Religion

A letter written by an enslaved person in Virginia 300 years ago seeking freedom is part of a new exhibition exploring the Church of England's historic links to slavery.

The three Christian leaders spoke out during an unprecedented joint airborne news conference returning home from South Sudan.

South Sudan's women face sexual violence and the world's highest maternal mortality rate. Half are married before age 18.

The pontiff arrived in South Sudan on Friday for the second and final leg of his African pilgrimage.

Devotees in Ireland are marking the feast day of St. Brigid of Kildare, a medieval saint who is making a 21st century comeback.

Pope Francis is urging Congo’s young people to work for a peaceful and honest future. Francis received a raucous welcome on his last full day in Congo as he joined tens of thousands of young people at the Martyrs’ Stadium in the capital, Kinshasa. The crowd that pulsed in the stands on Thursday repeatedly interrupted the pope, cheering especially loudly when Francis denounced the “cancer of corruption.” The audience broke into a chant in the Lingala language directed at the country’s president, thundering that his mandate was over. The stadium event was aimed at encouraging a generation that has been particularly hard hit by Congo's chronic poverty, corruption and conflict.

On his trip to Congo, Pope Francis has heard firsthand accounts of atrocities some people have endured during years of fighting in the eastern part of the country. A young woman told him she was “raped like an animal” for months. A young man watched as his father was decapitated. A former sex slave told Francis her captors forced her into cannibalism. Francis sat in silence as victim after victim come forward to tell their stories, and he urged them to use their pain to sow peace and reconciliation. It was a message he delivered earlier in the day at a Mass to an estimated 1 million people at Kinshasa’s Ndolo airport.