The Church Resources Ltd board, the current publisher of CathNews, recently made this decision.

The move follows the closure of NZ Catholic in June and the promise of a new publication.

Forward looking - a new chapter

This change marks a new chapter for CathNews, which has played a unique role in delivering news, analysis, and commentary of interest to the Catholic Church community.

The decision also aligns with broader changes within the Catholic media landscape in New Zealand.

The NZCBC's request to take over CathNews was the fourth received by the publication.

The announcement comes as CathNews reports impressive readership statistics: 4,490,401 articles were read between December 1, 2023, and November 30, 2024.

However, while transferring the asset, NZCBC Executive Officer Damian Dempsey confirmed that the Bishops Conference did not require the current CathNews writers. This left Church Resources Chair Fr Kevin Conroy SM with the difficult task of informing the lay staff that they would lose their jobs just before Christmas.

Thanks to writers, contributors and readers

For quite some time, CathNews has been shaped by the dedication of its writers, Juliet, Ronan, and behind the scenes, Gerard, who for some time were instrumental in producing CathNews twice weekly.

These people brought diverse life experiences and talents to the publication, often supporting each other to ensure continuity.

The team worked from various points within New Zealand, Australia, multiple parts of Asia, several European countries, and the US. CathNews never missed a publication, even during COVID.

Earlier, Pat McCarthy and Michael Otto also played significant roles as writers.

It is essential to say that just because they wrote about a topic from a particular perspective does not mean they wrote personally. They were doing their job.

Fr Denis O'Hagan SM also played a critical role in CathNews, helping establish its credibility and serving as its first editor. Denis had a particular interest in the gospel in broader society, and his passing earlier this year was a significant loss to the publication and its readers.

Several contributors, including Dr Joe Grayland, Professor Thomas O'Loughlin, Dr Phyllis Zagano, Joy Cowley, and occasionally Dr Christopher Longhurst, enriched CathNews with their experience and significant insightful commentary on the Church and society.

However, the unsung heroes of CathNews are its readers and those who have told their friends about it.

CathNews was compiled and managed on the 'charge of a regularly near empty rechargeable battery'. It was never advertised, so its growth was primarily by word of mouth.

Therefore, a thank you to the readers who enjoyed the publication sufficiently to promote it.

Others to thank are numerous people who offered comments and substantiated stories.

New Zealand is a small place where everyone knows our name, so most of these CathNews commentators wished to remain anonymous and changed their names and, occasionally, even their gender!

Regardless of name or gender, these real people with real perspectives gave gravitas to stories. Thank you.

There may still be a lesson in Denis O'Hagan's only opinion piece for CathNews, which we are re-publishing again today.

One distinct difference between publishing a newspaper and publishing online is the feedback statistics provide. CathNews heard you.

An occasional look at the list of countries where CathNews was read shows the reach of interest and the opportunity this medium presents, so a particular 'shout-out' to international readers recommending this New Zealand service to their friends, particularly in Australia and the United States.

Another highlight was the forward thinking of some priests who included seamlessly selected news in their parish newsletters.

Interestingly, on one occasion, the seamless syndication was promptly terminated when the priest shifted, and the communication role was transferred to a layperson.

CathNews enjoyed the support of a major sponsor. Without its significant backing and encouragement, CathNews would never have happened. On behalf of the readers, a sincere thank you. The sponsor always likes prayers.

CathNews was never Catholic News

While some referred to CathNews as "Catholic News," it never aimed to fit this mould. Instead, CathNews provided news and analysis of interest to the Catholic Church while addressing broader societal concerns, including AI, child poverty, housing, and modern technology.

A parish priest more than once suggested that CathNews only report on Catholic-specific issues and avoid controversial topics.

For those with similar views, we recommend reflecting on paragraph one of Gaudium et Spes.

CathNews was never limited to "news from inside a walled garden" but explored issues relevant to the Church in the modern world.

However, some critics felt CathNews was too liberal, not loyal, did not go far enough, or was not spiritual enough.

The publication carved a niche by maintaining editorial independence. Its mission was to inform and promote thoughtful reflection, and as such, it served as a possible seedbed for prayer.

To reference Pope Francis, there's room for 'everyone'.

Readers must opt-in to get the new CathNews

In January 2026, under NZCBC management, CathNews will undergo editorial changes.

While some readers may embrace the shift, others may not.

Following CathNews's privacy policy, existing readers must opt-in to receive the new version.

Opting out is not sufficient.

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Flashes of Insight

As CathNews transitions, a small global initiative, Flashes of Insight, is in its planning stages.

It will target forward-thinking readers.

A weekly publication will offer concise reflections and in-depth commentary on critical issues. Details about how to subscribe will be announced soon.

Flashes of Insight will remain free.

Today's edition

Today's edition of CathNews is a little different. In effect it's virtual fish n chip paper, it's yesterday's news.

The stories on today's page are a range of popularly read stories that cover an range of topics that CathNews have covered over the past thirteen years.

Confirmation of the Catholic agency's involvement comes from Caritas Director Julianne Hickey, and follows Saturday's eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano.

"Together (with Caritas Tonga) we have completed the pre-positioning of emergency supplies at three locations in Tonga so are well prepared for this kind of eventuality", says Caritas Director Julianne Hickey.

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand has also offered an immediate Solidarity Grant to Caritas Tonga and is also receiving donations, through its Pacific Relief Fund, to help with the aftermath of the volcanic eruption in Tonga.

Hickey says communications are proving very difficult at the moment but the Catholic agency has been in touch with Caritas Tonga.

Calling them "absolutely terrible, communications difficulties are also highlighted by Fiji-based United Nations co-ordinator Jonathan Veitch.

Veitch says he has worked in a lot of emergencies but in terms of communications this is one of the hardest. He says there are still areas that have not been contacted.

As well as not being able to easily coordinate logistics, Hickey says currently Tonga's biggest concern is clean drinking water.

She says rainwater across Tonga has been contaminated by ashfall.

It is a point echoed by Veitch who is urging New Zealand and Australia to provide bottled drinking water.

He also says with the vast majority of the Tongan population reliant on rainwater there is a need for water testing kits.

As well as inviting people to donate to its Pacific Relief Fund, Caritas is encouraging people to pray for the people in Tonga.

Stocks of Caritas emergency supplies are being prepared in Tonga, prior to Christmas 2021.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Tonga and especially with our partners and the communities with which we have been working for many years," Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand says in a statement.

Donations can be made to Caritas online through the Pacific Relief Fund (www.caritas.org.nz/donate-online) or via Caritas' bank account 03-0518-0211216-00.

Caritas asks bank account donors to please include their first & last name and put Tonga as the code.

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is a member of the Caritas Internationalis, a network of 165 Catholic justice, peace and development agencies working in over 200 countries and territories around the world.

Sources

• Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand
• NZ Herald

It is ironic that in these times of isolation when people replace cars around the streets, people are meeting more people than they used to.

All the while keeping their social distance and remaining in their bubble.

People seem to have slowed down.

We all have skin in the game with this issue, we are all in this together.

Possibly for once, we actually now share something in common; a concern about the Coronavirus - COVID-19.

The crowds on the streets today are different to the Jerusalem street crowds; out to find out who Jesus was. They didn't know what was to come.

With hindsight, we are fortunate to have been shown the way of hope.

With our Christian tradition, after death comes life. These are times of hope.

You are invited to pray with us during this video.

Click to view Palm Sunday liturgy video

That building, to be called HomeGround, will contain accommodation, health services and community facilities. Demolition of the old City Mission buildings has already begun. Continue reading

For many years, I saw this advice from my parents as simply good manners and what people were supposed to do.

In my mid-teen years, I was mature enough to observe the heartfelt sincerity my parents always showed when they said "thank you" to others, offered prayers of thanks or expressed appreciation for the simple blessings in their lives… and how different it was from my perfunctory use of the words.

They really meant it and I began to understand that their use of "thank you" transcended mere courtesy and it clearly meant something much more meaningful and powerful to them.

What I observed my parents practicing so well was the beginning of my deeper understanding of the word gratitude.

My parents were wonderful role models and teachers in many ways and helping me learn to be grateful was an amazing gift that I work at demonstrating every day.

My wife and I try very hard to model a life of gratefulness for our sons and for those we encounter each day and we know this ongoing effort has absolutely transformed us.

1. What are other fruits that result from being grateful?
2. We desire less when we are truly grateful for what we already have in our lives.
3. People grateful for what they have act with more generosity to those in need.
4. Gratitude requires a positive frame of mind, which contributes to greater overall happiness. There cannot be happiness without gratitude.
5. If we invest in consistently practicing gratitude with others, we can see a ripple effect as those experiencing our gratitude pay it forward to the people they encounter.
6. We positively impact and grow our relationships with a grateful attitude.
7. Gratitude is a healthy substitute for resentment, envy, jealousy and greed. See point number one.

How has gratitude manifested itself in your life?

Many people, myself included, find it challenging to consistently act with gratitude.

The great writer G. K. Chesterton observed that, "Gratitude, being nearly the greatest of human duties, is also nearly the most difficult."

What are best practices we can follow to help us be more grateful? Continue reading

• Image: The Two Cities

But nor can all Catholics be tarnished by the actions of one man, Monsignor John Harrison, (pictured), of the Catholic Diocese of Dunedin, says.

"It actually reflects on the rest of us and everyone gets tarred, and yet there are so many good people [in the Church]."

Fr Harrison told ODT Insight the complaints against Fr Murray were handled according to the processes and understanding of paedophilia of the day.

He was not aware of the offending before complaints began to emerge, and nor were, to the best of his knowledge, others within the Church - although he still wondered about that.

"I always wondered myself how somebody else didn't stumble across it."

Bishop John Kavanagh had also been "ahead of his time" when he responded to complaints levelled against Fr Murray by sending him to Sydney for counselling, Fr Harrison said.

It was hoped treatment could cure him of his affliction, after which he could be returned to public ministry, he said.

There was no intention to allow him to resume public ministry in Sydney, as he remained the Dunedin diocese's responsibility while there, Fr Harrison said.

The fact that he had resumed his duties as a priest while there was "not knowledge we're aware of".

"If the Archbishop over there allowed that to happen, well, that wasn't Bishop Kavanagh's doing.

"He went there to get treatment."

The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney has not responded to repeated requests for comment from ODT Insight on Fr Murray's time in Sydney.

Fr Harrison also defended Bishop Kavanagh's decision to excardinate - or transfer - Fr Murray to the Auckland diocese, allowing him to resume public ministry in New Zealand, beginning in 1976.

He denied Bishop Kavanagh had concealed Fr Murray's crimes, saying it had been disclosed to the Sydney Archdiocese and to Bishop Mackay before Fr Murray was transferred to Auckland.

Bishop Kavanagh had also met at least one parent to discuss Fr Murray's offending face-to-face, prior to him being sent to Australia, and that parent "had every right to go to police".

"The Church wouldn't have said 'don't'.

"I think the sad thing is, I'm aware one of the very early victims did actually say something to the parents [and was not listened to].

"When I received that information, I just about wept. If that had been picked up - and I'm not casting any aspersions on the parents at all - that would have perhaps prevented a whole lot more."

Asked if less people might have been placed in harm's way if Bishop Kavanagh had gone to police, or defrocked Fr Murray immediately, Fr Harrison said there would have been "perhaps a lesser likelihood" of harm.

"But I don't think you could say that you would have prevented it." Continue reading

• Image: ODT

Father Stephen Truscott SM PhD said the Enneagram is among the field of psychology that talks about personality profiles.

In his role as Fullness of Life Counsellor and Spiritual Director, Fr Truscott uses his training in the Enneagram to assist him to appreciate how better to accompany a person on their spiritual journey.

The Enneagram was part of Fr Truscott's formation as a spiritual director at the Institute for Spirituality Leadership in Chicago and he uses it in his 'dual practice - in person and digital' service at the Fullness of Life Centre.

To break it down, Fr Truscott explained to The eRecord how the psychological method is utilised to understand personality according to nine different typologies.

Those typologies are:

• Reformer (1)
• Helper (2)
• Achiever (3)
• Individualist (4)
• Investigator (5)
• Loyalist (6)
• Enthusiast (7)
• Challenger (8)
• Peacemaker (9).

"Each looks at different ways to understand some basic personality traits of a human being. Often, people find one typology holds their experience better than another," Fr Truscott said.

Three basic groupings are: helper-achiever-individualist (2-3-4), investigator-loyalist-enthusiast (5-6-7) and challenger-peacemaker-reformer (8-9-1).

"If we consider the post-Resurrection narratives in St John's Gospel; three stories describe how Jesus related to Mary Magdalene (a 234 personality), Peter (a 891 personality) and Thomas (a 567 personality)."

Fr Truscott said the Enneagram offers an insight into how Jesus called each disciple to deeper conversion in their lives.

234 personality

As an example of this type of personaliy, Fr Truscott says Mary of Magdala, was an anxious, energetic person.

Developing Mary's 234 personality Fr Truscott observes, she organised a group of her friends to get up very early the day after the Sabbath and go to Jesus' tomb to finish the burial rituals.

In her anxious insecurity, when she got there, she was so caught up in planning, she overlooked what was happening in the present moment and mistook Jesus for the gardener.

It was only when Jesus called her by name and said, ‘Mary!' did she come back to herself in the present moment. She realised that it was Jesus standing there before her.

Then, in her anxiety to reconnect with Jesus, she raced to touch him.

Jesus told her, ‘Don't touch me.'

In saying this, Jesus was not afraid of being touched, he was comfortable with physical affection. By saying, ‘Don't touch me.'

Jesus invited Mary to move from finding false security through getting her energy from people outside of herself to moving to a place within herself in which she could find a true interior source of security.

When she became re-centred within herself, Jesus then invited her to move back into action but from a centred place of security inside her; he told her to go and to tell the disciples in Jerusalem that he had risen.

891 personality

Peter the apostle was a very different person says Fr Truscott.

Fr Truscott calls him "a feisty character who often expressed strong emotions".

By way of example, Fr Truscotts says that before Jesus' death, Peter held his ground.

He declared that he would not reject Jesus.

For Peter, there was no way he would lose control, yet soon after, when put in a vulnerable situation and out of fear for his own self-preservation, Peter denied Jesus not once, but three times.

When Jesus meet Peter after the resurrection, he had to ask Peter three times did he love him before Peter dropped his protective mask of self-preservation.

Peter then acknowledged from within the raw pain of his vulnerability that, even though he had denied Jesus three times, he loved Jesus.

In this, Peter moved from a place of regret about the past to a place of no regret.

567 personality

Thomas, a 567 personality, was much quieter, Fr Truscott observed.

A more introverted person by nature, after Jesus' resurrection, even though he had heard Jesus had risen from the dead, Thomas, out of fear, he took refuge in the safety of distancing himself from what had occurred.

Thomas needed to make sense of things before he felt safe to take part which took him time.

When Thomas met Jesus, in the safe company of the other disciples, Jesus invited Thomas to touch his wounds, said Fr Truscott.

In this, Jesus invited Thomas to move out of the safety of his observations and perceptions about life and to take part in the emotional intimacy of life itself.

In reaching out and bridging the great divide between his thoughts and his ability to move into effective concrete action, Thomas shifted from dealing with life abstractly to engaging life in a concrete enfleshed way.

Enneagram as help to a full life

Fr Truscott says the Enneagram helps him better appreciate people.

"If I'm journeying with someone in the 891 space, I'm very aware their primary life question is: ‘Who am I?'.

"The 234's life question is: ‘How am I doing?'

"While for people in the 567 space, their life question is more about ‘Where am I?', looking to make sense of their life," he added.

"If I meet someone in a critical circumstance from the 891 space, they'll often describe their difficulty in terms of: ‘I don't know who I am any more'; 234 people will talk about themselves as: ‘I don't know what to do'; and 567 people often will say: ‘I can't make sense of my life any more'.

Different perspectives

Fr Truscott acknowledged that there are different views on how people perceive the Enneagram.

"Some treat it with suspicion", he said.

"Some say the Enneagram may not have biblical foundations to it. But we can see that when we study the history of the Christian tradition, part of our theological process is to adapt contemporary paradigms to talk about our faith.

"For instance, if we live in a post-modern secular world, how do we find a language that speaks into people's contemporary life in a way that's relevant to them?"

He is adamant that the Enneagram is one way among many ways of trying to speak into people's experience.

"People can find [the Enneagram] helpful to understand where the growth-points are in their own personal and spiritual journey.

Fullness of Life Centre

Fr Truscott and Celia Joyce MPS are the Spiritual Directors and Counsellors at the Fullness of Life Centre www.fullnessoflife.org.

They offer a dual practice - in person and digital service, meeting with anyone interested in their spiritual journey at the Fullness of Life Centre or online by secure video conference.

Sources

• Matthew Lau/The eRecord
• Photo of Stephen Truscott, by Matthew Lau

A low pilgrim population in the 80s turned an ancient path into more of a medieval legend.

Rather than a well-known travel destination, the ancient ‘Way of St James' was then little more than a dusty relic of Christian, and pagan, history.

However, 21 years later, statistics show that 301,036 pilgrims received their Compostela certificates in 2017.

The powerful resurgence in the popularity of pilgrimage, particularly of the Way of St James, is undeniable.

Is pilgrimage providing the perfect nourishment for the ritualistic needs of a spiritually hungry generation?

The concept of ‘going on pilgrimage' has traditionally evoked many ideas: undertaking a journey to serve a personal purpose; giving expression to a difficult situation through bodily action, in the hope of securing an outcome; following in the footsteps of many who have walked the same path before; fulfilling a religious obligation.

Camino

The idea of pilgrimage has over time evolved to meet the expectations of a 21st century world and yet still, whether the hope is for healing, miracles, peace, or even weight loss, people choose to walk the gruelling 500 miles of the Camino, with the bare minimum of possessions, more than a thousand years after the first pilgrims.

There is little doubt that the Camino owes much of its newfound fame to the media.

Through Martin Sheen's 2010 film, The Way and the well-read German book, Ich bin daan mal weg (‘I'm off then'), to the BBC's recent celebrity challenge, Camino: The Road To Santiago, audiences around the world have discovered the charms of the pilgrimage and have flocked to immerse themselves in the wonders of the Camino.

The common threads of these pieces weave one theme: a focus on the inner life with the hope of some dramatic, irrevocable change by the end of the journey.

Biblical and anthropological insights could shed some light on why this might be.

The God of the Old Testament provided the people of Israel with ritual instruction, intending to show them how properly to praise their creator and provider.

Rituals were the intended outlet for the heart, reinforced with a physical action.

Fasting

One such example is fasting.

As Karen Eliasen describes: ‘Fasting as a ritual act is not merely a symbol or a metaphor for some other-worldly activity. It is an experience of concrete, this-worldly changes.'

Eliasen continues to say that these physical changes are part of a communication and dialogue between God and the people.

In a similar way, pilgrimage is a way of physically enacting and embodying a conversation with God.

It encompasses all manner of the human being: it is spatial, physical and it speaks to the inner emotional and spiritual dynamics of a person.

To provide an example of this in another cultural context, anthropologist Catherine Allerton studied the padong journeys undertaken by the brides of Manggarai of Eastern Indonesia, whereby brides would walk long distances from their kin towards their spouse's family, wailing on the way as a fully embodied image of the journey the heart is also taking.

Such pilgrimage rituals witness to an important inner journey and to the importance of documenting emotions through physical manifestations.

However, it is the anthropological theory of ‘liminality' developed by Victor Turner that might be the most important lens through which to study the contemporary allure of pilgrimage. Continue reading

• Emma Holland is Producer of Pray as you go. She walked the Camino in 2014.
• Image: Thinking Faith

It reiterated the condemnation of artificial contraception for spouses.

Many in the Catholic world had been hoping for a change in the papal teaching based on the newer approaches of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) and the call to change the teaching that was in the "Majority Report" of the papal commission studying the issue, which had been leaked the year before.

But rumors began circulating in the spring of 1968 that the pope was going to issue an encyclical reaffirming the contraception ban.

Humanae Vitae raised two different issues — the teaching on contraception and sexuality, and how the church goes about its authoritative teaching role.

The second issue is more extensive and important and is the subject matter of this essay.

The authoritative teaching on contraception, as explained at the Vatican press conference releasing the encyclical, involves authoritative, noninfallible church teaching.

Defenders of dissent from such teaching, including myself, proposed three basic reasons to justify such dissent. (The day after Humanae Vitae was released, I was the spokesperson and leader of a group of theologians who issued a public statement saying that Catholics could dissent in theory and in practice from the teaching of Humanae Vitae on artificial contraception and still consider themselves to be loyal Roman Catholics. More than 600 Catholic scholars ultimately signed this statement.)

First, history shows that the church has changed its teaching on a number of significant moral teachings over the years, such as slavery, the right of the defendant to remain silent, democracy, human rights, religious liberty, and the role of love and pleasure in marital sexual relations.

Second, noninfallible teaching by its very nature is fallible.

Noninfallible is a subterfuge to avoid using the word fallible.

Third, the primary teacher in the church is the Holy Spirit. Yes, the Spirit speaks through the hierarchical magisterium, but the role of the Spirit is broader than the role of the hierarchical magisterium.

Through baptism all Christians share in the teaching and prophetic role of Jesus.

The strongest argument against the legitimacy of such dissent insists that the Holy Spirit guides the church and would never allow church teaching to be wrong in a matter affecting so many people in their daily lives.

Instead of helping people live the Christian life, would the Spirit allow the Church to lead them astray?

The strongest rebuttal is that slavery was a much more significant and important issue than contraception for spouses.

Immediately following Humanae Vitae, a firestorm of debate arose over dissent and its legitimacy, but as time went on, the debate has greatly subsided.

Catholic spouses are fundamentally no different from Protestant spouses in their use of artificial contraception in marriage.

The vast majority of Catholic theologians, but by no means all of them, recognize the legitimacy of dissent in the case of contraception.

Popes and bishops have continued to strenuously support the teaching opposing contraception, have never explicitly recognized the legitimacy of dissent and have punished some theologians defending such dissent, but they have not disturbed the consciences of those spouses using contraception.

Fifty years after Humanae Vitae, there is little or no discussion about this issue. Catholic couples long ago have made up their conscience on the issue of contraception.

Priests and confessors have overwhelmingly accepted in practice the legitimacy of such dissent.

Today, one could maintain that the present situation in the total church has justified the legitimacy of such dissent.

But there are problems with this present solution. Continue reading

• Image: The Catholic Thing

The philosophy "is used as a theological justification for economic neo-liberalism" and is "a far cry from the positive and enlightening prophecy of the American dream that has inspired many," said the article in La Civilta Cattolica, a journal reviewed at the Vatican before publication.

The article was written by the journal's editor, Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro, and by Marcelo Figueroa, an evangelical pastor, who is director of the Argentine edition of the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

In an email, Father Spadaro described the article as "what I consider the second part of our article on the relationship between politics and fundamentalism in the United States."

The first article, published in July last year, was titled "Evangelical Fundamentalism and Catholic Integralism: A Surprising Ecumenism" and examined what the authors saw as growing similarities in the rhetoric and world views adopted by some evangelical fundamentalists and some "militant" Catholic hardliners.

They decried what they saw as an "ecumenism of hate" resulting from the political alliance in the United States of Christian fundamentalists and Catholic "integralists."

The article set off widespread debate, ranging from criticism that it was a superficial reading of the U.S. reality from the outside to praise for shining a light on ways that some tenets of the Christian faith have been manipulated for political gain.

The new article describes the "prosperity gospel" as a theological current that emerged from neo-Pentecostal evangelical communities in the United States and is thriving now in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, South Korea, China, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil.

"At its heart is the belief that God wants his followers to have a prosperous life, that is, to be rich, healthy and happy," Father Spadaro and Figueroa wrote. In such a view, opulence and well-being are "the true signs of divine delight."

The modern "prosperity gospel" owes much, they said, to E.W. Kenyon, a U.S. pastor who lived 1867-1948, and "maintained that through the power of faith you can change what is concrete and real," the Civilta article said. "A direct conclusion of this belief is that faith can lead to riches, health and well-being, while lack of faith leads to poverty, sickness and unhappiness."

"In the United States millions of people regularly go to the megachurches that spread the prosperity gospel," the article said. Preachers including "Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, Benny Hinn, Robert Tilton, Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer and others have increased their popularity and wealth thanks to their focus on knowing this gospel, emphasizing it and pushing it to its limits."

They see the purpose of faith as being to win God's favor, which is demonstrated in material wealth and physical health. Continue reading

• Image: What in the World

Anxiety about the quality of those who aspire to become clergy is rooted in the series of child sex abuse scandals that have emerged from Anglicanism's mother church over the past 20 years.

In testimony given last March to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse — the public body set up to investigate abuse in many organizations, including churches — Bishop of Chichester Martin Warner said his diocese could use psychological testing of ordinands to assess whether they are suitable.

He said the testing is "something we will be starting later this year."

Last week, Julian Hubbard, director of the Church of England's Ministry Division, said in a statement, "This has been given added focus by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and the requirement to provide greater assurance on the effectiveness of the selection process. So we are examining its potential as a means to identify candidates who might pose a risk to others."

"But this is not only about safeguarding," Hubbard added.

"It is vital to use all means available to find people with the right skills and aptitudes for this unique, but very challenging, calling."

The Church of England currently uses a variety of assessment methods for prospective ordinands, including lengthy interviews, written exercises, questionnaires, group discussions and detailed references.

But Leslie Francis, a canon professor of religions and education at Warwick University and an expert on psychological profiling of clergy, said more intensive testing can help spot pathologies such as narcissism.

"Both introversion and extroversion can reflect the divine image," said Francis, "but it is also very wise for the church to consider pathologies."

In the book "Let Us Prey: The Plague of Narcissist Pastors and What We Can Do about It," researchers R. Glenn Ball and Darrell Puls estimate, based on their 2015 study, that about a third of ministers in one mainline Protestant denomination in Canada showed signs of a narcissistic personality.

Narcissists often come to apprehend God as a rival, not a loving presence, and eventually may see themselves as God. Continue reading

• Image: RNS

Research has consistently shown that positive adult role models can contribute to the health, education, and overall well-being of young people.

Albert Bandura has argued that children learn how to "perform" adult roles by observing the behavior of prominent adults in their lives and trying to imitate it.

Other research has shown that this is especially the case when it comes to learning gender roles.

When children see a behavior modeled exclusively by men or by women, they internalize that behavior as distinctly masculine or feminine.

The more children see positions of power occupied only by men, the more they come to think of leadership as an exclusively masculine role.

As leaders occupy a place of higher social status, this can implicitly generate an association between gender, leadership, and self-confidence.

In our new book, She Preached the Word: Women's Ordination in Modern America (Oxford University Press), we ask whether the presence of prominent female religious congregational leaders in the lives of girls and young women affects their self-worth and empowerment later in life.

According to the General Social Survey, nine out of ten Americans report attending religious services at least occasionally in their youth.

This means that places of worship are a key setting in which children and young people have the opportunity to observe leadership in action.

To investigate this question, we fielded a nationwide telephone and internet survey that asked respondents how often the religious leaders they had growing up were men or women, as well as whether their most influential congregational leader was a man or a woman.

One of our most striking findings is that women who had female congregational leaders in their youth enjoyed higher levels of self-esteem as adults.

Women who said they never had a female religious leader growing up are 10% less likely to agree that they "have high self-esteem" now as adults, and 30% less likely to "strongly" agree, compared to women who had female clergy at least "some of the time."

(In contrast, the same is not true for men. Men who had female congregational leaders frequently growing up have levels of self-esteem that are just as high as those who never had a female pastor or priest.)

This is important because low self-esteem has been linked to higher levels of depression and anxiety as well as lower levels of relationship success, job satisfaction, and motivation for personal improvement.

It is also important because women, on average, consistently report lower levels of self-esteem than men. In our research, we found that this is the case only for the 60% or so of Americans who report that they never had a female religious leader growing up.

When women had female clergy at least "some of the time" growing up in their congregations, their reported levels of self-esteem are consistently just as high as men's.

That's not all. Continue reading

• Image: RNS

Driving around her hometown of Alexandria, Va., on a bright and sunny morning last week, McIlvaine slowed the car at white spire after white spire.

She turned her head, cocked an eyebrow and scrutinized each red-brick square on its grassy plot.

"I sort of go past everything and say, ‘That could be affordable housing,' " McIlvaine said.

"I go past a Scottish Rite temple and say, ‘Do they really need all that land?' Once you start looking, you can't stop — there are opportunities everywhere."

Over the past five years, McIlvaine has proved her own maxim.

In her work for the city of Alexandria, where she serves as director of housing, she has shepherded four churches through selling or leasing all or part of their land and converting it to space for affordable housing.

At least two more churches are "in the pipeline," McIlvaine said.

And it's not just Alexandria.

Churches across the District, Maryland and Virginia are turning their properties into living space for low-income residents.

David Bowers, vice president of the nonprofit Enterprise Community Partners, said his organization has helped seven houses of worship in the Baltimore-Washington corridor do this in the past 12 years.

Enterprise is working with roughly two dozen more churches.

Bowers said the Mid-Atlantic region has become a national leader in this arena, pioneering a faith-based solution to the dearth of affordable housing that advocates across the country are beginning to imitate.

He and others at Enterprise, which formed its Faith-Based Development Initiative specifically to encourage this tactic in 2006, hope to bring the strategy to major cities across the nation.

Proponents say churches are ideally suited to build affordable housing.

Houses of worship often sit on valuable land but are less concerned with cutting the best deal possible, thus minimizing costs borne by nonprofit developers.

And, for churches faced with shrinking congregations and underutilized buildings, installing affordable units offers a fresh infusion of cash and a better way to serve the community, backers say.

"In Matthew 25, we are called to feed the hungry, clothe the naked," the Rev. Sam Marullo, a former professor at the District's Wesley Theological Seminary, said at a forum on faith and affordable housing in the District last month.

"I would add into that Matthew 25 quote, ‘Build housing for those that need housing.' "

When McIlvaine walked through the door of Alexandria's Office of Housing in 2006, no one there was thinking about churches.

But she couldn't get them off her mind. Continue reading

Behind the wheel, a cardinal dressed in a simple grey shirt.

When the van returns to the Vatican after serving meals to approximately 300 homeless, migrants and others in need, the driver stops, opens a car window and greets the homeless that either sleep under the colonnade at St. Peter's Square or walk towards a nearby dormitory.

Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the Papal Almoner, knows most of them by name.

Three years ago, Enzo Luciani was one of those sleeping under the colonnade.

He had a long beard and as he says, he was "stinky as everyone else before the pope built the showers for us here."

That was before he met "Don Corrado" - the nickname given Krajewski - and after the years of a real "road to Damascus" moment, Luciani is the righthand man to the cardinal.

Originally from Naples, and having served several prison sentences in the past, Luciani now does everything from cooking for the cardinal and the poor that dine at his apartment every day to helping him out in packing the van with the dinners that are later served to the homeless.

During the June 28 consistory in which Krajewski was given his red hat, Francis said to the new cardinals: "None of us must feel ‘superior' to anyone. None of us should look down at others from above. The only time we can look at a person in this way is when we are helping them to stand up."

Paulina Guzik spoke to Luciani about his life and work with the papal almoner.

Guzik : How did it happen that you got out from a life on the street? Who helped you?

Luciani: It's thanks to Don Corrado, who had a certain amount of trust in me.

I have enough criminal records - many really - so you know, "people in the ties," the so-called "good people" (that are, by the way, a lot of times lost themselves) - they never trust you! But Don Corrado is a man of Christ and this is his role - putting trust in the poorest children of God.

So he gave me a second chance.

A lot of people were telling him: "but you know, his past…"

And he always cut them off by saying: "I know, I know."

It's been three years, and thank God, we are winning together. Continue reading

• Image: Crux

After the war, Pope Benedict XV "was prompt in indicating how the missionary world must change paths, abandoning the colonial ideology in which it had been lulled and promoting autonomy, independence and ecclesial self-governance in all the areas outside Europe," said the Vatican secretary of state.

Speaking at a conference July 12 anticipating the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, Parolin looked at the wide-ranging impact of the war and its aftermath on the political map of Europe, and how that affected the fates of peoples in the Middle East and in the countries of what would become the Soviet Union.

But he also spoke about Benedict's 1919 apostolic letter Maximum Illud on the Church's missionary activity.

In conjunction with the document's centenary, Pope Francis has asked all Catholics to celebrate a special "missionary month" in October 2019.

Announcing the special commemoration, Francis had said, "In 1919, in the wake of a tragic global conflict that he himself called a ‘useless slaughter,' the pope recognized the need for a more evangelical approach to missionary work in the world, so that it would be purified of any colonial overtones and kept far away from the nationalistic and expansionistic aims that had proved so disastrous."

"May the approaching centenary of that letter serve as an incentive to combat the recurring temptation lurking beneath every form of ecclesial introversion, self-referential retreat into comfort zones, pastoral pessimism and sterile nostalgia for the past," Francis said. "Instead, may we be open to the joyful newness of the Gospel."

World War I marked the end of the "state church," which was particularly strong in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Parolin said in his lecture in the northern Italian city of Aquileia.

The government had power in the appointment of bishops and controlled the seminaries and a variety of religious institutions, all of which fed into a mentality that emphasized national belonging over the universality of the Catholic faith, the cardinal said.

Maximum Illud, he said, was "the manifesto of a missionary and political revolution whose importance still has not been recognized as it deserves."

"In the encyclical," the cardinal said, "the pope ordered European missionaries to free themselves of nationalism, of the idea of European superiority over the peoples then seen as subordinate, to promote local languages rather than the language of the conquerors, (and) to train and to value indigenous clergy so that ‘one day they will be able to take up the spiritual leadership of their people.'" Continue reading

• Image: NCR

Then again, you may not be welcome to do so, or you could find yourself simply unsure.

This confusing situation, created by a proposed change to the tradition that the Catholic Eucharist was "for Catholics only," leaves German Catholicism caught between its majority's desire for a relaxation of the rules — a view shared by Pope Francis — and the limits to change in the world's largest church.

In February, the German Catholic bishops approved draft guidelines for priests on when they may distribute Catholic Communion to Protestants attending Mass, signaling a new openness.

But the guidelines immediately sparked a tussle between reformers and conservatives and surprising flip-flops from the Vatican.

Since then, some dioceses have reflected the new attitude toward inter-Communion on their official websites.

Other churches hardly post even a passing reference to it. Meanwhile, a debate has gripped the country's Catholic Church, exacerbated by mixed signals from the Vatican.

The question of inter-Communion, which hardly arises in many other countries, is a recurrent one in Germany.

The country's Christians are almost evenly divided between Catholics and Protestants (mostly Lutherans), and many marriages cross denominational boundaries.

As a result, many German Protestants already receive Communion with their Catholic spouses, often with the agreement of their parish priest.

They do so discreetly, however, because the Vatican seemed opposed to it and because many church leaders fear that officially condoning individual exceptions could be a slippery slope toward full doctrinal change.

Apparently Catholicism's ecumenical principles and their inclusive understanding of the church … are still foreign to some people 50 years after the Second Vatican Council," complained Bishop Gerhard Feige, the bishops conference delegate for ecumenical relations and a co-author of the guidelines.

Pope Francis has taken a more flexible approach to interpreting Catholic canon law than his conservative predecessors and has made better relations with other Christians a priority.

Thinking the time was right to tackle the issue, the German bishops conference — led by Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx, a senior papal adviser — drew up a 38-page "pastoral guide" meant to help priests lead mixed couples to a solution.

The Protestant spouse must share the Catholic understanding of Jesus Christ's real presence in the Eucharist — to which Lutheran doctrine is close — and be in "severe spiritual distress" by being excluded from it, it said.

A large majority of the bishops present — 47 out of 60 — voted in February to publish the document, titled "Walking with Christ —  Tracing Unity," in the near future.

A month later, seven dissenting bishops led by Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki asked the Vatican to rule whether the guidelines violated Catholic doctrine and the unity of the worldwide church. Continue reading

• Image: RNS

And in the Episcopal Church, the language of prayer matters.

The Book of Common Prayer, the text used in every Episcopal congregation, is cherished as a core element of Episcopal identity.

This week, the church is debating whether to overhaul that prayer book — in large part to make clear that God doesn't have a gender.

"As long as ‘men' and ‘God' are in the same category, our work toward equity will not just be incomplete. I honestly think it won't matter in some ways," said the Rev. Wil Gafney, a professor of the Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School in Texas who is on the committee recommending a change to the gendered language in the prayer book.

Gafney says that when she preaches, she sometimes changes the words of the Book of Common Prayer, even though Episcopal priests aren't formally allowed to do so.

Sometime she switches a word like "King" to a gender-neutral term like "Ruler" or "Creator."

Sometimes she uses "She" instead of "He." Sometimes, she sticks with the masculine tradition.

"‘Our Father,' I won't fiddle with that," she said, invoking the beginning of the Lord's Prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to say in the book of Matthew.

Gafney and many other Episcopal priests don't want to skirt the rules when they make changes like that — they want the prayer book to conform to a theology of God as bigger than gender.

The leaders of the Episcopal Church, the American denomination that descended from the Church of England but has long been separate from its British mother church, will consider two dueling resolutions at their triennial convention, which begins Tuesday in Austin and runs through next week.

One resolution calls for a major overhaul of the Book of Common Prayer, which was last revised in 1979.

A wholesale revision would take years, the church says, meaning a new prayer book wouldn't be in use until 2030.

Switching to gender-neutral language is the most commonly mentioned reason to make the change, but many stakeholders in the church want other revisions.

There are advocates for adding language about a Christian's duty to conserve the Earth; for adding a liturgical ceremony to celebrate a transgender person's adoption of a new name; for adding same-sex marriage ceremonies to the liturgy, since the church has been performing such weddings for years; for updating the calendar of saints to include important figures named as saints since 1979. Continue reading

• Image: US Press From

They lined up the detainees and ordered them to undress and lie down.

The officers then searched the anal cavity of each prisoner, claiming that they were looking for contraband cellphones.

The men screamed and wept.

Those who resisted were threatened by barking dogs and beaten until they bled.

Hundreds of detainees suffered similar sexual abuse during the event on March 10 at Beir Ahmed prison in the southern city of Aden, according to seven witnesses interviewed by The Associated Press.

Descriptions of the mass abuse offer a window into a world of rampant sexual torture and impunity in UAE-controlled prisons in Yemen.

The UAE is a key U.S. ally whose secret prisons and widespread torture were exposed by an AP investigation last June.

The AP has since identified at least five prisons where security forces use sexual torture to brutalize and break inmates.

Yemen's war began in 2015, after Iranian-backed Houthi rebels took over much of the country's north. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are leading a coalition to fight the rebels, but UAE forces have overtaken wide swaths of territory, towns and cities in the south.

The U.S. is backing the coalition with billions of dollars in arms, and partners with the Emiratis in anti-terrorism campaigns.

Emiratis have swept up hundreds of Yemeni men into a network of at least 18 hidden prisons on suspicion of being al-Qaida or Islamic State militants.

The prisoners are held without charges or trials.

The AP first asked the Pentagon about grave rights abuses committed by the UAE one year ago. But despite well-documented reports of torture reported by the AP, human rights groups and even the United Nations, Marine Maj.

Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman, said the U.S. has seen no evidence of detainee abuse in Yemen.

Still, he called the allegations "disturbing" and said, "The United States take all allegations of abuse seriously, although we have no substantiating information at this time."

U.S. officials have acknowledged that American forces receive intelligence from UAE partners and have participated in interrogations in Yemen. But Rankine-Galloway said he could not comment on intelligence sharing with partners. Continue reading

• Image: AP

A plot to negotiate the release of a kidnapped American aid worker fails, and the young woman — together with others who have been trafficked — is found dead from asphyxiation in the back of a truck in Kyrgyzstan.

In the final scene of the episode of the CBS drama, as Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord (played by Téa Leoni, pictured,) tries to console distraught staff members in the wake of this unspeakable evil, the senior policy adviser shares part of a poem by Maggie Smith:

Life is short and the world

is at least half terrible, and for

every kind

stranger, there is one who would

break you,

though I keep this from my

children. I am trying

to sell them the world. Any

decent realtor,

walking you through a real

hellhole, chirps on

about good bones: This place

could be beautiful,

right? You could make this place

beautiful.

It's a moment of grace, created by Catholic screenwriter and co-executive producer Joy Gregory, who believes the divine speaks through poetry and who has made it her mission to bring stories about "tangling with the big questions" to television.

"I like to 'sneak the vegetables in' without people knowing about it," Gregory told NCR, referring to how she works in storylines of redemption, spiritual struggle and even overt references to faith as a television writer and producer.

That has been easier in her last two jobs on "Madam Secretary" and the teen fantasy drama "Joan of Arcadia" — both created by executive producer Barbara Hall, known for addressing faith on TV.

Before that, Gregory often faced resistance in writers' rooms full of "secular progressives," most of whom are not religious.

"It's a shocking blind spot in people who preach and practice tolerance in many areas of their lives," she told a group of religion journalists in January.

But television writers can't hit audiences over the head with proselytizing either, Gregory said.

"Religion too often doesn't work well on TV because it's either preaching to a choir, or it's trying to reach people who have already decided, 'That's not me,' " she said.

"People don't want to go deep. It's not cool; they might 'catch it.' "

Instead of the overt approach, Hall and Gregory try to "throw a bigger party" to attract audiences with compelling spiritual, or even religious, stories. Continue reading

• Madam Secretary is available on Netflix. In New Zealand, it airs on Prime at 9:35pm
• Image: Christian Today

"They have no credibility; they have never lived the experience; they may know moral theology, dogmatic theology in theory, but to go from there to putting it into practice every day … they don't have the experience," said Irish-born American Cardinal Kevin Farrell.

Farrell heads the Vatican's Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, and is the point man for the Aug. 21-26 World Meeting of Families in Dublin.

The cardinal was born in the Irish capital, but moved to the United States in 1984, later serving as an auxiliary bishop in Washington before becoming bishop of Dallas in 2007.

In 2016, he was tapped by Pope Francis to head the new office - which combined several other Vatican councils as part of the reform of the Curia.

In an interview with Intercom, the official magazine of the Irish bishops, Farrell spoke of the differences between the Church in the United States and the Church in Ireland.

He said the United States was a country where "the laity run the Church."

"In my own experience as Bishop of Dallas, we had one priest in a parish where 10,000 people would attend Mass at the weekend. We have parishes that have a $20 million annual budget. No priest is going to be able to run a parish of that magnitude without competent lay people," the cardinal said.

He said this also meant many pastoral tasks usually left to priests in Ireland - like marriage preparation - are done by others.

"We have a million and a half Catholics and 75 priests, with a 45 to 50 per cent rate of (Mass) attendance. Those 75 priests are not going to be interested in organizing marriage meetings," said Farrell.

He said the Church in Ireland would have to adapt to this lay model of Church governance, due to "sheer numbers."

The Dublin diocese - with a comparable number of Catholics to Dallas - currently has over 400 priests, but that number is dropping as fewer and fewer men are being ordained to replace clergy that die or retire.

"We have to worry about the 99 per cent, about the baptized, and not worry about the other things we have been obsessed with," Farrell said.

The cardinal said this would lead to a less clericalized Church, which is a good thing. Continue reading

• Image: Dallas News