A figure of a saint consumed by flames after protesters storm a church in Chile. In Armenia, a nationwide prayer for peace. A women’s protest against abortion restrictions outside a Polish house of worship.
Around the world, Associated Press photographers captured moments like these in the past month showing how secular conflicts, disputes and worries inevitably intersect with the spiritual realm.
An international dust-up sparked anti-France protest in Istanbul after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, needed mental health treatment because of his attitude toward Islam and Muslims.
In the United States, President Donald Trump visited a Las Vegas church while on a campaign tour to Nevada as the politically polarized nation barreled toward the hotly disputed November election. With Trump, a rare churchgoer, sitting in the front row, the pastor proclaimed that God told her that morning he would secure a second term.
And amid the latest outburst of fighting between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces, two volunteer doctors, one of them wearing military fatigues, prayed with a priest in a church in the separatist Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh, in Azerbaijan territory but under control of ethnic Armenian forces.
Traditionally, pets are blessed the first week in October for the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and the environment.
In the Philippines, a Roman Catholic priest sprinkled holy water as a dog poked its head out of a car window in a socially distanced drive-through blessing.
These and more are among the AP’s top faith-related images published in October.
(AP/Esteban Felix)
The statue of a saint is engulfed in flames after protesters torched the San Francisco de Borja church, a favorite of Chile’s national police force, on the one-year anniversary of the start of anti-government mass protests over inequality in Santiago.
(AP/Rafiq Maqbool)
A devotee applies vermilion on the face of another during Durga Puja festival in Mumbai, India. The Hindu festival season is traditionally laced with an unmatched fanfare and extravaganza, with socializing being the hallmark of the celebration. But because of the coronavirus pandemic this year’s festivities have started on a pale note.
(AP/Jacquelyn Martin)
Christians hug while praying in support of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett outside the Supreme Court on Capitol Hill in Washington.
(AP/Altaf Qadri)
People walk though a door sprinkling sanitizing mist to attend Dussehra festival celebrations toned down due to the coronavirus pandemic in New Delhi. The Hindu festival season is traditionally laced with an unmatched fanfare and extravaganza, with socializing being the hallmark of the celebration. But this year’s festivities have been scaled down. The celebrations, bereft of all the grandiose, have been muted.
(AP/Aaron Favila)
A dog looks as a Catholic priest sprinkles holy water during a drive-through blessing done to prevent the spread of the coronavirus at the Eastwood mall in Quezon city, Philippines. Pets are traditionally blessed every first Sunday of October to celebrate the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, considered the patron saint of animals and environment by the Catholic Church.
(AP/Emilio Morenatti)
Newlyweds and guests leave the church during a wedding in Barcelona, Spain.
(AP/Lee Jin-man)
Buddhist monks and believers walk along a stream in Seoul, South Korea. About 100 monks and followers marched the 310-mile pilgrimage to pray for the country to overcome the coronavirus.
(AP/Rebecca Blackwell)
A steel framework providing a platform for workers and supports for a planned roof encases the damaged church cupola, during the early stages of reconstruction work at Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles, or Our Lady of Angels church, three years after an earthquake collapsed nearly half of its 18th-century dome in Mexico City. It is so dangerous to stand beneath the remains of the dome that the tons of steel structures are made off-site and then gingerly lowered into the crater at the center where the dome once stood.
(AP/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump attends church at International Church of Las Vegas as Pastor Pasqual Urrabazo (second from the right) gestures on stage in Las Vegas.
(AP/Vadim Ghirda)
Priests wearing masks against the covid-19 infection carry the remains of Saint Dimitrie Bassarabov, the patron saint of the Romanian capital, on the first of three days of pilgrimage, taking place at a much smaller scale than usual, due to the pandemic control imposed measures in Bucharest, Romania. Romania’s daily tally of coronavirus infections rose above 5,000 for the first time last week and patients in intensive care units also reached a new high.
(AP/Altaf Qadri)
A private security man asks people not to look through from behind a curtain to watch Dussehra festival celebrations held where access was restricted due to the coronavirus pandemic in New Delhi. The Hindu festival season is traditionally laced with an unmatched fanfare and extravaganza, with socializing being the hallmark of the celebration. But this year’s festivities have been scaled down. The celebrations, bereft of all the grandiose, have been muted.
(AP/Ariana Cubillos)
A devotee of late Venezuelan Dr. Jose Gregorio Hernandez holds up his picture and a rosary outside La Candelaria church where he is buried in Caracas, Venezuela. The remains of the doctor popularly known as the “Saint of the Poor” were exhumed in a private ceremony inside the church as part of a Vatican request for the beatification process of the first Venezuelan layperson.
(AP Photo)
Volunteer doctors Aram Grigoryan (right) and Eleonora Ovanesyan (center) pray with a priest in a church during a military conflict in Stepanakert, the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP/Jacquelyn Martin)
Violinist Melanie Hill performs during the “Mourning Into Unity” vigil on a section of 16th Street that has been renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House in Washington. Washington’s Church of the Epiphany hosted a national candlelight vigil where hundreds of feet of purple fabric symbolizing mourning during covid-19 was unfurled.