Religion News Service VATICAN CITY — When Pope Benedict XVI told a crowd in St. Peter’s Square in April that the Virgin Mary “silently followed her son Jesus to Calvary, taking part with great suffering in his sacrifice, thus cooperating in the mystery of redemption and becoming mother of all believers,” most listeners probably heard…

(UNDATED) In the nearly 500 years since the Church of England split with the Roman Catholic Church, a fair number of converts have crossed from one church to the other. Still, the path is fraught with stumbling blocks, as the Rev. Alberto Cutie — the most recent, and high-profile convert — discovered on Thursday (May…

CINCINNATI – A woman will be ordained as what is believed to be mainstream Judaism’s first black female rabbi next month. Alysa Stanton is to lead a predominantly white congregation of about 60 families in Greenville, North Carolina, after her June 6 ordination. Stanton was living in a Jewish neighborhood of suburban Cleveland when she…

A Hispanic Roman Catholic theologian who was an adviser to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign will be nominated to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, the White House announced Wednesday. Miguel H. Diaz, 45, an associate professor of theology at St. John’s University and the College of Saint Benedict in Minnesota, would be…

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