Max Rossi / Reuters
Faithful attend a candlelight procession to mark the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council at the Vatican, Oct. 11, 2012. Pope Benedict XVI urged lapsed and lukewarm Roman Catholics to rediscover their Church and stop the advance of "spiritual desertification."
Previously on PhotoBlog: Pope inaugurates 'Year of Faith' amid concerns over rising secularism
Stefano Rellandini / Reuters
Pope Benedict XVI arrives to conduct mass to open the year of faith at the Vatican October 11, 2012.
Stefano Rellandini / Reuters
Pope Benedict XVI waves as he arrives to conduct mass.
Bishops walk in a solemn procession through St Peter's Square as they arrive for a mass led by the pontiff.
Bishops from around the world gather for the mass.
Stefano Rellandini / Reuters
A Swiss guard stands before the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI.
Pope Benedict opened a global "Year of Faith" as he conducted mass in St. Peter's Square on Thursday, Agence France Presse reports. The Vatican is celebrating the 50th anniversary of a council that changed the face of Catholicism, as it tries to rekindle the religious fervor of the time amid rising secularism.
A Pew Research Center study released Tuesday found that one in five Americans is religiously unaffiliated, including one in three adults under 30.
Read a transcript of the Pope's homily at The National Catholic Register.
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Damian Dovarganes / AP
Inmate Robert Ross, 32, far left, a leader in the seminary training program sings one of his musical compositions during a college-level seminary course held at the California Rehabilitative Center in Norco, Calif. The program aims to transform inmates into church leaders, pastors, teachers and evangelists.
The Associated Press reports from Norco, Calif. — Robert Ross' mother died while he was in prison for robbing a bank and he hasn't seen his 12-year-old son since the boy was in diapers.
Damian Dovarganes / AP
William Johnson, 38, foreground, attends a college-level seminary course at the California Rehabilitative Center. The nonprofit group Prison Fellowship, which trains volunteers and runs the rigorous, three-year course behind prison walls, graduated its first class of 10 inmates last year and expects to graduate 14 more in 2013.
For all that he has lost, however, Ross says he found something far greater behind bars thanks to a college-level seminary course that trains inmates to establish churches and evangelize in poor communities upon their release.
"When I tell people that I'm grateful for the 15 years 4 months that I was sentenced to, people look at me like I'm crazy or maybe on some kind of medication, and they ask 'Why?' and I tell 'em, 'Well, it took that for me to find out who Jesus is and really fall in love with him and let him do his work in me,'" he said. "Had I not been arrested, I'm sure I would be dead." Read the full story.
Editor's note: Photos taken on August 9, 2012 and made available to NBC News on September 12, 2012.
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Ariel Schalit / AP
American tourist Ella uses an iPad while riding a Wi-Fi-outfitted donkey led by her brother Aaron, in Kfar Kedem, a biblical reenactment park in the village of Hoshaya in the Galilee, northern Israel, on August 22, 2012.
Ariel Schalit / AP
American tourist Peter Scherr uses an iPad to send a photograph on August 22, 2012.
The Associated Press reports — Call it back to the future: an Israeli attraction meant to immerse tourists in a biblical experience has outfitted its donkeys with wireless routers.
At the historical park of Kfar Kedem, visitors dressed in biblical robes and headdresses ride donkeys through the rolling hills of the Galilee, learning how people lived in Old Testament times.
But they can also surf the web while touring the land of the Bible on one of the oldest forms of transportation. The device slung around the donkey's neck like a feedback is actually a Wi-Fi router.
The park's manager, Menachem Goldberg, said Wednesday he hopes the melding of old and new will connect the younger generation to ancient Galilee life — while allowing them to share, tweet and snap the experience instantly to friends.
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Siegfried Modola / Reuters
Siegfried Modola / Reuters
Orthodox Christian pilgrims pray at Bet Medhane Alem, a rock-cut church, in Lalibela, Ethiopia, Aug. 19. These pictures were made available to NBCNews.com on Aug. 21. View more photos of churches on PhotoBlog.
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Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA
Barbara Knowles of Philadelphia, reads the Bible outside the US Capitol during the International Bible Reading Association's 23rd annual US Capitol Bible Reading Marathon in Washington, DC.
Today marks the end of 90 hours of Bible reading outside the US Capitol. See more PhotoBlog images related to Christianity specifically, and religion in general.
K.M. Chaudary / AP
Pakistani Christians hold candles during an Easter vigil Mass in a church in Lahore, Pakistan, April 7.
As Christians took part in celebrations in Pakistan and other parts of the world, Pope Benedict XVI presided over services at the Vatican:
Pope Benedict, leading the world's Catholics into Easter, said on Saturday that technological progress, in the absence of awareness of God and moral values, is a threat to the world.
-- Reported by msnbc.com news services
Around the world, Christians celebrate the holiest week of the year.
Daniel Ochoa De Olza / AP
Penitents from 'Jesus Yacente' brotherhood take part in a procession in Zamora, Spain, in the early hours of Friday, April 6. Hundreds of processions take place throughout Spain during the Easter Holy Week.
Jim Gold, msnbc.com reports: Religious observances intersect this year for two major faiths. As Christians around the world continue their Holy Week with Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday, Jews will begin Passover on Friday at sunset. The confluence comes as the Jewish lunar-based calendar makes the 15th of the Hebrew month of Nisan fall on Good Friday.
Around the world, Christians celebrate the holiest week of the year.
Gianluigi Guercia / AFP - Getty Images
The dead body of Pope Shenouda III, the spiritual leader of the Middle East's largest Christian minority, sits dressed in formal robes on a wooden throne at the Saint Mark's Coptic Cathedral in Cairo's al-Abbassiya district, for the people to bid farewell to him on March 19, 2012.
Tens of thousands of Egyptian Christians converged on Saint Mark's Coptic Cathedral in Cairo to bid farewell to Pope Shenouda III, who died on March 16 at the age of 88 after a long illness, Agence France-Presse reports.
Based on his wishes, Pope Shenouda will be buried on Tuesday at St. Bishoy monastery in Wadi Natrun in the Nile Delta, where he spent his time in exile after a dispute with late president Anwar Sadat.
His death set in motion the process to elect a new patriarch for the Middle East's largest Christian community.
Gianluigi Guercia / AFP - Getty Images
Christian Copts push to enter Saint Mark's Coptic Cathedral in Cairo on March 19, 2012 where tens of thousands bade farewell to Pope Shenouda III.
Gianluigi Guercia / AFP - Getty Images
Coptic nuns mourn the death of Pope Shenouda III in Saint Mark's Coptic Cathedral on March 19, 2012.
Gianluigi Guercia / AFP - Getty Images
Copts wait in line to enter Saint Mark's Coptic Cathedral on March 19, 2012.
Khaled Desouki / AFP - Getty Images
A Coptic Christian mourns the death of Pope Shenouda III, the spiritual leader of the Middle East's largest Christian minority on March 18.
Khaled Desouki / AFP - Getty Images
An Egyptian Christian Copt mourns the death of Pope Shenouda III, spiritual leader of the Middle East's largest Christian minority, in Saint Mark Cathedral in Cairo.
Christians gathered on Sunday to pay final respects to Pope Shenouda III, who sought to soothe sectarian tension in his four decades atop Egypt's Orthodox Church but saw increasing flare-ups in the majority Muslim nation in the last months of his life.
Friction has worsened since President Hosni Mubarak, who suppressed Islamists, was ousted last year. Since then Shenouda, who died on Saturday aged 88, often called for harmony and regularly met Muslim and other leaders.
Christians, who comprise about a tenth of Egypt's 80 million people, have long complained of discrimination and in the past year stepped up protests, which included calls for new rules that would make it as easy to build a church as a mosque.
Shenouda had served as the 117th Pope of Alexandria since November 1971, leading the Orthodox community who make up most of Egypt's Christians. His funeral will be held on Tuesday, Egyptian state media reported.
-- Reuters contributed to this blog post
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Esam Omran Al-Fetori / Reuters
Egyptian Christians gather to mourn the death of Pope Shenouda III, the head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church, outside the Abbasiya Cathedral in Cairo on March 18.
Ammar Awad / Reuters
A Coptic Christian priest holds candles next to a picture of Egyptian Coptic Christian Pope Shenouda III in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City on March 18.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
A competitor loses control of his pancake while racing during the Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, tradition at the National Cathedral on Tuesday in Washington, DC. Pancake racers use frying pans to flip a cake three times while running about 30 meters against fellow competitors. Shrove Tuesday is the day preceding Ash Wednesday, the first day of the Christian season of Lent.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Father Matthew Hanisian, assistant rector at St. Alban's Parish, flips a pancake while racing.
Karen Bleier / AFP - Getty Images
A young competitor loses his pancake while running his heat on Tuesday during the annual Washington National Cathedral Pancake Race in Washington, DC.
Ahmad Gharabli / AFP - Getty Images
Christian pilgrims take part in a mass baptism ceremony at the Jordan River at Yardenit in northern Israel on Tuesday. According to the gospels Jesus Christ was baptized in the water of the Jordan River by John the Baptist.
Abir Sultan / EPA
US pilgrims in the Jordan River during a Baptism ceremony at the popular Baptism site at Yardenit, before the Jordan River exits into the Sea of Galilee, in northern Israel, on Tuesday. The site is a popular destination for Christians and Baptists who visit Israel and retrace the footsteps of Jesus Christ in the holy land.
Ahmad Gharabli / AFP - Getty Images
Christian pilgrims take part in a mass baptism ceremony at the Jordan River at Yardenit in northern Israel on Tuesday.
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