The new analysis of a study that claims to be the largest national survey of Catholic priests conducted in more than 50 years has found, among other thin-gs, that priests describing themselves as “progre-ssive” are practically go-ing “extinct” among U.S. seminary graduates, with the vast majority of young ordinands describing themselves as conservative and orthodox.
Conducted by The Catholic Project, a research group at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., the newest release focuses on polarization, generational dynamics, and the ongoing impact of the sexual abuse crisis.
Part 1 of the survey, released last October, found that despite rela-tively high levels of per-sonal well-being and ful-fillment among priests as a whole, a significant percentage of priests have issues with burnout, dis-trust in their bishop, and fears of being falsely accused of misconduct.
The new November report highlights “several themes which have emerged from closer analysis of the quantitative data, as well as careful study of the qualitative data collected from the one-on-one interviews with priests.” The study used survey responses from 3,516 priests across 191 dioceses and eparchies in the United States.
Abu Dhabi: Holy Door opened for Jubilee of Arabian Martyrs
As the Church in the Arabian Peninsula begins its Holy Year for the 1,500th anniversary of the Martyrs of Arabia (523-2023), the second of two Holy Doors was opened at Mass on Thursday evening in St. Joseph’s Cathedral in the United Arab Emirates’ capital of Abu Dhabi.
The Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia, Bishop Paolo Martinelli, OFM Cap., presided over the Mass as part of the Extraordinary Jubilee proclaimed in the Apostolic Vicariates of Northern and Southern Arabia for the occasion.
During the Mass, Bishop Martinelli opened the Holy Door at the Cathedral, to which Pope Francis made a private visit du-ring his February 2019 visit to Abu Dhabi.
Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, Prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, pre-sent these days in Abu Dhabi for the Global Faith Leaders Summit in view of COP28, and the Apo-stolic Nuncio to the United Arab Emirates, Archbishop Christophe Zakhia El-Kassis, took part in the celebration.
The Apostolic Vicar of Nor-thern Arabia, Bishop Aldo Bera-rdi, delivered the homily, reca-lling the ancient roots of Chri-stianity in the region.
When modern Christians first came to the Gulf region, he said, they thought that Christianity arrived with them and the dis-covery of oil.
“Then one day, unexpected ly, archeologists found the rem-ains of monasteries, churches, and crosses in the rocks and the deserts,” said Bishop Berardi. “Therefore, we are not a new Church. We are the continuation of that Church.”
Though modern Christians cannot proselytize in the Gulf, he said, “we must live as witne-sses to Jesus every day: in our daily lives, our work, our fami-lies, our honesty, our consistency of life, and our relationships with others.”
Transsexual and homosexual persons and the Sacraments
Transsexual persons, even if they have undergone hormone therapy or sex reassignment surgery, may receive the Sacrament of Baptism “if there are no situations in which there is a risk of generating public scandal or confusion among the faithful”. The children of homosexual couples should be baptized even if they are born from a surrogate mother, provided there is a well-founded hope that they will be educated in the Catholic faith.
These clarifications were issued on Wednesday in a response to questions (dubia) submitted to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) by Bishop José Negri of Santo Amaro, Brazil.
The document, signed by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandéz, the Prefect of the DDF, and approved by Pope Francis on 31 October, answered six questions concerning the possible participation of transsexual and homoaffective persons in the Sacraments of Baptism and Matrimony.
The answers “re-propose, in substance, the fundamental contents of what has already been affirmed in the past by the Dicastery concerning these matters.”
The DDF affirmed that transsexual persons, whether adults, children, or adolescents, can be baptized, provided they are “well-prepared and willing, and that there is no occasion of scandal.”
Christianity growing despite world’s worst persecutions, new report says
A new report from a Christian advocacy group says that Christianity continues to thrive and grow despite brutal repression and attempts by governments, groups, and individuals across the world to quash the faith. The 2023 “Persecutors of the Year” report was released this month by the advocacy group International Christian Concern (ICC).
According to the report, the Islamic Republic of Iran has “one of the fastest-growing churches in the world.”Christians currently make up only a small minority in Iran, numbering somewhere between 500,000 and 800,000, according to ICC’s report. Though the government, ruled by Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, enforces strict adherence to Sharia law, ICC’s report said that hundreds of thousands of Iranians “from all different kinds of walks of life” have converted to Christianity.
In China, the report said that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “requires that citizens worship the state, co-opting every religious structure possible into a mouthpiece of CCP propaganda.”
Under the leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping, the penalties for living out one’s Christian faith have continued to increase. Amid the persecution, the report said that there are now 70 million to 100 million “underground Christians” who have refused to follow the CCP’s mandate to “worship the state,” choosing instead to risk their lives by following Christ.
Peru Cardinal open to women deacons, wants ‘swift justice’ on abuse
Following the close of last month’s Synod of Bishops, a leading Latin American cardinal has signaled openness in some cases to ordaining women deacons and also called for swift justice in sexual abuse cases, including the potential dissolution of a lay community in his own country currently under Vatican investigation.
Cardinal Pedro Barreto made the comments in an Oct. 30 exclusive interview with Crux, prior to leaving for Rome’s Fiumicino airport to return to Peru following the close of the synod.
The Archbishop of Huancayo and President of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA), Barreto also spoke of the growing influence of Latin America in the Church and the fact that Catholicism’s centre of gravity has shifted from the west to the global south.
On the topic of women, one of the biggest themes of the pope’s Oct. 4-29 Synod of Bishops on Synodality and among the most divisive issues in the discussion’s final synthesis document, Barreto noted that throughout the Church’s history, “it is always women influenced by society’s machismo, they have been relegated.”
“Today in the Church, especially in Latin America, if women stopped participating, the Church would not exist,” he said, noting that women religious even in his own diocese often lead liturgies and other initiatives in areas that have no priests.
On the possibility of ordaining women as deacons, a major hot-button synod talking point, Barreto said, “There are some, not all, who are against the women’s diaconate.”
“Women do not demand that, but they can, in some cases, be given the possibility of that,” he said, noting that every paragraph in the final synthesis document was voted on and approved, including the ones that talked about the women’s diaconate.
“We can still continue reflecting, but the role of women in the Church and in society is being evaluated a lot,” he said.
Hong Kong government: 10 bishops’ appeal for Jimmy Lai is ‘Contempt of Court’
The Hong Kong government has harshly rejected a petition with which ten Catholic bishops from all continents this week had asked the government of the special administrative region of Hong Kong to release the well-known pro-activist democracy – and Catholic – Jimmy Lai, who at 75 has been in prison for over 1000 days.
Lai was arrested in August 2020 thanks to the controversial “national security law”, which drastically limits freedom of speech in an attempt to suppress the pro-democracy movement. Among the harshest sanctions provided by law there is also life imprisonment for what the government considers sedi-tion, terrorism, but also damage to public transport vehicles.
The petition of the 10 Catholic bishops – Card. Timothy M. Dolan, archbishop of New York (United States), Card. Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, Major Archbishop of Trivandrum (India) and others asked “the government of the special administrative region of Hong Kong to immediately and unconditionally release Jimmy Lai, prosecuted.
The Hong Kong government has harshly rejected a petition.
New Malaysia cardinal “Universality is not uniformity, and uniformity is a temptation”
Malaysia’s new cardinal, Sebastian Francis of Penang, has said the upcoming Synod of Bishops on Synodality ought to be an open process in which all issues are discussed without fear, and warned against using labels that cause division. Speaking to Crux, Francis said of the synod, “as long as we don’t get into la-bels, and we don’t get into trying to divide,” things will be fine.
“We are not looking for easy, simple solutions to whatever issues might be out there in the Church, but we are looking for a way of being Church itself…a Church that is open to welcome anyone, everyone, and deal with all the issues without feeling threatened by any issues,” he said.
It is the culmination of a multi-year process that began with a broad consultation and the dio-cesan level in October 2021 and continued with discussion at the continental stage, and it marks the first of two universal gather-ings based in Rome to conclude the process. The final discussion will take place next year, in October 2024, following a year of reflection and discussion on the results of this year’s meeting.
In his conversation with Crux, Francis discussed the October synod as well as the Church in Malaysia, Pope Francis’s atten-tion to the continent, the upcom-ing World Youth Day in Seoul, and a potential papal visit to India next year.
“I’d just like to tell him that I affirm the three things he men-tioned to me in (his) letter: That universality is not unifor-mity, and uniformity is a tempta-tion, it’s a weakness and may even be a sin; and telling us what he would want from us, from me, is both the enculturation of faith of the universal Church and the evangelization of cultures. I am one with him, one with the Holy Spirit who has inspired him to remind us of these essentials. For the rest, well, come what may.”
Challenges of interfaith families in Singapore, and beyond
In the heart of Asia, where diversity thrives and traditions abound, the intersection of faith and family is a place where love and understanding must find a way to coexist peacefully.
Interfaith marriages are on the rise. In Singapore, one in three marriages is an interfaith union. Whether we approve of it or not, many individuals choose to embark on interfaith relation-ships.
Therefore, it becomes essen-tial to explore ways to support these couples in overcoming the challenges they may encounter.
Some issues faced by inter-faith families can be very practi-cal and finding support can be challenging.
Consider the case of Mary, a Catholic who married a Hindu man. He died many years ago but she was well accepted and taken care of by her husband’s family. But when Mary died the Hindu family was at a loss about what to do for her funeral rites.
Muslim woman Fadhilah and Catholic man Ronald have been married for many years. How-ever, their union faces resistance from her Muslim family, who hesitate to visit their home due to the presence of alcohol, which conflicts with their Islamic be-liefs.
The Centre for Interfaith Understanding (CIFU), an inter-faith organization in Singapore works to find ways to help inter-faith families in their daily stru-ggles. The organization is curre-ntly collecting stories from inter-faith couples, documenting their trials, triumphs, and the unique tapestry of love that they create.
Jailed Iranian Nobel winner begins hunger strike
Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi has begun a hunger strike in her Iranian prison in protest at limits on medical care for her and other inmates, as well as the obligation for wo-men to wear the hijab in the Islamic republic, her family said on Monday.
Veteran rights activist Moha-mmadi, 51, currently held in Te-hran’s Evin prison, was awarded the Nobel prize in October “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran.”
“Narges Mohammadi, today, through a message from Evin Prison, has informed her family that she started a hunger strike several hours ago. We are con-cerned about Narges Mohamma-di’s physical condition and heal-th,” her family said in a state-ment.
Mohammadi is refusing under any circumstances to wear a hijab, the head covering that has been obligatory for women in public spaces since shortly after Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.
Prison authorities in response have refused to transfer Moha-mmadi, who suffers from heart and lung conditions, to a hospital outside Evin for treatment.
The family said in the state-ment that she was in “urgent” need of medical treatment outside prison.
“Narges went on a hunger strike today in protesting two things: The Islamic Republic’s policy of delaying and neglecting medical care for sick inmates… (and) the policy of ‘mandatory hijab’ for Iranian women,” the statement said.
China’s new ‘Patriotic Education Law’ places further limits on religious instruction
China passed a “Patriotic Education Law,” further consolidating the Chinese Communist Party’s control over education, including religious education, state-controlled media outlet Xinhua announced last month.
The new law, which was passed during a session of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, would require churches and religious groups to adapt their educational activities to promote the party’s official ideology.
“The state is to guide and support religious groups, religious institutes, and religious activity sites in carrying out patriotic edu-cation activities, enhancing religious profe-ssionals’ and believers’ identification with the great motherland, the Chinese people, Chinese culture, the Chinese Communist Party, and socialism with Chinese characte-ristics,” the new law reads.
The law goes on to say that “all levels and types of school shall have patriotic edu-cation permeate the entire course of school education” and that even “the parents or other guardians of minors shall include love of the motherland in family education.”
Patriotic education has been an imperative of the CCP since the Maoist Revolution to inculcate the party’s official ideology. It has been reimagined during periods of social upheaval, namely during the Cultural Revolution and in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
Xi Jinping has put his twist on patriotic education, underpinning it with the ideological doctrine of the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese people.” This mantra is in part centred on the revival of Chinese culture, but it is also predicated on “upholding the leadership of the Communist Party of China and socialism with Chinese characteristics.”