The Associated Press

In the cradle of Voodoo, the forests were places of hope. Yet as the woodlands shrank, due to economic development and other factors, it has dealt a blow to communities struggling to protect the spirits believed to live within them.

Pope Francis will discuss how to address the world's pressing issues with former President Bill Clinton to open this year's Clinton Global Initiative. Francis will discuss broad issues — including climate change, the refugee crisis, the welfare of children — during an onstage videoconference with Clinton.

Alex Wakitinti is worried about the sacred natural sites he tends in the large swath of bushy grassland near Lake Albert. It's the same slice of his homeland that oil companies are developing in order for Uganda to become an oil producer by 2026.

At a Sunday Mass at a church in Kapalua, Hawaii, the Most Rev. Clarence "Larry" Silva, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Honolulu, appealed to somber parishioners not to abandon their faith. "If we are angry with God we should tell him so. He can take it," he said in his sermon, adding later that "God loves us in tragedies and good times and bad times."

Pope Francis challenged young people on Thursday to make the world a more just and inclusive place, as he focused the second day of his Portugal trip on inspiring students to use their privilege to combat global warming and economic inequalities.

Under the tall prairie grass outside this southwestern Minnesota town lies a precious seam of dark red pipestone that, for thousands of years, Native Americans have quarried and carved into pipes essential to prayer and communication with the Creator. Only a dozen Dakota carvers remain.

Pope Francis gave in July 15 to China’s unilateral appointment of a new bishop in Shanghai, formally recognizing Beijing’s installation of Bishop Shen Bin three months after the fact.

Competing interests have ignited a tug of war between the town of about 3,000 people who want a huge copper mine built there for its economic benefits, and Native American groups that consider the land sacred and are fighting to protect it from disturbance.

Oak Flat, a piece of national forest land in central Arizona, is at the heart of a years long struggle between Native American groups and mining interests that both consider it important for their future. Here is how developments have played out over nearly a decade.

"I respect the (Catholic) religion because we grew up in this place, but the mountain speaks to us in the words of our grandparents, not in the words of the conquerors," said Moisés Vega, a 64-year-old "granicero" who says he can speak the sacred language of volcanoes to ask for good weather and a good crop.
 

Hawaii tourism officials urged tourists to be respectful when flocking to a national park on the Big Island to get a glimpse of the latest eruption of Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes.

About 500 Catholic mission churches anchor a uniquely New Mexican way of life for their communities. But it's becoming increasingly difficult to find the necessary resources to preserve the churches.

Charred, drained or swamped, built up, dug out or taken apart, blue or green or turned to dust: this is the Earth as seen from above.

Many in Louisville turned to their faith for impromptu services Monday night, hours after a gunman killed five of his co-workers at Old National Bank downtown and injured eight others.

Pope Francis urged world leaders April 12 to use reason and not arms to resolve differences, evoking memories of the 1960s Cold War between Washington and Moscow.

More than 150 Catholic priests and others associated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore sexually abused more than 600 children over the past 80 years, according to a state report released April 5 that accused church officials of decades of cover-ups.

Bundled in a long, white coat and battling a hoarse voice, Pope Francis presided over Mass in St. Peter's Square before tens of thousands of faithful on Palm Sunday, a day after he left a Rome hospital where he was treated for bronchitis.

Posters calling on Pope Francis to stop his crackdown on the old Latin Mass were plastered around the Vatican on March 28, in the latest display of conservative opposition to the pontiff.