This holiday season, some religious congregations across the U.S. are holding events designed to be accomodating to and inclusive of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The city of Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, will not have the usual trappings of the city's favorite holiday: no public Christmas tree, no raucous scouts march, no decorations and no twinkling lights, in deference to the ongoing war in Gaza.

Pope Francis is formally inaugurating the 2025 Holy Year, reviving an ancient church tradition encouraging the faithful to make pilgrimages to Rome.

About 7 in 10 U.S. adults say they believe in angels, but what, exactly, is an angel.

Hanukkah, Judaism’s eight-day Festival of Lights, begins this year on Christmas Day.

Hanukkah — also spelled Chanukah or other transliterations from Hebrew — is Judaism’s “festival of lights.”.

Pope Francis is suffering from a cold and will deliver his Sunday blessing from indoors.

Thirty years after Florida required schools to teach African American history, how the subject is taught remains inconsistent across Florida classrooms, a review by The Associated Press has found.

For Christians around the world, Christmas is the joyful celebration of the birth of Jesus.

President-elect Donald Trump says he’s nominating the president of the advocacy group CatholicVote to be the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.

Federal education officials say the Philadelphia school district failed to show it protected Jewish students from harassment despite “repeated, extensive notice” that students, teachers and administrators were engaging in antisemitic behavior.

The U.S. Department of Education said Friday it has reached an agreement with the University of California system resolving complaints from Jewish and Muslim students of discrimination and harassment during protests last spring over the war in Gaza.

The Madison, Wisconsin, police chief has been named as the chief of police in Seattle.

Born in Ghana, Sister Seyram Mary Adzokpa had never encountered a nun until adulthood.

Fewer than 1% of nuns in the U.S. today are under 30.

Less than 1% of nuns in the United States today are 30 or younger.

When Pope Francis formally opens the Holy Year next week, he will launch a dizzying 12-month calendar of events that include special Jubilee Masses for the faithful from all walks of life.

An official at the Wisconsin school where a student shot and killed a teacher and a fellow student says the 15-year-old was in her first semester there.

When Israel seized the strategic Golan Heights from Syria in 1967, many families were separated by a buffer zone created between the Israeli-controlled region and the rest of Syria.

Police say the shooter who killed a student and teacher at a religious school in Wisconsin this week brought two guns to the school.

The oldest known stone tablet inscribed with the Ten Commandments has been sold at an auction for more than $5 million.

A New Orleans judge has sentenced a 93-year-old former Catholic priest to spend the rest of his life behind bars for raping a teenage boy in the 1970s.

As the war in Gaza rages, Syria's government transforms, and the Israeli-occupied West Bank seethes, Armenian residents of the Old City of Jerusalem fight a different battle.

Community members in Wisconsin are continuing to wrestle with grief and calling for change in the aftermath of a school shooting that killed a teacher and a student and wounded six others.

United Methodist News Service reports that a religious schism has turned deadly in Nigeria, with a church member fatally shot and two young children killed as homes were set ablaze.

A former leader of the Church of England has resigned as a priest following allegations that he failed to properly handle the case of a priest accused of sexual misconduct.

Moravian missionaries named the Pennsylvania city of Bethlehem after the biblical birthplace of Jesus on Christmas Eve in 1741.

Investigators in Wisconsin are trying to determine a motive in a school shooting that left a teacher and a student dead and two other children in critical condition.

For decades, a little-known Christian sect has dealt with its abusive ministers and spiritual elders mostly in secret, shunning legal action and urging victims to simply forgive the predators in their midst.

A small Christian sect that for decades was little noticed by the outside world has found itself riven by a very public child sex abuse scandal.

Pope Francis on the first papal visit ever to the French island of Corsica on Sunday called for a dynamic form of laicism, promoting the kind of popular piety that distinguishes the Mediterranean island from secular France as a bridge between religious and civic society.

The reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral was a solemn celebration of cultural and spiritual renewal.

Have you ever watched a holiday rom-com on Hallmark Channel or Lifetime — or any of the other many networks and streaming services that now air them — and thought, “I could write that”.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church, one of largest Black Protestant denominations in the world, has been wrestling with whether to change a policy that threatens to punish any of its clergy who recognize same-sex marriages.

More than 600,000 people annually visit Santa Claus Village, a winter-themed amusement park in the small town of Rovaniemi in Finland.

One of the Vatican's Nativity scenes raised eyebrows when it was unveiled because it featured a keffiyeh, the Palestinian headscarf.

President Joe Biden designated a national monument at a former Native American boarding school site in Pennsylvania to commemorate the resilience of tribes whose children were forced to attend the school and similar abusive institutions.

The oldest known stone tablet inscribed with the Ten Commandments, dating from 300 to 800 A.D., will be sold in New York this month.

A polygamist leader in Arizona has been sentenced to 50 years in prison.

Australian law enforcement authorities have declared an arson attack on a synagogue last week a terrorist act in a decision that increases resources available to the investigation.

One of the largest statues of the Buddha in the United States springs up unexpectedly in the middle of a backyard just off a busy New Jersey state highway.

Notre Dame Cathedral has hosted its first Mass since the catastrophic fire of 2019.

Notre Dame is reopening its doors for the first time since a fire five years ago nearly destroyed the beloved 12th-century cathedral.

Pope Francis has installed 21 new cardinals, many of whom are key figures in his reform agenda.

The reopening this weekend of Notre Dame is a succession of ceremonies to breathe life back into the iconic cathedral and celebrate the recovery from its devastating fire in 2019.

Arsonists have extensively damaged a Melbourne synagogue in what Australia’s prime minister has condemned as an antisemitic attack on Australian values.

Shortly before he was to be flogged and imprisoned for eight years, Mohammad Rasoulof fled Iran.

The day after an inferno struck Notre Dame cathedral in 2019, its chief architect, Philippe Villeneuve, walked despondently into its remains.

The U.S. military has strived over recent decades to present itself as religiously diverse, welcoming personnel of all faiths – or no faith – as it seeks cohesion and mutual respect in the ranks.

Colombia hosts the largest population of migrants and refugees from Venezuela, where more than 7.7 million have left since 2014 for economic, political and safety reasons.

The captains of two Premier League teams are in the spotlight for their choices as the competition celebrates LGBTQ+ inclusion in its campaign to promote equality and diversity.

Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral has some surprising stories to tell before it reopens this weekend after five years of restoration.

The Black pastor of a multiethnic congregation in Anaheim, California, has started a string orchestra for young musicians of color.

Border Patrol agents are tasked with enforcing hotly contested immigration policies as many Americans at both ends of the political spectrum look askance at the border — and the agents.

The Border Patrol has been quickly growing its ranks of chaplains to help with mounting distress.

For one conservative Catholic family in Ohio, activism begins at home.

Roman Catholic faithful will be able to view St. Peter’s tomb via a webcam as part of the Vatican’s upcoming Holy Year.

The United Arab Emirates says police have arrested three Uzbek nationals for the killing of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi.

The Lebanese civilians most devastated by the Israel-Hezbollah war are Shiite Muslims, and many of them believe they are being unfairly punished because they share a religious identity with Hezbollah militants and often live in the same areas.

An Israeli-Moldovan rabbi living in the United Arab Emirates has gone missing, with Israeli authorities raising the suspicion he may have been kidnapped as tensions remain high with Iran.

Many Shipibo-Konibo craftswomen migrated from their Indigenous communities in the Amazon to Peru's capital, Lima, in the past few decades.

Donald Trump’s lock on the white evangelical vote is legendary, but he didn't focus exclusively on large religious voter blocs.

Texas’ education board has voted to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools.

Pope Francis is warning that the Vatican's troubled pension fund faces a “serious imbalance” and cannot guarantee future obligations without “urgent structural” reforms.

When Jean-Charles de Castelbajac saw Notre Dame cathedral burn in April 2019, he felt compelled to act.

The office of the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, says he will wrap up his official duties in early January amid an abuse scandal in the Church of England.

Pope Francis has revised the funeral rites that will be used when he dies.

Pope Francis will make late teen Carlo Acutis the Catholic Church’s first millennial and digital saint next year.

The Texas State Board of Education has given initial approval to a Bible-infused curriculum that would be optional for public schools to adopt for lessons from kindergarten through fifth grade.

It’s not the holiday season until the house is full of festive music, from classics to covers and reimaginations across genres, for all to enjoy.

The leader of a New York City church where pop star Sabrina Carpenter filmed scenes for a music video has been stripped of his duties.

Survivors of clergy sexual abuse are urging the Vatican to adopt the same zero-tolerance policy that it approved for the U.S. Catholic Church in 2002.

A U.S.-born Buddhist lama celebrated his 18th birthday with an elaborate enthronement ceremony.

Pope Francis has called for an investigation to determine if Israel’s attacks in Gaza constitute genocide.

Religion is well-suited for terrifying and entertaining thrill-seeking moviegoers.

Oklahoma's education superintendent has sent an email to public school superintendents requiring them to show students his video announcement of a new Department of Religious Freedom and Patriotism.

A medieval statue of the Virgin Mary and Child, known as the “Virgin of Paris,” has returned to Notre Dame cathedral, five years after surviving the devastating fire of 2019.

Pope Francis is asking the diocese of Rome to help alleviate a growing housing crisis in the Eternal City.

A delegation of former hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and their relatives have met with Pope Francis.

A year after the release of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Martin Scorsese is still looking for his next feature.

Several U.S. Catholic bishops on Wednesday encouraged the church to boldly share Vatican teachings on a range of hot-button issues, including the condemnation of abortion, euthanasia, surrogacy and gender-affirming surgery.

Nearly $1 billion in donations were pledged within days of the fire that ravaged Paris' Notre Dame cathedral five years ago.

The only Church of England bishop to publicly demand the resignation of former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby says his departure wasn't enough to solve the church’s “profound failure" in safeguarding vulnerable people or ease the trauma suffered by victims of abuse.

Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill says the state will ask a federal appeals court to quickly stay a lower court's order declaring unconstitutional a law requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public classroom by Jan. 1.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, resigned Tuesday after an investigation found he failed to tell police about serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps as soon as he became aware of it.

As U.S. Catholic bishops gather for their annual fall meeting this week in Baltimore, the specter of President-elect Donald Trump’s resounding victory hangs over the proceedings.

Authorities in Pakistan say a key suspect in connection with a deadly attack at a mosque in a police compound nearly two years ago has been arrested and has been identified as a police officer.

Survivors have attended a formal apology from New Zealand's leaders at Parliament for the abuse of thousands of children and vulnerable adults in state, foster and faith-based care.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has made a “formal and unreserved” apology in Parliament for the abuse, torture and neglect of an estimated 200,000 children and vulnerable adults in care.

A digital twin of St. Peter’s Basilica has been created using artificial intelligence to explore one of the world’s most important monument’s.

Paris police say that 4,000 officers and 1,600 stadium staff will be deployed for a France-Israel soccer match to ensure security in and around the stadium and on public transportation.

Police have detained dozens of people for taking part in a demonstration in central Amsterdam that had been outlawed following violent clashes targeting fans of an Israeli soccer club.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof has canceled his planned trip to United Nations climate talks in Azerbaijan so he can stay in the Netherlands to deal with the fallout from assaults on fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team in Amsterdam that authorities condemned as antisemitic.

The decadeslong ban of Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses” in his native India is now in doubt.

In a story published Nov. 8, 2024, about how different religious groups voted in the presidential election, The Associated Press erroneously used 2020 numbers when reporting the results of the AP VoteCast survey related to Jewish voters.

It’s Friday night in Downtown Santiago, the capital of Chile, and a group of 15 people gather around a table.

The New Orleans Saints may be one of the worst teams in the NFL this season.

Former President Donald Trump once again won the support of about 8 in 10 white evangelical Christian voters in his election to a second term.

Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral, whose historic bells were silenced following 2019’s devastating fire, will soon echo again with fresh chimes.

A Texas appeals court has ordered a new trial for a Jewish man on death row because of antisemitic bias by the judge in his case.