When theology and philosophy engage with cultures in creative ways, they become a powerful tool for renewing humanity with the Word of God, Pope Francis said Saturday, during the awarding of the Ratzinger Prize on 9th November 2019.

“This is true for all cultures: access to redemption for humanity in all of its dimensions should be sought with creativity and imagination,” the Pope said.

He quoted St Paul VI’s apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, which says, “Evangelizing means bringing the Good News into all the strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new.”

“It is a duty for theology to be and remain in active dialogue with cultures, even as they change over time and evolve differently in various parts of the world,” he said. “It is a condition necessary for the vitality of Christian faith, for the Church’s mission of evangelization.”

“All the arts and disciplines,” Francis said, “thus cooperate in contributing to the full growth of the human person, which is to be found ultimately in the encounter with the living person of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Logos, the revelation of the God who is love.”

Pope Francis addressed members of the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Foundation in the Vatican’s apostolic palace during the award ceremony for the 2019 edition of the prestigious Ratzinger Prize.

The Ratzinger Prize was begun in 2011 to recognize scholars whose work demonstrates a meaningful contribution to theology or philosophy in the spirit of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Bavarian theologian who became Benedict XVI.

The winners of the 2019 prize are Catholic intellectual Charles Taylor and Jesuit priest and theologian, Fr Paul Béré.

Béré is the first African to win the prestigious Ratzinger Prize. A lecturer at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, he received the prize for his work on the figure of the prophet Joshua.

Every Christian is a “rebel against evil,” according to Cameroon’s lone cardinal.

Speaking during a program on Cameroonian state television, Cardinal Christian Tumi also called on Christians to become more involved in politics.

“Every Christian is a rebel against all that is not good-that is morally evil. A Christian is a rebel against lies,” Tumi said.

“Politics is part of the world and Christ has told us: Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel message. Wherever there is man acting; the Church has to be present,” he said.

“We are therefore called to evangelize the politicians and politics, because their activity also is preparing them for the Kingdom of God. There is no activity that is out of the region of the church,” Tumi continued.

The program brought together Christian leaders from different denominations to discuss relations between Church and State in the West African country, which is currently experiencing a number of crises, including a rebellion in the country’s two English-speaking provinces.

Liturgical musicians have the unique calling to interpret God’s will and love through song and praise, Pope Francis said.

“Every Christian, in fact, is an interpreter of the will of God in his or her own life, and by his or her life sings a joyful hymn of praise and thanksgiving to God,” the Pope said on Nov. 9 during a meeting with participants at a Vatican conference on interpreting sacred music.

The conference, titled “Church, Music, Interpreters: A Necessary Dialogue,” was sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Culture, the Pontifical Institute for Sacred Music and the Pontifical Athenaeum of St Anselm.

Reflecting on the conference theme, the Pope said most people think of interpreters as a kind of translator who conveys what “he or she has received in such a way that another person can understand it.”

Although good interpreters in the field of music essentially “translate” what a composer has written, they also should feel “great humility before a work of art that is not their property,” and to “bring out the beauty of the music.”

Catholic bishops from the European Union marked 30 years since the breaching of the Berlin Wall with tributes to those who worked for peaceful change, as well as warnings against resurgent “ideologies behind the building of walls.”

“The fall of the Berlin Wall was one of the most important events in European history of the last decades, a moment full of emotion,” the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union, or COMECE, said in a Nov. 6 statement. “But not all the expectations that the fall of the wall brought forth have been fulfilled.”

The statement said the Berlin Wall had symbolized “the ideological division of Europe and the whole world,” adding that its breaching during mass protests on Nov. 9, 1989, had “opened the way for regaining freedom” after communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe.

“Having been separated by a concrete wall for more than 28 years, people — relatives, friends and neighbours — living in the same city were able to meet each other, celebrate and express their joy and hopes. From this moment the world looked different,” said the document, signed by representatives of 26 bishops’ conferences.

Addressing an audience at Georgetown University on Oct. 25, the leader of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the United States said the world news in Washington is as “Ukrainian as it ever has been.”

But although he made reference to the current political interest in Ukraine, he also said “no one in Washington would give (the country) the time of day had there not been a July phone conversation,” referring to President Donald Trump’s conversation, now under congressional investigation, with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s president.

A new study shows that the percentage of Catholics in the United States has fallen from nearly one-in-four to one-in-five, with the added news that Hispanics in America are no longer majority-Catholic.

The Pew Research Centre survey released Oct. 17 noted that in general, religious practice in the country has declined at a “rapid pace.”

Based on telephone surveys conducted in 2018-2019, Pew found that 65% of Americans now call themselves Christian, down 12% points from a decade ago; in addition, those having no religion – describing themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” – are now 26% of the population, up from 17% a decade ago.

Self-described Protestants went from 77 to 65% in that time period; Catholics went from 23% to 20%. Although Catholic leaders might feel some comfort knowing they aren’t experiencing the same sort of decline as Protestants, they must be worried by the large number of Hispanic Catholics leaving the Church.

In 2009, 57% of Hispanics called themselves Catholic; it was only 47% in 2019. Only a small percentage of that can be attributed to joining other churches or religions – the number of Hispanics identifying as Protestant only rose from 23 in 2009 to 26% in 2017 (although the 2019 data showed 24% the earlier survey is probably more thorough); and the number describing themselves as belonging to non-Christian religions rose from 1 percent to 3%. However, those describing themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” increased from 16 to 23%.