Religion

Gothamist reports: Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday announced that he would seek to close non-essential businesses and all schools, both public and private, in nine ZIP codes in South Brooklyn and Central Queens where coronavirus cases have surged for weeks, as health officials scramble to avert a broader outbreak. “In Brooklyn and Queens we are having an extraordinary problem, …

CNN reports: The Trump administration is considering putting up billboards of immigration violators, an unprecedented move in lockstep with the President’s law-and-order message ahead of the election, according to two sources familiar with the proposal. President Donald Trump has repeatedly gone after so-called “sanctuary cities” — cities that limit cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities — arguing …

The Associated Press reports: A Roman Catholic diocese in New York City’s suburbs has become the largest in the U.S. to declare bankruptcy to protect itself from a wave of lawsuits filed over past sexual abuse by clergy members. The Diocese of Rockville Centre filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday. It is the eighth largest diocese or archdiocese …

The New York Post reports: The outer-borough COVID spike is growing. City Hall revealed late Wednesday that the major southern Brooklyn coronavirus outbreak cluster now spans from Brighton Beach all the way to eastern Crown Heights. Central Queens and Far Rockaway also recorded coronavirus- infection rates of between 3 percent and almost 7 percent based on a two week rolling …

The Associated Press reports: A tiny religious organization tied to Amy Coney Barrett, Donald Trump’s supreme court nominee, sought to erase all mentions and photos of her from its website before she meets with lawmakers and faces questions at her Senate confirmation hearings. Barrett, a federal appeals judge, has declined to publicly discuss her decades-long affiliation with People of Praise, …

Reuters reports: The Vatican said on Wednesday it had denied a request from Mike Pompeo for an audience with Pope Francis, and accused the Secretary of State of trying to drag the Catholic Church into the U.S. presidential election by denouncing its relations with China. The extraordinary remarks from the two top diplomatic officials at the Vatican came after Pompeo …

The New York Times reports: Facing a worrying spike in coronavirus cases in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods, New York City health officials began carrying out emergency inspections at private religious schools on Friday and threatened to impose an extraordinary lockdown in those communities that would be the first major retreat by the city on reopening since the pandemic began. Mayor Bill …

The Christian Post reports: Although 61% of American millennials consider themselves to be Christian, just 2% of them were found to hold a biblical worldview, according to a recent study released by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University. A biblical worldview, as previously defined by Barna, includes believing that absolute moral truths exist, and that such truth is …

The Jesuit magazine America reports: Pope Francis told a group of parents of L.G.B.T. children yesterday that “God loves your children as they are” and “the church loves your children as they are because they are children of God.” He did so in a brief encounter with some 40 Italian parents (both mothers and fathers) of L.G.B.T. children after the …

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis is giving his blessing to a new Vatican think tank that is seeking to prevent the Mafia and organized crime groups from exploiting the image of the Virgin Mary for their own illicit ends. The Vatican’s Pontifical Marian Academy launched the think tank Friday at a conference titled “Liberating Mary from the Mafia.” It …

The Washington Post reports: The 50,000 Baptist churches in the convention are autonomous and can still choose to refer to themselves as “Southern Baptist” or “SBC.” But in his first interview on the topic, convention president J.D. Greear said momentum has been building to adopt the name “Great Commission Baptists,” both because of the racial reckoning underway in the United …

Reuters reports: An American bishop-elect has resigned just weeks before he was due to start the job, following an allegation that he had sexually abused a minor, Catholic Church officials said on Monday. Father Michel Mulloy, 66, was appointed by Pope Francis on June 19 to be bishop of Duluth, Minnesota and was due to be formally installed in a …

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis said Sunday that gossiping is a “plague worse than COVID” that is seeking to divide the Catholic Church. Francis strayed from his prepared text to double down on his frequent complaint about gossiping within church communities and even within the Vatican bureaucracy. Francis went on at some length to say the devil is the …

The Christian Post reports: A coalition of more than 2,700 high-profile evangelicals spanning the fields of science and religion have signed onto a statement billed “A Christian Statement on Science for Pandemic Times,” which warns against the politicization of the new coronavirus and urges Christians to take appropriate action against it, including taking a vaccine when it’s ready. BioLogos was …

Religion News Service reports: Trinity Broadcasting Network said it will no longer air the daily Texas-based Kenneth Copeland Ministries program known as “Believer’s Voice of Victory.” Instead, the network will replace it with programming by Steven Furtick, a megachurch pastor who is widely known for his appearances on PreachersNSneakers, an Instagram account that features influencer pastors and their expensive shoes. …

Toledo’s ABC News affiliate reports: The pastor of a Catholic church in Findlay was arrested and is being federally charged with numerous crimes related to sexual conduct with minors. Michael Zacharias, 53, is charged with coercion and enticement, sex trafficking of a minor, and sex trafficking of an adult by force, fraud, or coercion. Investigators are aware Zacharias has engaged …

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis on Wednesday warned against any prospect that rich people would get priority for a coronavirus vaccine. “The pandemic is a crisis. You don’t come out of it the same — either better or worse,″ Francis said, adding improvised remarks to his planned speech for his weekly public audience. “We must come out better” from …

Washington DC’s Fox affiliate reports: A DC Catholic church is closed until further notice after a pastor contracted COVID-19, forcing staff and congregation members into quarantine. The Holy Comforter Saint Cyprian Catholic Church is in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. DC Health said parishioners who took communion should self-quarantine. The pastor who is sick, Monsignor Charles Pope, has criticized COVID-19 restrictions, …

The New York Daily News reports: The pastor of a Queens church was accused Wednesday of vile sexts with a 15-year-old boy in Westchester. St. Pancras Church Pastor Francis Hughes, 65, swapped nauseating messages with the boy about masturbation and other unholy topics. Hughes lied and told the teen he was a part-time college professor and counselor, prosecutors said. The …

Reuters reports: Mexico City’s regional congress on Friday approved a bill to criminalize gay conversion therapy, in a step hailed as a major victory for Mexico’s gay and lesbian community. Methods applied by proponents of conversion therapy to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity have ranged from psychological counseling to religious instruction and even electroshock therapy. The practice …