(RNS) — Each week Religion News Service presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s images range in tone from the devastation of the Indonesian earthquake and tsunami to the joys of blessing pets for the Feast of St Francis of Assisi.
A man looks at a mosque damaged by the massive earthquake and tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, on Oct. 5, 2018. More than 1,500 people died from the natural disasters earlier in the week. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
A bride moves through an archway of hearts during one of the 200 wedding ceremonies held, on Oct. 5, 2018 to mark the 200th birthday of Grozny, Russia. (AP Photo/Musa Sadulayev)
People with their pets in Santiago, Chile, wait for a priest’s blessing inside the church of San Francisco on the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi on Oct. 4, 2018. Tradition holds that St. Francis had a great love for animals and the environment. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Bishops attend a Mass for the opening of a synod in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, on Oct. 3, 2018. The synod (council) has brought together 266 Roman Catholic bishops from five continents for talks on helping young people feel called to the church at a time when church marriages and religious vocations are plummeting in much of the West. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
A photo of Nadia Murad, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 2018, in the Nobel Field, an interactive display of all 128 Peace Prize laureates in Oslo, Norway, on Oct. 5, 2018. Murad is a Yazidi Iraqi who speaks out for those raped and tortured by the Islamic State. She shared the prize with a Congolese doctor who treats rape victims, who also works to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. (Fredrik Hagen/NTB Scanpix via AP)
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs during the opening session of the two-day Mormon church conference in Salt Lake City on April 2, 2016. The choir was renamed Oct. 5, 2018, to strip out the word Mormon in a move showing the faith’s new president is serious about ending shorthand names for the religion that have been used for generations by church members and previously promoted by the church. The famous singing group will now be called “The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said in a statement. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
Pets dressed in gala costumes have their paws cast at a shopping mall’s Hollywood version of its “Walk of Fame” in a prelude to Sunday’s blessing of animals to celebrate the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi on Oct. 3, 2018, in Manila, Philippines. Pets are traditionally blessed every first Sunday of October to celebrate the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi, considered the patron saint of animals and the environment by the Catholic Church. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
Framed by the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, a fisherman casts his line into the Tidal Basin at dawn in Washington, on Oct. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/J. David Ake)
Evacuees pray near tents outside a mosque damaged by the massive earthquake and tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, on Oct. 5, 2018. Hundreds of survivors in the city of Palu gathered at shattered mosques for Friday prayers, seeking strength to rebuild their lives a week after a powerful earthquake and tsunami killed more than 1,500 people. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Indian children pay tribute to a statue of Mahatma Gandhi during a multifaith prayer service at the Gandhi Ashram to mark his birth anniversary in Ahmadabad, India, on Oct. 2, 2018. Gandhi led India’s independence movement against the British colonialists with stirring speeches while advocating non-violence. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
