Tom Heneghan
Tom Heneghan is an author at Religion News Service.

‘Neo-Protestant’ challenge seen in France’s political upheaval
PARIS (RNS) — A leading French commentator sees a ‘neo-Protestant’ challenge to France’s traditional ‘Catholic/secular’ political culture, transforming politics from behind-the-scenes battling among elites to more open and transparent governance.

Scientists, theologians ponder if latest biological findings are more compatible with religion
OXFORD, England (RNS) — Exciting progress in biology in recent decades may be building up a third new phase in the scientific explanation of life, according to thinkers gathered at a University of Oxford conference last week.

Reformed churches endorse Catholic-Lutheran accord on key Reformation dispute
PARIS (RNS) Five hundred years after the Reformation, one of Protestantism’s leading branches has officially said it now agrees with the Vatican on the main issue at the root of its split from the Roman Catholic Church.

Haunted by its history, Berlin debates whether to restore the kaiser’s gilded cross
(RNS) The reconstruction of the City Palace (Stadtschloss), the central Berlin winter residence of kings and kaisers, is raising all kinds of questions about Berlin’s relationship to its past.

VW’s ‘dieselgate’ poses ethical challenge for German Protestants
(RNS) ‘Kein Ablass für Abgas!’ (No indulgences for exhaust fumes), a pastor wrote about the German carmaker providing the official vehicle fleet for a biannual church assembly.

French clerics’ stands on Le Pen populism range from resistance to reserve
PARIS (RNS) Protestant, Jewish and Muslim leaders — representing religious minorities in France — have come out against anti-immigrant candidate Marine Le Pen. The Roman Catholic Church remains officially neutral.

Turkish-financed mosques in Europe allegedly spying for Erdogan
PARIS (RNS) European lawmakers are calling for tighter restrictions on the mosques, which critics say keep diaspora Turks from fully integrating.

Paris conference on deposing a heretical pope looks to the past, not the present
PARIS (RNS) It looked as if the two-day meeting in Paris could be the place where the next steps in the campaign against the pope were being worked out. It turned out to be nothing of the sort.

Religion emerges in secular French politics as presidential campaign heats up
PARIS (RNS) Playing the religion card openly is rare in France, where secularism is normally taken so seriously that politicians rarely if ever mention their faith in public. But this election is not taking place in normal times.

ISIS’s intriguing silence about Donald Trump’s approach to Muslims
PARIS (RNS) With his anti-Muslim rhetoric and planned travel bans, you’d think President Trump would be a favorite target for Islamic State’s propaganda. Well, think again.

Trump’s wish to ban Muslim immigration is widely shared in Europe
PARIS (RNS) Majorities across Europe are deeply concerned about Muslim immigration and support an immediate end to it, even as voters think the Muslim populations in their countries are much higher than they really are.

How a toy figure of Martin Luther sparked accusations of anti-Semitism
(RNS) This was not at all supposed to be what the cute little figure was about.

Catholic priest’s appointment as university president stuns French
PARIS (RNS) Almost anywhere else in France, a theologian could not have even been hired as a lecturer, much less rise to become a university president.

France will soon have a new crime: online obstruction of abortion
PARIS (RNS) The bill would allow abortion rights activists to sue websites that promote alternatives to ending a pregnancy or discuss abortion’s possible psychological effects.

German Protestants officially renounce converting Jews to Christianity
(RNS) Abandoning the ‘Judenmission,’ which effectively ended in the decades after the Holocaust, should have been a formality.