The Associated Press

That's the stark dilemma Belgium's prime minister has set to urge smaller festive family gatherings, as Europeans battle with containing the surging COVID-19 pandemic over the holiday season.

Conservative Christians are rallying behind the state's two Republican senators, while Black churches and liberal-leaning Jewish groups are backing their Democratic challengers.

A federal appeals panel has upheld Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear's order to stop in-person classes at religious schools during the coronavirus pandemic.

Long a staple of Catholic life, the rosary is back in the spotlight with the election of Joe Biden, who will become the nation’s second Catholic president when he is inaugurated in January. The president-elect often carries a set of rosary beads with him that once belonged to his son Beau, who died in 2015.

The court’s action was a victory for the Diocese of Brooklyn and Orthodox Jewish synagogues that had sued to challenge state restrictions announced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Oct. 6.

As cases of COVID-19 spike in the U.S. just weeks before major religious holidays, questions abound as to whether attending religious services in person can, in fact, be safe.

Paolo Gabriele, the Vatican butler who was convicted of stealing and leaking Pope Benedict XVI's private papers in 2012, has died. He was 54.

Pope Francis met with NBA players at the Vatican on Monday, lauding them as “champions" and saying he supported their work on social justice.

Mexico's Roman Catholic Church announced the cancellation Nov. 23 of what's considered the world's largest Catholic pilgrimage, for the Virgin of Guadalupe, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

New York Attorney General Letitia James on Nov. 23 sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo and two former church leaders, alleging they covered up allegations of sexual misconduct and misused charitable assets by supporting predatory priests who were allowed to retire or go on leave.

With no papal travels abroad this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis is cheering efforts for a youth jamboree, traditionally attended by pontiffs, in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2023.

Four accusers of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick have sued the Vatican, arguing it should be held liable for allowing the now-disgraced cleric to serve in multiple positions when it knew of numerous allegations of sexual abuse against him. 

The Vatican cardinal sacked by Pope Francis amid a corruption investigation is suing an Italian news magazine, claiming that his ruined reputation has eliminated his chances of becoming pope and will undermine the legitimacy of any future papal election.

California-based Bishop Oscar Cantú confirmed Wednesday that he is under investigation by the Vatican for his handling of abuse and misconduct cases in his former diocese in the Las Cruces area of southern New Mexico.

While gearing up for the inauguration of Joe Biden, whose vice president will be a Black woman and who has already promised to expand the number of refugees next year by a factor of 10, religious activists on the left are wrestling with how to keep their momentum.

West Virginia's attorney general cannot use a consumer protection law to sue a Roman Catholic diocese over sexual abuse allegations, the state's high court said Monday.

An Australian agency said Nov. 11 it was not investigating the transfer of Vatican funds to Australia because of a lack of evidence of wrongdoing, undermining speculation that the money might be linked to the overturned convictions of Cardinal George Pell for child sex abuse.

A prominent Polish cardinal who was recently sanctioned by the Vatican over sexual abuse allegations has been hospitalized since last week and remains unconscious, Polish media reported Tuesday. 

High-profile Australian journalists and large media organizations went on trial on Monday on charges that they breached a gag order on reporting about Cardinal George Pell's sex abuse convictions in 2018 that have since been overturned.

A number of accusers have come forward in the past two years, and the 90-year-old McCarrick and the various archdioceses where he was stationed are facing lawsuits.