Religious Freedom

Faith groups sue over Trump administration policy to permit ICE arrests at churches

February 12, 2025
By Kate Scanlon
OSV News Filed Under: Feature, Immigration and Migration, News, Religious Freedom, World News

More than two dozen Christian and Jewish groups filed a lawsuit Feb. 11 in federal court to challenge a Trump administration policy that rescinded long-standing restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from making arrests at what are seen as sensitive locations, including houses of worship, schools and hospitals.

Trump at National Prayer Breakfast announces new order to investigate ‘anti-Christian’ bias

February 6, 2025
By Kate Scanlon
OSV News Filed Under: News, Religious Freedom, World News

President Donald Trump said in remarks to the National Prayer Breakfast Feb. 6 that he would create a task force, led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, to investigate “anti-Christian” bias in the federal government.

Vance defends cuts to foreign aid ‘spreading atheism’ at religious freedom summit

February 6, 2025
By Kate Scanlon
OSV News Filed Under: Feature, News, Religious Freedom, World News

Vice President JD Vance defended cuts to U.S. foreign aid in remarks to the International Religious Freedom Summit Feb. 5, arguing the funds were “spreading atheism” abroad.

Congolese bishops say Goma situation remains grave; full scale of human toll still emerging

February 5, 2025
By Frederick Nzwili
OSV News Filed Under: News, Religious Freedom, World News

As an uneasy calm returned to the Congolese city of Goma, following a unilateral ceasefire declared by the rebels, people began burying the dead, and agencies rushed aid to thousands of displaced civilians, now camping in churches and schools.

Freedom of worship for migrants

February 4, 2025
By Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades
OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Immigration and Migration, Religious Freedom

While a raid on church property may not be a legal threat to religious liberty in every circumstance, it is certainly a moral one.

As mass deportations ramp up, Catholic clergy and religious rally for immigrants

January 29, 2025
By Gina Christian
OSV News Filed Under: Feature, Immigration and Migration, News, Religious Freedom, World News

Clergy and religious continue to speak out against the Trump administration’s orders to carry out mass deportation operations and allow for immigration arrests in houses of worship, schools and other locations formerly designated as “sensitive.”

Congolese bishop deplores escalation of violence as city of Goma claimed by rebels

January 29, 2025
By Frederick Nzwili
OSV News Filed Under: News, Religious Freedom, World News

Amid tragic escalation of violence in Congo, Bishop Willy Ngumbi Ngengele of Goma has assured the people of the church’s closeness and compassion, as rebels entered the eastern city of Goma, forcing thousands to flee and triggering wave of looting and deaths.

‘God suffered a great deal in every single person’ who was in Auschwitz, cardinal says

January 28, 2025
By Paulina Guzik
OSV News Filed Under: Ecumenism and Interfaith Relations, News, Religious Freedom, World News

“God did not create Auschwitz, God created man,” said Cardinal Grzegorz Rys of Lodz after the Jan. 27 commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the German Nazis’ biggest death camp: Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oswiecim, Poland.

Canon, civil law collide on seal of confession, says expert

January 28, 2025
By Gina Christian
OSV News Filed Under: Feature, News, Religious Freedom, World News, Worship & Sacraments

Proposed legislation looking to repeal clergy-penitent protections in at least two states is in a head-on collision with the church’s primary legal code, one expert told OSV News.

Catholic doctors sue over ER abortion mandate Biden administration put in place

January 28, 2025
By Zoey Maraist
OSV News Filed Under: News, Religious Freedom, Respect Life, World News

On behalf of the CMA, of which Kaiser is a member, Alliance Defending Freedom filed a federal lawsuit in early January arguing that the mandate violates members’ conscience rights and oversteps executive authority.

Amid horrors of Holocaust, Polish Franciscan mother superior saved hundreds of Jewish children

January 27, 2025
By OSV News
OSV News Filed Under: News, Religious Freedom, World News

On Jan. 27, as the world commemorated the 80th anniversary of the liberation of German death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau — where 216,000 Jewish children, among 231,000 children from various nations, perished, Mother Matylda was being remembered as a beacon of hope in the midst of Nazi horrors and as one that saved hundreds of Jewish children.

Bishops across Europe remember Holocaust victims, urge world to fight rising antisemitism

January 27, 2025
By Jonathan Luxmoore
OSV News Filed Under: Ecumenism and Interfaith Relations, News, Religious Freedom, World News

Church leaders across Europe marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp with calls to remember German Nazi-inflicted sufferings and to counter a new rise in antisemitism and extremism.