People who attend worship services regularly tend to have more close friendships, which can in turn lead to better health outcomes.
Most health care professionals know they can’t fully assess patients’ health without looking at social determinants, the nonmedical factors that influence health outcomes. Income, housing, quality of schools, access to fresh produce and other factors play an important role in wellness. But there’s one we don’t fully acknowledge: the role of faith.
Faith, spirituality and a sense of purpose all have a beneficial effect on one’s emotional, physical and mental health.
This connection is well-established by researchers. Belief in a divine plan for one’s life can foster optimism and hope “ attitudes that can boost mental and physical health, according to an analysis of more than 40 studies. Spiritual practices, such as prayer, can reduce stress and anxiety.
Spirituality and faith can even affect our physical health. According to a study published in the Journal of Health Psychology, religiosity, spirituality and frequency of prayer have been tied to lower cortisol levels.
In a study of more than 1,700 older adults, researchers at Duke University Medical Center found that those who practice religion had better immune function than those who didn’t. The findings persisted even when researchers adjusted for other factors that could impact immune system function, such as depression or chronic illness. The researchers suggest that the shared promotion of positive thoughts or experience of worship and adoration may help explain the physical health benefits.
Here’s how physicians at the Mayo Clinic sum up research on the topic: “Most studies have shown that religious involvement and spirituality are associated with better health outcomes, including greater longevity, coping skills, and health-related quality of life (even during terminal illness) and less anxiety, depression, and suicide.”
We also know that some health benefits can be more pronounced in organized religion than in belief itself. For example, if you’re a member of a house of worship, you’ve likely noticed that few people attend services alone. Just as important as the internal attitudes religion can foster are the social connections it can bring.
An epidemic of loneliness and a lack of community have contributed to a rapid rise in “deaths of despair” from suicide and substance abuse. Belonging to a faith organization can foster the sense of community that’s missing in so many people’s lives.
People who attend services regularly tend to have more close friendships, which can in turn lead to better health outcomes. One study found that cancer patients who belonged to a church choir reported better vitality and mental health despite no changes in their physical condition. Simply having social support and coming together to sing was enough to improve their sense of well-being.

Female pastoral workers in a German parish are triggering outrage among faithful Catholics after the women processed with the Blessed Sacrament on the feast of Corpus Christi.
Marita Franzen and Sandra Ostermann, who hold the position of gemeindereferentin  (pastoral officer) in the Catholic parish of St. Joseph and St. Medardus in Lüdenscheid, were photographed carrying the sacred monstrance in violation of canon law. The parish of St. Medardus bragged on its website that the women lay assistants processing with the Blessed Sacrament constituted a “new achievement.”

In what’s likely to be seen as a classic example of the adage that “personnel is policy,” Pope Francis on Saturday tapped an Argentine archbishop widely seen as a close ally and ghostwriter for several major papal documents as the Vatican’s new doctrinal czar.
In a July 1 statement, the Vatican said the mandate of Spanish Jesuit Cardinal Luis Ladaria as head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), president of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and head of the International Theological Commission has come to an end.
The announcement said that Pope Francis has named Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández of La Plata, Argentina, to succeed Ladaria, formally taking over in mid-September.
A long-time protégé of Francis, Fernández is widely seen as one of the pontiff’s ghost-writers, including for major landmark texts such as his 2015 eco-encyclical Laudato Si’; his 2016 post-synodal exhortation on the family Amoris Laetitia; and his first-ever apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudim, published in 2013 and widely considered a tone-setting text for the rest of Francis’s papacy.
A priest at the time of Francis’s election, Fernández was appointed by the pope as rector of the Pontifical University of Argentina, and he was Francis’s first episcopal appointment.

Honoring Saints Peter and Paul, the patrons of Rome, on their liturgical feast day, Pope Francis said understanding and imitating Jesus is not a matter of following doctrinal formulas or the “rigid observance” of rules and norms.
Rather, it means letting go of preconceived convictions and daily being transformed by his love in order to spread the Gospel to others, the pope said.
Speaking during a Mass for the June 29 Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Pope Francis said the two apostles answered the most essential question for a Christian, “Who is Jesus for me?” in a very specific way: “By following him as his disciples and by proclaiming the Gospel.”
“It is good for us to grow as a Church in the same way, by following the Lord, constantly and humbly seeking him out. It is good for us to become a Church that is also outgoing, finding joy not in the things of the world, but in preaching the Gospel before the world and opening people’s hearts to the presence of God,” he said.
He urged faithful to bring Jesus everywhere they go “with humility and joy: in our city of Rome, in our families, in our relationships and our neighborhoods, in civil society, in the Church, and political life, in the entire world, especially in those places where poverty, decay and marginalization are deeply rooted.”

Pope Francis said on Sunday that he will create 21 new cardinals, including the Vatican’s recently appointed doctrinal chief Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández, at a consistory on Sept. 30.
The 86-year-old pope made the announcement from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square after reciting the Angelus prayer on July 9.
This is the full list:
• Archbishop Robert Francis Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops (United States)
• Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (Argentina)
• Archbishop Christophe Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S. (France)
• Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem (Italy)
• Archbishop Emil Paul Tscherrig, Apostolic Nuncio to Italy (Switzerland)
• Bishop Stephen Chow Sau-yan, S.J., Bishop of Hong Kong (China)
• Archbishop José Cobo Cano, Archbishop of Madrid (Spain)
• Archbishop Stephen Brislin, Archbishop of Cape Town (South Africa)
• Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches (Italy)
• Archbishop Ángel Sixto Rossi, Archbishop of Córdoba (Argentina)
• Archbishop Luis Rueda Aparicio, Archbishop of Bogotá (Colombia)
• Archbishop Grzegorz Ry, Archbishop of Lodz (Poland)
• Archbishop Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla, Archbishop of Juba (South Sudan)
• Archbishop Protase Rugambwa, Coadjutor Archbishop of Tabora (Tanzania)