– Tej Francis
Email: tejfrancis@gmail.com
U.S.A
In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace
(Pew Forum) In U.S., smaller share of adults identify as Christians, while religious ‘nones’ have grown. The religious landscape of the United States continues to change at a rapid clip. In Pew Research Center telephone surveys conducted in 2018 and 2019, 65% of American adults describe themselves as Christians when asked about their religion, down 12 percentage points over the past decade. Meanwhile, the religiously unaffiliated share of the population, consisting of people who describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular,” now stands at 26%, up from 17% in 2009.
Both Protestantism and Catholicism are experiencing losses of population share. Currently, 43% of U.S. adults identify with Protestantism, down from 51% in 2009. And one-in-five adults (20%) are Catholic, down from 23% in 2009. Meanwhile, all subsets of the religiously unaffiliated population – a group also known as religious “nones” – have seen their numbers swell. Self-described atheists now account for 4% of U.S. adults, up modestly but significantly from 2% in 2009; agnostics make up 5% of U.S. adults, up from 3% a decade ago; and 17% of Americans now describe their religion as “nothing in particular,” up from 12% in 2009. Members of non-Christian religions also have grown modestly as a share of the adult population.
SYDNEY
Australia to amend religious freedom bills to consider health facilities
(Crux) The Australian government said it will make changes to religious freedom legislation concerning religious hospitals and aged-care facilities, after the Catholic Church pushed for changes to a recently released draft legislation package. The church’s concerns were outlined in submissions lodged with the federal government. Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli, the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference spokesman on religious freedom, said the legislation required “some significant amendment.”
The bishops’ submission was heavily focused on getting health and aged-care services included in legislative exemptions that bestow special rights of hiring and firing for religious schools. The Catholic Church estimated in its submission that it provided about 10 percent of Australia’s health care services. “This bill would provide important protection against discrimination on the grounds of religious belief or activity and a positive protection of our freedom to act in accordance with our religious faith, but excludes vital parts of the work of the church,” Comensoli said in an emailed statement.
WASHINGTON
Chairman of U.S. Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace raises concern and solicits prayer over renewed violence in northeast Syria
(USSB) The Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, Archbishop for the Military Services, USA, and Chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, issued the following statement over renewed violence in northeast Syria:
“This past week has witnessed renewed military actions in Syria. It is estimated that over 100,000 people have already fled their homes in the past several days as a result. Unabated, such military actions will create further instability, violence, and hunger, exacerbating an already fragile humanitarian situation in northeast Syria and northern Iraq. The ancient Christians and other religious minorities who have called this region home for millennia are at-risk of being lost forever. I urge all regional and international actors in this complex conflict to renew themselves to peace over violence, and dialog over confrontation. And I invite all people of good will join me in beseeching our Lord, the Prince of Peace, for real solutions and stability and to prepare to meet the concrete needs of the new wave of refugees.”
Follow
