Religion News

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV vowed to take “every effort” Wednesday to work for peace in the Middle East and Ukraine and to actively promote the spirituality and traditions of the eastern rite churches, those Catholic communities with origins in

MOUNT ATHOS, Greece (AP) — Mount Athos, a verdant peninsula in northern Greece, has been a center of Christian Orthodox monasticism for more than 1,000 years.

This is a photo collection curated by AP photo editors. The Associated Press

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says there is “no way” Israel will halt its war in Gaza — where airstrikes on two hospitals Tuesday killed at least eight and wounded dozens — even if a deal is reached to release more

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass and had lunch with members of his Augustinian religious order on Tuesday, slipping into the congregation’s headquarters outside St. Peter’s Square where he served for 12 years as superior.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas on Monday released an Israeli-American soldier who had been held hostage in Gaza for more than 19 months, offering a goodwill gesture toward the Trump administration that could lay the groundwork for a new cease

VATICAN CITY (AP) — They went into last week's conclave vastly outnumbered and smarting after being sidelined by Pope Francis for 12 years.

The motto of one newly elected American world leader: " Fight! " The other introduced himself to the world with his first public word as pope: “ Peace .

JERUSALEM (AP) — Edan Alexander was 19 when Hamas militants stormed the Israeli military base where the American-Israeli from New Jersey was a soldier and dragged him into the Gaza Strip.

The Hamas militant group released the last living American-Israeli hostage held in Gaza on Monday as an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in the Gaza Strip killed about 16 people in the embattled enclave, mostly women and children.