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Beneath a former vineyard lies a vast underground catacomb where Jewish people in Rome buried their dead nearly 2,000 years ago.

While Rome has more than 40 Chris­tian catacombs, which attract hundreds of thousands of tourists every year, only a handful of Jewish catacombs exist, and they are usually open only to small groups and private tours.

Now the Jewish catacombs of Vigna Randanini will open to the public from May 1 to June 5 as one of several initiatives by the Italian cultural ministry to broaden the scope of Pope Francis’s Jubilee Year of Mercy.

(The Christian Science Monitor) Unlike other antebellum plantations on the winding River Road along the Mississippi, which are known for their manicured gardens and as locations for weddings, Whitney Plantation, near Wallace, Louisiana, has a different purpose: to tell visitors the story of slavery in the United States.

Elaine A. Heath, a theologian and preacher, will be the next dean of the Duke Divinity School, beginning July 1.

 She is currently professor of evangelism at Southern Meth­odist University’s Per­kins School of The­ology in Dallas. She succeeds Ellen Davis, who has served as interim dean since the retirement of Richard Hays in August.

(The Christian Science Monitor) The suicide bombing on Easter Sunday at a park in Lahore, Pakistan, along with comments attributed to the militant Muslim group that claimed to have carried it out, underscored the precarious position of Pakistan’s Christians.

Ehsanullah Ehsan, spokesman for Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway Taliban faction in Pakistan, said the attack specifically targeted Christians.

c. 2016 Religion News Service

(RNS) The leader of the “Moral Mondays” movement and a prominent New York minister are joining forces for a 15-state “moral revolution” tour to counter the nation’s conservative voices.

Virgilio Elizondo, 80, a Mexican-American Catholic priest and theologian described as “the father of U.S. Latino religious thought,” died March 14 in San Antonio.

The Medical Examiner’s Office for Bex­ar County, Texas, determined his death from a gunshot wound to have been a suicide.

(The Christian Science Monitor) The Unites States Supreme Court on Wednesday became the theater for a debate over religious freedom that could have far-reaching consequences for America’s religious communities.

Outside the court, the division was stark. At the foot of the marble steps, nuns sang with their young supporters. Next to them, another group of young people waved "Hands Off My Birth Control" signs.

(The Christian Science Monitor) In a recent sermon, Mark Dunn asked his congregation to recall the prodigal son as they considered the plight of 267 asylum seekers facing deportation.

Australians, he said, should emulate the father in the parable and embrace the refugees, whom the government has vowed to return to two controversial offshore detention facilities after arriving in the country for medical care.

c. 2016 USA Today

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Constance Veit has been caring for the elderly poor for 28 years—feeding them, treating their illnesses, sitting with them until they take their last breaths.

She wasn’t looking for a fight with the federal government. But today (March 23), Veit is present as the Supreme Court hears a landmark case pitting her charity—the Little Sisters of the Poor—and several other religious non-profits against the United States.

On a hazy Sunday morning, the fourth floor of a dingy gray office building in Beijing is bursting with prayer.

In the Chinese capital, it’s common for church services to be held in Soviet-era office buildings. But the cracked-concrete dankness of this particular location cannot dampen the congregation’s enthusiasm. Several hundred Christians clap their hands and stomp their feet while a quartet at the front of the room belts out songs praising Yesu (Jesus in Mandarin).