The US Department of State released the 2016 International Religious Freedom Report. “This report is a requirement pursuant to the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 – legislation that upholds religious freedom as a core American value under the Constitution’s First Amendment, as well as a universal human right”, said Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson during the press conference. The release of the 2016 International Religious Freedom Report details the status of religious freedom ...

"We follow from the Phanar, from the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Great and varied activity of the Holy Church of Romania", His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew said in an exclusive Trinitas TV interview, adding that "we are proud of our once a daughter, and now the sister Church of Romania, to which I convey a special greeting from Budapest, on this historical day". At the end of last week, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew paid an official visit to Hungary for the reception of a new...

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, is celebrating the 30th anniversary of his church ministry on August 19. In his interview to RIA Novosti news agency, Metropolitan Hilarion told about “great and minor” miracles in his life, about the effect on him over the years of his service abroad of “the atmosphere in the Western countries,” about the visit to Moscow of the Vatican’s Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, abo...

Interest among St. Petersburg school children in studying the basics of Orthodoxy has grown in comparison to those interested in studying world religious cultures, according to the head of the city’s Education Committee Zhanna Vorobyova, reports Interfax-Religion. “Within the framework of the course ‘Basics of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics,’ 40% of students choose to study world religious cultures. I can say that if four years ago, 6% of students chose to study the basics of Orthodoxy...

The Justice Ministry has put the Jehovah's Witnesses on the list of organizations prohibited in Russia. "The Russian Justice Ministry has added the Jehovah's Witnesses Management Center in Russia religious organization, as well as 395 affiliated local religious organizations to the list of civil, religious and other non-governmental organizations regarding which a court order on liquidation or prohibition has taken effect pursuant to the Federal Law on Suppression of Extremist Activity," the ...

On August 9, 2017, a round-table monastic forum finished its second and final day with four presentations on the theme: “The inner life of a city monastery”, reports Patriarchia.ru. The forum was held in the Novodevichy Convent, St. Petersburg. Participating in the forum where 5 bishops, 42 archimandrites and igumens, 45 abbesses, hieromonks, monks, and ryassaphore monks—160 monastics in total from 65 dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church. This included Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, Kazakhst...

The relics of Georgia’s saint, Queen Ketevan, will be in Georgia for a half-year according to an agreement reached after long negotiations between representatives from Georgia and India. Georgia is hosting exhibitions and international conferences dedicated to the holy martyr Queen Ketevan, reports Georgia Online. The Ministry of Culture and Preservation of Monuments and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, with the participation of the Georgian Patriarchate, will be providing transpor...

Mit einiger Verspätung hat sich auch die katholische Kirche in Polen kritisch zur umstrittenen Justizreform der polnischen Regierungspartei Recht und Gerechtigkeit (PiS) geäußert. Der Vorsitzende der Polnischen Bischofskonferenz, Bischof Stanisław Gądecki von Poznań, dankte in einem offenen Brief Präsident Andrzej Duda für dessen Veto gegen zwei der umstrittenen Gesetzesvorlagen. In dem Brief zitierte Bischof Gądecki vor allem aus dem „Kompendium der Soziallehre der Kirche“ sowie aus einer Re...

Die katholische Kirche in Kroatien trauert um den Theologen und Franziskanerpater Bonaventura Duda. Der bekannte Bibelwissenschaftler und Intellektuelle, der während des Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzils (1962 – 1965) einer der Hauptinitiatoren der bis heute erscheinenden überregionalen Kirchenzeitung „Glas Koncila“ („Stimme des Konzils“) war, starb am 3. August im 94. Lebensjahr im Franziskanerkloster in Varaždin. In einem Nachruf wird Duda von der Redaktion als einer der größten kroatischen The...