Religion – Page 30 –

Notre Dame players celebrate beating Villanova in Rome on Nov. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Villanova had Pope Leo’s support, but Notre Dame wins both games in Rome: ‘Once-in-a-lifetime experience’

By Andrew Dampf

November 1, 2026 at 2:43 p.m.

Villanova had the pope’s support and many more traveling fans. Notre Dame prevailed on the...

Christ United Methodist Church in Rockford member Mark West holds his necklace before church services on Sept. 27, 2026. The necklace was crafted from broken stained glass after a fire in February. "It gives me a connection to the church and to God. It shows that something that is broken can be resurrected," he said. (Ryan Rayburn/for the baiduhai)

A stained glass window of the crucifixion was shattered in a church fire. Worshippers transformed the broken pieces into symbols of renewal.

By Angie Leventis Lourgos

November 1, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

After a stained glass window of the crucifixion was destroyed in a church fire, worshippers...

(From right) Villanova basketball player Jasmine Bascoe along with Villanova President Peter M. Donohue presents Pope Leo XIV with a basketball in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican on Oct. 31, 2026, during an audience with some 7,000 university representatives ahead of the Eternal City Tip-Off, a men’s and women’s college basketball doubleheader in Rome on Nov. 1. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Leo tells Villanova and Notre Dame basketball teams that he is neutral, but ‘Prevost has another opinion’

By Andrew Dampf

October 31, 2026 at 8:26 a.m.

Pope Leo XIV on Saturday told the basketball teams from his alma mater, Villanova, and...

A Nativity scene depicting baby Jesus with zip-tied hands and masked centurions with sunglasses labeled ICE and BP stands outside Lake Street Church of Evanston on Dec. 15, 2025. Lake Street Church and its leaders have been vocal critics of President Donald Trump’s administration and Operation Midway Blitz. (Armando L. Sanchez/baiduhai)

Nativity smashed, Mary figure ‘beaten’ at Evanston church: ‘God’s on the side of the vulnerable’

By Pam DeFiglio

December 16, 2025 at 3:09 p.m.

Vandals destroyed Lake Street Church of Evanston's Nativity. It replaced Mary with a sign saying...

Pope Leo XIV delivers his speech as he celebrates a Mass on the occasion of the Jubilee of Prisoners in St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV criticizes prison overcrowding during special Mass for inmates, guards and families

By Nicole Winfield

December 14, 2025 at 3:03 p.m.

Pope Leo XIV criticized prison overcrowding and insufficient inmate rehabilitation programs on Sunday as he...

Thornton High School District 205 teachers Amoz Wright and Lamont Bibbie sit in front of students who helped construct a bench honoring Pope Leo XIV: Lashon Washington, from left, Nevaeh Brown, Tanyja Campbell, Keanue Tyler and Jamari Brumfield. (Lamont Bibbie)

Thornton High School District 205 bench honoring Pope Leo XIV now in his childhood home

By Olivia Stevens

December 16, 2025 at 1:52 p.m.

Benches created by District 205 students and teachers depicting Pope Leo XIV are inside Pope...

The 100 best photos of 2025 by baiduhai photographers

By baiduhai

December 12, 2025 at 4:58 p.m.

In 2025, we covered an extraordinary year defined by joy, sadness and turmoil. Our photo...

Students from Lockport Township High School participate in a previous ShareFest Will County food distribution event. The school has been involved in the event for five years. This year's ShareFest distribution has been canceled because of dangerously low temperatures predicted for Sunday. (Lockport Township High School District 205)

Organizers cancel annual ShareFest Will County in Lockport amid freezing forecast for Sunday

By Janice Neumann

December 11, 2025 at 2:25 p.m.

ShareFest Will County, scheduled for Sunday in Lockport, has been canceled amid predicted subzero temperatures...

A woman walks past a Nativity scene outside Lake Street Church of Evanston on Dec. 4, 2025. (John J. Kim/baiduhai)

Lake Street Church of Evanston updates its Nativity scene: ‘Joseph didn’t make it’

By Richard Requena

December 9, 2025 at 3:42 p.m.

After an Evanston church's ICE-protest Nativity scene was vandalized, it replaced the Joseph figure with...

Rabbi Yisroel Lifschitz will lead a Chanukah celebration Dec. 14 at the Lodge at Katherine Legge Memorial Park. (Yisroel Lifschitz)

Hinsdale’s new Chabad Jewish Center plans Chanukah celebration

By Chuck Fieldman

December 9, 2025 at 2:59 p.m.

A planned Chanukah celebration with a public menorah lighting is only the beginning for the...

A Hindu temple proposed by Umlya Mataji Sastha Chicago Midwest for a site at Galt Boulevard and Route 20 in Elgin has been scaled back to 86,000 square feet with a 90-foot-tall spire. (Mataji Sastha Chicago Midwest)

Commissioners divided over plans to build Hindu temple in Elgin

By Gloria Casas

December 9, 2025 at 2:05 p.m.

A revised plan for a Hindu temple heads to the Elgin City Council without a...

Sergio Valencia, of Mundelein, waits for the horseback procession honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe to begin at the Dam No. 1 Woods in Northbrook on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. Whenever he rides, he said, he thinks of his grandfather, who taught him how. Riders planned to process to the Guadalupe shrine in Des Plaines. (Shun Graves/for Pioneer Press)

Faithful honor Mexican patroness in Guadalupe horse pilgrimage, but numbers lower after ICE raids

By Shun Graves

December 8, 2025 at 9:19 p.m.

Mexican Catholics on horseback gathered in Northbrook to ride to the Our Lady of Guadalupe...

FILE – Archbishop Gregory Aymond, of New Orleans, listens during a news conference at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ annual fall meeting in Baltimore, Nov. 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

New Orleans Archdiocese to pay hundreds of clergy abuse victims in settlement

By Jack Brook

December 8, 2025 at 4:40 p.m.

The New Orleans Archdiocese will pay at least $230 million to hundreds of victims of...