Photos of the Week: Hajj pilgrims; Georgia Guidestones gone

By Kit Doyle · July 8, 2022

(RNS) — Each week Religion News Service presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s photo gallery includes the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, the Georgia Guidestones being damaged and then removed and more. Muslim pilgrims pray on the rocky hill known as the Mountain of Mercy, on the Plain of Arafat, during the annual hajj pilgrimage, near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Friday, July 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil) Thousands of Muslim pilgrims circumambulate around the Kaaba, the cubic building at the Grand Mosque, in Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca, July 5, 2022. Saudi Arabia is expecting 1 million Muslims to attend the hajj pilgrimage, which will begin on July 7, after two years of limiting the numbers because of the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil) Muslim pilgrims make their way to perform Friday Prayers at Namira Mosque in Arafat, on the second day of the annual hajj pilgrimage, near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Friday, July 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil) In this photo taken with low shutter speed, Muslim pilgrims pray as others circumambulate around the Kaaba, the cubic building at the Grand Mosque, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, July 6, 2022. Muslim pilgrims are converging on Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca for the largest hajj since the coronavirus pandemic severely curtailed access to one of Islam's Five Pillars. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil) Damage to the Georgia Guidestones monument near Elberton, Georgia, on July 6, 2022. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said the monument, which some Christians regard as satanic, was damaged by an explosion. Officials later removed the entire monument due to safety concerns. Video screen grab via WSB-TV President Joe Biden awards the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to Sister Simone Campbell during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, July 7, 2022. Campbell is a member of the Sisters of Social Service and former executive director of Network, a Catholic social justice organization. She is also a prominent advocate for economic justice, immigration reform and health care policy. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Clergy attend the funeral Mass for Cardinal Claudio Hummes at the Cathedral in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Tuesday, July 5, 2022. Hummes, the Brazilian Catholic cardinal who inspired Pope Francis to pick his name after the 2013 conclave, died on Monday at the age of 87. He was one of the country's main religious leaders and a strong advocate for the poor. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama arrives to inaugurate a museum containing the archives of the institution of the Dalai Lama in Dharmsala, India, July 6, 2022. Exiled Tibetans also celebrated their spiritual leader’s 87th birthday. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia) An Orthodox priest blesses water prior to a traditional pilgrim's swim around a cross, which honors St. Antony Dymsky of the Russian Orthodox Church in Dymskoye Lake near Antonyevo-Dymsky Holy Trinity Monastery, 140 miles southeast from St. Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, July 7, 2022. The saint, who lived in this place in the 13th century, used to spend several hours each day standing and praying on an underwater stone in the lake. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky) Orthodox believers perform a traditional pilgrim's swim around a cross, which honors St. Antony Dymsky of the Russian Orthodox Church in Dymskoye Lake near Antonyevo-Dymsky Holy Trinity Monastery, 140 miles southeast from St. Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, July 7, 2022. The saint, who lived in this place in the 13th century, used to spend several hours each day standing and praying on an underwater stone in the lake. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

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