An architect of Germany’s “synodal way” has explained how organizers used tactics employed successfully in politics to build pressure for change in the Catholic Church.
Thomas Sternberg said in a Dec. 2 interview that issues such as married clergy, women priests, and homosexuality were “opened up” by the initiative and were now being “discussed internationally, not only in Germany.”
Sternberg was co-president of the synodal way when it was officially launched on Dec. 1, 2019, until he stood down as president of the influential Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) in 2021.
He told the Cologne-based Catholic news website Domradio.de that the multi-year process — which brings together Germany’s bishops and select lay people to discuss power, the priesthood, women in the Church, and sexuality — was “running much more successfully” than he had first imagined.
He noted that Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops, had “want-ed to stop the whole thing” three years ago.
“What is now happening here in Germany is a non-binding discussion process from the per-spective of canon law.”

The Catholic population in the United States has grown by about 2 million people in 10 years. With nearly 62 million people, it continues to constitute the largest religious body in 36 U.S. states, according to the latest religion-focused survey of America’s religious congregations.
Over the last decade, many Catholics, the survey found, have moved to the South.
“Perhaps the most notable changes were by region,” Clifford Grammich, a political scientist involved in the U.S. Religion Census, told CNA Dec. 5. “Fifty years ago, 71% of U.S. Catholics were in the Northeast and Midwest; in 2020, 45% were. And the South now has more Catholics than any other region. I was surprised to see there are now more Catholics than Southern Baptists in Missouri and Virginia.”
The U.S. Religion Census is conducted by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies every 10 years. Its latest report was released last month.
Its 2020 survey reported that there were 61.9 million Catholics in the U.S., about 18.7% of the population. The survey identified 372 religious bodies with more than 356,000 congregations and 161.4 million adherents in the United States.

Support for Americans’ right to practice the religion of their choice rose dramatically this year, a new study by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty found.
Becket’s “2022 Religious Freedom Index,” released Dec. 7, showed a substantial increase in support for “religious pluralism” — the ability to choose and practice one’s religion without fear of persecution.
“Support for the right to choose and practice the religion of your choice has never been higher,” Becket’s index reports.
Becket’s index published the results of a 21-question online survey taken by Heart+Strategies this fall. The survey polled a nationally representative sample of 1,004 American adults.
Only 3% of Americans could correctly identify all five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment (speech, religion, assembly, press, petition).
Americans’ opinion on religious people is at an all-time low, with a 50-50 split in viewing them as part of the problem versus part of the solution.
The U.S. government’s treatment of religious communities contributed to a decrease in trust in the government among 26% of those surveyed, while it increased trust in the government in 9%.
59% of Americans believe the government should not force employers or medical workers to pay for or provide abortions again-st their consciences. Meanwhile, 41% of Americans believe the opposite.
54% of respondents believed that the government should not force businesses or medical workers to pay for or provide sex-change procedures, while 46% believed the opposite.

It is no secret that Pope Francis has been ruffling feathers on the global stage in recent weeks. He has angered Russia, Ukraine and China over his comments in the last month alone. So when the Vatican’s official website went dark on Wednesday, it was hard to determine just which of the pope’s enemies might be behind it.
While the Vatican spokes-person initially said the site was undergoing maintenance and technical difficulties, he finally admitted that the Holy See had been hacked. “Technical investigations are ongoing due to abnormal attempts to access the site,” Matteo Bruni said in a statement late Wednesday.
But those “abnormal attempts” could be a warning of more to come. The prime suspect is Russia, which has a history of conducting cyber warfare against enemies of its state. The holy hack came just 24 hours after Francis angered the Kremlin by singling out Chechens and Buryati troops within the military contingent invading Ukraine, leading to accusations of ”race baiting” against the pontiff.
Ukraine Angry After Pope Francis Calls Darya Dugina ‘Innocent’ War Victim.

The interview was held on November 22 at his Vatican residence at Santa Marta and was conducted in Spanish by five represen-tatives of the American Jesuit magazine including its outgoing editor in chief, Fr. Matt Malone, S.J., and Fr. Sam Sawyer, S.J., the incoming editor in chief. Questions ranged from polarization in the U.S. Church, racism, Church teaching on the ordination of women, the Pope’s stance on social issues, the war in Ukraine, the Vatican’s relations with China and his pontificate.
“I am happy because I feel God at my side.”
Fr. Malone introduced the interview by asking Pope Francis what makes him so peaceful and happy in his ministry. The Pope answered that being with people has always given him great joy, and that what makes him feel happy is having the assurance that “God is at his side.” “Throughout my life – he said – He has always guided me on His path, sometimes in difficult moments, but there is always the assurance that one does not walk alone.”
The Holy Father warned against the dangers of ideological partisanship in society, but especially within the Church, noting that U.S. society too has some “ideological Catho-lic groups.” “Polarization is not Catholic,” he stressed. “A Catholic cannot think either-or (aut-aut) and reduce everything to polari-zation. The essence of what is Catholic is both-and (et-et).” He recalled that Jesus went beyond the divisions among the Jews of the time between the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes and the Zealots. proposing the Beatitudes, “which are also something di-fferent.”
“The more polarization there is, the more one loses the Catholic spirit and falls into a sectarian spirit.”