World Religions News

(RNS) — About two weeks to 10 days before the Eid al-Adha holiday, days before the annual Hajj pilgrimage is about to begin, the messages start pouring in:

“Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu — I am leaving for Hajj tomorrow iA (insha’Allah), and I humbly seek your forgiveness for any wrong I may have done, knowingly or unknowingly, in words or actions … ”

“ASAK (asalamu alaikum) … As I prepare to embark on this blessed journey of Hajj … I wanted to take a moment to ask for your forgiveness if I have ever hurt or wronged you in any way.”

Messages like these — sent personally to friends and family or en masse through social media or messaging apps — are part of preparation for any Muslim leaving for Hajj.

But along with shoring up home and work responsibilities, studying up on Hajj prayers and rituals and packing comes a new and more uncertain kind of prep: Safeguarding oneself to facilitate a problem-free re-entry into the United States on the way home from the pilgrimage, a journey required of all able-bodied and financially able Muslims.

The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has Hajj-bound Americans nervous and occasionally outright scared about everything from their visa status to their social media histories to WhatsApp group conversations. In the past few months, those with green cards or valid visas have been denied entry or detained by ICE, based on sometimes obscure or long-forgotten violations.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is cautioning travelers to prepare in advance. “Do you know how you would react? How you would respond? What would you say?” asks CAIR Community Advocacy Director Nicole Fauster-Bradford in a special CAIR video addressing travel and visa concerns for religious travelers.

Questioning travelers is a normal part of Customs and Border Patrol agents’ job, even for those travelers returning to the U.S, Fauster-Bradford said. But “questions (that) go beyond the task of establishing that you’re entering the United States as a citizen or valid visa holder” are not routine, she said. “Their interaction with travelers is supposed to really be about that issue.”

Fauster-Bradford said CAIR has received numerous reports of secondary screening involving “invasive and highly inappropriate” questions about what mosque or other institutions a person attends, about their mosque’s imam and even questions about emails or social media posts.

The Trump administration recently temporarily suspended the scheduling of new visa interviews for foreigners hoping to study in the U.S. “in preparation for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting,” according to a directive signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The memo also directs consulates to not add any “additional student or exchange visitor visa appointment capacity.”

The move has worried many Hajj travelers. “Who knows what could happen while we are abroad?” asked one Hajj pilgrim, who wished to remain anonymous.

These were things my husband and I never worried about when we performed our pilgrimage 20 years ago, even though it was less than four years after 9/11. 

I was a U.S.-born citizen, but my husband (now a citizen) was a green card holder, so we had cause to worry. I had also spent the years since 9/11 covering the fallout of the attacks and its effects on American Muslims for a Cairo-based media outlet. Even with all that, the scrutiny and concern about how we may be questioned when we came back home was nothing compared to today.

This year, crossing the border has dominated discussions in various Hajj groups and civil rights organizations and among friends, chiefly focused on social media and WhatsApp groups. Should they delete their social media entirely? Should burner phones be purchased and used specifically for the trip to ensure privacy of one’s personal phone?

“None of this is because we feel we’re doing something suspicious or wrong,” said the Hajj pilgrim I spoke to, who currently has a green card. “But there’s just too much uncertainty, especially if you are living here on a valid visa or green card. Even if you’re a citizen, it’s still worrisome.”

The woman, who left for Hajj this week with her husband, carefully removed herself from all mosque, prayer and religiously oriented WhatsApp groups before traveling. She chose not to delete herself on her social media apps, namely because she never shares anything beyond light-hearted personal posts.

Even with all the concern, she remains nervous, excited and hopeful about her upcoming pilgrimage. “This couldn’t have happened without God inviting us to perform our Hajj this year,” she told me. “Insha’Allah, it will all go well, and we will return safely with a clean spiritual slate.” 

(Dilshad D. Ali is a freelance journalist. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of RNS.)

Planned Parenthood announced May 23, 2025, it will close eight facilities in Minnesota and Iowa. / Credit: Ken Wolter/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, May 30, 2025 / 17:53 pm (CNA).

Planned Parenthood has announced the upcoming closure of eight of its abortion facilities across Minnesota and Iowa. 

Planned Parenthood North Central States — which operates 23 abortion facilities across the area — cited budget challenges and impending federal funding cuts as the reason for the closures, which will go into effect by July 1.  

These clinic shutdowns follow recent closures of Planned Parenthood facilities across the country this year, including the only Planned Parenthood clinic in Manhattan as well as four locations in Illinois, four in Michigan, one in California, two in Utah, and one in Vermont. 

Local pro-life advocates celebrated the announcement but said more work is needed.

Kristi Judkins, executive director of Iowa Right to Life, called the closures “a victory,” noting that 65 million babies have been aborted in Iowa since 1973. However, she said, she still hopes to bring a “culture of life” to the state.

“We will continue to peacefully pray in the 40 Days for Life campaigns in front of the clinics that remain open,” Judkins told CNA. “We will stand ready to engage women and lovingly let them know we are there to help them.” 

Maggie DeWitte, executive director of pro-life advocacy group Pulse Life Advocates in Des Moines, said “we are so incredibly thankful” to hear of the closures. 

“Abortion is not health care and women deserve better,” DeWitte told CNA. 

Planned Parenthood cited “patient needs” and the “broken” health care system as reasons for the closures as well as the recent freezing of Minnesota Title X funds and the U.S. reconciliation bill that could defund the abortion giant. 

“We have been fighting to hold together an unsustainable infrastructure as the landscape shifts around us and an onslaught of attacks continues,” stated Ruth Richardson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, in a press release.

In Iowa, unborn children are protected by law throughout most of pregnancy. The state also blocked public funding for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers in 2017. 

While abortion is legal in Minnesota, when the Trump administration temporarily froze Title X funding to Planned Parenthood, the company lost $2.8 million in funding for its Minnesota locations. 

The abortion giant is “restructuring” to develop both online and on-site “care,” according to the press release. 

“We know that many of our patients would have nowhere to turn if every Planned Parenthood health center were to disappear from their state,” Richardson said. “Heart-wrenching and hard decisions today will ensure Planned Parenthood is here for years to come.”

There are 196 community health centers in Iowa that offer women’s health care, according to Charlotte Lozier Institute’s most recent data — which means there are 28 women’s health alternatives for every one Planned Parenthood.

“In Iowa, we have over 55 pregnancy resource centers across the state in both rural and urban areas,” DeWitte said. “Women and families in Iowa can access quality health care and services from these centers.”  

Pregnancy resource centers, a subcategory of community health centers, are organizations specifically designed to support women in crisis pregnancies by offering support, resources, and care, usually at no cost. 

In spite of the Planned Parenthood closures, several abortion facilities remain open in Iowa. 

“We do still have three abortion facilities that will remain open — two in Iowa City and one in Des Moines, so our work will continue until we can see the closure of all abortion facilities in our state,” DeWitte said. 

Both DeWitte and Judkins agreed that there is still work to do. 

“Although we see the demise of brick-and-mortar PP clinics in Iowa, we have much work yet to do,” Judkins said. 

“We must continue to work with our pro-life community so we can influence mindsets to accept a culture of life rather than a culture of death,” she said.

Judkins said she plans to continue the organization’s work on raising awareness of fetal development education, the harm of abortion pills, and the “legitimate trauma from abortion.” 

“We need to make sure Iowans know the answer in a crisis situation is not abortion and there are wonderful people who will gather around them to provide support and necessities,” Judkins said. 

ISTANBUL (RNS) — As news filtered out of Egypt on Thursday (May 29) that a court ruling had called for nationalizing an ancient Orthodox Christian Monastery in the Sinai Desert and the eviction of its monks to make way for a museum, disbelief turned to outrage, from the Middle East to Greece, where politicians blasted the decision.

St. Catherine’s Monastery, which is inhabited by Greek Orthodox monks in Egypt, is considered to be the world’s oldest continuously operating Christian monastery. Established in the 6th century by order of Byzantine emperor Justinian I, St. Catherine’s lies at the foot of the mountain Christians identify as the biblical Mount Sinai and hosts a vast library that harbors priceless manuscripts and icons.

The monastery, whose right to function undisturbed is said to have been granted by the Prophet Muhammed, is a symbol of interfaith tolerance and Christian longevity in the Muslim world.

Egypt’s presidency has denied reports that the court ordered the monastery to be shuttered, noting that the ruling confirms the right of the monks to perform their religious duties at the monastery while also declaring its lands are now the property of the Egyptian state. 

But the clarification came only after a flurry of statements from Christian leaders and Greek politicians. 

Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens and All Greece called the news “an act of violent infringement upon human and religious rights,” saying that “this spiritual lighthouse of Orthodoxy and Hellenism now faces a struggle for actual survival.”

The archbishop added, “I categorically condemn any attempt to alter the status that has prevailed in the region for 15 centuries and appeal to the Greek government and Prime Minister Mitsotakis to act decisively to restore legal order and prevent the abolition of the monastery.”

Greece’s foreign minister quickly demanded clarification from Egypt, noting that Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi and Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis had discussed the status of the monastery during Sisi’s visit to Athens earlier in May. 

“The Greek Prime Minister remains committed to the assurances he received,” said Pavlos Marinakis, a spokesperson for the Greek government. “We do not expect any deviation from the agreed terms.”

On Friday morning, Egypt’s presidential spokesperson said Sisi and Mitsotakis had spoken by phone on Friday morning. “The call stressed Egypt’s unwavering commitment to preserving the unique and sacred religious status of St. Catherine’s Monastery, ensuring this status remains untouched,” the Egyptian presidency said in a statement. 

Nonetheless, a Greek state delegation is set to travel to Egypt on Monday to clarify the matter, Greek media reported. 

Though the initial shock has largely been assuaged by the statements of Egyptian authorities, which confirmed there will be no evictions of the monks, the nationalization of St. Catherine’s lands is a major upheaval for a site whose legal ownership had never been clarified under modern Egyptian law. “What exists are scattered documents, gold bulls, decisions, correspondence, etc.,” Greek journalist Andreas Loudaros wrote in a commentary on the situation. 

“The monks, who have been owners of the monastery since the 5th century, become guests in their home,” Archimandrite Porphyrios Fragkakos, the monastery’s spokesman, said on Greek TV Thursday. “All the monks will be able to do is operate, the rest belongs to the archaeological service.”

While the monastery’s vague legal status had been simply ignored for much of modern Egyptian history, it became a matter of debate again during the brief rule of the Muslim brotherhood over Egypt following the Arab Spring in 2012.  

Sisi’s secularist government, which ousted and outlawed the brotherhood in 2014, has increasingly asserted its control over religious institutions in Egypt, both Muslim and Christian. In 2015 and later in 2021, local officials had brought the matter of the monastery’s ownership into the Egyptian courts, attempting to gain control over its lands.

That prompted the Greek government to negotiate an out-of-court solution directly with the Egyptian government, something many in Greece felt had been finalized by December and only lacked final signatures. The current ruling dynamites that agreement. 

According to the monastery’s legal representative, Christos Kompiliris, the gardens around which the monks live were excluded from the ruling, but the surrounding agricultural lands that had for centuries sustained the monastery have all been transferred to the state. 

“In other words, the monastery will be left essentially without property,” Kompiliris told Greek media.

Orthodox leaders beyond Egypt and Greece remain concerned that the monastery property’s changed status will interfere with the monks’ prayer and work. “The recent judicial actions which threaten to confiscate the monastery’s property and disrupt its spiritual mission are deeply troubling,” said Greek Orthodox Archbishop of America Elpidophoros.

“Such measures not only violate religious freedoms but also endanger a site of immense historical and cultural importance. It is imperative that the Egyptian government honors its previous commitments to protect the monastery’s autonomy and heritage,” the archbishop said.

In a statement on Friday, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, first among equals among Eastern Orthodox patriarchs, appealed to Egypt to “find the appropriate way to maintain the status quo of the Holy Monastery, which has been particularly respected and has been preferentially secured for centuries by Islam, and to implement its recent agreement with the Monastery.” 

In his own statement, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, under whose jurisdiction the monastery falls, said on Friday, “We call on the Egyptian Authorities to follow this most esteemed tradition and ensure the freedom of worship and access to our monastery. Let our monastery continue this embodiment of peaceful Christian witness, education, and welcome.”

(RNS) — The Rev. William J. Barber II’s ex-wife has asked a judge to look into allegations that the civil rights and anti-poverty leader has been paying her alimony from the finances of his nonprofit.

Barber, who has been leading “Moral Mondays at the Capitol” to oppose the federal budget bill and was arrested as part of those demonstrations last month, is president of Repairers of the Breach, a nonprofit social change organization based in North Carolina.

In a court filing in in Durham County, North Carolina, Rebecca Barber, the preacher’s ex-wife, alleges that since November 2023, Repairers of the Breach has issued William Barber monthly checks for $7,000 to a joint personal bank account shared by Barber and his ex-wife, “under the guise of alimony or financial support.” Rebecca Barber alleges this check is above and beyond Barber’s annual salary. She asked that Repairers of the Breach be treated as a third party — like another spouse — in the Barbers’ ongoing dispute over property division.

Barber divorced his wife of 37 years in November 2024 after separating in 2022. The couple went through mediation to settle parts of the divorce, including alimony, in a process called equitable distribution. But the mediation failed.

Rebecca Barber then filed the motion to add Repairers of the Breach as a third party defendant.

“Defendant contends that Repairers of the Breach, Inc. is functionally an alter ego of Plaintiff and may possess or control assets that are marital in nature or otherwise
relevant to this Court’s equitable distribution determination,” reads the motion filed on May 14.

During their marriage, the couple had four children and also raised a son from William Barber’s prior relationship.

Beginning in 1993, Barber served as pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, from which he built a national following advocating for the poor. He served as president of the North Carolina state conference of the NAACP from 2005 until 2017. But he may be best known for reviving the Poor People’s Campaign, an anti-poverty effort bearing the name and the goals of the movement launched by Martin Luther King Jr. shortly before his assassination. Barber has preached at several Democratic National Conventions and delivered the homily at President Joe Biden’s inauguration prayer service in 2021.

In 2023, Barber took a position as founding director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School. He divorced his wife, a psychiatric nurse, the following year.

On May 3, he married the Rev. Della Owens in Wilmington, North Carolina.

RELATED: Rev. William Barber arrested in Capitol Rotunda after praying against Republican-led budget

Owens had served as an associate pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church and now pastors St. James Church in Wilson, North Carolina, a Disciples of Christ congregation, like Greenleaf. She previously worked for Repairers of the Breach providing Barber security and serving as his driver. In 2022, he presided over Owens’ installation service as pastor.

A spokesperson for Barber, Brian Woolfolk, told RNS that Barber denies the allegations and believes they are “false,” “unfounded,” and “without merit.”

Repairers of the Breach, the 10-year-old organization Barber founded, has hired a lawyer from the prominent North Carolina firm of Parker Poe to investigate the claim.

“We have no reason to believe that the claims have any basis, but there are serious public allegations against the organization, so we moved to commission an independent report,” said Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, who is chairman of the 10-member board and a frequent collaborator with Barber.

Wilson-Hartgrove said he first heard about the allegations from a reporter for WRAL News on Friday, May 23. The board then met on Saturday to discuss the matter and vote to investigate it.

Repairers of the Breach paid Barber more than $224,000 in salary in 2023, according to the most recent 990 form filed by private foundations in the U.S. That year, the organization had $8.2 million in net assets.

“We want to be completely open and if there’s any process that wasn’t exactly right, we’re certainly glad to acknowledge that,” Wilson-Hartgrove said. “As I’ve read the allegations, they seem to me to be extreme and outside of not only our organization’s policy, but what any organization would allow.”

In a motion filed Friday, Barber’s lawyer, Tamela Wallace, asked the court for a protective order against Rebecca Barber. It also asks that Rebecca Barber defray the costs incurred in connection with the allegations that he redirected funds from his nonprofit.

Repairers is planning another Moral Monday protest in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday (June 2). Wilson-Hartgrove said it would include powerful testimonies by people who have been on Medicaid their entire lives.

(National reporter Jack Jenkins contributed to this report.)

RELATED: Why we got arrested last week — and why we’d do it again

The revelation of an undeclared nuclear site east of Tehran has sent shockwaves through the ruling clergy of Iran.

The post At the Heart of Nuclear Negotiations, a Troubling Revelation appeared first on Jewish Journal.

(RNS) — A partnership between St. John’s University in Queens, New York, and United States Customs and Border Protection to inaugurate an immigration enforcement training center has sparked tensions among the university community.

A group of faculty, students and alumni argued in a May 16 petition that the collaboration threatens “the university’s Catholic and Vincentian mission.” As of Thursday (May 29), it has 901 signers, including 93 faculty across six schools and university libraries. Many signatories remained anonymous.

The project, announced on May 6, will establish the Institute for Border Security and Intelligence studies at the university’s Collins College of Professional Studies in coordination with CBP’s New York Field Office. The center will train homeland security professionals and focus on “intelligence gathering and threats to the homeland.”

The petition, delivered on Wednesday (May 28) to the university’s president, the Rev. Brian J. Shanley, and Simon G. Møller, senior vice president for academic affairs, argues the partnership poses “grave ethical, legal and cultural concerns — especially in light of St. John’s University’s Catholic and Vincentian mission to serve poor, immigrant and socially marginalized people.” 

It argues the CBP has a record of “harmful and unlawful enforcement practices” against immigrants and racially profiled communities and that the presence of CBP agents on campus could endanger the community.

“Refugees and migrants are our colleagues, classmates, neighbors, friends and family members. THEY are US, not abstractions or objects for careless academic study,” reads the petition.

The petition lists recent high-profile arrests of international students by immigration officers over political speech and warns the partnership could undermine academic freedom and free speech on St. John’s campus.

RELATED: Catholic University of America student has visa revoked by Trump administration

The petition also denounces a lack of transparency surrounding the establishment of the institute.

The signers demand the “immediate termination of the partnership” and the creation of a committee of students, staff and faculty charged with overseeing relationships between the university and the federal government.

On April 30, representatives of St. John’s and New York’s CBP office met to inaugurate the partnership in the university’s St. Augustine Hall. The event was attended by Keith Cozine, university chair of the department of criminal justice and homeland security, who initiated the partnership.

“Education is an essential element for future and current CBP officers because it is the unknown problems that CBP officers deal with every day,” he said during the event, according to St. John’s website. “Our duty as an institute is to educate the current and future officers.”

Through the new institute, students will work through real-time scenarios with New York’s CBP officers, according to the university’s website. The facility will also develop CBP internship pipelines for students, and CBP officers will have access to the university’s Homeland Security Lab. The federal agency will also send border security and intelligence professionals to serve as speakers, mentors and faculty advisers at St. John’s.

The partnership aims to equip students with “a prestigious industry partnership and provides faculty and students with an academic and professional space to advance knowledge in a critical domain for the security and well-being of the country,” said Luca Iandoli, dean of the Collins College of Professional Studies, during the event.

The program is the newest addition to St. John’s lineup of law enforcement programs. The university offers a bachelor’s degree in homeland security and a master’s degree in homeland security and criminal justice leadership.

But for the petition signatories, the partnership clashes with St. John’s efforts to uphold Catholic values on its campus.

“What does collaboration with border patrol say about our values?” said Raj Chetty, an associate professor at St. John’s English department, in a press release. “Especially with the Catholic Church electing Pope Leo. This pope and the late Pope Francis have both challenged anti-migrant cultures.”

RELATED: In first homily as pontiff, Pope Leo XIV calls for missionary church in a secular age

St. John’s, a Catholic private college founded in 1870, aligns itself with the teachings of St. Vincent de Paul, a 16th-century French Catholic priest known for his dedication to the poor. In 1994, the university opened a Vincentian Center for Church and Society, encouraging academic projects related to social justice.

Though the partnership was probably in the works before the Trump administration took office, its announcement prompted anxiety among non-citizen members of the community in light of recent immigration policies, said Gary Mongiovi, a professor of economics who was part of the delegation that delivered the petition to the administration on Wednesday (May 28).

“We have students who are immigrants. We have faculty who are immigrants. … I am sure that since Donald Trump got elected, they have been feeling a little bit anxious, and the announcement of this partnership can only be adding to their anxiety,” he said.

For Afaf Nasher, a graduate of St. John’s Collins College of Professional Studies who studied criminal justice and attended the university’s law school, the collaboration contradicts St. John’s faith-based mission and the Catholic Church’s mission regarding marginalized populations.

“It’s really a slap in the face in terms of the values that I was attracted to and that have always been at the center of my respect for the university,” said Nasher, who is Muslim.

Nasher, who is the head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ New York chapter, said she is concerned students will be taught to perpetuate CBP methods. 

“CBP is directly responsible for the separation of families. It devastates lives, and St John’s University purports to always stand on the side of those that are marginalized,” she said. “Now St John’s is going to be an institution which serves and even teaches people to take these actions.”

Brian Browne, the St. John’s University spokesperson, indicated in an email statement to Religion News Service that discussions for the partnership began under the “Biden Administration and continued during the Trump Administration.” 

Claims that the university would deviate from its mission through the partnership are “illogical and unfounded,” wrote Browne. “This MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) is no different than countless others that St. John’s pursues with public, private, and non-profit organizations to enhance the 200 diverse programs of study offered by the University,” reads the statement. “The Institute aims to create a more proficient current and future border security workforce through innovative education and training.”

Cozine did not respond to Religion News Service’s request for comment. 

Father Pedro Bismarck Chau was appointed as a new auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, on May 30, 2025. / Credit: Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 30, 2025 / 16:23 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Friday appointed Nicaraguan-born Father Pedro Bismarck Chau as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey.

The Holy Father also accepted the resignation of 77-year-old Newark Auxiliary Bishop Gregory J. Studerus.

Bishop-elect Chau is a priest of the archdiocese and currently serves as pastor at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, according to a press release from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“I warmly welcome the Holy Father’s appointment of Bishop-elect Pedro Bismarck Chau as an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Newark,” Newark archbishop Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin said in a statement.

“His deep faith, considerable pastoral experience, and love for the people of God will be a great blessing to our local Church. I look forward to his contribution as we continue our mission to witness to Jesus Christ,” Tobin said.

Chau was born on July 18, 1964, in Managua, Nicaragua, and is bilingual in English and Spanish. 

In 2004, Chau received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. He then studied at Immaculate Conception Seminary there and was ordained to the priesthood on May 24, 2008.

After his ordination, Chau worked as parochial vicar at Our Lady of Mount Virgin in Garfield, New Jersey, assisting the parish priest from 2008–2012. 

Chau became very involved in youth programs with the archdiocese, serving as an associate director of the archdiocese’s Youth and Young Adult Ministry and Catholic Youth Organization from 2012–2015.

From 2013–2016, Chau served as the assistant director of vocations for the archdiocese. He also worked as a campus minister at New Jersey Institute of Technology and at the Newman Center at Rutgers University from 2015–2020. During the same time period, he served as pastor at St. John’s Church and St. Patrick Pro-Cathedral.

Chau was appointed to the Priest Personnel Board for the archdiocese in 2017 and served on the board until 2020 when he began his current role as rector of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart.

The priest later returned to Seton Hall University to acquire a master’s degree in professional counseling in 2021.

Other ministry work of Chau’s includes serving as the chaplain for the pastoral ministry with the Deaf, working as a professor at Immaculate Conception Seminary, and assisting V Encuentro, an organization that carries out missionary work to benefit the Latino ministry in the United States.

The auxiliary bishop-elect will join auxiliary bishops Manuel A. Cruz, Michael A. Saporito, and Elias R. Lorenzo along with Tobin to serve the estimated 1.04 million Catholics in New Jersey.