Religion

VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV met Monday with one of the most prominent advocates for greater LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Catholic Church and encouraged his ministry, sending a strong signal of welcome in the early months of his pontificate. The Rev. James Martin, a New York-based Jesuit author and...

Thoughts and prayers. The invocation appears like a litany after every mass shooting — and the backlash is just as inevitable. As if the slaughter of children amid screams and shattered stained glass wasn’t cause enough for grief, American opinion makers were convulsed once again this week in a debate...

TORONTO — At 77 years old, Geoffrey Hinton has a new calling in life. Like a modern-day prophet, the Nobel Prize winner is raising alarms about the dangers of uncontrolled and unregulated artificial intelligence. Frequently dubbed the “Godfather of AI,” Hinton is known for his pioneering work on deep learning...

A Pittsburgh-area native leads the Minneapolis-St. Paul archdiocese, where gunfire during a back-to-school Mass Wednesday killed two students and injured more than a dozen others. Archbishop Bernard Hebda grew up in Brookline. His counterpart in Pittsburgh, Bishop Mark Eckman, offered prayers for Hebda and everyone else reeling from the latest...

WASHINGTON — Empathy is usually regarded as a virtue, a key to human decency and kindness. And yet, with increasing momentum, voices on the Christian right are preaching that it has become a vice. For them, empathy is a cudgel for the left: It can manipulate caring people into accepting...

When Sister Linda Yankoski was asked what she needed to care for the children who came to stay at Holy Family Institute after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, her answer was “rocking chairs.” “We had babies we needed to rock to sleep,” said Yankoski, one of the Sisters of the Holy...

ROME — Pope Leo XIV urged hundreds of thousands of young people on Saturday to have the courage to make radical choices to do good, as he presided over his first big encounter with the next generation of Catholics during the highlight of the Vatican’s 2025 Holy Year. Leo encountered...

A face-lift of the Heinz Memorial Chapel’s iconic spire in Oakland is complete. The two-year project, originally estimated to cost $11.5 million, involved meticulously removing, repairing and replacing hundreds of copper panels, all while negotiating stories of scaffolding that surrounded the structure. “To see it finished and without the scaffolding...

The bishops of the Roman Catholic Church can be thought of as regional managers. They oversee geographical areas and serve as administrators overseeing dozens of priests. They also serve as the spiritual leaders of the church in places like the Diocese of Pittsburgh, which covers six counties in Southwest Pennsylvania....

As Bishop David A. Zubik celebrates the end of his ecclesiastical career as leader of the Pittsburgh Catholic diocese, his colleagues are honoring him with a scholarship named in his honor. Zubik celebrated his 75th birthday on Sept. 4, 2024. It’s the mandatory retirement age for bishops. On Monday, the...

Father Daniel J. Roberts was joined by family, friends, fellow priests, bishops and seminarians as he celebrated his first Mass on June 29 at St. Bonaventure Church in Shaler. “Ten years ago, I never would have dreamed that I’d be standing here in front of you as a priest, especially...

Rev. Melissa L. Stoller was elected the next bishop of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America — the first woman to hold the position. The Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod spans the bottom left corner of the state, with West Virginia and Ohio as the south and...

St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Croatian Church in Millvale celebrated its 125th anniversary on June 1. The day began with a Mass celebrated by Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik, along with other clergy. During his homily, Zubik recognized the ancestors who brought the strength and richness of the Croatian...

Former Diocese of Greensburg Bishop Lawrence E. Brandt, who died Sunday morning at age 86, will be celebrated during several services next week. Brandt, named bishop by Pope John Paul II in 2004, led the diocese for 11 years. The diocese has not officially released the cause of death, but...

Bishop Mark A. Eckman has been appointed the 13th bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, succeeding Bishop David A. Zubik. The Holy See announced Wednesday that Pope Leo XIV appointed Eckman, who has served as an auxiliary bishop with the diocese since 2022. The pope accepted the resignation of Zubik,...

ROME — U.S. Vice President JD Vance extended an invitation to Pope Leo XIV to visit the United States during a meeting at the Vatican on Monday ahead of a flurry of U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to make progress on a ceasefire in Russia’s war in Ukraine. Vance gave the first...

White House Faith Office. A Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias. A Religious Liberty Commission. President Donald Trump has won plaudits from his base of conservative Christian supporters for establishing multiple faith-related entities. “We’re bringing back religion in our country,” Trump said at a recent Rose Garden event, on the...

VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV affirmed Friday that the family is founded on the “stable union between a man and a woman,” and that the unborn and elderly enjoy dignity as God’s creatures, articulating clear Catholic teaching on marriage and abortion at the start of his pontificate. Leo, the...

Mary Theresa Petrich recalled walking from Hatfield Street in Lawrenceville over the 40th Street Bridge and up the hill to St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Croatian Church in Millvale to attend Sunday Mass. “My mother and father had me baptized in that church,” said Petrich, 97, who still lives in Lawrenceville....

VATICAN CITY — Before becoming Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Prevost presided over one of the most revolutionary reforms of Pope Francis’ pontificate by having women serve on the Vatican board that vets nominations for bishops. But he also has said decisively that women cannot be ordained as priests, and...

The Episcopal Church’s migration service is refusing a directive from the federal government to help resettle white South Africans granted refugee status, citing the church’s longstanding “commitment to racial justice and reconciliation.” Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe announced the step Monday, shortly before 49 South Africans arrived at Dulles International Airport...

VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV called for a genuine and just peace in Ukraine and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, in his first Sunday noon blessing as pontiff that featured some symbolic gestures suggesting a message of unity in a polarized Catholic Church. “I, too, address the world’s great...

Nancy Sweetland believes Bethesda Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lower Burrell has made it to 175 years because of the “spirit of the church.” “It’s been through so many different stages,” said Sweetland, who has played the organ on and off for a total of 50 years at Bethesda and has...

VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV laid out the vision of his papacy Saturday, identifying artificial intelligence as one of the most critical matters facing humanity and vowing to continue with some of the core priorities of Pope Francis. But in a sign he is making the papacy very much...

St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Croatian Church in Millvale, the first Croatian church in the U.S., will celebrate 125 years on June 1. The 125th anniversary celebration will begin with a Mass at 10 a.m. with Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik as celebrant, followed by a luncheon from noon...