6+ day, 19+ hour ago (674+ words) Former Mets'player Darryl Strawberry, second from left, poses with some of the people who heard him preach on Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, at Sheridan Church, in Tulsa, Okla. Credit: AP/Bobby Ross TULSA, Okla." Former Mets great Darryl Strawberry praised Jesus and thanked President Donald Trump for pardoning his past tax evasion and drug charges as he preached Sunday at a Tulsa church. Jackson Lahmeyer, founder of Pastors for Trump, welcomed the eight-time All-Star to the pulpit of Sheridan Church, where more than 400 worshippers cheered when Strawberry mentioned Trump's decision earlier this month to issue the pardon. "God just completely set me free when he gave me a pardon from President Donald J. Trump," said the 1983 National League Rookie of the Year. "Other presidents had opportunities, but they didn't do it." Strawberry hit 335 homers and had 1,000 RBIs and 221 stolen bases in 17 seasons with…...

3+ day, 15+ min ago (329+ words) Pope Leo XIV waves as he boards a plane in Rome's Fiumicino airport on his way to a six-day trip to Turkey and Lebanon, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025. Credit: AP/Alessandra Tarantino Pope Leo XIV visits Turkey and Lebanon on his first foreign trip, a visit that fulfills the late Pope Francis" plans to mark an important Orthodox anniversary and bring a message of peace to the region at a crucial time for efforts to end the war in Ukraine and ease Mideast tensions. In Ankara, Leo will meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and then travel to Istanbul for three days of ecumenical and interfaith meetings that will be followed by the Lebanese leg of his Nov. 27-Dec. 2 trip. Leo"s main reason for traveling to Turkey is to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, Christianity"s first ecumenical…...

2+ day, 13+ min ago (575+ words) ISTANBUL, Turkey " Pope Leo XIV encouraged Turkey's tiny Catholic community to find strength in its small size as he embarked on the key day of his first trip that is meant to bolster Christians and pursue their centuries-old quest for unity. Shouts of "Papa Leo" and "Viva il Papa" (Long Live the pope) erupted along with cheering and clapping inside and outside Istanbul's Cathedral of the Holy Spirit as Leo arrived to begin his first full day in Turkey. Leo presided over a prayer with Turkey's Catholic clergy and nuns before taking part in the key reason for his visit, the first of his pontificate. He will commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of one of the most important moments in Christianity: the 325 AD gathering of bishops that produced the Nicaean Creed, a statement of faith that millions of Christians still recite today....

3+ week, 2+ day ago (934+ words) The $25,000 grant for Caroline Episcopal Church will cover a portion of the'cost of renovating the church's 14 stained-glass windows, Credit: Newsday/John Paraskevas When the light shines through the stained-glass windows at Caroline Episcopal Church of Setauket, they glow with the lives of parishioners who donated them sometime over the past 200 years.'Next year, the windows will be coming down, temporarily, to be restored and preserved for new generations. The church and the Sayville Congregational United Church of Christ are two historic Long Island churches awarded preservation grants by the New York Landmarks Conservancy. The two were among 17 houses of worship across the state awarded grants under the nonprofit's Sacred Sites program. Money for Long Island grants comes from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation. "Religious buildings reflect a community's history," Colleen Heemeyer, director of the Sacred Sites program, said. While…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago (631+ words) Pope Leo XIV waves to faithful before presiding over special mass for the Jubilee of the poor, in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Sunday, Nov.16, 2025. Credit: AP/Gregorio Borgia VATICAN CITY " Pope Leo XIV could soon accept the resignation of an ailing Spanish bishop who is under church investigation for allegedly sexually abusing a young seminarian in the 1990s, the head of the Spanish Catholic bishops conference said Monday. Archbishop Luis Javier Arg'ello Garc'a told reporters in St. Peter's Square that the conference hierarchy had discussed the case with Leo during an audience Monday. Arg'ello confirmed a report in El Pa's newspaper that a canonical investigation into C'diz Bishop Rafael Zornoza, 76, had been opened two weeks ago. It is believed to be the first publicly known church investigation of a Spanish bishop accused of abuse since the Spanish church began…...

2+ week, 21+ hour ago (510+ words) Rabbi Michael Schudrich will be giving a lecture on Kristalnacht, entitled "From destruction to reconstruction," on Saturday in Westhampton Beach. Credit: Elizabeth Sagarin In 1975, Newsday published a story about the efforts of a 19-year-old State University at Stony Brook sophomore, Michael Schudrich, to share Jewish culture with a student body that didn't know much about it. Schudrich and a partner developed more than a dozen non-credit courses on Jewish ritual, cooking, movies and one on Jewish medical ethics called "My Son the Doctor." About 100 people enrolled. Half a century later, Schudrich is the chief rabbi of Poland, working to rekindle Jewish life in a place where it was nearly obliterated. Historians estimate that 90% of the 3.5 million Jews who lived in Poland before World War II were murdered by the Nazis'and their accomplices, who included Poles. Hampton Synagogue Rabbi Marc Schneier…...

1+ hour, 56+ min ago (1161+ words) Archbishop Sahak II Mashalian, Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, leads Sunday Mass at the Surp Asdvadzadzin Patriarchal Church in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, ahead of the visit of Pope Leo XIV to Turkey. Credit: AP/Khalil Hamra ANKARA, Turkey " Pope Leo XIV is set to pray at the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral in Istanbul on Sunday in a gesture of support for Christian unity and Christian minorities in Turkey. Beyond its ecumenical symbolism, the visit also may signal quiet support of ongoing efforts to heal century-old wounds between Turkey and Armenia, long scarred by mass killings and decades of mistrust, observers note. An estimated 1.5 million Armenians died in massacres, deportations and forced marches that began in 1915 in Ottoman Turkey. Historians widely view the event as genocide. Turkey denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and those killed were…...

2+ week, 4+ day ago (803+ words) Archbishop Paul Coakley speaks to the media before the Beatification Ceremony for Stanley Rother in Oklahoma City, Sept. 23, 2017. Credit: AP/Sue Ogrocki BALTIMORE " U.S. Catholic bishops elected Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley as their new president on Tuesday, choosing a conservative culture warrior to lead during President Donald Trump's second term. The vote serves as a barometer for the bishops' priorities. In choosing Coakley, they are doubling down on their conservative bent, even as they push for more humane immigration policies from the Trump administration. Coakley was seen as a strong contender for the top post, having already been elected in 2022 to serve as secretary, the No. 3 conference official. In three rounds of voting, he beat out centrist candidate Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, who was subsequently elected vice president. Coakley serves as adviser to the Napa Institute, an association…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago (492+ words) ROME " Pope Leo XIV on Saturday accepted the resignation of an ailing Spanish bishop who is under church investigation for allegedly sexually abusing a young seminarian in the 1990s, the first known time the new pontiff removed a bishop accused of abuse. A one-line statement from the Vatican said Leo had accepted the resignation of C'diz Bishop Rafael Zornoza, 76. It didn't say why, but Zornoza submitted his resignation to the pope last year when he turned 75, the normal retirement age for bishops. The report, quoting a letter the former seminarian wrote the Vatican over the summer, said Zornoza fondled him and regularly slept with him from when he was 14-21 years old. The former seminarian's letter said Zornoza heard his confession and persuaded him to see a psychiatrist to "cure" his homosexuality. The diocese of C'diz denied the accusations against Zornoza but…...

1+ day, 13+ hour ago (327+ words) Pope Leo XIV started the second day of his trip to Turkey with a visit to Istanbul's Blue Mosque on Saturday. This is the pope's first foreign trip. He will also visit Lebanon. Leo, history's first American pope, is expected to speak in broader terms about peace in the Middle East Spokesman Matteo Bruni issued a statement after questions arose about whether Leo prayed in the mosque or not, describing the mosque visit as a silent one to contemplate. Bruni said: "The pope experienced his visit to the mosque in silence, in a spirit of contemplation and listening, with deep respect for the place and the faith of those who gather there in prayer." Past papal visits to the mosque have always raised questions about whether the popes would pray in the Muslim house of worship or merely visit as…...