Laïcité, which historically upheld individual freedom, denies minority rights today, as seen in the ban on French athletes wearing hijabs at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Tina Chronopoulos, Binghamton University, State University of New York
In ancient Rome, male followers of the goddess Cybele, known as Galli, some of whom surgically removed their testicles, were often considered feminine.
A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.
Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons
The ‘azyme controversy of 1054’ became so divisive it contributed to the schism of east and west. But it has a lot to tell us about how we understand bread.
The crucifixion of Christ inside Chester Cathedral.
PhotoFires|Shutterstock
Hundreds of thousands of visitors come to the Santuario de Chimayó throughout the year, but the pilgrimage during the week before the celebration of Easter is the high point.
In emphasizing the church’s love for all, including people in LGBTQ+ relationships, the pope has sidestepped thorny doctrinal issues.
Pope Francis (in white) at the opening session of a major congress on the Catholic Church’s future on 4 October 2023.
Massimo Valicchia/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Divisions and tensions in the global church are affecting the church in Africa.
The Blue Quills Indian Residential School in St. Paul, Alta., Aug. 15, 1931. When the federal government announced plans to shutter the school in 1970, the community fought back, and Blue Quills became the first residence and school controlled by First Nations people in Canada.
(Provincial Archives of Alberta)
To honour Truth and Reconciliation Day, we spoke with Terri Cardinal, who headed up one of the many community searches for the children who went missing while attending an Indian Residential School.
Mary of Egypt, The Pantanassa Monastery, Mystras, Peloponnese, Greece.
Olympia Nelson
I was drawn to Mary as a saint, an ascetic, a highly sexual individual navigating her own redemption. Is there something edifying about her story – or does it go into the feminist shame file?
Ruth Wilson as Lorna Brady.
BBC/Motive Pictures/Chris Barr
Set in the fictional town of Kilkinure in western Ireland, the BBC drama captures the story of an unmarried mother who was formerly detained in a Magdalene Laundry.
Martin Flanagan’s school memoir describes bullying, male violence and abusive priests. But rather than a story of victimhood, it explores the grace and release of sport, finding hope amid darkness.
Spirited, defiant and always at the mercy of her mental health issues, the Irish singer will be forever remembered for her pure, clear voice and willingness to speak out on injustice.
People pray over the body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster at the abbey of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, near Gower, Mo., in April 2023.
AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
People are congregating in Missouri after news spread that the exhumed body of a nun had not decayed four years after her death. There is a long history to these claims.
The shrine at Lourdes, France, where the Virgin Mary is venerated as ‘Our Lady of Lourdes,’ following several apparitions reported in 1858.
LandFoto/iStock / Getty Images Plus
The Vatican plans to set up an ‘observatory’ to investigate apparitions of the Virgin Mary. A scholar of global Christianity explains why this is a major shift in how apparitions are authenticated.
A handwritten note painted on the site of a mass grave of up to 800 children on the site of the former Mother and Baby home in Tuam, Ireland, June 2014.
Aidan Crawley/EPA