Photos of the Week: Georgian patriarch, Shiite pilgrims

By Kit Doyle · May 12, 2026

(RNS) — Each week RNS presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s photo selection includes a new Georgian Orthodox patriarch, Shiite pilgrims and more.

Artist Gunter Demnig places a palm-sized brass Holocaust memorial plaque in Berlin, Germany, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Patriarch Shio III of the Georgian Orthodox Church during his enthronement at the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta, outside Tbilisi, Georgia, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP Photo)

A masked demonstrator stands with their fist in the air, wearing a Land Back beanie in front of signs reading Protect Pe'Sla Now, on April 30, 2026, in Pennington County, S.D. (Angel White Eyes via AP)

Pope Leo XIV greets faithful during his pastoral visit in Pompeii, Italy, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Faithful listen to Pope Leo XIV inside the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta in Naples, Italy, Friday, May 8, 2026, during a one-day pastoral visit to Pompeii and Naples. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Shiite Muslim pilgrims visit the holy shrine of Imam Abbas in Karbala, Iraq, Thursday, May 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

An elaborately decorated skeleton stands in the Catholic monastery church of Banz in Bad Staffelstein, Germany, Saturday, May 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Vehicles drive past banners showing portraits of the school children who were killed during a strike on a school in southern town of Minab on Feb. 28, at Tajrish square in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Archival Photos

Children of St. Anthony's School in San Francisco helped celebrate an anniversary and a birthday of two important people on May 6, 1964. The VIPs were Sister Eusebia, marking her 50th year as a nun, and Willie Mays, the great Giants outfielder. Mays visited the school on his birthday and brought a bouquet for Sister Eusebia. Turning 33, Mays was having a wonderful season, leading the major leagues in home runs (10), runs batted in (25), hits (31), and batting average (.470). (RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)

A famous Protestant astronaut John H. Glenn Jr., visits the Christian Pavilion and Children's Center at the Seattle World's Fair in 1962. With Col. Glenn, a Presbyterian layman, are Mrs. Richard H. Rainforth, the wife of a Marine Corps friend, and William Camp of the World's Fair staff. Responding to Russian cosmonaut Gherman Titov's remark that he didn't see God in outer space, Glenn said he didn't see God either. "The God I pray to is not so small … that I can expect to meet Him on some little trip I might make," he said. (RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)