Pope Francis addressed a delegation of the United Associ-ation of Humanistic Buddhism from Taiwan during their visit to the Vatican on an interreligious “educational pilgrimage.”
Pope Francis on March 16 stressed the importance of a culture of encounter, especially in a time marked by “a continued acceleration of changes affecting humanity and the planet.”
The Pope recognized the recent passing of Venerable Master Hsing Yun, the founding patriarch of Fo Guang Shan Monastery, a world-renowned figure in Humanistic Buddhism who was also a master of inter-religious hospitality.
The Pope went on to note that an educational pilgrimage to the sacred places of a religion, such as the one the delegation was undertaking, can also enrich one’s appreciation of the distin-ctiveness of its approach to the divine. He pointed to the master-pieces of religious art that surro-und visitors in the Vatican and throughout Rome, which reflect the conviction that, in Jesus Chri-st, God himself became a “pil-grim” in this world out of love for humanity.
Furthermore, he stressed the importance of religious believers creating oases of encounter, whi-ch contribute to an integral edu-cation of the human person, involving “head, hands, heart, and soul” and leading to the ex-perience of “the beauty and har-mony of what it is to be fully human.”
Daily Archives: March 27, 2023
Marriage hits record low amid S. Korea’s population decline
Less than 200,000 marriages were registered in South Korea in 2022, the lowest since 1970 when the country began recording demographic data, says the government.
The country recorded 191,690 marriages in 2022, down by 0.4 percent from 192,507 marriages in 2021, the Korea Herald reported on March 16 referring to data from the Korea Statistical Information Service.
The slump in marriages raises more concerns as the country reported in November 2021 that the population was 51.74 million, a drop of 0.2 percent or 91,000 persons from 2020.
In February, the government reported South Korea broke its own record of the lowest birth rates in the world. The total fertility rate, the average number of expected babies per South Korean woman during her reproductive age, dropped to 0.78 in 2022, down from 0.81 in 2021.
The capital city, Seoul, recorded the lowest rate with 0.59.
Lim Young-il, head of the Population Census Division at the agency pointed out that the population decline and the changes in South Koreans’ attitude towards marriage are the contributing factors to the low numbers.
“The number of marriages has decreased partly due to the constant decline of the population aged between 25 and 49,” Lim said adding that another reason was the “changing perception of marriage.”
The data showed that in 2022 the average age of first-time brides was 31.3 years up by 0.2 years and the age of grooms was 33.7 years up by 0.4 years in comparison to 2021.
Among the couples who married for the first time, 19.4% of partnerships were between an older female and a young male.
However, the marital partnerships between an older male and a young female had the major share of 64.4%, whereas 16.2% were of the same age.
French bishop suspends priest due to marry Holy Spirit ‘incarnation’
The French diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, currently under Vatican scrutiny for welcoming controversial religious groups, has suspended a priest and shut down his lay Catholic association after he revealed plans to marry a woman he said was “the incarnation” of the Holy Spirit.
Fr Antoine Coelho, a former Legionaries of Christ priest in his 40s who founded the “Holy Spirit House” association in 2017, had confirmed to the diocese “his intention to marry and found a family” with the 26-year-old Spanish woman, according to a diocesan statement.
“For these doctrinal and moral reasons, Fr Antoine Coelho was suspended and he is prohibited from exercising the priesthood,” the statement said.
Before founding Holy Spirit House to train fellow charismatics, he did two years of training in charism exercise and healing prayer with the English charismatic Catholic community Cor et Lumen Christi.
Fr Coelho has said he received a baptism of the Holy Spirit in 2010 and joined Fréjus-Toulon diocese in 2013. La Croix described him as “willingly mystical…with sometimes barely intelligible homilies”.
Novels, dreams, and prophets: A conversation with Michael O’Brien
“It’s my hope,” says the author of By the Rivers of Babylon, “that this story will enflesh, so to speak, the real struggles of biblical characters, and show how they resisted the dark undertow of despair, prevailing in hope at a time when there seemed to be no hope.”
Born in 1948, Michael O’Brien had a conversion experience at the age of 21, followed by several years of painting and writing. In 1996, Ignatius Press published Father Elijah: An Apocalypse, which became a best-seller and established O’Brien as a distinctive literary voice. Many more novels followed, including Eclipse of the Sun, Sophia House, The Father’s Tale, Theophilos, and several others, as well as works of non-fiction, and a beautiful collection of his artwork.
Now in his mid-70s, the prolific O’Brien has written yet another unique novel, By the Rivers of Babylon, about the mysterious 6th-century BC prophet Ezekiel. On writing the Biblical novels in Bible characters he said: “I prayed very much for light, for the “co-creative” grace, that I might tell a story about the unknown years of Ezekiel’s life before his great visions began. As I began to write, I had only the foundation of the little we know about him. Again and again, vivid images and scenes arose in my imagination that I hadn’t intended, but it soon became apparent they were exactly right for the developing story”. “I think there is plenty of room for the “baptized imagination”
“ I have always felt a strong natural love for the dramatic lives of King David and the prophets Elijah and Daniel, but I knew next to nothing about Ezekiel. Then came a night some years ago when I had one of the most powerful dreams of my life, in which the prophet Ezekiel appeared and I was singing to him with my whole heart and soul, calling him “my father.” I awoke, still singing, totally astonished, completely perplexed by the dream.
I’ve had ten thousand dreams in my life, all of them near-instantly forgotten when I awoke. But not this one—it’s as crystal clear to me today as it was then.” “The Babylonian Captivity was a catastrophic chastisement of apostate Israel. Yet, even during that 70-year desolation, the Lord sent words of consolation and hope through his prophets. Moreover, the Book of Ezekiel is rich in Christological signs of the coming of Christ and the New Covenant, which means that the Lord intended it for us as well.”
WCC joins appeals for better protecting holy sites in Jerusalem
The World Council of Churches (WCC) has decried attacks on holy sites in Jerusalem and is calling for their protection.
In a statement issued in the wake of the March 19 attack against the Church of Gethsemane in East Jerusalem, the WCC Secretary General, Rev. Prof. Dr. Jerry Pillay, made the appeal, joining in that of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
The Patriarchate had strongly decried the attack by two men against the church, where the Tomb of the Virgin Mary lies, during a religious service. Its Patriarch, Theophilus III, appealed for better protection of Christians and their holy places.
The WCC General Secretary underscored, “We stand in solidarity with the Patriarchate of Jerusalem and all those calling for protection of holy sites, and we reiterate our calls for such protection during Christian holidays and during all days of importance for all faith communities.
“The WCC is extremely concerned about the increasing attacks on holy sites in Jerusalem and deems it necessary to facilitate a meeting of key religious leaders in the near future to discuss what can be done to stop these uncalled-for attacks on religious leaders, sacred places, and institutions.”
“This terrible attack – which appears to have purposely targeted religious leaders,” he stressed, “is an egregious violation of international law.”
This attack represents the latest in a series of attacks against Christians, churches, and cemeteries in the Holy Land.
Exiles describe Nicaragua regime’s ‘unholy war against the Catholic Church’ at congressional hearing
Recently released political prisoners and human rights activists testified before members of Congress Wednesday about the ongoing persecution in Nicaragua, which one witness called an “unholy war against the Catholic Church.”
In recent years, the Nicaraguan government under Daniel Ortega has detained, imprisoned, and likely tortured numerous Catholic leaders, targeting at least one bishop and several priests.
In addition, the Ortega regime has repressed Catholic radio and television stations and driven Catholic religious orders, including the Missionaries of Charity, from the country.
Among those to testify March 22 was Juan Sebastian Chamorro, a former presidential candidate opposed to the Ortega regime who detailed his arrest and imprisonment.
“I was kidnapped by the police from my house the night of June 8, 2021. I was captured in front of my wife and my daughter … My family did not know anything about me until I was able to see my sister … almost three months after my arrest,” he said.
“Today, as the result of this authoritarian project in Nicaragua, there is no law, there is no media, and there are no civil rights.”
Local Chinese authorities order parents at school to sign pledge renouncing their faith
In another crackdown on religious freedom, local authorities in an eastern Chinese city ordered parents of kinder-garteners to sign a pledge that affirms they are not religious. Guardians of children at schools in Wenzhou, a city in the Zhejiang province, were asked to sign a “pledge form of commitment for family not to hold a religious belief,” according to the human rights group China Aid.
The pledge states that the parents affirm they “do not hold a religious belief, do not participate in any religious activities, and do not propagate and disseminate religion in any locations.” It also makes them affirm “exemplary observance of the [Chinese Communist] Party discipline and the country’s laws and regulations [and to] never join any Falun Gong and other cult organizations.”
Falun Gong, a religious movement founded in China in the 1990s, is openly critical of the Chinese Communist Party.
The order came from Chinese Communist Party officials in the Longwan district of the city of Wenzhou, according to ChinaAid. The nonprofit is a Christian human-rights organization that received the Democracy Award from the National Endowment for Democracy for its commitment to religious freedom in China in 2019.
The district is home to about 750,000, people. Christians represent about 10% of the city’s population and have grown in number over the past decade. This is much higher than the national average, which is less than 1% Christian.