CIA begins sizing up Islamic extremists in Syria for drone strikes

WASHINGTON — The CIA has stepped up secret contingency planning to protect the United States and its allies as the turmoil expands...

Archdiocese wants upcoming sex abuse trials moved far from L.A.

In an acknowledgment that new revelations in the priest abuse scandal have tarnished the church's image, lawyers for the Archdiocese of...

Using the here and now to get a handle on the hereafter

Announcements of a well-funded research project at a major university often elicit, welcome or not, professional and amateur advice. But...

Lawyer in church sex-abuse case locked in bitter divorce battle

Ray Boucher walked out of a downtown Los Angeles courthouse six years ago the envy of the legal field. As the lead attorney in the...

Vatican management a key issue at conclave

VATICAN CITY — Roman Catholic cardinals gathering here to elect the next pope have focused with unusual intensity on the management of...

Roman Catholic Church feels Europe slipping from its hands

VATICAN CITY — The timing said it all.

The men who might be pope

VATICAN CITY — With the terrifying grandeur of Michelangelo's "Last Judgment" looming over them, senior leaders of the Roman...

Conservative brand of Catholicism thrives in Africa

KAMPALA, Uganda — On Sunday mornings, worshipers arrive two hours early to wait in line for one of 200 seats in the Missionaries of...

Cardinal Mahony used cemetery money to pay sex abuse settlement

Pressed to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars to settle clergy sex abuse lawsuits, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony turned to one group of...

L.A. church leaders sought to hide sex abuse cases from authorities

Fifteen years before the clergy sex abuse scandal came to light, Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and a top advisor plotted to conceal child...

Judge orders archdiocese to restore names in abuse files

Church leaders who mishandled child sex abuse allegations will be named in a 30,000-page cache of internal Archdiocese of Los Angeles...

Kuang-hsun Ting dies at 97; bishop led Protestant church in China

Bishop Kuang-hsun Ting, who was one of the most influential Christian figures in China as the longtime leader of the country's government-...

Pope Shenouda III dies at 88; leader of Coptic Orthodox Church

Silicon Valley gives conservative Christians a boost

Silicon Valley, the politically liberal technology hub, is an unlikely incubator of conservative Christian activism.

David Martinez dies at 67; pastor's church helped gang members and addicts

David Martinez, pastor of Victory Outreach Church of the San Fernando Valley, whose...

James Kavanaugh dies at 81; former Catholic priest wrote book calling for church reform

James Kavanaugh, a former Catholic priest who came to fame in 1967 with his controversial bestseller calling for reform in the church and...

Father Ladislas K. Parker dies at 94; Catholic priest fled communist Hungary in 1950

Father Ladislas K. Parker, a Catholic priest whose harrowing escape from communist Hungary in 1950 led him to Orange County and the founding...

Oral Roberts dies at 91; televangelist was pioneering preacher of the 'prosperity gospel'

Oral Roberts, a dirt-poor Oklahoma farm boy who popularized the idea of a "prosperity gospel" while becoming one of the world's most...

Aceh's morality police on the prowl for violators

The young couple are totally busted. They huddle at a beach-side park, near signs forbidding teens from sitting too close. He has his arm...

John Harris Burt dies at 91; former rector at Pasadena's All Saints Episcopal Church

John Harris Burt, a retired bishop who advanced a ...