(RNS) — Each week RNS presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s photo gallery includes Pachamama traditions in Bolivia, Tisha B'Av commemorations and more.
People gather on La Cumbre, a mountain considered sacred to burn offerings in observance of the month of Pachamama, or Mother Earth, performing an ancient tradition to ask for a good harvest, on the outskirts of La Paz, Bolivia, Friday, Aug. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Spiritual leader Eusebio Huanca burns offerings observing the month of Pachamama, or Mother Earth, in an ancient tradition to ask for a good harvest, on La Cumbre, a mountain considered sacred on the outskirts of La Paz, Bolivia, Friday, Aug. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Visitors chat as a monk, rear, cleans a Buddha statue inside a Tibetan monks' prayer hall at the Yonghegong Lama Temple, in Beijing, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
A participant portraying the Hindu goddess Kali dances in the annual Kavad Yatra religious procession during the month of Sawan in Shajahanpur, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men pray during the mourning ritual of Tisha B'Av at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, in Jerusalem's Old City, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men pray during the mourning ritual of Tisha B'Av, a fasting and memorial day commemorating the destruction of ancient Jerusalem temples, at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, in the Old City of Jerusalem, Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Pope Leo XIV leaves at the end of a Mass with young people participating in the Youth Jubilee at the Tor Vergata field in Rome, Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Faithful participating in the Youth Jubilee sleep at the Tor Vergata field ahead of the Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV in Rome, Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Leo XIV greets faithful in St. Peter's Square at the end of a welcome Mass for the Youth Jubilee at the Vatican, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Archival Photos
In a moving dockside prayer service in Toledo, Ohio, more than 250 people gathered on a chilly day to dedicate 2,100 metric tons of corn bound for the starving people of Somalia and Ethiopia in 1981. The corn was part of a $1.4 million shipment of 10,350 metric tons of various foods provided by the Mennonite Central Committee. Elmer Neufeld, MCC chairman of Bluffton, led the prayer: "Oh Lord, we dedicate this shipment of corn as an expression of our love and concern for hungry people in Ethiopia and Somalia. We ask that this shipment be a blessing to those in need, in the name of Christ." (RNS archive photo by Bruce Janzer. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)
Protesters carrying signs that read, "We demand economic reform, not price increases" march through Kutno, Poland, calling for an end to food shortages on July 25, 1981. (RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)
