BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel's heir apparent shook up German politics Monday by declaring she would step down as the governing party's leader and not run for chancellor, fueling uncertainty in the country seen as Europe's anchor of stability...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis will visit the Mediterranean island nation of Malta on May 31, the Vatican said Monday, confirming the Pope's first foreign trip for the year.Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna said he expected the visit would highlight...

DETROIT (AP) — The Michigan diocese of the Episcopal Church has its first female and openly lesbian bishop.The Rev. Bonnie A. Perry was consecrated and ordained Saturday during a ceremony in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn.She was elected last June at...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis will mark the fifth anniversary of his ecological manifesto by visiting a southern Italian region where decades of toxic-waste dumping by the mob have polluted the environment and sickened its people.The diocese of Acerra...

PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — The European Union's enlargement commissioner on Friday urged dialogue in EU-hopeful Montenegro over a contentious religious rights law that has fueled tensions in the Balkan country.Oliver Varhelyi also said that the small...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis will release his eagerly-awaited document on the Amazon next Wednesday, with attention focused on whether he will approve calls by the region's bishops to ordain married men to address a priest shortage there.Speculation...

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities have added over 200 Jehovah's Witnesses to a register of extremists and terrorists, the organization said in a statement Friday.The latest move in a crackdown on the religious group effectively cuts the believers off...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Legion of Christ religious order, discredited years ago by its pedophile founder, has elected an American priest as its new superior as it seeks to recover from new sex abuse and cover-up scandals that have renewed calls for...

NEW YORK (AP) — The National Prayer Breakfast - a Washington tradition since 1953 - is by custom a respite from partisan bickering. President Donald Trump shattered that tradition Thursday with aggressive remarks that buoyed his allies but dismayed...

NEW YORK (AP) — Even as President Donald Trump sharply challenged the faith of his political opponents this week, he was drawing new attention to a religious issue that he’s staked repeated claim to: the global freedom to worship.The day after Trump...

In the wake of revelations that scores of Roman Catholic priests and religious workers credibly accused of child sexual abuse are living unsupervised in communities across the country, state officials face a quandary: Should they screen former clergy...

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil's far-right government drew protests from indigenous groups Wednesday, first by naming a former evangelical missionary to head a department responsible for protecting uncontacted and recently contacted tribes and then proposing...