BEIJING – China has lodged a diplomatic protest with the United States after a U.S. government commission said Chinese violations of religious freedom last year remained “severe,” the Foreign Ministry said.

The notion of separation of church and state is an important foundation for a true democracy. It guarantees freedom of religion by favouring no religion over another. It is also the surest way of guaranteeing the expansion of religion when the state favours none and allows religion’s best instincts to make a real contribution to society.

WASHINGTON (RNS) Religious freedom remains under “serious and sustained assault” around the globe, according to a new annual report from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

This week is Ontario's Catholic Education Week. Read all of the The Catholic Register's coverage here.

When Sr. Mary Rowell was growing up, religious communities were everywhere. They ran schools, colleges, parish activities, hospitals and day care centres.

WASHINGTON – Madeleine Albright, former U.S. secretary of state, said she grew up in a generation that was taught to "keep God and religion as separate as possible from foreign policy."

TORONTO - How a simple change in letterhead led to wild rumours that St. Joseph’s Health Centre was about to remove crosses from the outside of its building and religious artwork from inside the hospital is not something St. Joe’s vice president of quality, strategic information and performance systems is going to speculate on. 

CANTERBURY, England – More than half of the 5.4 million people living in Scotland have no religion, according to a survey published by Scottish Social Attitudes.

It is not easy to be a respected member of the art-world intelligentsia and take religion seriously.

“Religion and modern art continue to be typecast as mortal enemies,” writes Aaron Rosen.

BEIJING - A top Politburo official told faith leaders that religious groups must promote Chinese culture and become more compatible with socialism.

Q & A event to promote dialogue between youth and religious.

Pre-Vatican II babies remember it as if it were yesterday: Who made you? God made me? Why did God make you? To love Him in this world and to serve Him and be with Him in the next world.

Two recent papal-related events highlighted that Catholicism is meant to be a religion of culture. Every culture, as St. John Paul II taught, answers the fundamental questions of life and different cultures are differentiated by their response to the mystery of God.

A Facebook friend took it upon himself to post on my home page for all my other friends to see an article entitled: “Religion is disappearing. That’s great for politics.”

Americans have less confidence in organized religion today than ever measured before — a sign that the Church could be “losing its footing as a pillar of moral leadership in the nation’s culture,” a new Gallup survey finds.