A Polish priest has defended his decision to allow his parish to be used to advertise and recruit staff for a new Tesco hypermarket, despite previous church criticisms of the UK retail giant.

A senior Catholic figure in Scotland is using the hotly contested Glasgow East by-election to push a controversial anti-government message in the apparent hope that voters will punish it for defying the church.

Congregations of the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) and the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, the country's two largest traditions, are being encouraged to make 8 June a Sunday pledged to peace in Israel and Palestine.

The Zimbabwean presidential election run-off is not credible without an immediate end to intimidation, violence and torture and deployment of reliable international election observers, the Catholic Church in the region says.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, has called for an improved dialogue between believers and non-believers to establish the shared values of British society.

There is a continuing row between Amnesty International and the Vatican over access to abortion by women who have been abused and raped. Here AI explains its policy and contests representations of it by some critics and campaigners.

Anti-AIDS activists, including those working with church-backed groups, have expressed amazement at outrage about claims made by the head of the Catholic Church in Mozambique that some European-made condoms are infected with HIV deliberately.

Beijing's new Catholic bishop, 42-year-old Joseph Li Shan, reported to have the approval of both the Vatican and the Chinese government, says he will help the development of a "harmonious society". Government officials in say religion can play an important role in building such a society.

Despite the UN Security Council's vote to authorise up to 26,000 peacekeeping troops for Darfur, a Sudanese Roman Catholic bishop says he believes there is not enough political will to end the crisis in this troubled part of Sudan.