Wire Religion

By the time the letter arrived, the grass on Benjamin Hawkes' grave had grown thick. Historians had chronicled how he transformed the Los Angeles archdiocese into a billion-dollar institution. His portrait had been etched into a metal plaque and bolted to the wall of a sprawling church on Wilshire Boulevard.

VOICES OF FAITH: DOES GOD SHINE A LIGHT ON SOME MORE THAN OTHERS?

On the day the Boston Marathon bombing transfixed the world, Mark Watkins of suburban Kansas City, Mo., lay face to face with a crisis of life, death and faith of his own.

When Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez stripped his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, of public duties for mishandling clergy sex abuse cases, a church spokesman said the retired prelate's life would remain largely the same with one exception: confirmations.

In her lifetime, Laura Montoya's stubborn determination to help Colombia's indigenous people brought the reproach of society, the political elite and the church, which viewed her work with suspicion and accused her of being unstable.

The Catholic and Coptic Orthodox churches are in a position to settle their historical rifts, Pope Francis said Friday as he welcomed his Coptic counterpart, Tawadros II.

About a month ago, I joined the advisory board of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) to replace Glen Doherty, a former Navy SEAL and member of the board who had recently been killed in the Benghazi incident. I was a reluctant recruit, knowing as I did the importance of spiritual solace amid the horrors of battle.

After 87 years, the University Baptist Church of Coral Gables, Fla., recently shed its name for something it felt was more forward looking - Christ Journey.

Don't blame Islam for the Boston bombings. The Quran has clear injunctions against murder and violence.

He is a celebrity across eastern and central Africa, a gospel music star known to many as the "Dancing Priest." But for years he also was a keeper of painful secrets - his own and many others.

The City of Dearborn will publicly apologize and pay an undisclosed amount of money to a group of Christian missionaries arrested three years ago while proselytizing at the annual Arab International Festival, according to a settlement reached in a lawsuit against the city.