I’ve struggled to find words that neatly capture this year in faith and religion reporting.
Tragedy has loomed large this year, from Charlie Kirk’s assassination to the Michigan church shooting and the attack on the Jewish community at Bondi Beach in Australia. Yet, amid violent attacks, both religiously motivated and those on college campuses, there were signs of hope: Pope Leo’s calls for unity and peace, Erika Kirk’s public forgiveness of her husband’s killer, the courage of a stranger who tackled the shooter at the Australian Hanukkah celebration, and religious liberty victories at the Supreme Court.
These moments amount to a year marked by grief, but also a resilience of faith. Here’s a look at the top stories that shaped the faith and religion landscape in the U.S. this year.
The Catholic Church introduced a new pope
After Pope Francis died in April, the College of Cardinals elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as his successor. On May 8, 2025, he became Pope Leo XIV, the 267th pope of the Roman Catholic Church and the first pope from the United States. His inauguration Mass in St. Peter’s Square emphasized both continuity with Francis’ focus on peace and his own pastoral vision.
Since May, he has issued his first apostolic exhortation, Dilexi te (“I have loved you”), calling the church to deepen its love and commitment to the poor; spoken to the young Catholics in America; and made his first foreign trip to the Middle East, spreading the message of peace and unity.
Dallin H. Oaks becomes new president of the Church of Jesus Christ
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has also experienced major leadership changes this year. Following the death of President Russell M. Nelson at 101 on Sept. 27, 2025, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles chose Dallin H. Oaks as his successor. Following a 17-day apostolic interregnum, the Quorum of the Twelve set apart President Oaks as President Nelson’s successor.
President Oaks, a former Utah Supreme Court justice and longtime church leader, named President Henry B. Eyring and President D. Todd Christofferson as his counselors and emphasized continuity of faith and service. The new presidency shared its vision for the church in an interview.
Michigan church shooting
On the morning of Sunday, Sept. 28, a 40-year-old man drove his pickup truck into the meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, disrupting a worship service in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan. He opened fire on congregants and then set the building on fire, killing four church members and wounding at least eight others before police shot and killed the suspect at the scene.
First Muslim mayor of New York
In November 2025, New York City made history by electing 34-year-old Zohran Mamdani as its first Muslim mayor and the first South Asian mayor of America’s largest city. Mamdani, a Democratic state assemblyman and self-described democratic socialist, defeated former governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa in a high-turnout race.
He also became the youngest mayor in more than a century. Mamdani’s campaign energized a broad coalition and drew national attention, reflecting both the city’s diversity and shifting political currents. He will be sworn in on Jan. 1, 2026, in a public ceremony with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Erika Kirk forgives her husband’s shooter
At the memorial honoring conservative activist Charlie Kirk, his widow, Erika Kirk, forgave the man accused of killing her husband.
“I forgive him because it is what Christ did. It’s what Charlie would do,” Kirk said.
The assassination of Charlie Kirk sparked new religious energy across Christian communities, with supporters viewing his death as a moment of spiritual awakening and bolder public expression of faith and conservative values in America.
Bondi Beach attack
Earlier this month, a Hanukkah celebration on a scenic Bondi Beach in Sydney became the target of a mass shooting that left 15 people dead and dozens wounded in what Australian authorities have declared a terrorist attack motivated by antisemitism.
Two alleged gunmen, identified as a father and son, opened fire on the crowd during the Jewish festival Chanukah by the Sea. Police killed one of the attackers and wounded the other, who now faces numerous murder and terrorism charges. The attack, one of the deadliest in Australia’s history, reverberated around the world and revealed the global persistence of antisemitism.
Gen Z and faith revival
New research from the Pew Research Center data found that overall measures of religiosity like religious identity, prayer and church attendance have remained fairly stable since 2020 after decades of decline. The rise of the “nones,” or religiously unaffiliated, has leveled off, a large Pew study found. Today, 29% of Americans identify as the nones. Alongside the plateau among nones, the drop in Christianity has leveled off at 62%.
But despite stories of a widespread faith revival among young people, Pew data ultimately dispelled that narrative, showing no evidence of a national religious revival among young adults. Younger cohorts are still significantly less religious than older ones. Pew also found that the gender gap between religious men and women has shrunk, mostly due to women becoming less religious.
Christian persecution in Nigeria
Christian communities in Nigeria have continued to face escalating violence. Armed groups, including Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and militant Fulani herders, have attacked worshippers, pastors and churches, especially in the north and Middle Belt.
At the end of November, more than 250 children and 12 staff members were reportedly kidnapped from St Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, Niger State. This was part of a wave of abductions in north-central Nigeria, where at least 402 people were kidnapped in four states in November alone. In December, Nigeria rescued about 100 of the children who were abducted from the school.
Faith leaders grapple with AI
Faith leaders across religious traditions are speaking out about the risks of AI encroaching on the sacred. Leaders such as Pope Leo XIV and Elder Gerrit W. Gong, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have stressed that AI lacks divine insight and an independent moral compass.
Elder Gong traveled to Rome in October to take part in the Vatican’s Rome Summit on Ethics and Artificial Intelligence, where religious leaders, ethicists and technologists considered how rapidly advancing AI should be shaped by moral and spiritual principles.
Supreme Court religious liberty victories
In 2025, the Supreme Court issued several major rulings strengthening religious freedoms. In Mahmoud v. Taylor, the high court allowed parents to opt children out of LGBTQ-themed lessons when they conflict with religious beliefs.
In Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin, the court protected tax exemptions for faith-based organizations. Other decisions safeguarded religious groups, from New York’s abortion mandates (Diocese of Albany v. Harris) and affirmed religious speech in schools (Israelson v. Tate), reinforcing protections for parental rights and religious expression.
Here are some of the readers’ most read faith stories of 2025
- What the tired tropes of ‘American Primeval’ get wrong about Brigham Young, early Latter-day Saints.
- Mia Love: My living wish for the America I know.
- An ER doctor ran into a burning Grand Blanc church again and again.
- The conversation we should be having about new temple garment designs.
- Church reiterates immigration policy, creates guidelines for local congregations
- Jane Clayson Johnson’s relentless quest to find hope.
- The church I led closed a year ago. I’m still not over it.
- The Wall Street Journal reported a Latter-day Saint ‘21st-century reckoning.’ That’s not what I see.
- Dallas Jenkins responds to concerns ‘The Chosen’ is not biblically accurate.
- Former members sued the Church of Jesus Christ. This friend rallied to its defense.
End notes
Sometimes people ask what I enjoy most about covering religion and faith. As I’ve sat with that question, I’ve come to realize that I love that faith and spiritual seeking offer a window into the most intimate and important parts of human life. Faith is bound up with hope, doubt, heartbreak, upbringing, longing and the desire to be better than we are. It’s how we explain why our life, and anything we do, matters.
At the same time, our individual beliefs shape the fabric of the communal structures and public life, how we vote and treat our neighbors.
Being able to observe and examine how those private convictions surface in broader debates across politics, education and culture is an exciting privilege for me as the host of this newsletter.
Writing it has sharpened my attention to the subtle ways faith threads through stories of conflict, ambition and determination around us. I’m really grateful for the chance to tell those stories.
This edition wraps up the State of Faith in 2025. I hope you have a Merry Christmas and I’ll see you in the New Year!