Pope Leo XIV is urging countries at United Nations climate talks to take “concrete actions” to stop climate change that is threatening the planet.
Israeli settlers have rampaged through a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank, torching homes and cars in the latest in a string of settler attacks in recent weeks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is vowing to oppose any attempt to establish a Palestinian state.
Pope Leo XIV has welcomed Spike Lee, Cate Blanchett, Greta Gerwig and dozens of other Hollywood luminaries to a special Vatican audience.
A new exhibition in Mexico City explores how the sacred myth that marked the site of the ancient Mexica — or Aztec — capital has survived the European conquest, colonization and centuries of change to remain at the heart of Mexico’s identity.
Israel's president says authorities must take decisive action to stop “shocking and serious” Jewish settler violence against Palestinian civilians and Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank.
U.S. Catholic bishops have elected Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley as their new president, choosing a conservative culture warrior to lead during President Donald Trump’s second term.
The Vatican has launched an investigation into a possible antisemitic incident involving a Swiss Guard.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the next stages of the fragile Gaza ceasefire.