(ANALYSIS) With one week to go before Brazil’s presidential election, the two front-runners, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro are battling for the religious vote. The group of people termed “evangelicals” is much more diverse in Latin America than in the United States – and it’s politically quite diverse, too.
Read MoreIndentured laborers from India brought their specific brand of worship under the overarching Hindu and Muslim traditions when they came to Guyana in the 19th century. Now, Guyanese people of Indian descent form a little over 44% of the country’s population. It’s no coincidence the country also has the largest population of Hindus in the Western Hemisphere.
Read MoreIn the past few years a national conversation has ignited about the character of racial and religious outsiders, who belongs in America and under what terms and conditions they belong. According to Stanford historian Kathryn Gin Lum in her latest book “Heathen: Religion and Race in American History,” these ideas and American conceptions of race can be traced back to the religious and racialized concept of the “heathen.”
Read MoreFor a century, more than 519 sacred objects from the Umbanda and Candomblé — both spiritual African religions — were in the possession of Brazil police. The new documentary “Respect Our Sacred” details the process of getting them back.
Read MoreSt. Paul’s cathedral, part of the cultural heritage of the British community in Valparaíso, turns to music to keep its doors open. After its parishioners emigrated from the Chilean port city in the 20th century, a restoration process began with concerts at the Queen Victoria Memorial Organ.
Read MoreNamed La’eeb — which FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, said is “an Arabic word meaning super-skilled player” — the World Cup mascot triggered plenty of confusion and scorn on social media. But the mascot was primarily an homage to Arab garments known as the “keffiyeh” and “thawb.”
Read MoreFaced with the reopening of face-to-face services, opinions on COVID-19 safety and security protocols have split congregations. Here is how a Brazilian church in New York handled the challenge.
Read More(ANALYSIS) As 2021 comes to a close, everyone is looking toward 2022. The news cycle over the last two years has been dominated by COVID-19, and that doesn’t seem to be subsiding given the rash of recent omicron infections. The Catholic world, meanwhile, had in 2021 one of its busiest years. Expect 2022 to be just as busy.
Read MoreThe vast Amazon basin has long drawn missionaries seeking to reach people who haven’t yet heard the gospel of Christ. But now, missionaries working with New Tribes Mission Brazil and other groups are facing a formidable foe: Indigenous groups backed by laws that protect small isolated tribes from both pandemics and proselytizing.
Read More(OPINION) Luis Palau, called the Billy Graham of Latin America, died March 11 at age 86. Religion Unplugged contributor and board member of The Media Project recalls what it was like working with Palau in Peru and accompanying him on official meetings with government officials and artists.
Read MoreThe Vatican’s diplomatic representative in Lima, Peru secretly obtained a Chinese COVID-19 vaccine, along with high-ranking Peruvian officials, meant for doctors and researchers working on a clinical trial.
Read More(ANALYSIS) What will 2021 bring? That’s the big question following a 2020 that will forever remain a year where the world was held hostage by a pandemic. It was also a year where we had a combative presidential election and a reawakened social justice movement that brought our divided politics out into our streets.
Read More(REVIEW) David Geisser’s new cookbook in time for the holidays, The Vatican Christmas Cookbook, offers up over 100 recipes from around the world.
Read MoreArgentine football star Diego Maradona died at age 60 last week, but his legacy and devotion lives on. The footballer is a symbol of humility and hope, having risen to the top of global sports from a childhood in the slums, and attracted a religious following that formed a church in his name.
Read More(OPINION) That Pope Francis would put his name on a book — written by a British author — criticizing the United States, its media and politics without understanding the First Amendment is a major shortfall of the project. There is also more to this book that the mainstream secular press did not highlight — like the pope’s staunch opposition to abortion.
Read MoreCardinals, archbishops and other clerical leaders of the Catholic Church from around the world have penned a flurry of letters and official statements in the wake of the ground-breaking McCarrick report that concludes while many in the Vatican hierarchy had known for years about sexual abuse allegations against ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick and not removed him, Pope Francis was not complicit.
Read More(OPINION) The Chilean government has told citizens not to visit cemeteries on All Saints Day, when Christians visit deceased friends and family. They have not advocated for similar measures for voting and other recent political celebrations.
Read More(ANALYSIS) "The only church that illuminates is a burning church,” one protester said, pictured with an altar in flames on a social media account. The recent arson on two Catholic churches in Santiago was not random but as much a referendum on the Catholic Church, where sexual abuse cases in Latin America are topped by only Mexico, as on the country’s constitution that sparked the protests against economic inequality.
Read More(OPINION) Why is the faith of soccer superstar Lionel Messi so often ignored?
Read More(REVIEW) While 83-year-old Pope Francis is in good health, that hasn’t stopped speculation over who will come next. In his new book, author George Weigel examines the problems affecting the church and what the next pope will need to do in order to address them. Think of it like a very long to-do memo for the next head of the Catholic church.
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