"To enter the Kingdom of Heaven, we must become childlike". Pope Francis said this during his general audience today, explaining that "children know how to trust, they know that someone will take care of them, of what they will eat, of what they will wear, and so on". more
About 100 French politicians have marched on a street in a Paris suburb in protest at Muslims holding Friday prayers in public.
The politicians, wearing tricolour sashes of office and singing the national anthem, disrupted about 200 worshippers on a street in Clichy.more
The family of convicted killer Marta Herda have posted a letter online which appears to have been sent on behalf of Pope Francis. Translated from Polish to English, the letter reads: "On behalf of his saintness, the Franciscan thanks for the letter of the day in which you write with great vigor about the difficult situation of your daughter, set in prison.more
The number of people who declare they have no religion has increased by 73pc over the past five years, Census 2016 finds. Some 481,388 people stated they had no religion in their Census return, compared with 277,237 in 2011.more
The first same-sex Anglican church wedding in the UK has taken place in Edinburgh. Peter Matthews and Alistair Dinnie made history when they were married at St John's Church, run by the Scottish Episcopal Church (SEC), The Times Scotland reported.more
Passengers on board a packed rush-hour train forced open the doors and fled the carriage onto tracks after a man began reading lines from the Bible.more
More than two in five Islamic schools in England that accept girls require them to wear a hijab as school uniform, according to new research. Some 59 of 142 (42%) Islamic schools, including 27 primary schools, have a uniform policy which states a head-covering is compulsory, the National Secular Society (NSS) said.more
A peckish funeral-crasher who turns up at strangers' wakes to graze the buffet before taking what she can in a Tupperware container has been named. Theresa Doyle's habit of going to several funerals a day in Slough hit the headlines this week when outraged mourners complained about her pilfering 'dead man's sandwiches'.more
61 percent of Poles thinsk about the Church positively, according to the poll of the Center for Social Opinion Research, which asked in September to evaluate selected public institutions in Poland.more
Pope Francis suffered a minor injury on the last day of his Sept. 6-11 trip to Colombia, stumbling in the Popemobile as he was reaching out to a member of the crowd when the vehicle stopped abruptly, and he struck his face against a metal bar. Despite visible bruising and swelling, a spokesman said the pontiff is just fine, and continued his schedule as planned.more
Muslim men and women are being held back in the workplace by widespread Islamophobia, racism and discrimination, according to a study which finds that Muslim adults are far less likely to be in full-time work.more
A Muslim group has submitted plans to build what would be one of the country's largest mosques on the site of a former HSE facility in north Dublin. Last month, the Shuhada Foundation of Ireland finalised its application to construct a three-storey mosque and community centre at the site of Warrenstown House in Blanchardstown.more
The mother of the five-year-old 'Christian' girl who complained her daughter had been placed with Muslim foster carers was herself born into the Islamic faith.more
In a book "Principal of college or imam of the Republic?" Bernard Ravet describes the influence of the religious in the schools of the northern districts of Marseilles.more
The German government expects that by 2018 there will be around 390,000 Syrians with approved refugee status making them eligible to make advantage of family reunification rules.more
A five-year-old English-speaking girl was reportedly forced to live in Muslim foster homes where her carers wore the niqab and allegedly told her to learn Arabic.more
"I see fashion and the way you dress as a form of empowerment", says London based Nafisa Bakkar. With her sister Selina she is the founder of Amaliah, a fashion and lifestyle website for young Muslim women. It became an overnight success when it was launched just over a year ago and now has over 30,000 visitors a month.more