Virgin Mary
What Jesus means to me as a Muslim
By Omar Suleiman — December 24, 2020
(RNS) — As the Christmas season ushers forth the memory of Jesus, it’s worth asking: How much do Muslims think about the person the Quran recognizes as a prophet and the Messiah?
As COVID-19 surges, Catholics find new, socially distanced ways to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe
By Alejandra Molina — December 10, 2020
(RNS) — ‘Perhaps this year it is Our Lady who will come to our home,’ said the Very Rev. Esequiel Sanchez, rector of the Roman Catholic Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Des Plaines, Illinois.
Our Lady of Guadalupe celebration near Chicago, largest in US, canceled due to COVID-19
By Alejandra Molina — November 24, 2020
(RNS) — More than 200,000 devotees normally attend the celebration, some walking barefoot and carrying statues of the Virgin.
In this LA neighborhood, residents unite to bless one of its most sacred murals
By Alejandra Molina — February 5, 2020
LOS ANGELES (RNS) — On a recent Sunday afternoon, more than 100 people gathered at a northeast Los Angeles intersection to honor what some refer to as the neighborhood’s most sacred mural.
As the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe approaches, the Virgin Mary inspires community
By Alejandra Molina — December 11, 2019
(RNS) — The Virgin of Guadalupe's feast day — according to Catholic teaching — marks the appearance of Mary to St. Juan Diego, an indigenous man, on a hill near Mexico City in 1531.
A new Christmas pageant shows off the fierce side of Mary
By Bob Smietana — December 19, 2018
SPOKANE, Wash. (RNS) — A new Christmas pageant at a church in Spokane skips the camels and wise men and focuses on the Magnificat—a biblical song from Mary that challenges the status quo.
Shrine to Vietnamese Lady of La Vang rises in Southern California
By Caitlin Yoshiko Kandil — November 16, 2018
GARDEN GROVE, Calif. (RNS) — The new statue will commemorate the Marian apparition at La Vang in the late 1700s, a centerpiece of Vietnamese Catholic faith.
Photo essay: Mexican festival honors Mary and maize
By Ameyalli Diaz Castro — August 17, 2018
Every year on August 15, the Virgin of the Assumption is venerated at the end of La Feria del Elote, a two-week-long corn festival in Jala, Mexico.
The belief behind weeping Virgin Mary statues
By Mathew Schmalz — July 23, 2018
(The Conversation) — In a Catholic parish in Hobbs, New Mexico, a statue of the Virgin Mary has been “weeping,” likely setting in motion an investigation by the local bishop and renewing questions about the meaning for the faithful about such phenomena.
If Mary wasn’t a virgin …
By Jana Riess — November 28, 2017
A new book raises the question of Mary's virginity, and points to all the other issues it touches on: theology and the body, how the church regards women, and the troubling matter of sexual consent.
Pope sends video message of peace ahead of Fatima visit
By Josephine McKenna — May 11, 2017
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Speaking in Portuguese, the pope defined his two-day official visit to the Catholic shrine May 12-13 as a 'pilgrimage of hope and peace.'
The ’Splainer: Who is Our Lady of Fatima and what is the ‘Third Secret’?
By David Gibson — May 10, 2017
(RNS) Pope Francis will be the fourth pontiff to visit the famous Marian shrine in Portugal, and one of millions who travel there each year. What is the attraction?
Christian heritage found ransacked in monastery retaken from Islamic State
By Jerome Socolovsky — November 21, 2016
KHIDIR ILYAS, Iraq, (Reuters) - The history pages of Iraq's Christian community lie in charred fragments on the floor of a fourth-century monastery near Mosul which Islamic State militants ransacked during a two-year occupation that ended over the weekend.
The ‘Splainer: Lourdes and the Assumption of the Virgin Mary
By Josephine McKenna — August 12, 2016
(RNS) Security is being beefed up as thousands of pilgrims flock to a Marian shrine in southwest France. Why Lourdes and what is the Assumption?
Why the Internet meme that God raped Mary is wrong (COMMENTARY)
By Brandon Ambrosino — December 23, 2015
(RNS) Consent is not only part of the story -- it’s the cornerstone of the story.
