Religion News

MADRID (AFP) - The proportion of Spaniards who say they are Roman Catholic has fallen to 73 percent from around 80 percent eight years ago, according to a survey released Thursday by the CIS research centre. Full Story »

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - They gather blocks from Harvard Square to greet the Sabbath with communal prayer, their eyes winced closed, hands clapping as they sing in fervent Hebrew. The group worships in the Jewish Orthodox tradition, but it's not traditional. Full Story »

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia marked its adoption of Christianity in 988 on Wednesday with a new public holiday, the latest show of Kremlin support for an Orthodox Church that has grown increasingly powerful since the fall of Communism. Full Story »

LONDON - Pilgrims will have to pay as much as 25 pounds ($39) to attend one of the two public events in England to be led by Pope Benedict XVI during his visit in September, church officials said Wednesday. Full Story »

KIEV, Ukraine - A bomb blast Wednesday at a southern Orthodox church in Ukraine has killed one person and wounded eight, officials said Full Story »

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The highest court in the United Methodist Church will review its 2005 ruling that allowed a clergyman to bar a noncelibate gay man from joining a congregation. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The heirs of a Jewish banker whose vast art collection was allegedly confiscated during World War II have sued the Hungarian government demanding its return, a report said Wednesday. Full Story »

JAKARTA (Reuters Life!) - Indonesia's highest Islamic authority has forbidden Muslims from viewing gossipy content in the country's media after a celebrity sex clip scandal dominated television news in the past month. Full Story »

NEW YORK - New York's attorney general is on the trail of a fake nun who dons a habit and cross to solicit donations for a phony church with a violent past. Full Story »

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - Dusk has fallen and the party is just beginning for 29-year-old Asyikin, one of the many young Malay Muslims who hang out in Kuala Lumpur's vibrant Bukit Bintang nightlife district. Full Story »

SAN FRANCISCO - Seven pastors who work in the San Francisco Bay area and were barred from serving in the nation's largest Lutheran group because of a policy that required gay clergy to be celibate are being welcomed into the denomination. Full Story »

RIYADH (AFP) - A leading Saudi cleric hit out at France for moving to ban Muslim face-veils, but approved Muslim women foregoing veils when visiting a country which outlaws them, a Saudi paper reported on Saturday. Full Story »

ROME (AFP) - An Italian magazine cover story on gay priests with pictures of them cavorting in Rome nightclubs prompted a "troubled" Roman Catholic diocese to say Friday they do not belong in the Church. Full Story »

ROME - The Catholic Church in Italy, still reeling from the clerical sex abuse scandal, lashed out Friday at gay priests who are leading a double life, urging them to come out of the closet and leave the priesthood. Full Story »

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - A Roman Catholic parish in New York City on Thursday voted against selling one of its properties to a Muslim organization that planned to erect a mosque there, yielding to local residents' opposition. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - British Prime Minister David Cameron says he has seen nothing to suggest that BP swayed the Scottish government into releasing the Lockerbie bomber from jail last year and sending him home to Libya. Full Story »

SAUT D'EAU, Haiti (AFP) - Thousands of Haitians have flocked to a hilltop voodoo festival, offering a special prayer to the spirits to find them new homes and ease their plight six months after a massive quake. Full Story »

WARSAW (AFP) - Thousands of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and supporters of equal rights for sexual minorities marched in Poland's capital Saturday in the first annual EuroPride march in Eastern Europe. Full Story »