There is a long tradition of wondering about the mental health implications of religious practice. The psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung famously claimed to have seen almost no practicing Catholics in decades of clinical practice. Others have failed to replicate this result, but the idea that religious practice has some meaningful impact on mental health Read more
The European Union and representatives from seven countries denounced the worldwide persecution of Christians on Sept. 27 at the United Nations. The panel discussion, held during the 74th session of the U.N. General Assembly, was co-hosted by the permanent missions of Hungary and Brazil. The event, “Rebuilding Lives, Rebuilding Communities: Ensuring a Future for Persecuted Read more
Myanmar’s Catholic leaders are planning to rebuild their country, which has been devastated by decades of military rule. Last week 72 bishops, priests, nuns and laypeople attended a “Mission planning for nation building” workshop to find a common platform so they could “effectively contribute to the building of the nation”. Read more
Those of us who entered religious life just after Vatican II will probably remember it in the words of Wordsworth after the French Revolution: “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive”. Those were exciting years. In February 1968, aged 19, I entered an Irish Cistercian monastery. It was just three years after the Read more
The Holy See Congregation for Religious has reaffirmed the vocation of the lay religious brother, emphasising that non-ordained men – and women – exercise a daily priesthood in their work by virtue of their baptism. The document, entitled Identity and Mission of the Religious Brother in the Church, focuses on the role non-ordained men play Read more
Pope Francis is counting on religious to “wake up the world” throughout the Year of Consecrated Life. “This (waking up the world) is a priority needed right now,” the Jesuit Pope wrote in his letter to mark the November 30 start of the year. However to be so bold, Francis is urging religious communities to Read more
I’ve got a soft spot for the Pope. I don’t know why; I’m about as religious as a satsuma. But given that Mum’s an Anglican preacher, my Dad’s an atheist, my brother a Catholic, and my Aunt and Uncle devout Jews, I’ve probably picked up second-hand religious interest somewhere. Anyway, I like him. He seems Read more
In an age of villainy, war and inequality, it makes sense that we need superheroes. And after trying Superman, Batman and Spider-Man, we may have found the best superheroes yet: Nuns. ‘‘I may not believe in God, but I do believe in nuns,’’ writes Jo Piazza, in her forthcoming book, If Nuns Ruled the World. Read more
Whac-A-Nun season opened with a bang in Rome as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) again excoriated the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). Rapped knuckles belonged to LCWR, to Fordham theologian Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ, and to any other American woman walking around with letters after her name. Even Seattle Archbishop J. Read more
More than 3000 men and women religious leave the consecrated life each year, according to the secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo said that the majority of cases occur at a “relatively young age”. The causes, he said, include “absence of spiritual life”, Read more