Virus deaths top 600,000; Hong Kong warns of resurgence; Pope offers reassurance
Berlin, GermanyAP The coronavirus pandemic has found fresh legs around the world, as confirmed deaths pass 600,000 and countries from the US to South Africa to India struggle to contain a surge of new infections. Hong Kong issued tougher new rules on wearing face masks, Spain closed overcrowded beaches and Germany reported another outbreak at […]
Australia’s Victoria requires masks for Melbourne hit by COVID-19
Melbourne, AustraliaReuters People in Melbourne must now wear masks when leaving their homes as Victoria, Australia’s second most-populous state, marked two weeks of triple-digit increases in new coronavirus infections on Sunday. Melbournians not wearing face coverings will be fined $A200, said Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews. Police officers patrol the grounds outside a public housing tower, […]
US Christian author Matthew Paul Turner comes out as gay, announces divorce
RNS On Friday, Christian author Matthew Paul Turner came out as gay via Facebook and Instagram and announced that he and his wife, fellow writer Jessica Turner, are divorcing. Matthew Paul Turner is the former editor of CCM, a magazine covering contemporary Christian music, but he is best known for his rhyming children’s books published […]
Religious faith was a lifelong constant for US Congressman John Lewis
Birmingham, Alabama, USAP From his childhood, when he preached to chickens in the dirt-poor South, to his decades as a moral force in Congress, religious faith was a constant in the life of Representative John Lewis. Lewis spent boyhood days as a make-believe minister, preaching to a congregation of clucking birds at his rural home […]
Vatican indicates support to exhume babies at Irish home
Vatican CityAP The Vatican has indicated its support for a campaign to provide a proper Christian burial for hundreds of babies and toddlers by first exhuming their bodies from the grounds of a Catholic-run Irish home for unwed mothers. The Vatican’s ambassador to Ireland, Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo, said in a 15th July letter to […]
US politics: Biden’s bid touts faith, courts even religious conservatives
ELANA SCHOR and JACK JENKINS report for Religion News Service…
Breathtaking virus numbers show normal life still far away
Johannesburg, South AfricaAP South Africa on Saturday became one of the top five worst-hit countries in the coronavirus pandemic, as breathtaking new infection numbers around the world were a reminder that a return to normal life is still far from sight. The World Health Organization again reported a single-day record of new infections with 259,848. […]