Religion News Headlines

The Vatican has registered one of its worst budget deficits in years, plunging back into the red with a €15 million ($19 million) deficit in 2011 after a brief respite of profit.

Yes, these days even the Vatican is in the red--even with a €50 million gift from the Vatican bank this year. "The Vatican has registered one of its worst deficits in years, plunging back into the red with a €15 million ($19 million) deficit in 2011," reports The Associated Press, which adds that the Vatican blamed the …

The Vatican has registered one of its worst deficits in years, plunging back into the red with a €15 million ($19 million) deficit in 2011 after a brief respite of profit.

The Vatican got a report card Wednesday on its efforts to be more financially transparent — but it's a secret for now.

PARIS (Reuters) - The grim sacking of Sufi shrines in Timbuktu is the latest chapter in an assault on prized religious heritage across the Muslim world that has picked up over the past decade with the spread of radical Islamism. The world got a first taste of this iconoclasm in 2001, when Afghanistan's ruling Taliban blew …

Pope Benedict XVI defended his Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone against "unjust criticism" on Wednesday, after leaked confidential documents revealed growing opposition to the powerful prelate.

Pope Benedict XVI has defended the Vatican's No. 2 official, saying the Italian media have leveled "unjust criticism" at Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict on Wednesday expressed full support for his deputy, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the chief target of of leaked documents which the pontiff's butler has been charged with stealing. Benedict's butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested at the end of May and charged with stealing the pope's private …

Pope Benedict XVI has defended the Vatican's No. 2 official, saying the Italian media have leveled "unjust criticism" at Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

LONDON (Reuters) - A vote to allow women bishops in the Church of England looks set to be derailed by its own supporters, who say a last-minute concession to conservative opponents is a step too far. Pro-women bishop campaigners want a final vote at the church's General Synod, or parliament, on Monday to be delayed so the …

Pope Benedict XVI will bring a message of peace for the Middle East on a three-day trip to Lebanon in September, the Vatican said Tuesday, amid rising tensions due to the conflict in neighbouring Syria.

The start of haute couture week in Paris is a must on any self-respecting fashionista's calendar.But day one of the French capital's fall-winter 2012 shows was different: It's what's called a fashion event.Monday ...

Pope Benedict XVI fired a 52-year-old Slovak bishop for apparently mismanaging his diocese in a rare show of papal power over bishops that could have implications for U.S. sex abuse cases.

The pope named Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Mueller to head the Vatican's all-important orthodoxy office Monday, tapping a German theologian like himself to head the congregation he presided over for nearly a quarter-century enforcing Catholic doctrine.

International donors on Monday said Somalia's new constitution must enshrine principles of religious freedom and stressed that the country's political transition should be completed by August 20.

The noble lines of a Japanese architect's church were the inspiration behind the pure, restrained look sent out by Christophe Josse on day one of the Paris haute couture shows on Monday.

ROME (Reuters) - Pope Benedict on Monday appointed German bishop Gerhard Ludwig Mueller to head the Vatican office in charge of Church doctrine, one of the central bodies responsible for enforcing Church discipline at a time of exceptional upheaval. Mueller's appointment to a powerful job the pontiff himself held for more …

Almost from the beginning of Kenya's military operation in Somalia, Islamist militants have threatened to bring the war home to Kenyans.

Eric Church is playing movie host on CMT.

Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust museum has altered the wording on a display dealing with the controversial role of the Vatican and Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust, the museum said.

Masked gunmen killed 17 people and wounded dozens in gun and grenade attacks on two churches Sunday in the Kenyan town of Garissa near the border with Somalia, officials said.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Masked assailants launched simultaneous gun and grenade raids on two churches in a Kenyan town on Sunday, killing at least 17 people in the worst attack in the country since Kenya sent troops into Somalia to crush al Shabaab militants. More than 60 people were wounded in the attacks in Garissa, the north …

Gunmen killed two policemen guarding a church, snatched their rifles and then opened fire on the congregation from inside and out on Sunday, killing 15 people and wounding 40, security officials said.