Black, Catholic, and Conflicted
To be Black and Catholic in Chicago is to live in contradiction, knowing that the same church lionizing local Black heroes may soon close your parish doors.
Religion serves as the social bedrock of many communities around the globe, while also acting as a source of division and conflict. Pulitzer Center stories tagged with “Religion” feature reporting on faith, its effects on people’s lives, and the role it plays in civil society. Use the Pulitzer Center Lesson Builder to find and create lesson plans on religion.
To be Black and Catholic in Chicago is to live in contradiction, knowing that the same church lionizing local Black heroes may soon close your parish doors.
Solar power relies heavily on Xinjiang — a region in China with forced labor for Muslim minorities.
Observers have long warned of rising forced labor in Xinjiang. Satellite images show factories built just steps away from cell blocks.
Aware of its aging donor base and the changing demographics of Catholics, CRS has sought to expand its base of support.
When it comes to politics, Utah has long claimed things are different here.
In a lush countryside idyll known for its horse farms and fields of yellow flowers, China built a system of total control.
The decline in religious affiliation affects not just houses of worship but also religious nonprofits such as the St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic, a mobile rural health clinic.
“Even though we’re a small percentage of the population, we have to be out here doing this work, which goes to the core of Islam,” said Imam Rafiq Mahdi.
Churches and other religious groups tutor kids, feed hungry people, shelter the homeless, and do a great deal of good, often under the radar. As religious groups shrink, those services could be lost.
This is the story of a priest who found a way to keep working amid a growing epidemic, recurrent power shortages, and a lockdown that continues in Venezuela.
Slavery was abolished in Nigeria in the early 1900s, but Igbo people who are descended from slaves are still seen as inferior.
China's Baidu blanked out parts of its mapping platform. We used those locations to find a network of buildings bearing the hallmarks of prisons and internment camps in Xinjiang. Here's how we did it.
Is the institutional church turning its back on the Black community, as one scholar of Black Catholicism claims?
COVID-19 is leading to a rise in child marriages by families desperate for economic help in developing countries.
After the COVID-19 pandemic hit, faith-based groups realized they were facing a double crisis: economic devastation and underlying changes in America’s religious landscape that were already chipping away at the faith community’s care for the needy.
A BuzzFeed News investigation based on thousands of satellite images reveals a vast, growing infrastructure for long-term detention and incarceration.
Some religious gatherings worldwide turned into coronavirus-spreading events. In India, members of an Islamic group are facing prosecutions for intentionally spreading the virus.
Women and people of color are being disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus. The 19th and The Philadelphia Inquirer profile women as they confront this unprecedented challenge.
In Port au Prince, Pastor Julio Volcy believes that to build a better Haiti, he must first build stronger Christians, preparing them to withstand poverty and oppression by living lives of integrity.
What does the rise of a new militant Hinduism under India's Modi government mean for women and young people, and what does resistance to it look like?
Twenty-five years after Abkhazia and South Ossetia declared independence, people displaced by the conflicts continue to live in Georgia proper. What role does religion play in these communities?
For centuries, Muslims and Hindus across India have traditionally worshiped at shrines called dargahs. How are these shared sacred spaces affected by increasing religious tensions and polarization?
Revered since biblical times, Lebanon’s cedar trees have survived the tests of time and war, but climate change now threatens their future. How can interfaith collaboration help conserve them?
In the aftermath of the worst anti-Semitic slaughter in United States history, the neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, relies on a century of deep urban community to cope with trauma.
As Brazilians convert en masse to evangelical Christianity, drug gangs are becoming entwined with churches in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.
Krithika Varagur reports on Islam in the Balkans—in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Albania. In all three countries, religion is a lens into civil society, politics, and national security.
Simon Ostrovsky gets one of the few interviews given to the foreign media by actor and comedian Volodymyr Zelensky, the winner of the Ukrainian presidency.
Meet Adam Willis and Eloisa Lopez, reporting on the Catholic church in the Philippines and Duterte's war on drugs.
Sarah Aziza discusses her investigation of the darker realities of life inside Saudi Arabia under the would-be Saudi reformer, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Learn more about Krithika Varagur's reporting project on Salafism in Southeast Asia and how Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries have systematically spread Salafi Islam, an austere strain of Sunni Islam.
Grantee Danny Gold reports on the young men abandoning gang life in El Salvador to join the evangelical church.
Anita Hofschneider reports on sexual abuse in Guam's Catholic church.
Churches in Ghana are booming and pastors have become some of the richest and most powerful people. But at what price? "Prophets and profits" investigates this boom and its consequences.
Alex Cocotas, a freelance journalist based in Berlin, reports on women's rights in Poland.
Journalist Alice Su speaks about her 2017 project on religion among resettled refugees in Germany, a country that has accepted more asylum seekers than any other European country.
The U.S. spent more than one trillion dollars on the war in Iraq but today Iran's influence appears to outweigh Washington's. How far has Iran extended its reach in Iraq and should the U.S. be concerned?
This webinar collaboration with Georgetown University’s Berkley Center looks at the ways casteism follows immigrants from South Asia.
The Pulitzer Center partnered with the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding to bring together journalists and researchers for the session.
Pulitzer Center grantee Kalpana Jain received third place in the American Academy of Religion’s 2020 newswriting contest.
The Eyewitness Photojournalism Grant is a series of reporting grants for freelance photojournalists, in partnership with Diversify Photo.
This year's winners will investigate the intersection of exoneration projects with prison abolition theory and the effects of coronavirus on Islamophobia in India.
New book by journalist Krithika Varagur considers how money, scholarships, diplomacy and media were woven together to propagate Wahhabi Islam around the globe and considers what the future holds.
The Pulitzer Center-supported documentary on anti-Muslim hate crimes in India won the 3rd Prize in the 2020 World Press Photo Digital Storytelling Contest.
The first day of presentations tackled topics including displacement, religion, cultural identity, and women's health.
Dalia Mogahed and Katherine Coplen of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding offer data-driven tips for responsibly reporting on American Muslim communities.
How do we bridge gaps between science and religion? Live taping of "On Being" explores the intricacies of how the mind and body interact with reality.
Panelists discuss how religion can reinforce divisions between social groups in Israel, Northern Ireland, and Indian-Americans in the United States.
Panelists discuss how religion intersects with fundamentalism and the potential of ideologically-based violence.
In celebration of Earth Day, we've compiled our top ten lesson plans that feature reporting on how communities around the world are responding to diverse environmental issues.
This plan includes lessons connected to the work of journalists that presented at the University of Chicago Summer Teacher Institute in June 2017.
Students learn about the emerging cohort of women lawyers in Saudi Arabia and explore the history, culture, and politics of Saudi Arabia to understand the situation for women lawyers and law...
This group of lessons explores the interplay between religion and power. Students evaluate the degree to which religious forces impact the strength of a country's democratic institutions.
Students analyze why religions have internal conflicts and discuss whether these conflicts are truly religious in nature.
This unit asks middle school students to explore the varying roles beliefs play in people's lives through the lenses of world religions, science, and social relationships.
The following lesson plan explores the concept of suggestibility through taste tests and discussion. Students will learn about the role suggestibility plays in various aspects of their lives.
This lesson challenges students to take a position related to what is causing or fueling conflicts that could be labeled religious. Students create an argumentative research paper and presentation.
This is a painting lesson that combines Pablo Picasso's famous 1937 Guernica with current day issues presented from The Pulitzer Center.
Students analyze the structure and purpose of "Searching for Sacred Mountain," a 20-minute documentary that explores connections between Buddhism and environmental sustainability practices in China.
This is a painting lesson that combines Pablo Picasso's famous 1937 "Guernica" with current day issues presented by the Pulitzer Center.
Students are asked to read two articles related to religion's take on pollution and two articles from nations where there is an attempt to make recycling a part of the culture.