Appeals court says Catholic group can install Stations of the Cross ‘prayer trail’ September 13, 2023By Kurt Jensen OSV News Filed Under: Feature, News, Religious Freedom, World News Plans for the “Casa USA” campus — with backing from other Catholic health care organizations, individuals and the patronage of Lansing Bishop Earl A. Boyea — call for duplicating Padre Pio’s hospital complex for the first time outside of Italy, including an exact replica of the original friary church of the Capuchin Franciscan who is also known as St. Pius of Pietrelcina.
Seminarian is burned to death in Nigeria in endless cycle of violence against Christians September 13, 2023By Ngala Killian Chimton OSV News Filed Under: Feature, News, Religious Freedom, World News In an endless cycle of violence against Christians in Nigeria, seminarian Na’Aman Danlami Stephen of the Diocese of Kafanchan was burned to death on Sept. 7 when a terrorist group called Fulani herdsmen attacked the rectory at St. Raphael Church in Fadan Kamantan.
Howard County lawsuit focuses on exclusion of Catholic school students September 11, 2023By Emily Rosenthal Alster Special to the Catholic Review Filed Under: Feature, Local News, News, Religious Freedom, Schools A federal lawsuit that supporters say aims to bring justice to Catholic school students in Howard County is headed to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals this fall.
Lawmaker, bishop urge action as 120,000 Armenians face ‘ethnic cleansing’ September 7, 2023By Gina Christian OSV News Filed Under: Feature, News, Religious Freedom, World News A U.S. lawmaker and a Catholic bishop are calling for action to end a months-long blockade that has left some 120,000 ethnic Armenians at risk of what he and other experts are calling “genocide by starvation.”
Parents ask appeals court to allow an opt-out from school books with LGBTQ+ themes August 31, 2023By Kate Scanlon OSV News Filed Under: Feature, News, Religious Freedom, Schools, World News An interfaith group of Maryland parents has asked a federal appeals court to allow them to opt their children out of classroom instruction pertaining to books containing LGBTQ+ themes to which they object on religious grounds.
Society of Jesus banned in Nicaragua August 24, 2023By David Agren OSV News Filed Under: Feature, News, Religious Freedom, World News The Nicaraguan regime has extinguished the Jesuits’ legal status and ordered the expropriation of its assets, effectively making it illegal for the Society of Jesus to operate in the Central American country.
Three years after disputed election, Belarus church is urged to speak up for the persecuted August 23, 2023By Jonathan Luxmoore OSV News Filed Under: Feature, News, Religious Freedom, World News A Christian campaigner has urged Catholic church leaders and the Vatican to condemn worsening human rights abuses in Belarus, after another Catholic priest was arrested in front of his parishioners for spreading “extremist material.”
‘We are willing to die for the name of Jesus,’ persecuted Christians say as world marks day of awareness for religion-based violence August 22, 2023By OSV News OSV News Filed Under: Feature, News, Religious Freedom, World News On the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence based on Religion or Belief, observed on the United Nations’ calendar Aug. 22, Pakistan and India are among places of particular concern for Christian rights advocates.
Maryland, New Jersey cases on public schools’ trans student policy, parental rights get day in court August 20, 2023By Kate Scanlon OSV News Filed Under: Feature, News, Religious Freedom, World News A federal appeals court threw out a Maryland lawsuit Aug. 14 from parents challenging guidelines barring teachers from notifying parents if a student identifies as transgender. In New Jersey, a case is under consideration by a judge after the state government objected to three Monmouth County school districts implementing new policies requiring school staff to notify parents in such cases.
Maryland court rules religious exemption bars discrimination claim against CRS August 17, 2023By Julie Asher OSV News Filed Under: Feature, Local News, News, Religious Freedom The Maryland Supreme Court ruled Aug. 14 that the religious exemption in the state’s Fair Employment Practices Act “bars claims (of) religious, sexual orientation, and gender identity discrimination against religious organizations by employees who perform duties that directly further the core mission(s) of the religious entity.”
Lawsuit seeks to block public funding for nation’s first religious charter school August 2, 2023By Kate Scanlon OSV News Filed Under: Feature, News, Religious Freedom, Schools, World News A lawsuit filed July 31 in Oklahoma is seeking to block state funding for what could become the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school if it survives the legal challenge.
U.S. official calls state of religious freedom in Nigeria ‘abysmal,’ says country in ‘slow -motion genocide’ July 30, 2023By Ngala Killian Chimton OSV News Filed Under: Feature, News, Religious Freedom, World News The chairman of U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, has described religious freedom conditions in Nigeria as “abysmal.”
