Faith – Winnipeg Free Press

John Longhurst / Free Press
Kieran Schellenberg stirs soup at the Nov. 20 launch of the Raw Carrot

‘Champs’ serve up gourmet soups — and inspiration

John Longhurst 4 minute read Yesterday at 4:14 PM CST

Kieran Schellenberg wasn’t just stirring soup at the launch of the Raw Carrot on Thursday — he was mixing up hope and purpose.

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Eurovision plans changes to voting, security after allegations of Israeli government ‘interference’

Jamey Keaten, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Eurovision plans changes to voting, security after allegations of Israeli government ‘interference’

Jamey Keaten, The Associated Press 3 minute read 6:59 AM CST

GENEVA (AP) — Organizers of the Eurovision Song Contest announced plans to change the voting system of the popular musical extravaganza to ensure fairness, a move that follows allegations of “interference” by Israel's government.

The European Broadcasting Union, a Geneva-based union of public broadcasters that runs the event, said Friday that the changes were “designed to strengthen trust, transparency and audience engagement.”

Israel has competed in Eurovision for more than 50 years and won four times. But calls for Israel to be kicked out swelled over the conduct of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza.

The allegations of Israeli government interference have added a new twist to the debate.

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6:59 AM CST

FILE - Israeli fans cheer for Yuval Raphael from Israel after performing during the Semi-Final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, in Basel, Switzerland, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)

Pontifical secret revealed: Pope Leo XIV changes his Wordle start word each day

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Pontifical secret revealed: Pope Leo XIV changes his Wordle start word each day

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press 3 minute read Updated: 12:49 PM CST

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV opened a virtual meeting with American Catholic young people Friday by revealing a closely held pontifical secret: He uses a different Wordle start word each day.

Leo divulged his strategy for the popular New York Times online game before fielding questions via videoconference about artificial intelligence, social media and the future of the Catholic Church.

The Chicago-born pope was hooked up from the Vatican to speak remotely to the National Catholic Youth Conference, an annual Catholic rally held this year in Indianapolis, via a feed from U.S. Catholic broadcaster EWTN.

After Leo’s election in May, his brother John Prevost revealed that Leo plays Wordle every day and that the brothers compare scores, as many friends and family do.

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Updated: 12:49 PM CST

Pope Leo XIV arrives in St. Peter's Square on the occasion of the weekly general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope tweaks a law allowing a woman to head the Vatican City State, months after a nun was appointed

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Pope tweaks a law allowing a woman to head the Vatican City State, months after a nun was appointed

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press 3 minute read 6:44 AM CST

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV fixed a technical glitch on Friday in a Vatican law that became problematic after Pope Francis named the first-ever woman to head the Vatican City State administration.

Leo amended the 2023 law to remove a reference that had said the president of the Vatican City State administration must be a cardinal.

Francis in February appointed Sister Raffaella Petrini, a 56-year-old Italian nun, as president of the city state. The appointment was one of many Francis made during his 12-year papacy to elevate women to top decision-making jobs in the Vatican, and it marked the first time a woman had been named governor of the 44-hectare (110-acre) territory in the heart of Rome.

But the appointment immediately created technical and legal problems that hadn't existed before because Petrini's predecessors had all been priestly cardinals.

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6:44 AM CST

FILE - Pope Francis shakes hands with Sister Raffaella Petrini, secretary general of the Vatican's governorship, at the Vatican, on Dec. 23, 2021. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)

Muslim civil rights group sues Texas for labeling it a terrorist organization

Andrew Demillo, The Associated Press 2 minute read Preview

Muslim civil rights group sues Texas for labeling it a terrorist organization

Andrew Demillo, The Associated Press 2 minute read Yesterday at 6:09 PM CST

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A Muslim civil rights group that Texas' governor labeled a “foreign terrorist organization” filed a lawsuit challenging the move Thursday, saying it violates the U.S. Constitution and state law.

The Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin chapters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations asked a federal judge to strike down the proclamation Gov. Greg Abbott issued Tuesday, which also labeled the group “a transnational criminal organization."

“This attempt to punish the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization simply because Governor Abbott disagrees with its views is not only contrary to the United States Constitution, but finds no support in any Texas law,” the group said in its lawsuit.

Abbott's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

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Yesterday at 6:09 PM CST

FILE - Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks to the media following a bill signing as Texas senators debate a bill on a redrawn U.S. congressional map during a special session in the Senate Chamber at the Texas Capitol in Austin, Texas, Aug. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Buddhist monks resume 2,300-mile walk for peace after accident near Houston

Juan A. Lozano, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

Buddhist monks resume 2,300-mile walk for peace after accident near Houston

Juan A. Lozano, The Associated Press 4 minute read Yesterday at 3:35 PM CST

HOUSTON (AP) — A group of Buddhist monks in the middle of a 2,300-mile (3,700-kilometer) walk across the U.S. to promote peace planned to resume their journey after two of them were injured during a traffic accident near Houston, a spokesperson for the group said Thursday.

The collection of about two dozen monks began their walk on Oct. 26 from Fort Worth, Texas, to “raise awareness of peace, loving kindness, and compassion across America and the world,” according to the group, Walk for Peace. The monks planned to travel through 10 states before reaching Washington, D.C.

So far, the monks have visited various Texas cities on their trek, including Austin and Houston, often walking along roads and highways while being escorted by law enforcement or by a vehicle trailing behind them, said Long Si Dong, a spokesperson for the group. The monks are being accompanied on their journey by their dog Aloka.

At around 6:13 p.m. Wednesday, the monks were walking along the side of U.S. Highway 90 near Dayton, Texas, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northeast of Houston, when their escort vehicle, which had its hazard lights on, was hit by a truck, said Dayton Interim Police Chief Shane Burleigh.

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Yesterday at 3:35 PM CST

The Buddhist monks from the Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center in Fort Worth, who are undertaking a 2,300 mile pilgrimage of

Supreme Court of Canada to look at request for religious records through B.C. law

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press 2 minute read Preview

Supreme Court of Canada to look at request for religious records through B.C. law

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press 2 minute read Yesterday at 2:53 PM CST

OTTAWA - The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear a case about applications for access to personal information held by Jehovah's Witnesses congregations.

The congregations withheld information from two former members who applied under B.C.'s Personal Information Protection Act for records about themselves, on the basis it was confidential religious communication.

After mediation failed, an adjudicator was assigned to look into the case on behalf of the B.C. information and privacy commissioner.

The congregations argued that disclosing the disputed records, even to an adjudicator, would amount to a violation of their elders' Charter rights.

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Yesterday at 2:53 PM CST

The flag of the Supreme Court of Canada flies on the east flagpole in Ottawa on Monday, Nov. 28, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

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Belarus frees 2 imprisoned Catholic priests after talks with Vatican

Yuras Karmanau, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Belarus frees 2 imprisoned Catholic priests after talks with Vatican

Yuras Karmanau, The Associated Press 3 minute read Yesterday at 10:23 AM CST

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Two Roman Catholic priests who were imprisoned on what human rights officials said were politically related charges were released from prison Thursday following talks with the Vatican, officials said.

The move, which was confirmed by the Conference of Catholic Bishops in Belarus, comes amid speculation about warming relations between Minsk and the West after a phone call between authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko and U.S. President Donald Trump in August led to the release of some political prisoners.

The Rev. Henrykh Akalatovich was sentenced to 11 years in prison after a treason conviction in 2023. He served two years.

The 65-year-old cleric, who criticized the government in his sermons, was accused of spying for Poland and the Vatican — charges he denied as based on “lies, threats, and blackmail.”

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Yesterday at 10:23 AM CST

In this photo provided by Belarusian Presidential Press Service, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko addresses the Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security in Minsk, Belarus, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (Belarusian Presidential Press Service via AP)

Beliefs clash among students, parents and teachers as the Ten Commandments go up in Texas classrooms

Jamie Stengle, The Associated Press 7 minute read Preview

Beliefs clash among students, parents and teachers as the Ten Commandments go up in Texas classrooms

Jamie Stengle, The Associated Press 7 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 8:18 PM CST

DALLAS (AP) — When it became clear to Texas high school theater teacher Gigi Cervantes that she couldn't ignore a new state law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in her Fort Worth classroom, she felt she had no choice. She resigned from the job she loved.

In the small city of Whitesboro, eighth grade U.S. history teacher Dustin Parsons welcomed the new poster on his classroom wall, saying the display helps him demonstrate the influence of Christianity on the country’s founding principles.

Across Texas, there are no shortage of strong opinions among teachers, parents and students as the state undertakes the nation’s largest attempt to hang the Ten Commandments in public schools. In the rush to navigate the Republican-led mandate that took effect in September, the rollout has forced some administrators, teachers and school boards to confront hard choices.

“I just was not going to be a part of forcing or imposing religious doctrine onto my students,” Cervantes said.

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Updated: Yesterday at 8:18 PM CST

Gigi Cervantes, who resigned from her position as a theater teacher at a Fort Worth school rather than teach in a classroom where the Ten Commandments are hung, poses for a photo at her home, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, in Fort Worth, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Christmas market in Germany opens after last year’s deadly attack in the city of Magdeburg

The Associated Press 2 minute read Preview

Christmas market in Germany opens after last year’s deadly attack in the city of Magdeburg

The Associated Press 2 minute read Yesterday at 6:07 AM CST

BERLIN (AP) — The Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg opened Thursday, nearly a year after it was the scene of a horrific car-ramming attack that left six people dead.

Five women and a boy died, and many more people were injured in the Dec. 20 attack that lasted just over a minute.

On Thursday morning, more than 140 merchants opened their stalls, selling candles, wool hats, candied almonds, mulled wine and other Christmas treats, German news agency dpa reported. A Ferris wheel and an ice rink promised joy and activity for children and grown-ups alike.

“Expectations are hopeful, naturally with the utmost respect for what happened last year, and we simply hope that people will rediscover their Christmas market," Paul-Gerhard Stieger, the managing director of the Magdeburg Christmas Market GmbH, told RTL Television.

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Yesterday at 6:07 AM CST

Visitors walk through the Magdeburg Christmas market after the opening in Magdeburg, Germany, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (Matthias Bein/dpa via AP)

As US debates gender roles, some women in male-led faiths dig in on social and political issues

David Crary And Holly Meyer, The Associated Press 8 minute read Preview

As US debates gender roles, some women in male-led faiths dig in on social and political issues

David Crary And Holly Meyer, The Associated Press 8 minute read Yesterday at 6:04 AM CST

The U.S. feminist movement’s perpetual quest for gender equality has suffered notable setbacks during President Donald Trump’s second term — including the dismantling of various nondiscrimination programs and the ouster of several high-ranking women in the military.

Yet strikingly, outspoken women from the Catholic Church and the ranks of conservative evangelicals are engaging with gusto in ongoing political and social debates even as their faiths maintain longstanding rules against women serving as priests or senior pastors. Many of these women see these ministry barriers as a nonissue.

In a Dallas suburb, more than 6,500 conservative Christian women attended an Oct. 11 conference organized by commentator Allie Beth Stuckey. “Welcome to the fight,” was her greeting.

Ahead of the conference, Stuckey evoked the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, saying she had been inundated with messages from Christian women saying, “We’re done sitting on the sidelines of politics and culture.’’

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Yesterday at 6:04 AM CST

FILE - A messenger attending the Southern Baptist Convention participates in worship during the 2025 SBC Annual Meeting, June 10, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Richard W. Rodriguez, file)

Funerals at Washington’s National Cathedral tell the story of a nation

Mike Pesoli, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Funerals at Washington’s National Cathedral tell the story of a nation

Mike Pesoli, The Associated Press 5 minute read Yesterday at 6:02 AM CST

WASHINGTON (AP) — When former Vice President Dick Cheney 's funeral is held Thursday at the Washington National Cathedral in the nation's capital, he will join a bipartisan but exclusive list of towering figures memorialized there, in a church that tells the story of America on hallowed ground.

Presidents from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Jimmy Carter have received state funerals at the gothic-style cathedral. Funeral services have also been held there for Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court Justice, and the moonwalking astronaut Neil Armstrong. The list of notable figures interred at the cathedral includes the author and activist Hellen Keller. Just one president, Woodrow Wilson, is buried there.

The church's history and tradition, said Washington National Cathedral Provost Rev. Canon Jan Naylor Cope, put it "at the intersection of the civic and the sacred.” The funerals held there shed light both on the deceased and their place in the country’s history.

Titans of American history keep watch over the cathedral, as statues of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln stand in two separate bays near the entrance of the nave. The cathedral has five chapels on the main level and four chapels and burial vaults on the lower level, or the crypt.

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Yesterday at 6:02 AM CST

The Washington National Cathedral is photographed in Washington, Monday, Nov. 17, 2005. (AP Photo/Mike Pesoli)

1,700 years ago, bishops and an emperor wrote a creed. Millions still recite it in church

Peter Smith, The Associated Press 7 minute read Preview

1,700 years ago, bishops and an emperor wrote a creed. Millions still recite it in church

Peter Smith, The Associated Press 7 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 9:14 AM CST

Centuries of church schisms show that if there’s a doctrine to be fought over, there’s a good chance Christians will fight about it.

That repeated splintering is what makes the Council of Nicaea — a meeting of bishops 1,700 years ago in present-day Turkey — so significant today. And why Pope Leo XIV is traveling on Nov. 28 to the site of this foundational moment in Christian unity as part of his first major foreign trip as pope.

In 325, the council hashed out the first version of the Nicene Creed, a statement of faith that millions of Christians still recite each Sunday.

“The occasion is very, very important — the first global, ecumenical council in history and the first form of creed acknowledged by all the Christians,” said church historian Giovanni Maria Vian, coauthor of “La scommessa di Costantino," or "Constantine’s Gamble,” published in Italy in tandem with the anniversary.

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Updated: Yesterday at 9:14 AM CST

Visitors look at archaeological excavations of the ancient Byzantine-era Christian Saint Neophytos Basilica, in Iznik, also known by its ancient name Nicaea, northwestern Turkey, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025, ahead of the visit of Pope Leo XIV to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Group sues Quebec City for cancelling July show of U.S. Christian singer Sean Feucht

The Canadian Press 4 minute read Preview

Group sues Quebec City for cancelling July show of U.S. Christian singer Sean Feucht

The Canadian Press 4 minute read Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025

A group associated with the American Christian singer Sean Feucht is suing Quebec City’s municipal administration after it cancelled one of his planned shows this past July.

Burn 24/7 Canada, a Christian non-profit based in British Columbia, launched the lawsuit, which alleges the city’s actions amounted to an attack on its rights to freedom of expression and religion. It also was the organizer behind the singer’s Canadian tour that summer, which saw several shows cancelled amid outcry over his anti-abortion views and staunch support of U.S. President Donald Trump.

"We all have a fundamental right to express our opinions, regardless of whether they're popular or not," said John Carpay, the president of Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which says it is financing the lawsuit.

The lawsuit filed in Quebec Superior Court on Monday is demanding $5,000 in damages from the city and roughly $2,600 as reimbursement for what it says it spent to rent the venue. Feucht is listed as a third party in the case, not as one of the plaintiffs.

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Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025

Christian musician Sean Feucht of California sings to the crowd during a rally at the National Mall in Washington, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Jose Luis Magana

Ukraine asks Vatican to formalize mediation role for return of citizens taken by Russia

Nicole Winfield And Illia Novikov, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Ukraine asks Vatican to formalize mediation role for return of citizens taken by Russia

Nicole Winfield And Illia Novikov, The Associated Press 5 minute read Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025

ROME (AP) — Ukraine has asked the Vatican to formalize its role facilitating negotiations over the return of Ukrainian children and civilians taken by Russia during the nearly four-year war, a Kyiv government official said Wednesday.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made the request in a letter to Pope Leo XIV ahead of an audience Friday between the pope and a delegation of returned Ukrainian children and civilians. At a briefing Wednesday, the young people described being subject to Russian propaganda and their trauma at being separated from loved ones.

Zelenskyy's letter asked that Leo formalize the informal arrangement launched by Pope Francis in which an Italian cardinal, Matteo Zuppi, had served as a personal papal envoy for humanitarian issues.

The deputy head of Zelenskyy’s office, Iryna Vereshchuk, told reporters in Rome that Ukraine wanted the Holy See to act as the middleman, or “platform,” through which Ukraine and Russia could discuss the return of civilians.

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Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025

Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk speaks to the press at the Embassy of Ukraine in Italy, in Rome, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

New museum in California offers immersive experience of the Shroud of Turin

Deepa Bharath, The Associated Press 7 minute read Preview

New museum in California offers immersive experience of the Shroud of Turin

Deepa Bharath, The Associated Press 7 minute read Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. (AP) — An interactive museum dedicated to the Shroud of Turin, which some say was Jesus’ burial cloth, opens its doors to the public Wednesday at the Christ Cathedral campus in Southern California.

“The Shroud of Turin: An Immersive Experience,” a $5-million exhibit in Garden Grove featuring 360-degree projection room theaters, Shroud of Turin replicas, interactive kiosks, and a life-size sculpture of Christ, was conceived over a span of three years and funded through private donations.

The content was created primarily by Othonia, Inc., a Rome-based group dedicated to the examination of the shroud, one of the most studied artifacts in history. The original — a 14-foot-long, 3.5-foot-wide (4.3-meter-long, 1 meter-wide) cloth — is kept in a bulletproof, climate-controlled case housed in the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, Italy.

The California museum — covering 10,000 square feet (930 square meters) — contains a life-size laminated visual of the shroud stretched over a wall. It shows the faint image of a man with wounds similar to those of Christ.

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Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025

November 21, 2025

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