A new reformation for the 21st century must transcend "the current forms and boundaries of Christianity," resist simplistic answers to contemporary challenges and contribute to uniting into ‘One Body' all of humanity, together with all of creation.

On the second day of The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Thirteenth Assembly in Kraków, Poland, keynote speaker Monsignor Tomáš Halík urged participants from across the global Lutheran communion to be "witnesses to the ongoing resurrection of the Giver of Hope,".

They could do this by working for a spiritual renewal that goes beyond national, religious, social or cultural boundaries, he said.

Ecclesia semper reformanda

In his keynote address to delegates attending the 13 to 19 September Assembly, Halík recalled that the Church must be "ever reforming, […] especially in times of great change and crisis in our common world."

Reformation is necessary, he said, "where form hinders content, where it inhibits the dynamism of the living core."

Looking back to the Lutheran and Catholic Reformations of the 16th century, he noted that they "renewed and deepened Christianity, but they also divided it."

The 20th century, he said, "saw the beginning of two great parallel reformations - the global expansion of Pentecostal Christianity and the Second Vatican Council," marking the Catholic Church's transition from "confessional closedness […] to universal ecumenical openness."

But the ecumenism of the 21st century, he continued, must go much further than the ecumenism of the previous one.

Just as St Paul had the courage to lead "Christianity out of the narrow confines of one of the Jewish sects and into the broader ecumene" during "the first reformation," Halík said, Christianity today has a role.

Christianity today needs "to transcend existing mental and institutional, confessional, cultural and social boundaries in order to fulfil its universal mission."

Faith and critical thinking

Reflecting on the "constant struggle between grace and sin, faith and unbelief, waged in every human heart," he called for an "honest dialogue" between believers and unbelievers living together in pluralistic societies.

"Faith and critical thinking need each other," he insisted, adding that a "mature faith can live with the open questions of the time and resist the temptation of the too-simple answers offered by dangerous contemporary ideologies."

Turning to questions of religious identity, he noted that "populists, nationalists and religious fundamentalists exploit this fear [of identity loss] for their own power and economic interests."

They exploit it, he said, "in the same way that the fear for the salvation of one's soul was exploited when indulgences were for sale" in Luther's days.

Comparing Luther to the Catholic mystics of that era, he said, "I am convinced that Luther's theology of the cross needs to be renewed, rethought and deepened today."

Part of the new reformation or "new evangelization," Halík said, "is also a transformation of the way of mission. We cannot approach others as arrogant possessors of truth."

The goal of mission, he reflected, "is not to recruit new church members, to squeeze them into the existing mental and institutional boundaries of our churches but to go beyond" to create a "mutually enriching dialogue" with those of other beliefs and none.

Reconciliation and spiritual discernment

In central and eastern Europe, Halík said, where countries suffered "the dark night of communist persecution," Churches have an important role to play in the process of reconciliation.

"Democracy cannot be established and sustained merely by changing political and economic conditions" he warned, but instead requires "a certain moral and spiritual climate."

Halík also warned that Churches that become corrupted by political regimes deprive themselves of a future. "When the Church enters into culture wars with its secular environment, it always comes out of them defeated and deformed."

The alternative to culture wars, he noted, "is not conformity and cheap accommodation, but a culture of spiritual discernment."

A renewed and newly understood Christian spirituality, he concluded, "can make a significant contribution to the spiritual culture of humanity today, even far beyond the churches." Read more

• Tomáš Halík served as advisor to Václav Havel, the first Czech president following the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the Cold War. A professor of sociology and head of the Religious Studies Department at Prague's Charles University, he is also the recipient of numerous awards for his work to promote human rights, religious freedom and interfaith dialogue.

The report, released just before Italy's first Synodal Assembly, highlights a shifting landscape in Italy's religious practices and challenges for the Catholic Church.

Growing individualism

Of those identifying as Catholic, only 15.3% attend church regularly, while 34.9% participate occasionally and 20.9% say they are "practising".

This trend is particularly stark among younger Italians, with just 10.9% of 18-34 year-olds practising their faith.

The report points to "religious individualism" as a key factor, with 56.1% of those disengaged from the Church and citing a preference for private, personal expressions of faith.

Giuseppe De Rita, president of Censis, says "The grey area in the Church of today is the result of the prevailing individualism of course, but also of a Church that struggles to indicate a beyond.

"The Church has always helped Italian society to go beyond.

"It must rediscover this capacity, because a Church which is only horizontal does not intercept those drunk with individualism. For them, it is not enough to replace ‘I' with a ‘we'. They need something beyond, something that takes them past the self.

"It is no coincidence—and this should concern us as Catholics—that extremisms are on the rise globally."

Old-fashioned Church needs to adapt

The report identifies disconnects between younger Catholics and traditional church practices.

Almost 58% of young Italians claim some connection to Catholicism, yet many express disinterest in conventional participation.

Among practising Catholics, 60.8% believe the Church needs to adapt to contemporary society, a sentiment reflecting broader cultural shifts.

Research also suggests concerns over the Church's relevance, with many viewing it as "too old-fashioned".

Among those who feel disconnected, 45.1% say the Church is outdated while 27.8% cite a lack of clear direction.

Additionally, 43.6% of Italians view the Church as male-dominated, with women's roles a noted point of contention.

Abuse scandals impact Church credibility

Abuse allegations within the Church have further affected public perception, with 7 in 10 Italians, including 6 in 10 practising Catholics, stating that these scandals undermine the Church's credibility.

Many see the Church's slow response to modern issues as another reason for disengagement.

"The desire for a more courageous Church is evident" the study notes, as 49.2% of Italians call for a stronger lay involvement. This finding aligns with a broader push for the Church to be more inclusive and transparent.

Faith remains integral to Italy's cultural identity

Despite these challenges, 79.8% of Italians say their cultural roots are Catholic. 66% pray and 61.4% consider Catholicism central to Italy's national identity.

Religious symbols like the cross and figures such as the Virgin Mary remain significant for many Italians, even among non-believers.

As the Italian Bishops' Conference prepares for the Synodal Assembly which will host delegates from across Italy, the study emphasises a crucial challenge: how to modernise the Church while preserving its role in Italy's spiritual and cultural life.

Source

• Avvenire

Census 2023 found that almost half of New Zealanders (48 percent) identified as belonging to an organised religion while 51.6 percent said they had none at all.

Further Census analysis shows that although a third of us identify as Christian, the proportion of people with "no religion" increased by 3.4 percent between 2018 and 2023.

The Census found New Zealand's next largest religious groupings were Hindu at 2.9 percent, then Islam at 1.5 percent.

What's happening?

"The message of Jesus Christ and his Gospel continues to resonate with more than 1.5 million people [a third of us] around our country" the NZ Catholic Bishops Conference comments.

But what does that even mean, wonders Facebook correspondent Russell Hoban as he ponders the Bishops' Conference Facebook announcement.

He says it begs the question - what does it mean for someone to identify as Christian, is it a cultural and social identity as well?

Is it about how often they attend church? Only 12 percent attend a church service at least once a week and 38 percent go only on special occasions - or never go.

Anglican Archbishop Justin Duckworth says New Zealand has moved past a time where there was a "cultural normality" around the Christian faith.

He thinks this is because of a greater recognition of te ao Maori - which is a good thing.

"Across the Western world, there has also been a continuing move towards a secular materialist worldview and a move away from traditional religious beliefs" he observes.

Massey University's Professor Emeritus of History Peter Lineham says young people lead the move away from Christian affiliation.

"The shift is taking place in younger people who no longer see any need to connect with a religious organisation unless they have a strong commitment to it."

Where most parents sent their children to Sunday School, most don't these days - "so, there's very little natural attraction that religions have to widespread numbers of young people".

The sacredness of Sunday had gone and religion was no longer automatically assumed to be good, he says.

Feed the people

Duckworth thinks people are spiritually hungry and aware but are withdrawing from inherited faith traditions in some places.

"A question we always have to ask ourselves is: Are the forms of our worshipping tradition limiting the ability for people to connect with the ultimate message that we think is important?"

The Census provides further encouragement to ask that question deeply, he says.

Source

• NZ Herald
• Facebook
• Newstalk ZB

I don't think they know much about ideology nor give much time to studying it. But they do know what is humanly best for the poorest.

They do know what God wants and the Gospel calls for, namely ‘love of neighbour'.

They do what Jesus, who once walked this earth in person and now lives on in his risen presence, taught his followers to do.

‘Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned, shelter the homeless, look after the weakest, protect Mother Earth, and follow me by taking an option for the poor and the neglected.'

They have accepted that such hospitality and outreach sits at the heart of the gospel for our time.

Ideology

I have spent much of my life studying various ideologies, some a lot closer to the gospel teachings than others. Ideology can often be the fall-back
position of those unwilling to open their hearts to further expansion.

While corporate capitalism (think the US, UK, Australia and NZ) is about as far away from the teachings of Jesus as you can imagine, state socialism
isn't much better.

Just look at Russia and China, to mention only two giant players. Both corporate capitalism and state socialism rely on materialism and its bastard off-spring, consumerism, as their primary goal.

Its siblings are greed and status, their principal driving forces. The more one accumulates the better one is perceived to be. Both systems fail the gospel test - they fail to take account of how greed corrupts the soul and materialism cannot ever fill the heart.

In New Zealand, we see the effects of corporate capitalism every day.

To take one huge example. We hear about the ‘housing crisis' which is very real and has wealthy speculators to thank for much of its development.

Forty years ago there was no ‘housing crisis' per se.

Getting a first home was manageable for most steady workers who were paid enough to get a house and pay a mortgage. Now tens of thousands in this country cannot afford a place to either buy or rent a suitable home.

This has led to a huge growth in poverty levels, inadequate warm and safe homes, growing homelessness and the associated lower standards of
living (food, adequate healthcare, stable education) that accompany rising poverty levels.

A couple of other measuring sticks. There are many houses in affluent suburbs with only one of two occupants bigger than that some medieval
English castles.

We also see on our roads vehicles, nearly all of them bigger by half than the ones our parents drove. One suspects they are seen mostly as signs of status by their owners.

Who cares about the earth warming when we can drive these huge vehicles, block up our highways and look prosperous? Bigger, flasher, more expansive is the name of the corporate capitalist game.

Ideologically bound

The thing about ideology is that it can enslave people within its parameters and not allow them in any way to think ‘outside the square'.

The co-founder of the Catholic Worker, Dorothy Day, saw this through learned and sometimes bitter experience as she moved from dappling with communism, through radical feminism and socialism - and found them all ideologies which short-changed her.

After studying the Gospels through the eyes of the poor and living with them for decades, she came to see that while all ideologies fall short of
delivering on their promises, the practice of personalism - recognising the divine spark of God's presence in everyone and honouring them for that - was closest to the teachings of Jesus.

He did not judge people rather their actions. He had friends among both rich and poor.

Remember, he was buried in the wealthy man Nathanael's tomb. But he mainly identified with the poor whom he saw were closest to God in their living and more open to his message.

Dorothy always sought to blow the embers of those divine sparks into life through friendship and meeting the primary needs of the poor. And through creating small supportive communities among them.

She even argued every parish should have a house of hospitality for the homeless and the needy. And why not is as valid a valid question today as it was in
her time.

Synodality

As the institutional Church in the developed world continues to shrink in both size and influence, we could do well to learn from such experiences as the New Brighton Anglicans (and there are some other parish communities around the country who do similar outreach as well) to help add some vibrancy and life to what appear to many to be tired old Catholic structures.

New Brighton offers a model of what a synodal church might look a bit like - localised but linked to the centre, outreaching, guided but not dominated
by its minister, living a gospel fuelled with compassion, justice, inclusivity, openness and holding a special sensitivity towards the poor, neglected,
isolated and abandoned.

It's not perfect model but it is a good start!

A synodal church will not change doctrines but will broaden our vision as to how we go about our business of witnessing to Christ in our time. And our time may be shorter than we think.

With the world becoming more crowded and forced migration exploding, the planet heating up and more species becoming extinct daily, the so-called free-market economic system betraying the vast majority of the world's peoples, Pope Francis has warned that time may be short to take the radical steps necessary to
prevent a catastrophe of even greater proportion injustice developing inour lifetime.

Conclusion

That should set us all thinking. We all have a part to play in saving our planet for future generations and developing the Church to meet the needs of our time.

If we believe the teachings of Jesus are the way forward as did Dorothy Day in the Great Depression, World War II and the 1960s - 70s, then there is no time to waste in our generation of uncertainty, rising inequality, war and the climate crisis.

As the prophet Emmanual Charle McCarthy teaches, "Christ is Risen does not mean Jesus lives on in history as Lenin lives on in his revolution.

"Jesus does not live on because people have faith in him and proclaim his teaching. The reverse is true.

"People have faith in him and proclaim his teaching because he lives."

If we truly believe Christ is Risen and lives on in our lives, we have no option but to become involved working to improve things on our planet, in our country and our local communities. And that means social justice for all.

• Father Jim Consedine was ordained in 1969. He has been a member of the Catholic Worker in Christchurch for 20 years and writes on peace and justice issues.

"The interest aroused in France by the restoration of Notre Dame is very telling," he explained to OSV News.

Identity

"In the current context, where society tends to become unstructured, Christian religious elements are still perceived by the French as a precious heritage.

"That's because they help preserve the French identity, which seems to be dissolving in a changing world.

"Our society is marked by anxiety about its future," Portier pointed out.

"When the French, and even more widely Europeans, are surveyed, they express a great deal of pessimism.

"They used to say that tomorrow would be better than today. And today, it is the other way around.

"The general feeling is that the future will be bleaker than the present," emphasised Portier.

He's known as a professor of world-renowned French political science schools such as Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes and Sciences Po Paris.

"Faced with this, people tend to revalue the past, and the heritage that is its legacy," he added.

"Heritage elements appear as reassuring refuges in a period of doubt, and loss of benchmarks."

It has little to do with faith, he said, however, with "little effect on religious practice, and no impact on people's moral positions, which are disconnected from those of the Church."

Nevertheless - people do not want to cut ties with the roots of their past identity, Portier pointed out.

"They are attached to their village church, and they give money to help preserve it. Today's interest in Notre Dame Cathedral is part of this attitude."

CIASE

From 2019 to 2021, Portier was a member of the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church, known by its French acronym CIASE.

It was set up in 2018 by the French bishops to investigate sexual abuse committed in the Catholic Church since the 1950s.

In October 2021, CIASE published a report that indicated that 216,000 children had been abused by Catholic clergy since 1950 - a number that shocked France and the Catholic world.

The sociologist and political scientist said that establishing the commission helped rebuild the Church's trust and, in consequence, make it a more reliable institution in a society going fast down the path of "de-Christianisation."

"The work of this commission considerably accelerated the process of raising awareness of sexual abuse in the French Church, a process already underway since the late 1990s," Portier explained.

"It marked a radical turning point in dealing with abuse. Since then, bishops and religious congregations have been taking reparation and prevention measures very seriously.

They acknowledged the facts, recognised and accepted the Church's responsibility as well as their own. … My thesis today is that the French bishops are doing a good job in this area.

"In the face of abuse, the dynamic launched by the Church in France is going in the right direction," Portier told OSV News.

"At the very top of the state, decision-makers have followed this affair very closely," he said.

"For the political elites in France, Catholicism continues to be a stabilising element in the architecture of society, due to its central place in the history of the nation.

"Everyone praised the work of CIASE and the courage of the Church of France, which commissioned it," the French professor emphasised.

"Beyond the political elite, since this report there has been a return of confidence in the Catholic Church within society as a whole," Portier continued.

"This is evident in recent polls I conducted. In modern democracy, where individuals count more than institutions, society places transparency at the heart of its functioning.

"An institution that shows itself to be transparent, as the Church has done, has everything to gain.

"Today, in general, the Church is recognised for having taken matters into its own hands with courage, and for acting with determination."

Baptisms increasing

Since 1970, the Church in France has been losing 10 percent of its membership every 10 years, and today only 30 percent of French people claim to be Catholic, Portier said.

But "we now see that this figure is no longer falling. The decline is stabilising. There are even signs, not of a new rise, but of a significant increase in the number of adults asking for baptism."

Over 12,000 people, both adults and adolescents, were baptised in France on Easter.

That is a record number in the country that at the same time made abortion a constitutional right on March 4 and started a heated debate on legalising euthanasia. Read more

• Philippe Portier is a member of the French Independent Commission on sexual abuse in church.

"I do think we are culturally a Christian country. I call myself a cultural Christian."

He said this in an interview with Rachel Johnson for LBC radio, in which they discussed how the Muslim month of Ramadan was being celebrated in London's Oxford Street, instead of the Christian feast of Easter.

Dawkins, whose scientist atheism was memorably dismantled by the critique of Terry Eagleton, said in that same interview that he recognised the benefits of Christian culture and enjoyed "living in a culturally Christian country".

At the same time though, he did "not believe a word of the Christian faith".

In slightly different terms, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former Muslim and now former atheist, recently declared that she has converted to Christianity: the announcement of a political conversion, as a "desire to uphold the legacy of the Judeo-Christian tradition."

This is one of the possible responses to the collapse of cultural Christianity in Europe and in the West: not just in terms of the political inability of the Churches to maintain a certain role of religion in the public square through legislation, however.

It's also a possible response in terms of "ex-culturation" (as French sociologist of religion Danièle Hervieu-Léger called it more than two decades ago) and "de-culturation" (as French political scientist Olivier Roy named it in more recent times).

This is not new.

I remember the attempt in the mid-1990s by Cardinal Camillo Ruini (for many years president of the Italian bishops' conference and John Paul II's vicar for the Diocese of Rome), to launch a "cultural project" for Italian Catholicism.

One of the unintended (or maybe intended) consequences of that project was the rise in Berlusconi's Italy between the mid-1990s and the early 2000s of the so-called "devout atheists" on the right side of the ideological spectrum.

It's a project which evidently did not accomplish its goals given that Italian Catholicism is on its way, even though in its own way, towards ex-culturation and de-culturation similar to other European countries.

Relationship between Gospel and culture

Until a few years ago, a certain kind of progressive and liberal Catholic used to rejoice for the collapse of cultural Christianity, which was seen as a burden from Christendom and an obstacle for the transmission of a purer Gospel message.

Now things appear a little more complex in the relationship between Gospel and culture.

Clearly embracing Christianity instrumentally, for cultural and political reasons, is often a fearful reaction against the diversification of our societies, against the lost dominance of Christianity in favor of the growing presence of other religious identities (especially Islam) in the Western world.

It is not surprising that more and more often these "political" conversions arrive in Europe from the far left or militant secularism.

From a theological point of view, professing an attachment to the culture of Christianity as a defense against other religious and cultural identities is clearly problematic.

The first problem is because a political-cultural Christianity instrumentalises the legacy produced by believers in Jesus Christ (believers in various and always imperfect ways) for goals that are not the ones of the Gospel.

It embraces a particularly narrow view of Christian culture that does not recognise the authority of non-Western Christianities (sometimes with traditions older than the Roman Catholic Church) because they cannot be identified with European Christendom.

Leaving the Christian message in the hands of this kind of "cultural Christianity" entails many consequences and not just in terms of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue and of civil coexistence in our multi-religious societies.

It also prevents a correct interpretation of the Gospel which is not at the service of one particular culture at the exclusion of others.

It is not surprising, therefore, that this new wave of cultural Christianity contains a political theology that both liberal-secular mainstream and progressive Christians clearly do not appreciate because it is a preparation or already part of a civilisational war.

Understanding of "culture"

Two questions arise here.

The first question concerns intellectual and academic work. What are the differences and similarities between this kind of "cultural Christianity" on the right and the radical-progressive political theologies on the left?

Within the Churches in the West, including the Catholic Church, there is another kind of cultural Christianity that risks being similarly opportunistic towards the Gospel.

Important streams in 21st-century political theology around race and gender in academic departments in Anglo-American universities are often a form of cultural attachment to and development of the liberationist turn of Christian thought.

But often without any reference to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the faith perspective, in absence of references to the incarnational-sacramental imagination, ecclesial intentionality, and the graces of the Incarnation and the Resurrection.

This kind of progressive cultural Christianity has been a more welcome guest in academic theology in the West.

It remains to be seen if and how this challenge from "cultural Christians" will impact liberal-progressive theology that operationalizes an understanding of "culture" as a gateway to more diversity, inclusion, and dialogue.

The second question concerns the relationship between faith and culture in today's Church.

It's the symptom of the new semantics of "culture" from something that silently unites in lived experiences to something that becomes a politically militant platform in defense of a lost homogeneity.

But we must pay attention to the intergenerational character of these conversions, which no longer concern only the elderly struggling with nostalgia, but also a certain number of young people.

It's not, as it was in the early post-Vatican II period, an archeological, Agatha Christie-like passion for the splendor of a bygone era. Now it's something different.

Tensions between "the West and the rest"

More crucially, this wave of "cultural Christians" represents one of the tensions between "the West and the rest" during this pontificate.

In ways significantly different from his predecessors, Pope Francis embodies a non-European, "global south" Catholicism that vindicates the need for a process of liberation from Western culture, and a deeper inculturation in local non-Western traditions, in order to be more Catholic.

Conversely, "cultural Christians" in the West are looking for the opposite: a recovery of the cultural legacy of Christianity bestowed in past centuries - philosophy, literature, arts - to preserve some sense of collective self.

This clash of trajectories runs deeper than the usual, lazy, and largely Western "liberal vs. conservative" characterization of what is happening in Catholicism today.

The problem of the relationship between Christianity and culture has re-emerged at this time of disestablishment of the ecclesiastical and theological system created by the Churches in the West over the centuries.

Theologically, Dawkins's "a-Christian Christianity" is the wrong answer to that problem.

But it's also an unconscious way to ask the real question that is on the horizon: what it means, in the globaliesd Church of today, to begin a new phase of inculturation in the West now ex-culturated from Christianity.

• First published in La Croix International
• Massimo Faggioli is an Italian academic, Church historian, professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University and columnist for La Croix International

Thomas Schlag is Professor of Practical Theology at the University of Zurich, where he heads the Centre for Church Development, where he conducts research into participation and church development.

In this interview, he talks about the future of global Christianity and how it will change.

Decline of Christianity

Question: Mr Schlag, Christianity around the world is very colourful: in Latin America, for example, indigenous traditions are coming into focus, while small new free churches are sprouting up in South Korea. Can general trends be identified despite this diversity?

Schlag: A general trend is the decline of a certain form of institutional Christianity, with traditional structures in terms of hierarchy and authority.

This also means that this usually somewhat more liberal form of Christianity seems to be becoming a minority position worldwide.

As part of our research, a major study has just been published on the so-called International Christian Fellowship (ICF) an evangelical movement.

It attracts relatively large numbers of younger people, particularly in Switzerland and southern Germany.

It shows a tendency that we discover again and again: it is all about clarity. A demand for clarity and a reduction in complexity.

These movements are currently successful - worldwide.

In the USA, but also in South Africa and South Korea - I have a better understanding of these contexts - we find such movements. And in societies that are explicitly modern and characterised by world experience, modernity, globality and digitality.

In any case, the old thesis that the more modern a society becomes, the more secular it becomes, cannot really be upheld. In fact, I think it is simply wrong.

Faith

Question: So a simple faith is in demand right now, even in modern societies. Is the world becoming too complicated for people and are they looking for simple answers? There is also this thesis with regard to political populism.

Schlag: You can actually get that impression. A world that is constantly accelerating - and then cuts like corona.

Many people want a place where one question is not followed by ten more. Instead, they want clear paths.

This is also evident in our ICF study. I had previously thought that people go to this free church primarily because of the special community.

That was also important, but the sermons were obviously the biggest attraction. Because these are not the classic liberal sermons with a doctrinal character. Rather, they are everyday lectures. The language and metaphors clearly focus on everyday life.

The point is: if you take this or that path, then you are cutting a swathe through the forest of complexity with Jesus Christ.

Community

Question: There are two groups of free churches: Hillsong Church, which originated in Australia, mainly attracts people who have not had much to do with religion before - the sermons are correspondingly simple and superficial.

However, in African countries, for example, many people are turning to the free churches, who certainly have a solid knowledge of religion. How is it that this programme appeals to these two such different groups?

Schlag: For those who have not previously belonged to a church community, the programme is low-threshold. It is an elementary approach, concepts become clear, even for someone who has never heard of it before.

For example, parables or a word of Jesus are presented in such an attractive way, which also has something to do with the rhetorical style.

The aforementioned ICF study also provided exciting insights into those who are already able to speak in church: According to this, a high proportion of highly qualified people are involved there.

In other words, these are people who know how complicated the world is. But they appreciate the fact that the sermons are easy and quick to grasp because the content is clear. So this idea applies to both groups.

There are always one or two small thoughts that you can take with you into everyday life. So this also has great practical relevance. Then of course there is the social network, where personal contacts and recognition await.

In contrast, many popular church institutions have not yet realised that you can't just declare community as an offer, you have to shape it in a targeted way. This mixture of simple messages and the way out of the singularity of the anonymous big city is what makes it so appealing.

Clarity and relevance

Question: Does that mean that even highly educated people want to have something to switch off spiritually once a week without having to think about it?

Schlag: Yes, with all the ambivalences that this also triggers theologically. Because the visitors there also realise that if the world really were that simple, some questions would not arise.

It's more about this experience of clarity and practical relevance.

Evangelicals have repeatedly criticised the established churches for linking faith and intellectuality in an exciting way, but not fulfilling their emotional needs.

Adaptation

Question: Does this also have to do with the sometimes almost civil servant-like nature of the established church hierarchy?

Schlag: I think it's more of a self-imposed attitude: the more complicated life is, the more complicated theology becomes.

It is a problem that the established churches no longer manage to break down this complicated reality and put into simple words what it is actually about. It has to be well thought out and reflected upon - I wouldn't go below that level.

But it has to be generally understandable. Traditional communities have not yet adapted to the changes in society. There is still the image of the service church that is available and waiting for people to need it.

But many people today choose what form of community and education they want - regardless of what their parents' and grandparents' generation does. There is a global trend towards smaller, more manageable community structures where people feel welcome.

This doesn't just apply to the church.

Modern urban planning has also noticed that neighbourhoods in urban areas are becoming more important and people are looking for a way out of urban anonymity.

The established churches urgently need to consider what culture they have to offer. Read more

• Christoph Paul Hartmann is an editor for the Katholicsh.de newsletter

This is a setback for transgender people who had hoped Pope Francis might be setting the stage for a more welcoming approach from the Catholic Church.

World Religions

Around the world, major religions have diverse approaches to gender identity, and the inclusion or exclusion of transgender people.

Some examples:

Christianity

The Catholic Church's disapproving stance toward gender transition is shared by some other denominations.

For example, the Southern Baptist Convention - the largest Protestant denomination in the United States - adopted a resolution in 2014 stating that "God's design was the creation of two distinct and complementary sexes, male and female."

It asserts that gender identity "is determined by biological sex, not by one's self-perception"

However, numerous mainline Protestant denominations welcome trans people as members and as clergy.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America elected an openly transgender man as a bishop in 2021.

Islam

In Islam, there isn't a single central religious authority and policies can vary in different regions.

Abbas Shouman, secretary-general of Al-Azhar's Council of Senior Scholars in Cairo, said that "for us, … sex conversion is completely rejected.

"It is God who has determined the … sex of the fetus and intervening to change that is a change of God's creation, which is completely rejected," Shouman added.

In Iran, the Shiite theocracy's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a religious decree, or fatwa, decades ago, opening the way for official support for gender transition surgery.

Hinduism

In Hindu society in South Asia, while traditional roles were and are still prescribed for men and women, people of non-binary gender expression have been recognised for millennia and played important roles in holy texts.

Third gender people have been revered throughout South Asian history with many rising to significant positions of power under Hindu and Muslim rulers.

One survey in 2014 estimated that around 3 million third gender people live in India alone.

Sanskrit, the ancient language of Hindu scriptures, has the vocabulary to describe three genders - masculine, feminine and gender-neutral.

The most common group of third gender people in India are known as the "hijras." While some choose to undergo gender reassignment surgery, others are born intersex. Most consider themselves neither male or female.

Some Hindus believe third gender people have special powers and the ability to bless or curse, which has led to stereotyping causing the community to be feared and marginalised.

Many live in poverty without proper access to healthcare, housing and employment.

In 2014, India, Nepal and Bangladesh, which is a Muslim-majority country, officially recognised third gender people as citizens deserving of equal rights.

The Supreme Court of India stated that "it is the right of every human being to choose their gender," and that recognition of the group "is not a social or medical issue, but a human rights issue."

Buddhism

Buddhism has traditionally adhered to binary gender roles, particularly in its monastic traditions where men and women are segregated and assigned specific roles.

These beliefs remain strong in the Theravada tradition, as seen in the attempt of the Thai Sangha Council, the governing Buddhist body in Thailand, to ban ordinations of transgender people.

More recently, the Theravada tradition has somewhat eased restrictions against gender nonconforming people by ordaining them in their sex recorded at birth.

However, the Mahayana, and Vajrayana schools of Buddhism have allowed more exceptions while the Jodo Shinshu sect has been even more inclusive in ordaining transgender monks both in Japan and North America.

In Tibetan Buddhism, Tashi Choedup, an openly queer monk, was ordained after their teacher refrained from asking about their gender identity as prescribed by Buddhist doctrine.

Many Buddhist denominations, particularly in the West, are intentionally inclusive of transgender people in their sanghas or gatherings.

Judaism

Reform Judaism is accepting of transgender people and allows for the ordination of trans rabbis.

According to David J. Meyer, who served for many years as a rabbi in Marblehead, Massachusetts, Jewish traditional wisdom allowed possibilities of gender identity and expression that differed from those typically associated with the sex assigned at birth.

"Our mystical texts, the Kabbalah, address the notion of transitioning from one gender to another," he wrote on a Reform-affiliated website.

It's different, for the most part, in Orthodox Judaism.

"Most transgender people will find Orthodox communities extremely difficult to navigate," says the Human Rights Campaign, a major U.S. LGBTQ-rights advocacy group.

"Transgender people are further constrained by Orthodox Judaism's emphasis on binary gender and strict separation between men and women," the HRC says.

"For example, a transgender person who has not medically transitioned poses a challenge for a rabbi who must decide whether that person will sit with men or women during worship."

Rabbi Avi Shafran, spokesman for the Orthodox Jewish organization Agudath Israel of America, wrote a blog post last year after appearing on an Israeli television panel to discuss transgender-related issues.

"There can be no denying that there are people who are deeply conflicted about their gender identities.

"They deserve to be safe from harm and, facing challenges the rest of us don't, deserve empathy and compassion," Shafran wrote.

"But the Torah and its extension, halacha, or Jewish religious law, are unequivocal about the fact that being born in a male body requires living the life of a man, and being born female entails living as a woman."

"In Judaism, each gender has its particular life-role to play," he added.

"The bodies God gave us are indications of what we are and what we are not, and of how He wants us to live our lives."

• First published in Religion News Service
• David Crary is an author at Religion News Service. Mariam Fam and Deepa Bharath are reporters with The Associated Press' global religion team.

When we consider that our Lord Jesus, our Blessed Mother Mary, St. Joseph, the twelve apostles, and the very first disciples were practicing religious Jews.

We also need to consider that the Christian New Testament is firmly rooted in the Jewish Scriptures of the Old Testament.

Having considered, how can we not have but the highest respect for Judaism.

But having the necessary deep respect for Judaism does not therefore mean that Christians must also have respect for the unjust policies of the state of Israel toward Palestinians.

Opposing Israeli government injustice is not antisemitic. On the contrary, it calls Israel to a high moral standard in the spirit of the great Jewish prophets.

Human rights

Sadly, decades of human rights violations have occurred.

Violations like denying adequate supplies of water, blocking access to family farms and olive groves, as well as building Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land.

These are among the injustices Palestinians have long suffered in the Occupied Territories, especially in Gaza which is known as the world's largest outdoor prison.

The Oct. 7, 2023, brutal terrorist attacks by Hamas upon Israel, resulting in the deaths of approximately 1,200 Israeli children, women and men, was not right either.

Combined with the abduction of more than 200 Israeli hostages it is unconscionable and deserving of our condemnation.

But Israel's brutal response, resulting in over 30,000 deaths of mostly innocent unarmed civilian Palestinians in Gaza is also an act of terrorism.

It is an even worse terrorism than that suffered by Israel.

More 11,500 Palestinian children have been killed from Israeli bombs and missiles.

These were mostly supplied by the U.S. and several other nations resulting in large profits for numerous arms manufacturers.

Israel's determination to kill every single member of Hamas has resulted in the collective punishment of all Gazan Palestinians.

Hospitals, schools, neighbourhoods, and churches have not been spared from Israel's wholesale non-stop bombing.

Most Palestinians in Gaza have little or no access to clean water and sanitation, food, medicine and fuel due to Israel's blockade. United Nations experts have accused Israel of "intentionally starving" Palestinians in Gaza.

Genocide

Collective punishment is both gravely immoral, and an act against international law.

The International Court of Justice has ordered Israel to ensure that all vital supplies are to immediately be made available to every needy Gazan. And that all efforts to end hostilities are to be made.

However, Israel is ignoring international law and moral law.

Having suffered so terribly from the Holocaust, one would think that committing large scale murder of innocent children, women and men would be unthinkable for Israel.

Yet, almost unbelievably, Israel is committing genocide - yes, genocide - upon the innocents.

Furthermore, Israel is not even following the Mosaic principle of reciprocal justice, that is, measure for measure which states "eye for eye, tooth for tooth" (Exodus 21:23-27).

Instead, Israel has inflicted far more death and destruction upon mostly innocent Palestinians in Gaza, than it suffered from the deadly attacks of Hamas.

And of course, for Christians we must take to heart, and put into action, the most relevant words of the Jewish Jesus, the Christ, the Lord:

"You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, offer no [violent] resistance to one who is evil.

When someone strikes you on [your] right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. …

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you".

Pray for Peace

Therefore, let us tirelessly pray for peace in Gaza, and everywhere.

And let us unite with Pope Francis in his urgent call: "Stop the bombs and missiles now!"

• Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated Catholic social justice and peace columnist.

Cardinals, bishops, priests and lay Catholics, both men and women, are meeting Oct. 4-29, 2023, as part of the Synod on Synodality: an effort Pope Francis launched in 2021 to generate dialogue among Catholics.

More than two weeks into the synod's first global assembly, participants are largely keeping quiet.

Opening the synod, Francis called for a "fasting of the public word," encouraging delegates to focus inward and treat discussions as private.

The goal of the three-year synod process is to consult with everyday Catholics worldwide about their concerns and experiences, guiding leaders' decision-making as the church enters its third millennium amid new challenges.

Controversial issues such as women's roles in ministry and LGBTQ+ people's place in the church dominate synod-related headlines, and are presumably being discussed.

Often overlooked, however, is an even more fundamental issue: what power and authority should look like in the church.

Far-reaching process

The synod began with listening sessions at parishes, Catholic universities and other Catholic settings across the globe.

All dioceses - the geographic regions into which the Catholic Church divides its ministry - were urged to hold such sessions.

In theory, these discussions offered an opportunity for all Catholics to have their voices heard at the highest levels of the church.

Key themes were passed up to local bishops, then synthesised into documents that informed consultations by a national-level assembly, and, in turn, the global assembly.

In some places, however, local leaders have not promoted the synod or have explicitly criticised it.

Clericalism v dialogue

Several topics on the table have garnered public attention, such as some Catholics' hopes to allow married priests or women deacons. Arguably the most important issue, however, is authority.

Conservative factions yearn for "clear teaching" on doctrine and strong centralised authority - even as, ironically, they resist the authority of the current pope, whom they criticise as an undisciplined leader or as too liberal.

Progressive factions, on the other hand, often seem to yearn for more democratic decision-making, akin to the independent authority local congregations have in some Protestant denominations.

In fact, as a scholar of the public role of the Catholic Church, I suspect both groups are likely to be disappointed.

The church strongly supports democracy in the secular world.

Internally, however, Catholicism preserves a deep tradition of governance rooted in apostolic succession: the teaching that bishops' authority descends directly from the Apostles of Jesus Christ.

In other words, the legitimacy of their leadership stems from this lineage, rather than a democratic process.

The synod process aims to move toward a more dialogue-based model for how the authority of priests and bishops should work, within this apostolic understanding of Catholic authority.

Francis v ‘clericalism'

Catholics and many non-Catholics tend to understand the church as a kind of vertically integrated corporation, where unquestioned authority flows from the top.

Waves of clergy sex abuse scandals, in particular, have discredited this model in many people's eyes, and Francis appears to be moving Catholicism away from this style of leadership.

He has repeatedly criticised "clericalism": the tendency to center the faith on priests and obedience to their authority.

"To say "no" to abuse is to say an emphatic "no" to all forms of clericalism," he wrote in a 2018 letter addressed to "the people of God."

Five years later, in a note to priests in Rome, he described clericalism as "a sickness" that leads to authority "without humility but with detached and haughty attitudes."

Instead, Francis is advancing a model in which bishops exercise their authority through continuous dialogue with the faithful, the Catholic intellectual tradition and the wider world.

This model views the church as constantly evolving, even as it forever affirms core truths.

Sociologists call these types of models "participative hierarchy."

One aspect of this more responsive and dynamic model of authority has been prominently on display during the general assembly: Nuns and laypeople, both men and women, are full participants, with voice and vote in all matters coming before the synod.

While this sounds moderate, it challenges the core understanding of authority among clericalist Catholics, who argue that such reforms would go against tradition.

However, Catholicism has used both models of authority in different periods.

Politics and the pope

The controversy surrounding the synod also reflects a simple fact: The Catholic Church in the U.S. is as polarised as secular American society.

A decade ago, at the very start of Francis' papacy, he was seen as a moderate conservative. But he quickly signaled openness to the modern world, in part by criticising two qualities as anathema to Catholic teachings.

First, clericalism, with its tendency to treat clergy as elite or above accountability.

Second, a backward-looking nostalgia for some earlier time when a perfect Catholicism supposedly existed - a stance that Francis sees as undercutting Catholicism here and now.

As of 2021, about four in five U.S. Catholics had a positive opinion of Francis.

Among clergy and Catholic leaders, however, he has some vocal detractors.

While Francis has embraced constructive debate, he has pointedly removed from authority some clergy, including Americans, whom he sees as actively undermining his direction for the church.

More recently, he accused U.S. conservatives of "backwardness" and of replacing spirituality with ideology.

For now, the synod moves forward despite the divides. There will be another synod assembly in Rome in October 2024, after which final recommendations will be made and the pope will decide what to put into action.

Beyond whatever particular changes this synod assembly may or may not recommend, its deeper impact will lie in how Francis' vision of Catholic authority fares.

In the long term, I would argue, this is where the Catholic future will be most shaped. The world's 1.4 billion Catholics will be watching.

• Richard Wood is the President, Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
• First published in The Conversation

Being Cristian was a serious business.

I was so busy with self-correction that I often missed the beauty of Jesus in my life.

It seemed that every church I attended wanted to warn young people against the dangers of sin.

I suppose adults were trying to protect us, but I got caught in a net of self-examination.

What was the difference between exaggeration and a lie?

If I told my parents that my essay had got "excellent", would that be the sin of pride?

What about marriage and all that scary stuff? Could a woman have babies without having a husband?

This anxiety did not come from Catholic influence because, in those days, I was searching other churches.

But I have seen similar symptoms in earnest young Catholics.

I believe it comes from the young person's lack of experience.

At that age, we depended on adult guidance which, for the best of reasons, was largely negative.

Years later, I was determined that my children should not have adult guilt thrust upon them.

There was only one rule.

You can do anything you like as long as you don't hurt anyone. And the person on top of the "don't hurt list" is yourself.

Then we would talk about the various ways we could hurt ourselves and others.

That worked well when the children were very young, but eventually, their Dad and I had to agree that the only authentic instructor was experience.

That was true teaching.

As parents, our job was to provide encouragement and band-aids.

If we can use a parable to describe this, we can talk about "life school."

God puts us in "Life School" to grow, which we do through success and failure.

We are given tests, and when we fail. The test is repeated until we learn from it.

When we pass the test, there is a short vacation and then a new test comes along.

So how do we prepare our children for "life school?"

By letting them know that they are God's unique creations and are here to grow.

By convincing them that they are greatly loved.

By showing them that we learn with both the head and the heart.

By helping them understand that "sin" is not failure but teaching. Sin always has an indicator that points to what is right.

For parents, a good, honest memory is a valuable aid. We listen to our children.

We try not to preach and teach.

We accept that we all have growth spaces in our lives.

We know we are not alone. The Sacred Presence of Jesus is always with us.

So when do we graduate from "Life school?

Some people call that "Death." I prefer to see it as our" True Birth."

As we grow towards it, we can experience times of deep peace. The world, and everything in it, has spiritual meaning.

Age ennobles us to laugh at the seven deadly sins.

With age, we realise everything that has happened to us has been about spiritual growth. We have been prepared for the greater reality.

It is all meant to be, and it is all about love.

• Joy Cowley is a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and retreat facilitator. Joy Cowley is a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and retreat facilitator.

Over the coming weeks in schools, churches, high streets, and venues across this country, the Christmas story that began with Mary and Joseph's journey for a census will be enjoyed and celebrated by millions of people.

But of what story are we a part?

What story do we want to tell about ourselves?

The UK census gives us a particular and important snapshot of the identity of our nation, decade by decade.

Interpreting the story of trends, values, perceptions, and identities that underlies these snapshots is complicated, however.

Some commentators have responded to the census data about religious affiliation released last week by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) by predicting the terminal decline of Christianity in our nation or declaring this as a statistical watershed moment.

I am interested in the overall story that this census snapshot informs. Christians should approach this data with humility, attentiveness, and self-reflection.

Though the most common response to the voluntary question of religious affiliation remains "Christian," there was a 13.1 percentage decrease from 2011 to 2021.

The ONS clarifies that these figures are about "the religion with which [respondents] connect or identify, rather than their beliefs or active religious practice."

I do not find the trend in the responses to this particular question surprising: we have left behind the time when many people almost automatically identified as Christian.

Yet the story of the relationship between the identity expressed on our census forms and our engagement with faith is far from straightforward.

There are fewer people in the pews on a typical Sunday morning than a few decades ago, but at the same time, some of our churches - of all traditions and styles - are growing significantly, and we are also seeing people coming to faith in Jesus Christ, to whom the idea of joining a weekly service would not necessarily occur.

These apparently contrasting statistical snapshots inform a more complicated, though the incomplete story, which is not one of terminal decline for religious faith nor Christianity, but more about how individuals in our ever-changing nation and culture choose to express their identity.

This is a story on which other Christians and I must reflect carefully and humbly.

For Christians, however, the story that defines our identity has never been one of overwhelming numerical growth nor fear of extinction. Amid the complexities of identity, values and nation, Christians strive to live by the story of the Good News of Jesus Christ - a story notable for the absence of success by the world's usual standards.

A watershed moment in that story happened when "Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world." The events that then unfolded will be shared by millions of people in the UK this Christmas.

They will hear the baby Jesus described as a light that shines in the darkness. His story is not a tale of linear success but about how that light shines through the difficult realities of our lives and finally overcomes all darkness. Continue reading

It's not every day that you find a secular journalist addressing a room full of Catholic media professionals on the topic of God. Yet that's what Sheridan does.

When he made the resilient minority comment, he was addressing the Australasian Catholic Press Association Conference (APAC) in Melbourne.

A born and bred Catholic, this experienced journalist has been the foreign editor at "The Australian" newspaper for 30 years.

"I've never had any trouble with belief. I've had the most enormous trouble with living up to the most elementary standards of Christian life. So, naturally, I became a journalist," he said, to much laughter from a room full of Catholic journalists and communicators.

Sheridan says he enjoys using his privileged position in the media to talk about the "taboo subject" of Christianity.

In his 45 years as a journalist he said he's seen a profound culture change from being nominally pro-Christian from when he came into the business.

He says society has moved from being nominally pro-Christian to a type of neutrality to being "seriously hostile to the Christian religion now, and especially the Christian churches". The reality of this hostility is "just overwhelming, unavoidable, incontestable".

"We're not persecuted in the way that Christians in Pakistan or China or much of Africa are, but the culture is very hostile to Christianity," he said.

"Of course journalism is about the search for a good story and you want to search for the truth, and it turns out the biggest truth of all is Christianity and the best story is Christianity.

"[But] if you leave the discussion of ultimate truth, the spiritual life, only to the morally qualified, it tends to be a very small discussion.

"So anyway, I finally jumped in, put my toe in the water... Coming out, so to speak, as a Christian has been nothing but fun.

"I think more Christians should do this, more Christians should own their faith publicly.

"Fellow Christians need their public solidarity, that we don't get now from the public and media generally. And non-Christians need to be alerted to the truth. They need to have the truth of Christ's presence announced to them, in the culture."

Today's media and culture neglects Christians and portrays them entirely negatively, he says.

"Coming out, so to speak, as a Christian has been nothing but fun. All Christians should own their faith publicly. Fellow Christians need the public solidarity which we don't get now from the media generally and non-Christians need to be alerted to the truth, and have the truth of Christ's presence announced to them in the culture."

The culture journalists are operating in today is becoming post-Christian, Christian and pre-Christian simultaneously, he says.

Sheridan sees hope in millennials.

"Neo-paganism is not good for Christianity. But on the other hand, its adherents are not immune to Christianity the way the baby boomers were.

". . . They (millennials) know absolutely nothing about it (Christianity). And that means they are able to be approached, and we can sell to them."

They don't hate Christianity as the "boring practice of their parents and grandparents", they're simply indifferent to it.

As a "bold minority", Sheridan says minorities have rights and "we should demand our rights, not for ourselves but for the truth.

"It's a difficult environment but it's also a fun environment; as my friends in the air force would say, it's a target-rich environment."

Source

• New Zealand Catholic
• The Southern Cross

Known as Vatican II (1962-1965), the Council taught the Church to see the world around it, Francis said.

In his homily, he described the special Mass an act of love toward God and a remedy to the acute polarisation afflicting the modern church.

The present-day is one of the most polarised periods in modern Catholic history, he said. But God wants faithful "to see the whole" of the Church, and not just certain parts of it.

"The Church is a communion in the image of the Trinity. The devil, on the other hand, wants to sow the darnel of division.

"Let us not give in to his enticements or to the temptation of polarisation. How often times, in the wake of the Council, did Christians prefer to choose sides in the Church, not realizing that they were breaking their Mother's heart!"

"How many times did they prefer to cheer on their own party rather than being servants of all? To be progressive or conservative rather than being brothers and sisters? To be on the ‘right' or ‘left,' rather than with Jesus?" he asked.

In recent decades some of the Council's teachings have become deeply controversial, particularly in rich countries, where divisions often fall along political lines.

Both sides are at fault, Francis said. "Both the 'progressivism' that lines up behind the world and the 'traditionalism' and 'moving backwards' that longs for a bygone world are not evidence of love, but of infidelity."

Rather than "quarrels, gossip and disputes," over Council reforms, people should "live their faith with joy, without grumbling and criticising".

Reflecting Jesus asking St Peter, "Do you love me?" and telling him to "Feed my sheep", Francis said the Council was the Church's response to that question.

It marked a renewed effort to feed all God's sheep, not just those who are Catholic, he explained.

However, two of his predecessors - Benedict and John Paul II promoted the Latin Mass in an olive branch to conservatives.

Francis reintroduced the restrictions last year, saying his predecessors' well-intentioned leniency was being "exploited" for ideological reasons.

Religious conservatives have used the Latin Mass debate to align with politically conservative media outlets to criticise Francis over issues such as climate change, immigration and social justice.

Catholics should not "prefer to cheer on their own party" but be servants of all, Francis said in his homily.

They should want to be known as brothers and sisters rather than progressives or conservatives.

Source

• La Croix
• Crux Now
• USNews

As you quickly turn around, you see several armed men firing their weapons into the assembly. And with added horror, you see numerous fellow parishioners lying dead. Amid screams and cries, people rush toward the exits, running for their lives. Some escape, while others are shot and killed.

The assailants then proceed to burn the church to the ground.

May this never happen to you. But tragic scenes similar to this, as well as other brutal forms of persecution, are happening to fellow Christians in many countries throughout much of the world.

In the just released 2021 annual report "More Precious than Gold," the international ecumenical organization Open Doors reports that over 360 million Christians live in areas where they are subject to high levels of discrimination and persecution.

The report further highlights that last year, 6,175 Christians were unjustly arrested or imprisoned, 3,829 followers of Christ were abducted for faith-related reasons, 5,110 churches or Christian buildings were attacked, and 5,898 fellow believers in Jesus were murdered for their faith.

The international Catholic assistance organization Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) states in its 2021 "Religious Freedom in the World Report" that in the last two years, the human right of freedom of faith was not respected in 62 countries. And in 42 countries changing or renouncing one's religious affiliation can bring on serious legal and social consequences - even death.

ACN reports that at least 75 per cent of all religiously motivated violence and oppression is suffered by Christians.

The ACN report adds that authoritarian governments have also intensified religious persecution. In some Hindu and Buddhist majority countries in Asia, persecution against religious minorities has increased.

Many places in Africa reflect a worsening situation for Christians, which is due most often to Islamist violence, says Fionn Shiner, press officer for ACN in the UK.

ACN, in their report "Persecuted and Forgotten" states that "Christianity is the world's most persecuted religion." It cites that Islamist violence in Africa is a major cause of persecution. And it highlights that Nigeria is the sad country where most African Christians are killed.

Pope Francis has coined the phrase "polite persecution" to describe how new cultural norms in the West clash with individuals' right to freedom of conscience, attempting to limit religion "to the enclosed precincts of churches, synagogues or mosques.

• Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated Catholic social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings. Tony can be reached at tmag6@comcast.net.

It shouldn't surprise, given the 2021 census results concerning religion, those critical of Christianity and the Catholic Church have used the fall in numbers to suggest religion is moribund and no longer relevant to Australian society.

With newspaper headlines like "Abandoning God: Christianity plummets as ‘non-religious' surges in census" (Sydney Morning Herald), "Losing our religion as Christianity plummets" (The Age) and comments like "Australia's rapidly changing population is more godless (the Guardian) it would be easy to conclude religion is in its death throes.

In the same way the report of Mark Twain's death was premature (Twain replied "the report of my death was an exaggeration) it's also true that religion, Christianity and Catholicism, are still powerful and significant forces in Australian society.

While the numbers identifying as Christian have fallen significantly over time and now sits at 44 per cent, the reality is 60 per cent of older Australians still identify as Christian and it should not surprise, given the concerted public campaign telling Australians not to tick the religious box, numbers have fallen.

Leading up to and during the week of the census, groups like Humanists Australia and staunch Christian and anti-Pell critics including Tim Minchin, on television, radio and social networking sites, told young people, in particular, to tick no religion.

What critics ignore, as detailed in the recently released Christianity Matters In These Troubled Times, is Christianity underpins and nourishes Australia's political and legal systems, our way of life and much of Western civilisation's art, music, language and literature.

Concepts like the right to liberty and a commitment to social justice and the common good, as detailed in Larry Siedentop's Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism, are derived from the New Testament and Jesus' admonition to "love thy neighbour as thyself".

As the Bible states "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus". To listen to Rachmaninov's Vespers, to admire the stained-glass windows of Chartres Cathedral or to contemplate Michelangelo's Pieta is to sense the divine and to soar with the angels.

Christian virtues and religion's ability to engender a sense of the spiritual and transcendent are vital for human flourishing. Also ignored by secular critics is without Christianity Australia's education, health, welfare, aged care, social welfare and charitable services would collapse.

Christian schools educate approximately 34 per cent of Australian students, charities like the Salvation Army and Vinnies serve countless thousands of the nation's most disadvantaged and Christian aged care and hospitals are an essential part of Australia's social fabric.

In emphasising what the census tells us about religious beliefs secular critics ignore what the 2021 snapshot tells us about Australian society more broadly.

Of particular concern is out of a population of just over 25.5 million there are 8 million Australians described as having a long-term health condition.

Top of the list, ahead of asthma and arthritis, is mental health where just over 2.2 million Australians describe themselves as suffering some form of anxiety and depression.

While Covid-19 may have contributed, to have so many, especially young people, at risk is an indictment of a society where so many lack resilience and the ability to find a more lasting and enriching sense of solace, strength and comfort.

While Christianity is not always a panacea to experiencing loss, fear and anxiety, as suggested by the Christian mystic St Teresa of Avila: "Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, All things are passing away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices".

Also of concern is the fact the number of single-parent families in Australia has reached one million with 75 per cent of single parents being women.

Common sense suggests, supported by research, two-parent families are one the foundation stones of a stable and flourishing society and the best place for children to be raised.

There's no doubt those professing to be Christian, since the time Jesus worked on this earth, have committed grievous and unforgivable sins, ranging from the corruption of medieval and Renaissance popes, pogroms against the Jews to paedophilia.

At the same time, there is much to acknowledge and praise about Christianity and to celebrate and defend.

The author of The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, when explaining the millions killed and starved under communism and fascism argues the reason is "Men have forgotten God. The failings of human consciousness, deprived of its divine dimension, have been a determining factor in all the major crimes of this century".

While the numbers have diminished, religion is still a vital element in Australian society and the lives of the faithful and with God's grace, it will continue.

• Dr Kevin Donnelly is a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Catholic University and the author of The Culture of Freedom.
• First published in The Catholic Weekly. Republished with permission.

"We believe with certainty that Islam and Christianity have never been the origin of wars and conflicts, but rather religious faiths represent the opposite of conflicts and wars in which they are involved and exploited," he said.

The Grand Imam of al Azhar is the Egyptian Sheikh Ahmed al Tayyeb.

He made the comments about Christianity and Islam while receiving Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan during an official visit to Cairo on Monday.

The Grand Imam said the two religions teach that all human beings be recognized as "brothers in humanity".

He explained his Sunni academic institution is committed to exposing manipulations that use content from the Islamic faith to build ideologies of oppression.

Mnatsakanyan highlighted, "A Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together," that Pope Francis and the Grand Imam signed last year on 4 February in Abu Dhabi.

That document has been hailed as an "unprecedented institutional event" in the history of Christian-Muslim relations.

In their meeting, The Grand Imam and Mnatsakanyan hinted at the possibility of enhancing collaboration and cultural exchanges between Armenian academic institutions and the most authoritative theological-cultural center of Sunni Islam.

The meeting highlighted their mutual concerns about religious fundamentalism in different parts of the world, discrimination on religious grounds and the exploitation of religion for political purposes.

Source

• La Croix
• Image:Asbarez.com

"They say in our village that there is no Christian god and that our ancestors were all animist," a villager living in mountainous northern Laos recently told Radio Free Asia.

Christianity is little understood among many Laotians, most of whom hold a syncretism of animistic and Buddhist beliefs. Many Laotian animists believe that by practicing their "foreign" faith local Christians antagonize the country's tutelary spirits, foreign Christian organizations have reported. Read more

Twenty years ago, Christianity looked surprisingly resilient, and so the smart thinking changed: maybe there was an American exception to secularizing trends, or maybe a secularized Europe was the exception and the modernity-equals-secularization thesis was altogether wrong.

Now the wheel has turned again, and the new consensus is that secularization was actually just delayed, and with the swift 21st-century collapse of Christian affiliation, a more European destination for American religiosity has belatedly arrived.

"In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace" ran the headline on a new Pew Research Center survey of American religion this month, summing up a consensus shared by pessimistic religious conservatives, eager anti-clericalists and the regrettably unbelieving sort of journalist who suspects that we may miss organized religion when it's gone.

The trends that have inspired this perspective are real, but the swings in the consensus over a relatively short period should inspire caution in interpretation.

One important qualifier, appropriate to the week of Halloween, is that the decline of Christian institutions and the weakening of Christian affiliation may be clearing space for post-Christian spiritualities — pantheist, gnostic, syncretist, pagan — rather than a New Atheist sort of godlessness. (The fact that this newspaper, occasionally stereotyped as secular and liberal, is proclaiming "peak witch" while The New Yorker gives friendly treatment to millennial astrology, is suggestive of just how un-secular the American future might become.)

But the post-Christian possibilities aren't the only reason to qualify a narrative of secularization. Here are three points more specific to American Christianity that should be considered alongside the stark declinist story in the Pew data.

Lukewarm Christianity may be declining much more dramatically than intense religiosity

The Pew survey shows a definite decline in weekly churchgoing, alongside the growing disaffiliation of people who once would have been loosely attached to churches and denominations — cultural Catholics, Christmas-and-Easter Methodists, Jack Mormons and the like.

But recent Gallup numbers indicate that reported weekly and almost-weekly church attendance has only "edged down" lately, falling to 38 percent in 2017 from 42 percent in 2008 — a smaller drop than the big decline in affiliation reported by Pew.

And long-term Gallup data suggests that any recent dip in churchgoing is milder than the steep decline in the 1960s — and that today's churchgoing rate isn't that different from the rate in the 1930s and 1940s, before the postwar religious boom.

The relative stability of the Gallup data fits with analysis offered by the sociologists Landon Schnabel and Sean Bock in a 2017 paper, "The Persistent and Exceptional Intensity of American Religion."

Drawing on the General Social Survey, they argued that the recent decline of institutional religion is entirely a function of the formerly weakly affiliated ceasing to identify with religious bodies entirely; for the strongly affiliated (just over a third of the American population), the trend between 1990 and the present is a flat line, their numbers neither growing nor collapsing but holding steady across an era of supposedly dramatic religious change.

That resilience should not be entirely comforting for Christian churches, since both their everyday work and their cultural influence depends on reaching beyond their core adherents, and inspiring a mix of sympathy and interest among people who aren't at worship every week.

Indeed, combining an enduring core of belief with a general falling-away could make the Christian position permanently embattled, tempting the pious to paranoia and misguided alliances while the wider culture becomes more anticlerical, more like 19th-century secular liberalism in its desire to batter down the redoubts of traditional belief.

But for now that resilience also puts some limits on how successfully anti-Christian policies can be pursued, how easily religious conservatism can be marginalized within the conservative coalition (not easily) and how completely the liberal coalition can be secularized — not completely at all, so long as its base remains heavily African-American and Hispanic. (The tragic racial polarization of American Christianity, in this sense, may have one positive effect: preventing a complete polarization of our politics between Christian and post-Christian coalitions.)

The possible resilience of piety and zeal connects to the second qualifier in the story of decline … Continue reading

At stake is not just a religious community, but the fate of pluralism in the region.

The call came in 2014, shortly after Easter.

Four years earlier, Catrin Almako's family had applied for special visas to the United States. Catrin's husband, Evan, had cut hair for the U.S. military during the early years of its occupation of Iraq.

Now a staffer from the International Organization for Migration was on the phone.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

The family had been assigned a departure date just a few weeks away.

"I was so confused," Catrin (pictured) told me recently.

During the years they had waited for their visas, Catrin and Evan had debated whether they actually wanted to leave Iraq.

Both of them had grown up in Karamles, a small town in the historic heart of Iraqi Christianity, the Nineveh Plain.

Evan owned a barbershop near a church. Catrin loved her kitchen, where she spent her days making pastries filled with nuts and dates.

Their families lived there: her five siblings and aging parents, his two brothers.

But they also lived amid constant danger.

"Everybody who was working with the United States military—they get killed," Catrin said.

Evan had been injured by an explosion near a U.S. Army base in Mosul in 2004.

Catrin worried about him driving back and forth to the base along highways that cross some of the most contested land in Iraq.

Even after he stopped working for the military, they feared he might be a victim of violence.

That fear was compounded by their faith: During the war years, insurgents consistently targeted Christian towns and churches in a campaign of terror.

The Almakos had watched neighbors and friends wrestle with the same question: stay, or go?

Now more and more Christians in the region were deciding to leave.

The graph of the religion's decline in the Middle East has in recent years transformed from a steady downward slope into a cliff.

The numbers in Iraq are especially stark: Before the American invasion, as many as 1.4 million Christians lived in the country.

Today, fewer than 250,000 remain—an 80 percent drop in less than two decades.

The Almakos resolved to go.

They spent their remaining time in Karamles agonizing over what to bring with them, and what to leave behind. "You don't know what you're going to take," Evan told me.

"You have to discuss a lot of things: that one important, that one not important."

In the end, choosing among their possessions proved too difficult.

They decided to leave nearly every keepsake and heirloom, including boxes of pictures of their family and of their two young children, Ayoob, then 12, and Sofya, 10.

Catrin insisted on taking one sentimental item, a small cloth weaving of Jesus made in Italy.

On the Almakos' last night in Karamles, the people of the town descended on their house.

It seemed as if they all had a present they wanted Catrin and Evan to take to family members in America: sweets, spices, clothes.

Nothing you couldn't find in the United States, but "you can't tell them that," Evan said.

People in Iraq see the U.S. as a place of bounty, he explained, but it's still fundamentally foreign.

Of the family's three suitcases, one was filled with these gifts from home.

One by one, each of their family members tried to persuade Catrin and Evan to stay in Karamles.

Her older brother Thabet is a priest, and the town's most dedicated defender. "Don't leave,"

Catrin remembers him saying. "Stay here." Continue reading

• Image: The Atlantic