Indonesian Muslim leader with Pope Francis for the "neediest"
Jakarta (AsiaNews) - For the president of Indonesia’s Reports about the new Mgr Johannes Educated by the He was equally struck However, Catholics in Meanwhile, “I hope that “Such good relations
Prof Din Syamsuddin, president of Muhammadiyah, talked to AsiaNews about the election of Card Jorge Mario
Bergoglio of Buenos Aires to the Petrine throne, saying it should lead to improvements
in the already better relations between the Catholic Church and the Muslim
world. In the spirit of Saint Francis, whose name the pope bears, “shared
interests between Muslims and Christians” should also “guarantee better living
conditions for the needy.”
largest moderate Muslim organisation, under Pope Francis’s guidance, the Vatican
and Muslim organisations should soon reach a Memorandum of Understanding “to
confront shared issues”, especially social problems like “poverty and inequality
in matters of justice and social life.”
pope reached Indonesia in the middle of the night last Wednesday, when most
people, Catholics and non-Catholics, were still asleep. However, the name of
Pope Francis was soon the leading item on morning newscasts.
Pujasumarta, archbishop of Semarang (central Java), welcomed this “new chapter”
in the history of the Catholic Church.
Jesuits, the religious order to which the new pontiff belongs, the Indonesian prelate
said that “he was impressed by the new pope’s decision to pick the name Francis”,
which indicates a desire to “embrace the neediest”.
by the simple lifestyle he led each day during his long years at the helm of
the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires.
Indonesia have been focused on the Muslim world. In the past few years, several
episodes of violence and discrimination against religious minorities have been
recorded in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
the new pontiff will improve already good relations between Catholics and the
Vatican with the varied Muslim world, represented in this case by the nation
with the largest number of Muslims in the world, namely Indonesia,” said Prof Din
Syamsuddin, a long-time participants to Muslim-Christian forums.
can be fertile ground to improve civilisation, despite the behaviour of some
human beings that have devastated it,” he added.
Indonesian Muslim leader with Pope Francis for the "neediest"
Jakarta (AsiaNews) - For the president of Indonesia’s Reports about the new Mgr Johannes Educated by the He was equally struck However, Catholics in Meanwhile, “I hope that “Such good relations
Prof Din Syamsuddin, president of Muhammadiyah, talked to AsiaNews about the election of Card Jorge Mario
Bergoglio of Buenos Aires to the Petrine throne, saying it should lead to improvements
in the already better relations between the Catholic Church and the Muslim
world. In the spirit of Saint Francis, whose name the pope bears, “shared
interests between Muslims and Christians” should also “guarantee better living
conditions for the needy.”
largest moderate Muslim organisation, under Pope Francis’s guidance, the Vatican
and Muslim organisations should soon reach a Memorandum of Understanding “to
confront shared issues”, especially social problems like “poverty and inequality
in matters of justice and social life.”
pope reached Indonesia in the middle of the night last Wednesday, when most
people, Catholics and non-Catholics, were still asleep. However, the name of
Pope Francis was soon the leading item on morning newscasts.
Pujasumarta, archbishop of Semarang (central Java), welcomed this “new chapter”
in the history of the Catholic Church.
Jesuits, the religious order to which the new pontiff belongs, the Indonesian prelate
said that “he was impressed by the new pope’s decision to pick the name Francis”,
which indicates a desire to “embrace the neediest”.
by the simple lifestyle he led each day during his long years at the helm of
the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires.
Indonesia have been focused on the Muslim world. In the past few years, several
episodes of violence and discrimination against religious minorities have been
recorded in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
the new pontiff will improve already good relations between Catholics and the
Vatican with the varied Muslim world, represented in this case by the nation
with the largest number of Muslims in the world, namely Indonesia,” said Prof Din
Syamsuddin, a long-time participants to Muslim-Christian forums.
can be fertile ground to improve civilisation, despite the behaviour of some
human beings that have devastated it,” he added.
NEW POPE AND HOPE ?
The election of a new Pope, has always
been a major media event. Much is being said, but then again
much is being left unsaid!
The unsaid part is mostly about the history of the Catholic
Church, and the Papal Bulls issued centuries ago by Popes such
as Pope Alexander, which expressly called for the plunder of
places of worship belonging to other religions in distant
countries.
The Catholic Church never made reparations to the victims of
these actions, but leave alone reparations, there has been
nothing in the nature of an apology issued with regard to the
ruthless actions of the Catholic Church under previous Popes.
Yet, curiously, part of the mandate of the new Pope,
according to commentators, is to ensure that Catholicism finds
new fertile ground in this part of the world, in Asia, Latin
America, and in Africa in particular, because the scientifically
developed West is seen to be turning its back on Christianity,
and Catholicism in particular, leaving the Church hierarchies
numb with anxiety and unable to react fast enough.
The retirement of Pope Benedict XVI, it is being said, had
everything to do with the problems the Catholic Church was
facing in general, particularly in relation to dwindling numbers
in what were the key bastions of Catholicism. Of course it is
common knowledge that the Church was also rocked by scandal,
which made it extremely difficult for an entrenched figure who
was a pillar of the Vatican establishment such as the former
Pope, to stay on without feeling the heat of the repercussions.
The new Pope has been chosen expressly as a reformer, having
taken the name of the reformist Saint Francis of Assisi, while
the former Pope was seen to be a conservative who was a very
strict adherent of the orthodoxy before he became the Pope,
being a Cardinal who was part of the charmed inner circle of the
Vatican which wielded the real power in the Catholic Church.
But the former Cardinal Ratzinger’s harking back to the old
church orthodoxy, proved to be a harking back too much! The
Catholic Church lost the flock in numbers, and scandal and
resulting malaise seemed to have rocked the Church establishment
to its very foundations.
So begins another cycle in the Catholic Church where a
‘progressive’ Pope is chosen, particularly with a view to
spreading the word in the Southern hemisphere, where there may
be many more ready takers, than in the West.
Strangely for different reasons, Islamism and Buddhism have
been attractive to many new converts who have been leaving the
Christian Churches in droves — to the extent that it is
expected that by the end of the century, there will be no
Christians in Great Britain, for instance!
It is difficult to estimate what the exact proximate cause of
the popular spread of Islam is, but certainly Buddhism seems to
be popular among the scientifically literate because of the
religion’s very nature as a philosophy which does not propound
creationist theories for example, that put off the skeptical.
The danger is if there is severe contestation among the key
different religions to increase their flock. Proselytizing and
plain insecurity among religious elites that prompts them to be
vary of other religionists, have caused more problems to
humankind than religions set out to solve in the first place!
Religions — all religions — must do good, and not sow
discord and dissension, though that by itself may sound too
preachy and evocative of pulpit practice. However, there should
be an open play of ideas, and a discussion on how various
religious practices may impact on society as a whole. In this
country, the Halal discussion, though frowned upon by many, is
also being seen as an opportunity by some animal rights groups
for instance, that have expressed the view that this will be a
point of origin for more enlightened practices in the slaughter
of animals in abattoirs for instance.
This comment is not a criticism of the Halal method of
slaughter — in fact, there seems to be credible evidence to
endorse this practice rather than reject it. But it is the
attendant cruelty to animals in most abattoir conditions that’s
abominable.
The recent debate has cast the spotlight on these issues;
religious contestation does have its strange pay-offs.
World’s first Jesuit pope makes church history
It was an unusually short conclave with an unexpected finish. When Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergolio from Argentina was declared the new pope on Wednesday evening, the announcement was greeted with astonishment from the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
The archbishop of Buenos Aires was widely believed to be the runner-up in the 2005 conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI, and he was not high on the media list of papabili, or men who could be pope.
“He was one of the contenders in 2005, but he was overlooked for health reasons,” said Frédéric Mounier, Vatican correspondent for the French Catholic daily, La Croix. “Now, we can say that he has accepted the responsibility: he knows he does not have much time [at 76 years] and he has accepted the mission entrusted to him.”
Pope Francis is also the first Latin American “vicar of Christ” – a significant milestone in a 2,000-year-old institution. “We are witnessing a revolution in the history of the Catholic Church,” said Mounier in an interview with France 24.
The morning after his election, the South American press unanimously hailed the choice of the new pope as an homage to the continent that has the largest number of Catholics in the world.
In an article published Wednesday, Jean-Marie Guénois, Rome correspondent of the French daily Le Figaro and a religion expert, said, “The real message of the election of Pope Francis lies in the fact that he is a Jesuit and not his Latin American origin.”
A Jesuit at the helm
With the election of Pope Francis, the Jesuits have, in some ways, taken revenge on the Vatican. An influential religious order founded in the 16th century, the Society of Jesus – or Jesuits, as they’re known – have at times had rocky relations with the Vatican.
Papal election
Since the order was founded in Rome in 1540, Jesuits have been known to be aggressively evangelistic, expanding their missions to far-flung corners of the world, from India to Central and South America.
The order’s activist track record earned the Society of Jesus a reputation for political scheming, leading to its official suppression by Pope Clement XIV in 1773 until Pope Pius VII restored its recognition in 1814.
While the Jesuits today are the largest religious order of men in the Catholic Church, they have traditionally displayed a reluctance to get deeply involved in church politics in and around Rome.
The Jesuits are primarily educators, running top-level universities across the world, from the US to Asia, and their ranks have included respected academics. Pope Francis himself was an academic and professor before he rose up the clerical ranks.
“The world has about 18,000 Jesuits, and they are the ones who determine the future of the church,” explained Mounier. “They are used to thinking deeper than the others. They work closely with the poor, but they are intellectuals who are in tune with the changes in society.”
‘The gospel of poverty’
The first words of the new pope on the St. Peter’s balcony set the tone of his pontificate.
In his first address as pontiff, John Paul II told the crowd, “Do not be afraid”. For his part, Pope Francis asked the crowd to pray, and a contemplative silence descended on St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday evening.
“The tone set was silence, prayer and humility,” said Mounier, noting that after leaving the balcony dressed in red velvet, the new pope refused to get into the specially chartered Mercedes bearing the Vatican flag. Instead, he chose to return to his Santa Marta residence in a bus with all the other cardinals.
In his native Argentina, Pope Francis is well known for his humble lifestyle – preferring to take the bus to work and flying economy when he visits Rome.
As the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio preached social inclusion and was critical of governments overlooking the people on the margins of society.
According to Mounier, the election of Pope Francis “marks a return to the essential Church of Christ, the gospel of poverty”.
His choice of a papal name is also significant. The name Francis had never been adopted by a pope. It refers to Saint Francis of Assisi, famed for giving up his family wealth to live a life of poverty after God entrusted him with the words: “Go, Francis, and repair my church, which is falling apart.”
Argentineans celebrate the real hand of God
The sun was just setting on a late summers’ afternoon in the Argentine capital when the news broke: Jorge Mario Bergoglio, former archbishop of Buenos Aires, was elected pope. The man no one expected and no one had counted on. Bars and cafes filled, and shouting and a happy chaos filled the streets as people laughed and celebrated while pointing at the screens that showed live broadcasts from Rome and the news on their mobile phones.
A maintenance man for a high-rise in the expensive neighborhood of Belgrano weeps with happiness about the new pope: “I am very proud that the new pope is from Argentina. I hope that his words will influence all those who with mean and silly things to say.”
Clear and concise words
Argentines across the country celebrated ‘their’ pope
In Villa 31, one of the city’s notorious slums, there’s an impromptu Mass celebrated for the new pope, for “their” pope. He knew poverty and hardship and he fought against it since he became archbishop of Buenos Aires. It was with short, snappy and pointed statements like “debt is unjust, immoral and illegitimate” that he made a name for himself in Argentina. Bergoglio spoke out against Argentine and Latin American women being abducted and being forced into prostitution. “In a major town, slavery is the order of the day.” He was a supporter of the poor and those without a voice.
As archbishop, now Pope Francis didn’t use the official car but took the bus or metro like everybody else – in a city of millions where the public transport is a disaster. He could have lived in a villa provided by the church, but instead rented a simple, small apartment. He doesn’t drink expensive wine but goes for local tea. And it’s exactly that what makes him credible in the eyes of the people. This, however, does not mean that he’s a left-wing liberal. When it comes to homosexuality, contraception, priests’ celibacy or female priests, the new pope is uncompromisingly conservative.
Conservative, frank and open
It’s the mix of conservative doctrine and social commitment that make Francis special – and ensures him respect in his home country and beyond. He is considered to be a pope who could open the church, who knows the real problem of his flock and has solutions ready at hand. He’s not an abstract theologian behind the thick walls of the Vatican – but rather a real shepherd who knows what life is about.
Kirchner was a critical of the new pope while he was an archbishop in Buenos Aires
But that necessarily leads to conflicts with the government: Argentine President Christina Fernandez de Kirchner congratulated the new pope saying she hoped his fruitful pastoral work would stand for justice, equality, fraternity and peace. They words of praise she never had for the former archbishop. The president and her predecessor had frequently tried to get Bergoglio into court on charges of allegedly cooperating with the Argentine military dictatorship in the 1970s and 80s. His rejection of gay marriage and legalizing drugs also did not make his easier for Argentine politicians to work with.
But for now, it’s the people who are celebrating. Francis, they are convinced, will lead the church out of its numerable ongoing crises. As a stern conservative and a voice for the poor and disadvantaged he seems to many to be the right man to open a new chapter in the history of the Catholic Church.
Pope Francis Secrets: Journalist Olga Wornat Reveals The Catholic Leader’s …
Olga Wornat, an Argentine journalist and writer, is one of the few people outside the Church that has interacted closely with Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the current Pope Francis. She interviewed him while researching her book “Nuestra Santa Madre, historia pública y privada de la iglesia católica,” (“Our Holy Mother, A Public and Private History of the Catholic Church), and they’ve been close since then.
Huffpost Voces spoke with her about his personality, the controversies that surround him, and about the dark side of the man who is now known as the “Pope of the poor.”
Who is the man behind Pope Francis?
Like all Jesuits, he is a fascinating character. He belongs to a congregation of intellectually brilliant people, and he is that way. He is a very enigmatic man, who keeps a low profile. The Jesuits are the Church’s most brilliant, they really like the Church, and they are interested in politics. His appointment is very curious because it is the first time that a Jesuit reaches such a high position, especially taking into account that the Jesuit congregation was chastised by John Paul II. He practically forced them to disappear because he saw them as a congregation of Marxists, rebels, revolutionaries.
How did you become his biographer?
I met Bergoglio when he was at the Buenos Aires’ archdiocese and he was the right hand of Cardinal Quarracino. He worked a lot with the poor. He is an austere man with a very fragile health. He is the son of an Italian family. His mom was a middle-class Italian.
Why do you say he is health is fragile?
He had tuberculosis when he was a child, and that had important consequences. He lacks the upper side of his right lung and he has angina pectoris. That is why he swims a lot.
How would you describe him from your perspective?
He is a difficult man because he didn’t speak much. Rather, he listens. He is a man of few words, and contrary to John Paul II he is not a great conversationalist. He is very distrustful. When I was researching my book, I am not sure if he liked the fact that I was writing about the Argentine Catholic Church, but he agreed to talk to me. I told him that there was going to be an important chapter that would be about him, and he got nervous –especially because there is a dark time in his life that has to do with the military dictatorship.
What was Pope Francis’ position during Argentina’s military dictatorship?
There are very contradictory accounts about the degree of collaboration that he maintained with the dictatorship during those years. I spoke with Jesuits, with members of the congregation, which point him out as a collaborator. Bergoglio was a man who at that time was the director of the Colegio Máximo, which is a school in the province of Buenos Aires where all the Jesuits from the Southern Cone are formed. There are concrete allegations against him –I have them—about how he supposedly gave the government lists with the names of the members of the Company of Jesus who were involved with the guerrillas, the men who had leftist or revolutionary inclinations. Two of them, whom I interviewed, voiced strong accusations against him.
Did you speak about the subject with the Pope? What did he tell you?
He denied it; he said it wasn’t true, and that in fact he used to meet with the members of the military junta to ask about the priests that had been kidnapped. It is a cloud that hovers over his history as a priest, one that is dark and contradictory. There are those who love him and those who hate him. There is no middle term with him. But that is not the only dark story in his past.
What is the other dark story in Pope Francis’ life?
He never told me why the Company of Jesus punished him. He was sent to a sort of spiritual getaway to an Argentinian city, and he was there for a long time. While he was there he was isolated and he suffered from a profound depression. He is a man who is intellectually fascinating, and politically inconsistent. He is a staunch opponent of abortion, of marriage equality and its respective policy regarding adoption, but in his personal life he is a very warm man. He never raises his voice and he is very intelligent. He listens to you and he is curt. When you ask him a question, he responds with few words –just what needs to be said—and whenever he says goodbye, he says, “Pray for me.”
What was the reason for that punishment that he refuses to comment?
There are many stories, and I don’t want to say anything because I’m currently writing about it and there are still a lot of facts to confirm. But I can say that he is like everyone else in the Company of Jesus. He is shy, lonely, and he is not a charismatic man. Nevertheless, he shares a great connection with the poor.
The Jesuits are very progressive in their way of thinking, somewhat left-wing, and because of that some people hate them and some people love them. He has very austere ways. He always turned down official cars. He liked to ride public buses, the metro, and he used to walk to poor neighborhoods. When he was a cardinal in Argentina, he organized a tribute for Carlos Mujica, a leader of the Third World priests who was murdered by the Triple A [a right wing Peronist paramilitary movement] in 1975. He went all the way to Retiro [a poor neighborhood in Buenos Aires, where land was seized without permission]. This shows the light and the shadows that forms his personality.
What is Pope Francis’ position regarding the dark side of the Church, the child abuse allegations?
I had a personal incident with him related to that subject. When I wrote the book, I dedicated a chapter to Archbishop Storni, who was the third ranked member of the Catholic Church in Argentina. I denounced him for the abuses he committed against the seminarians from the province of Santa Fe. There was a terrible scandal at the time.
The archbishop sought refuge in the Vatican and Ratzinger [Benedict XVI], who was in charge of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith while John Paul II was still alive, asked Storni to return to Argentina, to resign, and to turn himself in. I talked to Bergoglio about the situation and I asked him if they were going to defend him. He answered, ‘The justice will take care of him.’ After that, I found out that the lawyers that were defending Storni in the case of the seminarians were lawyers that were hired by the Argentinian episcopate, of which Bergoglio was a member.
I talked to him about this and I told him that what they were doing was terrible, because the episcopate was paying for the lawyers of a man who had abused 14-year-old teenagers. There was even an investigation led by the Argentinian Church. He didn’t respond. He just told me that that’s how things were, and that the Church’s laws were very strict.
Knowing him, what do you expect of Bergoglio as Pope?
We are not going to see a man who will make the big changes because he is a man of the Church. Yes, he is a man of great social sensibility, a brilliant man, but not someone who will embark on the great reforms. He is not prone to pomp, and he doesn’t like people to kiss his ring. He hates that. I gather that now he will have to follow those protocols, though maybe not, because even when he was a cardinal he wouldn’t allow people to kiss his ring. He didn’t like that. I even saw him dressed as a civilian when he was a cardinal, contrary to what all the others do. He is a Jesuit. You have to read Saint Ignatius of Loyola to understand Bergoglio.
Also on HuffPost:
Loading Slideshow
Loading Slideshow
Peruvian Priest Reflects On Argentine Pope
HAZLETON — Pope Francis is the first pope from Latin America in the history of the Catholic Church and there’s a Catholic Church in Hazleton that has a Hispanic assistant pastor.
Fr. Victor Leon is from Peru. He’s only been living in the United States for a few years. Newswatch 16 spoke to him to find out what it means to the Hispanic population to have a pope from Argentina.
Before Father Leon celebrated the noon mass at the Church of St. Gabriel in Hazleton. He told Newswatch 16 he has high hopes for the future of the Catholic Church thanks to the new Argentine pope.
“The church live a good time. This is a new experience for us,” said Fr. Leon.
Fr. Leon is from Peru and has been living in Hazleton for a few years. He celebrates Spanish masses at St. Gabriel’s a few times a week. He says in a city with as many Hispanic people as Hazleton, having a Spanish-speaking pope bodes well for those with backgrounds similar to his.
“Eso significa mucho para nosotros. Nos sentimos con una gran esperanza. Nos sentimos comfortados por este eleccion. Sentimos la prescencia de Dios mucho mas fuerte.” ”This means a lot to us. We feel a greater hope. We feel comfortable with this election. We feel the presence of God more strongly.”
Even non-Hispanic members of the parish say they’re happy to have a Latin pope who will have a more global perspective.
“They have a rich history. We all bring something to the benefit of all humankind. We are all God’s people,” said Sara McNelis.
Fr. Leon says having a Latin pope is a step forward for the world`s Hispanic population.
“Estados Unidos necistan tambien abrir las puertas a los Latinos y Dios nos esta ponendo el signo. El papa es Latino.” The United States needs to open the doors to Latinos and God is giving us this sign. The pope is Latino.”
Pope Francis is expected to be installed as pope next Tuesday.
Fr. Leon is gearing up for Holy Week leading up to Easter at the end of the month.
A Pope From the Heartland of the Global Church
WASHINGTON — With the election of Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the first Latin-American Vicar of Christ in the history of the Catholic Church, the College of Cardinals confirmed an inescapable truth: The pilgrim Church has traveled far beyond its base in the Eternal City.
Pope Francis himself alluded to this significant reality in his first public words as Pope, spoken March 13 from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.
“Dear brothers and sisters, good evening,” Francis began. “You know that the duty of the conclave was to give Rome a bishop. It seems that my brother cardinals picked him from almost the ends of the earth. But here we are!”
Latin America represents 40% of the world’s Catholics, and many immigrants from the region have put down roots in the United States, spurring the growth of Catholicism in a nation where the Church’s numbers might otherwise be dwindling, since one out of every 10 adults is a former Catholic.
The election of Pope Francis follows the pontificates of two non-Italian popes, Blessed John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and the news confirms the shifting center of gravity in a Church that has experienced growth in Africa, Asia and Latin America, even as Europe pulls away from its Christian moorings.
Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia welcomed the landmark papal election. Pope Francis, said Archbishop Chaput, “comes from the new heartland of the global Church.”
Indeed, back in 1999, John Paul II drew attention to the emergence of “two quite different situations” in this Catholic New World heartland. In his post-synodal apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in America, he outlined the trends: “on the one hand, the situation of countries strongly affected by secularization and, on the other, the situation of countries where there are still many vital traditions of piety and popular forms of Christian religiosity.”
“There is no doubt that, in varying degrees, both these situations are present in different countries or, better perhaps, in different groups within the various countries of the American continent,” wrote Blessed John Paul II.
Argentinian Experiences
As the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Cardinal Bergoglio experienced both “situations” firsthand.
He has strengthened pastoral outreach while battling legislation to legalize same-sex “marriage” and liberalize abortion laws. He has gone toe-to-toe with the nation’s authoritarian President Cristina Kirchner.
Pope Francis is also known in his homeland for encouraging the tradition of piety. In a Vatican Radio interview following the papal election, Brother Ricardo Saenz, an Argentinian seminarian studying in Rome, recalled how the former cardinal shared in his flock’s strong public devotion to the Blessed Virgin.
“Each year, we always have a walking pilgrimage which [the former cardinal] always precedes,” Brother Ricardo said. “The whole Diocese of Buenos Aires walks until [they get to] the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lujàn [in Buenos Aires Province] … 12 hours of walking. It’s full of young people, who walk all day, all night, and he always wants to celebrate that Mass. He always goes back to Lujàn to the sanctuary.”
That background will help guide Pope Francis’ plans for advancing the New Evangelization in the Church in Latin America and in the U.S., where Catholic leaders seek to revitalize ethnic strongholds while drawing Hispanics into the Catholic mainstream.
Catholic Population Shifts
A new study released by the Pew Forum on Religion Public Life suggests that the new Pope will have his work cut out for him.
While the Pew study reported that Catholics’ share of the world’s population has changed very little over the past century — 17% in 1910 to 16% in 2010 — “What changed substantially … is the geographic distribution of the world’s Catholics,” stated the study’s authors.
“In 1910, Europe was home to about two-thirds of all Catholics, and nearly nine-in-10 lived either in Europe (65%) or Latin America (24%). By 2010, by contrast, only about a quarter of all Catholics (24%) were in Europe,” the study reported.
Today, 39% of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics reside in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the study, and Catholics comprise about 50% of the global Christian population.
The study documents the striking expansion of the Church in sub-Saharan Africa, with an estimated 171 million believers, compared with 1 million Catholics in 1910. In Asia, the faithful number about 131 million, compared with just 14 million in 1910, and they now represent 12% of the continent’s population, up from 5%.
Such countries are marked by harsh material poverty and glaring social inequities between rich and poor. Thus the promotion of Catholic social teaching and the evangelical witness of charity will be priorities for Pope Francis, whose service to the needy began with his personal care for a member of his household in Buenos Aires.
The new Pope also must reassess the Holy See’s efforts to protect and advance the growth of Christianity in China, where it must deal with the government-controlled Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association that operates alongside an “underground” Church whose bishops are in full communion with Rome, and in African nations like Nigeria, where Christian churches are routinely burned to the ground by Muslim fundamentalists and where the faith can be blurred by syncretistic practices that incorporate animist beliefs.
“Today, religious persecution against Christians occurs in the Muslim world and the communist world,” said Nina Shea, who directs the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute in Washington.
But Shea also noted that the growth of faith under such circumstances could inspire Catholics in parts of the world where apathy is prevalent.
“In Nigeria, the fact that people are willing to stand up for their faith and go to church, despite repeated bombings, gets other people’s attention and has led to more conversions.”
The U.S. Picture
The Pew study reported that Catholicism in the U.S. and Canada is not growing as robustly as in many areas of the developing world.
“North America’s share of the global Catholic population has increased more slowly, from about 15 million (5%) in 1910 to 89 million (8%) as of 2010,” stated the report.
The study’s authors point to two separate, but related, developments inhibiting Church growth here: declining population growth in Western countries; and the changing dynamics of religious belief, with some cradle Catholics rejecting the faith entirely and others switching denominations.
The latter trend is also evident even in Latin-American countries that are overwhelmingly Catholic. Over the past decade, Brazil and Mexico — the two countries with the largest populations of Catholics, with 126 million and 96 million respectively — both experienced a significant drop in the number of self-identified Catholics.
Latin-American Church leaders often blame aggressive Protestant sects as the primary cause of declining numbers, but Pope Francis is expected to focus his energies instead on improving Catholic evangelization.
In a March 14 report for National Review, papal biographer and commentator George Weigel recalled a conversation he had with the cardinal last year about “the importance of the Latin American bishops’ 2007 ‘Aparecida Document,’ the fruit of the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean.”
Weigel cited one relevant passage from the document that reflected the tenor of the cardinal’s perspective: “The Church is called to a deep and profound rethinking of its mission. … It cannot retreat in response to those who see only confusion, dangers and threats. … What is required is confirming, renewing and revitalizing the newness of the Gospel … out of a personal and community encounter with Jesus Christ that raises up disciples and missionaries.”
For their part, the U.S. bishops do not complain of “sheep stealing” by Protestant sects in this country, but, the 2013 Pew study confirmed that “the Catholic population has lost more members than it has gained from religious switching.”
A Latinizing Church
Meanwhile, reflecting an historic pattern, the Church in the U.S. “has been heavily shaped by immigration and includes a rising share of Latinos,” the Pew study noted. “More than half (52%) of all migrants to the United States are Catholic.
“Of the estimated 75.4 million Catholics in the United States in 2010, 22.2 million were born outside the United States (30%). By comparison, slightly more than 13% of the overall U.S. population is foreign-born.”
The Pew study confirmed that 76% of Catholic immigrants are from Latin America. The election of Pope Francis will have special relevance for them, offering a potent new opportunity to advance the New Evangelization by bridging two cultures and continents and yielding perhaps a new Catholic moment in the United States.
Last year, during a Vatican conference marking the 15th anniversary of Blessed John Paul’s apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in America, Pope Benedict XVI said that the faithful in the Western Hemisphere must “devote ourselves without reserve to proclaiming” Christ “throughout the Americas.” In the months and years ahead, that urgent task will now be taken up by a native son, Pope Francis.
Joan Desmond is the Register’s senior editor.
Students from Pope John Paul II Catholic High School React to New Pontiff – WHNT.com
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – It is rare that a pope steps down; usually they are mourning the death of one pope as they await the election of the next. This time, a very different situation.
As Pope Francis stepped up on the balcony, he was met with cheers and excitement for the future of the Catholic Church.
The white smoke billowed and students and teachers at Pope John Paul II Catholic High School gathered to see what weeks of devoted prayer for their new leader would bring.
Pope Francis is the first pope from the Americas.
Theology teacher Barbara Romei says with him comes an experience unlike that of his predecessors.
“That was the evangelized part of the world, so is North America. So we are now moving out past Europe and looking in other parts of the world where the church is growing and thriving, to bring a leader to lead the whole church,” said Romei.
Amid the cheers and excitement, was also prayer, as a new chapter begins in the history of the Catholic Church.
The people at Pope John Paul II Catholic High School say poverty, war, and certainly the abuse scandal that has rocked the church will all be the tough issues Pope Francis will have to dress going forward.
Slovaks greet new pope
SLOVAK senior officials, politicians and representatives of the church have joined those congratulating 76-year-old Argentinian cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who was elected pope on March 13 during one of the shortest conclaves in the history of the Catholic Church. As well as congratulations, they have already sent the new pope multiple invitations to come to Slovakia.
Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič accepted the news of the election of the new pope, who chose the name Francis, with what he described as “pleasure”, saying that he hopes his papacy will contribute to the further deepening of bilateral relations between Slovakia and the Vatican, according to an official press release.
“The world knows you as a person dedicated to faith and God, and with hope expects you to be the advocate of dialogue, the carrier of values and the protector of peace, solidarity, justice and the human rights of every individual,” Gašparovič wrote in an official letter that he sent to the new pope.
He stressed that since the world currently faces several challenges, it needs every individual to participate in the restoration of morality and real values, and that Francis’ experience and inner strength “will significantly contribute to looking for the right way to the moral restoration of mankind, and the development of cooperation, tolerance and understanding between the nations”.
The president also expressed the hope that the new pope will “spread the values of Christianity, love and good in the world”.
Prime Minister Robert Fico also congratulated Pope Francis on his election, wishing him “health, and good and wise decisions during his pontificate”.
Both politicians invited Pope Francis to Slovakia to mark what they called “the important anniversary of the arrival of Saints Cyril and Methodius to our territory”.
Francis’s predecessor, Benedict XVI, did not visit Slovakia during his time as pope. He received several invitations, most recently to attend this year’s celebrations of the 1150th anniversary of the arrival of Ss Cyril and Methodius.
Slovak clergy responds
The chair of the Conference of Bishops of Slovakia (KBS), Archbishop Stanislav Zvolenský, said that he was surprised by the new pope’s rapid election, adding that it is good to know that the Catholic Church has a pope again, the TASR newswire wrote.
Zvolenský added that the KBS would like to invite the new pope to Slovakia even before the July celebration of the arrival of Ss Cyril and Methodius. He said that the visit should take place in Easter. Benedict XVI also received a similar invitation, but was not able to pay a visit to the country, TASR wrote.
Auxiliary Bishop of Bratislava Jozef Haľko said that it is obvious that the new pope is a man of prayer, since the first thing he did when he appeared in public was to recite the Lord’s Prayer and Hail Mary with believers in St Peter’s Square, TASR reported.
Roman Catholic priest Anton Srholec said he considers Pope Francis to be a sign of change, since his record indicates “the church will emphasise modesty, and that there will be more focus on the poor conditions in which hundreds of millions of people all around the world live”, TASR wrote.
Srholec also said he hopes that the actions of Pope Francis will be an impulse for change in the Catholic Church in Slovakia, and that its leaders will have to “abandon the symbols of luxury, get out from the bishop’s palace, and approach people in a way that is more persuasive to people suffering from unemployment, living in poverty or who lack [things]”.
Another Catholic priest, Marián Gavenda, predicted that Pope Francis would bring the vitality of Latin America to a “Europe which is dying out”. He said that it is important that he comes from the family of a railwayman since he can better understand the problems of ordinary people, the SITA newswire wrote.
“Though he is a Jesuit, he has a Franciscan spirit,” Gavenda told SITA. “His simple civility is a good signal.”
With press reports
Recent Posts
Categories
- a catholic prayer
- belief of catholics
- bible and catholic
- bible of the catholic church
- catechism of catholic
- catechism of catholic church
- catechism of the catholic
- catechism of the catholic church
- catholic beliefs
- catholic bible study
- catholic books
- catholic christmas cards
- catholic church
- catholic church bible
- catholic church catechism
- catholic church history
- catholic church online
- catholic doctrine
- catholic faith
- catholic first communion
- catholic guide
- catholic hymns
- catholic information
- catholic mass
- catholic missal
- catholic news
- catholic prayer book
- catholic prayers
- catholic source
- catholic sources
- catholic theology
- catholic topics
- catholics and the bible
- confirmation gifts
- doctrine catholic
- holy cards
- holy spirit catholic
- liturgical calendar
- prayers for children
- prayers for the catholic church
- resources catholic
- roman catholic doctrine
- roman catholic faith
- roman catholic teaching
- roman missal
- spiritual catholic
- st charles borromeo
- st francis de sales
- st john the evangelist
- st rose of lima
- sunday homilies
- the catechism of the catholic church
- the catholic catechism
- the catholic prayer
- the catholic saints
- the roman catholic faith