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GIOVANNA DELL'ORTO.

Airport chapels stay on the radar of workers and travelers even as role of faith in public shifts

November 25, 2025

As travel picks up for the season, flyers can find a moment of quiet and relaxation at interfaith chapels or meditation spaces in many U.S. airports. Employees at Boston’s Logan International Airport also get to practice their faith right in their sprawling workplace. Logan’s Our Lady of the Airways is widely considered the country’s first airport chapel and is still a Catholic church — not an interfaith venue. Two cousins who work for JetBlue said they come to the brick-faced modernist chapel every day to pray for a couple of minutes before their shifts.

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A member of an Aztec dance group holds incense during a commemoration of Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) at El Colegio High School in Minneapolis on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto)

Joyful Day of the Dead commemorations rally US Latino communities despite immigration raid fears

November 1, 2025

Day of the Dead commemorations in early November are a crucial religious, family and community celebration for most Mexicans and many other Latin Americans. This year in the United States, they are taking on a special significance because of the increase in immigration enforcement raids and other actions targeting Latino communities. Some organizers had worried that fear of deportation would cast a pall on public celebrations. But participants turned out in droves in cities big and small, saying the rituals brought a much-needed sense of resilience and community pride.

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Samy Yawo, center, eats sweet corn at the St. Jude Catholic Church's Sweet Corn Festival as his father, Billy Yawo, right, talks with, Roger Atchou, left, a father of two from Togo, on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)

Migrants to Iowa strike different portraits where ‘American Gothic’ was created

August 22, 2025

In Cedar Rapids, Grant Wood painted “American Gothic,” the iconic portrait of a man and a woman standing in front of a white frame house. Almost 100 years later, the residents of this Iowa river town strike many different profiles after more than a century of migration and faith-based resettlement efforts. On an August weekend, a grocery store owner attends Friday prayer alongside the descendants of Middle Eastern families who built the oldest surviving mosque in the U.S. Refugee families from Central and West Africa go to Methodist services and volunteer at a Catholic church’s sweet corn festival. And two churches belonging to the same Catholic parish celebrate Masses attended by the descendants of Czech migrants from the 19th century and new arrivals from Latin America.

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Fatima Igram Smejkal, whose family immigrated to the United States from Lebanon in the early 1900s, greets fellow faithful before Friday prayer at the Islamic Center of Cedar Rapids on Friday, Aug. 8, 2025, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)

Being Muslim and American in the nation’s heartland

August 22, 2025

The oldest surviving place of worship for Muslims in the United States was erected in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, almost a century ago by immigrants from present-day Lebanon. Today, their descendants and newcomers from Afghanistan, East Africa and beyond are continuing to redefine what it means to be both Muslim and American in the heartland. The Muslim community that founded the “Mother Mosque” keeps growing. Its prayer and cultural centers are key spaces as they seek to maintain and transmit their faith and heritage, while also embracing in varying degrees the diversity of U.S. culture.

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Angel, a 26-year-old bald eagle from Wisconsin that was too gravely injured to be returned to the wild, serves as "ambassador" to visitors at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minn., on Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave)

Bald eagle’s new status as the official US bird brings pride and hope to many Native Americans

July 13, 2025

Many Native Americans are marking ceremonies like graduations with bald eagle feathers, a form of reverence for the bird they have always held sacred as a messenger to the Creator. But this year, some are doing so with special pride after the bald eagle finally became the official U.S. bird. That’s especially true for a group of Mdewakanton Sioux along the banks of the Mississippi River in Minnesota, where the push for the national recognition originated. Jim Thunder Hawk, who leads the Dakota culture and language manager for the Prairie Island Indian Community, says he is thrilled to see the eagle finally get the respect it deserves.

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