The sick, the poor, and the outcasts were high on his priority list. Thus, churches (being the extension of Jesus' ministry), should focus their efforts on those exact same people.

But the data says that is not happening. Just the opposite in fact.

Religion in 21st century America has become an enclave for people who have done everything "right."

They have college degrees and marriages and children and middle-class incomes.

For those who don't check all those boxes, religion is just not for them.

The conclusions are unmistakable: Religion has become a luxury good, and that's leaving most of society on the fringes yet again.

Let's start with that old chestnut that I roll out from time to time — the basic relationship between education and religious disaffiliation.

This is 15 years of the Cooperative Election Study. These samples visualized here represent over 570,000 total responses, and in many years, the individual sample size is north of 60,000.

It doesn't take a statistical wizard to figure out the general trend line here.

People with higher levels of education are less likely to identify as atheist, agnostic or nothing in particular when it comes to religion.

Yes, if you include atheists and agnostics, the trend reverses itself.

But nonreligious people are not just atheists and agnostics.

In fact, most nonreligious people are nothing in particular when it comes to religion.

More educated people are more likely to claim a religious affiliation on surveys.

It's true in every single wave of the Cooperative Election Study. It's also the case in the Nationscape survey, which has 477,000 respondents. They even have 4,000 people with doctoral degrees in their sample.

The most likely to be non-religious? Those who didn't finish high school.

As education increases, so does religious affiliation.

The group with the highest level of religious affiliation is those with a master's degree. I think this is likely due to the fact that the majority of folks with master's degrees are in not purely academic pursuits. Instead, they earn graduate degrees in things like education and business.

Of those with doctorates, 24% are non-religious.

That's the same rate as those with a four-year college degree.

Again, it's hard to look at these numbers and make some big claims about how education chases people away from religion.

Obviously, affiliation is just one piece of the puzzle, though. Religious attendance is another key component to the religiosity story.

So, I did the same general analysis with the CES data, but this time just focused on those who attend religious services weekly. Again, all 15 waves.

Their trend is just as unmistakable: Those who are the most likely to attend services weekly are those with a graduate degree.

Those with a high school diploma or less are the least likely to attend.

And these aren't small differences, either.

The last few years have seen nearly a 10-point gap in attendance from the bottom to the top of the education scale.

Let's take this a step further and inject income into the mix as well.

So, I divided respondents into those with a high school diploma or less and those with a four-year college degree or more and then calculated the share who attend religious services weekly across the income spectrum.

The first to note is that college-educated people attend church at higher rates than those with a high school diploma or less.

That's consistently the case across almost all income brackets.

A few little squirrely things happen at the very top end of the income spectrum, but that's probably due to small sample size.

But notice the overall shape of the orange lines, especially in the last few years of the Cooperative Election Study.

They are curvilinear in shape — meaning low on the edges and high in the middle. That's certainly the case in 2016, 2020 and 2022.

That tells an interesting story about the interaction of income and religious attendance.

The group that is the most likely to attend services are not the poor nor the wealthy. Instead, it's people who smack in the middle of the income distribution.

This analysis points to the following conclusion: The people who are the most likely to attend services this weekend are those with college degrees making $60K-$100K. In other words, middle-class professionals.

Let's throw another factor into the mix now — marital status. The imagined ideal for many for a good American life is a college degree, a good job, and stable marriage.

Does religion have any place for those who are not married? Or are divorced or separated?

The Cooperative Election Study only asks about current marital status, so if someone has been divorced and remarried, that wouldn't really show up in this data.

But, good gracious, this is a crystal-clear result.

Married people are much more likely to be in a religious service than those who are divorced, separated, or never married.

And these are not small gaps, either.

Among 40-year-old married people in the sample, nearly 30% are attending services weekly.

Among those who are separated, divorced or never married — it's half that rate: just 15%.

That gap persists all the way through the life course, too.

Even among 60-year-olds, it's still there.

About 30% of married retired folks are in churches; it's just 20% of those who are not married. Marriage leads to much higher levels of religiosity — at any age.

One last little bit of analysis before I stop; just put a finer point on this.

I divided the sample into four groups based on married or not married and parents of children or not, then calculated the share attending weekly.

The clear outlier here is folks who are married with children.

Among those who fit both criteria and are under 30, 37% attend weekly.

That does begin to decline as the age category moves up. I am guessing that's because folks with children tend to be less religious later in life, but that's just a hunch.

Among those who are married without children, attendance is fairly high in their mid-20s.

But then it drops down to being no different than those who are not married, have no children, or are not married but are parents.

These results are hard to ignore and should sound some major alarms for any person of faith who is concerned about the large state of American society.

Increasingly religion has become the enclave for those who have lived a "proper" life: college degree, middle-class income, married with children.

If you check all those boxes, the likelihood of you regularly attending church is about double the rate of folks who don't.

This is also troublesome for American democracy, as well.

At its best, religion is a place where people from various economic, social, racial and political backgrounds can find common ground around a shared faith.

It's a place to build bridges with folks who are different than you.

Unfortunately, it looks like American religion is not at its best.

Instead, it's become a hospital for the healthy, an echo chamber for folks who did everything "right," which means that it's seeming less and less inviting to those who did life another way.

Do I think that houses of worship have done this on purpose? Generally speaking, no. But they also haven't actively refuted this narrative.

I was always told that the job of a preacher is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Maybe we need a lot more of the latter going forward.

• Ryan Burge is an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, a pastor in the American Baptist Church and the co-founder and frequent contributor to Religion in Public, a forum for scholars of religion and politics to make their work accessible to a more general audience.
• First published in ReligionUnplugged. Republished with permission.

Walking the talk and supported by generous local businesses, Caritas and the Sant'Egidio community, Francis hosted a lunch for 1,300 poor and homeless.

As well as lunch, other initiatives for the disadvantaged offered throughout the week in St Peter's Square also included health services.

The mobile clinic facilities in St Peter's Square provide medical checkups and medicines, including screening and treatments for HIV, hepatitis and tuberculosis.

The services have returned to the square after a two-year halt due to restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

At Mass coinciding with the sixth World Day of the Poor, Francis was at his challenging best.

Francis advised that when humanity is suffering from multiple crises, including war, climate change, the Covid pandemic, and social and economic injustice, it is not the time to listen to the prophets of doom.

As an alternative, Francis urged people to do something to help and to "seize opportunities to bear witness to the Gospel of joy and to build a more fraternal world.

"If our heart is deadened and indifferent, we cannot hear their faint cry of pain, we cannot cry with them and for them, we cannot see how much loneliness and anguish also lie hidden in the forgotten corners of our cities.

"It is important to be able to discern the times in which we live in order to remain disciples of the Gospel even amid the upheavals of history."

In tough and challenging times, Francis encourages people to do something good and for each person to start with themselves, even when it is not ideal.

"It is a skill typically Christian not to be a victim of everything that happens, but to seize the opportunity that lies hidden in everything that befalls us, the good that can come about even from negative situations.

"Every crisis is a possibility and offers opportunities for growth.

"We realise this if we think back on our own history: In life, often our most important steps forward were taken in the midst of certain crises, in situations of trial, loss of control or insecurity."

In 2017, Francis decreed that the Catholic Church worldwide would set aside the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time every year to "reflect on how poverty is at the very heart of the Gospel."

Francis concluded his homily by urging Christians to care for the poor, in whom we find Jesus.

Sources

• America Magazine
• Reuters
• CathNews New Zealand
• Vatican News

The New Zealand Work Research Institute at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) found low scores in maths and reading tests at age 15 were associated with worse incomes, qualifications, and crime and health statistics 11 years later.

It found women with poor literacy and numeracy had the lowest average incomes and were most likely to have children by their mid-20s.

However, males who tested badly at age 15 went on to earn about the same and be employed at about the same rate as females who had better literacy and numeracy when they were 15. Read more

The diocese received the NZ Sign Language Employer Award for including NZ Sign Language at all staff meetings and events and for its inclusive workplace environment and advocacy for the deaf.

"The award acknowledges the amazing effort that 'Siân' has put into learning NZSL over the years so she can fully communicate with and support 'Rachel' and 'Eric', as well as the Catholic Deaf Community.

"Massive congratulations to Sian and Rachel!

"What a way to close off NZSL Week 2022 over the weekend!" the diocese says.

Sources

• Catholic Media
• Diocese of Auckland

The image is the creation of Canadian artist and sculptor Tim Schmalz, who specialises in art addressing religious themes.

He presents the sleeping figure as wrapped tight in a blanket, as if shivering in the cold. The face and hands are not visible but two bare feet stretch out from one end of the blanket.

Both feet are marked with distinctive wounds which are familiar in Christian art.

They show the marks left by the nails during crucifixion.

It is this small detail that shows the figure is a depiction of a suffering Jesus.

Schmalz, a committed Catholic who believes all human life is sacred, was inspired to create the work in 2012 after seeing a homeless man sleeping on a bench in Toronto during the Christmas holidays.

He wanted to invite people to reflect on the parable of judgement in Matthew 25.

In this parable, Jesus tells his disciples, "as you did it to one of the least of my brothers or sisters, you did it to me" (Mattew 25:40).

Schmalz first moulded a clay figure and used this to make a cast to create bronze statues at his studio in Ontario.

He describes it as "essentially a visual translation of one of the core ideas of the Bible".

We encounter Christ when we encounter others in need.

When we respond to those in need, either offering help or showing indifference, we are responding at the same time to Christ.

Schmalz initially planned to give the statue a face, but decided it would make the figure a more universal representation if he let the blanket act as a hood.

There is a poignant irony in the fact that the statue initially found it hard to find a home.

Two famous Catholic Cathedrals, St Michael's in Toronto and St Patrick's in New York, both declined opportunities to purchase it.

This changed in 2013.

Regis College, the Jesuit School of Theology at the University of Toronto, installed the statue in its front plaza.

It serves to invite all who come to the college to reflect on those in need.

In the same year, St Alban's Episcopal church (Anglican) in Davidson, North Carolina, purchased the first statue to be installed in the United States.

In November 2013, the Pope invited Schmalz to Rome and Schmalz took the model he used to plan the first cast.

The Pope blessed it and described it as a "beautiful and excellent representation" of Jesus.

More and more places then started to request statues in Canada, the US and further afield.

The first statue outside North America was installed in Dublin in April 2015.

In March 2016, a full version was installed outside of the Papal Office of Charities, on the street leading to Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.

By this time, about a hundred copies had been installed worldwide, including in Europe, Asia, South America and Australia. One church described having the statue as like offering a "24-hour sermon".

The statue is so realistic that when it is installed in a new place it often gives passers-by a surprise.

In more than one city, people driving past have mistaken the statue for a real person. Some have called paramedics to give assistance to the sleeping figure.

In some cases, the statue is met with a more hostile response.

In Davidson, a woman who saw the sleeping figure called the police rather than paramedics. It seems that she was worried about the danger to the reputation of the neighbourhood posed by a vagrant.

When she learnt of her mistake she was unmoved.

She said the statue sent the wrong message, and she objected to the idea of Jesus as a vagrant, or in need of help.

Schmalz expected the statue to be provocative and stimulate conversation.

Some have criticised the expense of the statue (about $30,000) and suggested that the money would be better used for people who are actually homeless.

Supporters respond that the statue raises public awareness.

In some places, it serves as a helpful collection focus for donations of food or blankets to support homeless people.

In New Zealand, the Government announced a four-year plan on homelessness in 2019, which it hopes will support those who are living on the streets.

Dunedin's night shelter is open every day from 6 pm-9 am.

Nonetheless, with the loss of some casual jobs due to Covid, some people can still fall through the gaps in service provision.

As temperatures drop for the winter months sleeping out becomes particularly difficult.

There is no Homeless Jesus statue in Dunedin, but the statues in other cities are a helpful reminder of the message in Matthew 25 to respond to those who are homeless and to treat them and their needs as if they are Christ.

• David Tombs is the Howard Paterson Professor of Theology and Public Issues at the University of Otago.
• First published in the ODT. Republished with permission.
• Image: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"For the second time we are living in the context of the pandemic.

"Last year we were more shocked, this year we are more tried, and the economic crisis has become heavier," he said after reciting the Angelus at the end of Mass.

"In this historic and social situation, what is God doing?" he asked, referring to the more than 100 million Covid-19 cases and more than 2.7 million deaths from the pandemic worldwide in the past year.

"He takes up the cross. Jesus takes the cross; that is, he takes on himself the evil that this reality brings, the physical, psychological and above all the spiritual evil, because the Evil One takes advantage of this crisis to sow distrust, desperation and lies."

Jesus "experienced our deepest sorrows: failure, loss of everything, betrayal by a friend, even abandonment by God."

Addressing the worldwide audience for the internationally televised ceremony, Francis asked, "And we, what must we do [in this situation]?"

His answer: "The Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus and his first disciple, shows us the way."

She "followed her son" and "took on herself her own part of the suffering, of the darkness and bewilderment, and she walked on the road of the Passion, keeping alive in her heart the lamp of faith."

Pope Francis said that "we too, with the grace of God, can make the same journey. And along the daily ‘way of the cross,' we encounter many brothers and sisters in difficulty.

"Let us not pass by, let our hearts be moved with compassion and draw near."

He then invited his global audience to join him in prayer for all victims of violence, especially for "the victims of his morning's attack in Indonesia, in front of the cathedral of Makassar." Continue reading

He says he was cheered by a recent reading at Mass where a group is bewailing the fact that their "good deeds" go unnoticed when they fast.

"Part of the problem, as Isaiah is at pains to point out, are the double standards of the obsequious with their practices of denial', says Fr Tim Duckworth, leader of the Society of Mary in New Zealand.

"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?

"Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?"

"Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily." (Is 58:1-9)

Duckworth points out to Marist priests and brothers that what might be labeled traditional "Lenten practices" like fasting, hanging your head, and lying down on sackcloth and ashes all get a sideswipe when compared to what is really necessary.

He is encouraging Marist priests and brothers to turn again to the needs of the disadvantaged, dispossessed, migrants, homeless and young people and to ask: "How is it that our ministry, prayer, our Lenten observance can make a difference?"

Duckworth says that he often hears young people criticise religion and religious people.

They say religion and religious people are "overly concerned with ourselves as related to God and not that much concerned with the gospel message that Jesus was at pains to point out."

As a tangible expression of the Gospel and a response to Isaiah 58:1-9, the New Zealand leader of the Society of Mary, proposes that Marist priests and brothers use the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to focus the attention of their community life and mission.

As Duckworth points out the Sustainable Development Goals receive the endorsement of Pope Francis who labels them "a great step forward".

Economic and political objectives, Pope Francis stressed, "must be sustained by ethical objectives, which presuppose a change of attitude: what the Bible would call a change of heart."

What is needed, Francis writes, is a commitment to "promoting and implementing the development goals that are supported by our deepest religious and ethical values."

Noting the importance of the religious dimension, Francis says that "those of us who are religious need to open up the treasures of our best traditions in order to engage in a true and respectful dialogue on how to build the future of our planet."

In presenting this vision to New Zealand Marists, Duckworth is realistic and acknowledges, for example, no one Marist community is going to achieve world peace alone.

However, he observes, joining with others across the globe makes it more possible.

"We do well to focus our attention on these huge issues so that we do not lose sight of all that is required to make the world a better, more just, more compassionate, more empathetic, more merciful, more loving and peaceful place", he writes.

Acknowledging the Sustainable Development Goals are the product of the United Nations, Duckworth reinforces Pope Francis' message that they are not divorced from the Christian message.

"The Christian Gospel brings additional insights and impulses into each of these Sustainable Development Goals. For us, they are all underpinned by our Christian understanding that as Children of God we are required to care for each other, for our planet and for the conditions and lives of others in our world."

Duckworth notes the United Nations set these brave goals as a target for 2030 and is urging Marists to be bold.

"We could easily be overwhelmed by them and say — well that simply isn't possible, rather than how can I add what I have into this effort."

Sustainable Development Goals

1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

Sources

• Tim Duckworth SM is the New Zealand provincial leader of the Society of Mary
• United Nations
• Vatican News

The menu included lasagna, chicken in a cream of mushroom sauce, potatoes, sweets, fruit and coffee.

Some 150 tables were set up in a Vatican hall where Francis normally holds his weekly indoor audiences with the public.

Another 1,500 were treated to a similar lunch elsewhere in Rome, and parishes throughout the diocese were similarly serving lunch for those who were unable to afford their own.

Lunch follows on from a week of free medical clinics set up in St Peter's Square where volunteer doctors give the homeless and disadvantaged free specialist health care.

General care is available year-round nearby, another of Francis' initiatives.

Also, on Friday, Francis opened a new place for the homeless on the doorstep of the Vatican.

Just a few metres away from the colonnade of St Peter's Square, the building occupies an entire four-storey building owned by the Vatican.

Up until a few months back, the building, Palazzo Migliori was used by a female religious congregation.

Transferred to the Papal Almoner - Polish Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, it now has a second life.

"It is the name of the family that owned it before 1930 and sold it to the Vatican, but it also translates in Italian to ‘the Palace of the Best' - and indeed considering who will stay here, it is exactly the case", Krajewski told Crux.

With historic wooden ceilings, pieces of art on the walls and now equipped with an elevator, inside it is nothing like homeless shelter.

"I asked a construction company to let the homeless workers do the renovation.

"They agreed a bit hesitantly but then they were so happy with their work, they decided to hire those people - the owner of the company said they rarely see people who would work so hard", said Krajewski.

Marking the World Day of the Poor at Mass in St Peter's Basilica, Francis lamented the lack of concern about the growing gap between the have's and have nots.

Dismayed over society's indifference towards poor people, Francis said that the 'greed of a few' is compounding the plight of the poor.

"We go our way in haste, without worrying that gaps are increasing, that the greed of a few is adding to the poverty of many others," he said.

These moves, a mark of his papacy, are not without criticism.

Francis' emphasis on mercy and charity is raising the ire of a small but noisy faction, among them, more conservative bishops and cardinals who would rather the pope concentrate of dogma and matters of faith rather than social issues.

Sources

• Associated Press
• Crux

According to 2013 census data, which was collated by the University of Otago, Wellington's Dr Kate Amore in her Severe Housing Deprivation in New Zealand study, around 41,000 Kiwis are classed as homeless.

"Before we did this we had no idea what the scale of homelessness was and if you need to address something you need to measure it and I think it has changed the conversation about homelessness," Dr Amore told 1 NEWS.

The data has always been collected every census but wasn't tapped into until 2001 when the first study by Dr Amore was published.

"This is the first work that shows the scale of the problem."

Dr Amore's study also uncovered the number of children 15 and under who are classed as homeless was close to 10,000.

"There are minors, children, sometimes on their own, but often with their family," says Dr Amore.

Discovering this last number in the 2013 census data, she predicts the number of homeless could have risen since.

Who are the homeless in New Zealand?

It was in 2009 that Statistics New Zealand, Housing New Zealand and the Ministry of Social Development produced a definition for homelessness in New Zealand.

It defines homelessness as: "Living situations where people with no other options to acquire safe and secure housing are either without shelter, in temporary accommodation, sharing accommodations or living in uninhabitable housing".

This includes those sleeping rough, in cars and people who are in boarding houses, camping grounds and staying in other's lounges or garages.

"For most people we're not talking about home ownership, we're talking about accessing a place to rent so anyone who can't access a place to rent is homeless," says Dr Amore.

Although rough sleeping and families living in their cars have become the picture of what homelessness looks like in New Zealand, 70 per cent of the homeless population are living in overcrowded conditions.

"There's only a small portion of the population sleeping on the streets. Half of the overall population are under 25, so it's a lot of young people, young families."

Nearly half of the population are women and a quarter are aged 15 to 24-years-old. Continue reading

• Image: TVNZ

This will consider the issue of whether New Zealand should continue not to tax most capital gains (tax the fruit from the tree, but not any growth in the tree that bears the fruit).

The Labour Party, however, has already indicated its strong commitment to a capital gains tax, following countries such as Australia that has had a capital gains tax since 1985.

It is important that New Zealand gets this right. Unfortunately, Labour has said it intends having any capital gains tax enacted before the next election - late 2020 - to come into effect 1 April 2021.

That means legislation into Parliament in the first half of next year, soon after the Working Group's final report in February.

In reality, the Working Group will need to all but finalise its February report by the end of this year, with legislation soon after that.

Not much time. No time for proper consultation. No time to think through the consequences.

A capital gains tax would mark a sea change in the New Zealand tax system.

We have, over the past 30 years, established a world class tax system that is relatively simple, has low compliance costs, and stays in the background.

Unlike Australians, most New Zealanders do not face the annual nightmare of complex income tax returns. When I was Minister of Revenue, I strongly supported the view that the need for tax returns should be rare, not standard.

A capital gains tax is likely to change all that. Capital gains tax is known to require some very complex rules, have high compliance costs, involve filing lengthy tax returns and be very intrusive.

If you do not believe me, ask any Australian what they think (except of course Australian tax accountants and lawyers who earn mega fees from their complex rules).

Taxing capital gains would impact on all areas of the economy.

A particular concern to me is the housing market. This is where much of the revenue will come from.

The Government has said the family home will not be taxed. Fair enough. But this excludes most housing and means no increase in affordable homes. The rich will invest in mansions, putting further pressure on urban house prices. And what if the home is partly used for rental, a homestay or Airbnb? Is the increase in value of the family home then taxed?

The impact on the most vulnerable - those living in rentals could be disastrous. Continue reading

• Judith Collins is a New Zealand politician. She is the National MP for Papakura and is the National Party's spokesperson for Housing.
• Image: Newshub

Before Mass, Pope Francis toured St. Peter's Square unprotected in a simple open white jeep, stopping frequently to greet those in the sprawling square, kissing babies and getting out at one point to bless a disabled person.

The Mass, on the Feast of St Joseph, the protector and universal patron of the Church, was a simple yet ornate ceremony lasting only two hours.

During his homily, Francis called for the protection of the weakest in society and of the environment saying that the Church's mission was to defend the poor and disadvantaged.

The Church's mission "means respecting each of God's creatures and respecting the environment in which we live. It means protecting people, showing loving concern for each and every person, especially children, the elderly, those in need, who are often the last we think about", he said.

Francis made it clear that being a "protector", however, is not just something involving Christians as it has a prior dimension which is simply human, involving everyone.

Addressing the world, Pope Francis called on all those who have positions of responsibility in economic, political and social life, and all men and women of goodwill, to be protectors of creation.

The pope said being a protector "means caring for one another in our families: husbands and wives first protect one another, and then, as parents, they care for their children, and children themselves, in time, protect their parents. It means building sincere friendships in which we protect one another in trust, respect, and goodness."

"Only those who serve with love are able to protect," he said

As he began his ministry as universal shepherd, Pope Francis reminded us of the need to bring hope to others and that authentic power is service, inspired by the lowly, the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and those in prison.

Pope Francis wore simple plain white vestments, trimmed with gold and brown, along with his now customary black shoes.

Before the Mass, Francis collected his newly minted gold ring and pallium, a liturgical woolen band worn around the neck, that had been placed overnight on the tomb of St Peter under the basilica's altar.

Pope Francis' installation Mass, formally installs Francis as the new leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.

Sources

• The Guardian
• Reuters
• The Washington Times
• Image: Rome Reports

The Vatican body has listed numerous examples of glacial decline around the world and the evidence linking that decline to human-caused changes in climate and air pollution.

"The widespread loss of ice and snow in the world's mountain glaciers is some of the clearest evidence we have for global changes in the climate system," the Vatican's Academy of Sciences report says.

The report warns of "serious and potentially irreversible impacts of global warming caused by the anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, and by changes in forests, wetlands, grasslands, and other land uses," urging steep cuts in the world's output of heat-trapping pollutants.

Failure to do so will imperil vulnerable ecosystems and human societies that depend on glaciers for fresh water, it says, including a huge swath of Central Asia where mountain glaciers store water for millions of people. Inaction also leaves some communities vulnerable to flooding from unstable meltwater lakes that can burst without warning, causing floods and mudslides.

"We are committed to ensuring that all inhabitants of this planet receive their daily bread, fresh air to breathe and clean water to drink as we are aware that, if we want justice and peace, we must protect the habitat that sustains us," the document continues. "The believers among us ask God to grant us this wish."

Source

• New York Times
• Image: Treehugger.com