Condemning an attack on unarmed Christians in Egypt, Pope Benedict XVI said that all its citizens and institutions must work to guarantee the rights of minorities.

In 2010, more than 1,000 priests were victims of extortion, 162 were threatened with death and two were kidnapped and killed.

What started as a small demonstration to protest corporate influence over public policy may now be close to becoming a national movement.

A stark reflection of the poor state of religious freedom 10 years after the United States overthrew the Islamist Taliban regime.

In the October 24 issue of America, T. Howland Sanks looks at "The Changing Face of Theology." "Theology mediates between faith and culture," he writes. "Therefore, as the cultural context changes, so does theology. And in the last 40 years the social, cultural and historical context has changed dramatically."

To illustrate the expansion of theology, Fr. Sanks offers a sample of recent dissertation topics in the field. Here we add a few titles to his list. To browse other dissertation topics visit the Web sites of Boston College, Notre Dame or Marquette University (pdf).

"Love and Option for the Poor: Reframing the Moral Dimension of the US Immigration Debate"

'The Mighty Macs' uses the microcosm of a women's basketball team to explore the zeitgeist of the 1970s.

With the violence across North Africa and the Arab world, hundreds of  lone boys from the Middle East are making their way across Europe.

Francesco Zanardi arrived at the Vatican on Oct. 10 after walking almost 350 miles to deliver a letter to Pope Benedict XVI asking him to meet Italian victims of clerical abuse.