Poor Christians
What is good for the world’s poor may be bad for Christianity, according to a Christmas Day blog on the Economist website.
In Europe “priests and ministers are preaching to ever-emptier pews”. Reasons include the greater number of non-Christians through immigration, creeping secularism “and a trend among the young to favour individual ‘spirituality’ over organised religion”, the article says.
Economics also plays an important role. “The more affluent a country is, the less frequently its citizens attend church, and Western Europe is uniformly rich.”
By contrast, sub-Saharan Africans “are embracing the Gospel with the literal zeal of the converted”.
It concludes: “If economic development and a more equal distribution of income decrease church attendance, then what is good for the world’s poor may be bad for Christianity – Pope Francis might want to be careful what he wishes for.”
Concussed footballer
A Nigerian-American doctor’s Catholic faith gave him the courage to confront the National Football League (NFL) over concussions, wrote Adelle M Banks in the Washington Post.
Forensic pathologist Dr Bennet Omalu challenged the NFL over the destructive nature of concussions after performing an autopsy on a famous player who ended up homeless from the condition Dr Omalu dubbed “chronic traumatic encephalopathy”. “What is there to be afraid of?” Dr Omalu asked in an interview. “If I profess to be a Christian seeking the truth, why would I stop?”
He continued: “Faith and science go together. They are not antagonistic to each other. There is the humanity of science. Science seeks the truth. Faith seeks the truth. So there is a commonality between science and faith.”
The beauty of Belloc
At RealClearReligion. org Russell Shaw wrote about why Hilaire Belloc still matters today, more than 60 years after his death. Belloc wrote social criticism, history and biography “of a polemical nature, vigorous and clear but scarcely unbiased”.
Shaw continued: “But the language – ah, the language. Here was Belloc’s great gift. From beginning to end his writing was a model of simple, elegant English prose.” And “for people with an appreciation of Europe’s Christian roots, he matters”.
Shaw said that Belloc’s “unquestioned masterpiece remains The Path to Rome, a rambling account of a journey – a pilgrimage, really – that he made, largely on foot, in 1901 through the heart of the Old Continent to the Eternal City.
“What is the book about? The answer, you might say, is whatever pops into the writer’s head. But on a deeper level its subject is no less than the Christian soul of Europe.”
✣Meanwhile…
A priest in the Philippines has been suspended for riding a hoverboard during Christmas Eve Mass. The priest rode the self-balancing scooter – a small platform between two wheels – up and down the aisles of the church in the Diocese of San Pablo before the final blessing of the Mass, while singing a Christmas song. He kept perfect balance as he sang to the congregation, sometimes turning around on the spot. The diocese said that his action, “a way of greeting his parishioners”, was “wrong”. The Mass “is not a personal celebration where one can capriciously introduce something to get the attention of the people”.
✣ A top Italian footballer has won €1.25 million (£919,000) from his tax consultants, on the grounds that they didn’t warn him about Germany’s church tax. Striker Luca Toni spent three years playing for Bayern Munich from 2007-2010. Germany levies a tax of eight to nine per cent of income tax on members of religions. To avoid paying it, people must formally leave their religion. When he left Bayern, Toni received a bill for unpaid church tax. “If I’d have known how much it costs to be Catholic here [in Germany], I would have immediately left the Church,” Toni said, according to reports.
✣The week in quotations
I thought that a good resolution for the New Year would be to pray a little more Pope Francis
At the Pueri Cantores 40th international convention
[Inmates] can be become redeemed in prison, even if you’re never getting out Sir Jack Stewart-Clark on taking a Passion play to an Italian prison
Herald Scotland
It is important that we as bishops from the western world stand with those Christians who believe they have been forgotten Bishop Declan Lang
Speaking ahead of a trip to the Holy Land
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.