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The elimination of poverty

Made public at the weekend was a an address delivered by Archbishop Silvano Tomasi C.S., permanent observer to the Office of the United Nations and Specialized Institutions in Geneva, during the 'Substantive Session' of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. In his English-language talk, which he delivered on July 4, Archbishop Tomasi made it clear that 'the continued effort to address the plight of people trapped in poverty and to search for new ways and means to free them from its destructive consequences remains essential if the international community wants to achieve truly integral human development. Poverty elimination demands an integration between the mechanisms that produce wealth and the mechanisms for the distribution of its benefits at the international, regional and national levels. The projects of multilateral institutions and developed countries aimed at reducing poverty and improving growth in poor regions, like the Millennium Development Goals, the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative and the Poverty Reduction Strategy, have made some limited progress,' said the permanent observer. After highlighting the fact that 'eradication of poverty is a moral engagement,' Archbishop Tomasi concluded by saying that 'the various religions and cultures see the achievement of this end as a most important task that frees people from much suffering and marginalization, that helps them to live peacefully together, and that provides individuals and communities the freedom to protect their dignity and actively contribute to the common good.' [Vatican Information Service] 1371.8

'A modest religious comeback'

After decades of secularization, Europe is showing signs of a modest religious comeback, according to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal. The July 14 article says surveys show that belief in heaven, hell and religious concepts, such as the soul, has increased in parts of Europe, especially among the young. As well, religion is emerging in public discourse. This increase is explained, in part, by the influx of devout Christian and Muslim immigrants. At the same time, anxiety over social and economic issues has led some people to turn to the spiritual realm for solace and meaning.

The Wall Street Journal reports that some scholars and Christian activists, however, are offering a more controversial explanation: the laws of economics. As centuries-old churches lose their monopoly, Europe's highly regulated religious market is opening up to a greater number of churches and religious sects. The result is a supply-side stimulus to faith. Eva Hamberg, a professor at Lund University's Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, told the Wall Street Journal that Swedish data suggest a correlation between an increase in religious competition and an increase in churchgoing. While Europeans are deserting established churches, she says, 'this does not mean they are not religious. The enemy of faith, say the supply-siders, is not modernity but state-regulated markets that shield big, established churches from competition,' says the newspaper report. In the United States, where value is placed on the separation of church and state, more than 50 percent of the population worships at least once a month.

In Europe, where the state has often supported churches, church attendance in many countries is 20 percent or less. Europe's new churches are not attracting enough people to offset the post-World War II decline, but they are reviving the market for religion, Professor Rodney Stark told the newspaper. Stark is a pioneer of religious supply-side theory at Baylor University in Texas. Stark first developed the notion of a 'religious market' in the 1980s to explain America's persistent faith. It posits that people are naturally religious but their religiosity varies depending on the vigor of 'religious suppliers'. 'Wherever churches are a little more energetic and competitive, you've got more people going to church,' he was quoted as saying.

Stark told the Wall Street Journal that religious practice in the U.S. is relatively recent. In 1776, only 17 percent of Americans belonged to churches. (This is the same as the percentage of people who currently worship once a month in some European countries.) But things changed with the American Revolution. Church authority in the 11 colonies ended and religious diversity and competition were unleashed. As Methodists, Baptists, Shakers and other churches proliferated, churchgoing increased, reaching around 50 percent in the early the 20th century, he told the newspaper. Churches in Europe did not live through the same revolution. The Church of Sweden, the Church of England, and the Catholic Church in Italy and France, state-funded churches in Germany held their unchallenged monopolies for centuries on end, the newspaper notes. However, as Europe begins to experience religious diversity and the emergence of new churches - many in the style of U.S. evangelical churches - the sense of the spiritual and the religious is on the rise. [CNA] 1371.9

The Radical Onslaught

The English bishops 'illusory goal'

Challenging Statement. Prof. John Haldane, Catholic social commentator and academic at St Andrews University, used the occasion of a public meeting in London on Saturday to identify the principal challenges and opportunities facing Christians in Britain today. He emphasised that Christians need to respond strongly to the rise of anti-religious secularism penetrating even into government policy; to aggressive atheism, as evidenced by a recent flurry of mass-market books attacking religion; and to a general and widespread decline of interest in religion, or even in the search for objective truth. In assessing the state of the Catholic Church in Britain, Prof Haldane's key point concerned how Catholic leadership in England, but not Scotland, has placed seriously at risk its independence from a secular government - and thus its freedom to criticize policy where necessary - due to an unwise but historically understandable temptation to desire access to the corridors of secular power. Prof Haldane viewed such a temptation as an illusory goal, and said it is dangerous to think that the public presentation of logical and tightly reasoned arguments for the Catholic position can be delayed until Catholics have 'arrived' and gained respectability and influence.

Prof Haldane, who is involved in discussions with the orthodox churches of the East, provocatively discussed the current impossibility of dialogue with the Anglican Communion, beset as it is by divisions - simply because there is no single understanding of what constitutes Anglican belief. Similarly, with reference to relations with Muslims in the struggle against aggressive secularism, he emphasised that while a common cause can sometimes be made, we must never simply promote a blanket approach to the value of 'religion': each religion must be assessed by a reasoned evaluation of its contents. In both these areas of dialogue, Prof Haldane suggested that for the future we must look to the East, both for a successful ecumenical movement, and for solutions to the question of relations with Islam.

Now approaching the 140th anniversary in 2008 of its foundation, the Catholic Truth Society used the occasion of this conference to revisit its founding principles and to talk face-to-face with the many of its supporters who attended. Mass in the Cathedral, celebrated by Bishop Paul Hendricks, preceded the conference and concluded with a prayerful visit to the tomb of CTS's founder, Herbert Cardinal Vaughan. The missionary spirit of this great prelate was recalled in a rich homily by Fr Nicholas Schofield, historian and archivist of Westminster Archdiocese. [Photo (c) Lorenzo Lees 2007. CTS] 1371.10

Homosexual film-makers exploit divisions

Whatever the struggles in defence of natural families, chaste sex and pure love, the pro-family movement has usually been able to find natural allies in the churches. But now the churches themselves are under unprecedented stress, both from outside and from within -- and homosexual filmmakers are exploiting this division among Christians. The 12-day 'Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival,' known as OutFest, began on July 12 and ends July 23. The festival showcases a five-film series, 'Queers in Christ,' which focuses on homosexual themes involving Christians and their churches. The movies attempt not so much a political as a theological or spiritual claim: that God says 'Gay is OK,' and the churches ought to follow suit. 'The struggles of queer Christians are uniquely dramatic [because] queer Christians are people that often find themselves ostracized from both their religious communities and the gay community at large,' David Courier, Outfest's co-director of programming, told the 'Los Angeles Times'.

Several films from the series will be distributed through commercial outlets. One, 'Rock Haven,' explores a fictional relationship between two young men, one of whom is raised in a conservative Christian household. 'The Believers,' which will air on cable TV's Logo on Aug. 11, follows the Transcendence Gospel Choir, a 15-voice musical ensemble composed entirely of transgender singers. 'We're All Angels,' another musical documentary, is about a Christian (and homosexual) singing duo, Jason & DeMarco. Jason Warner was raised a Pentecostal and DeMarco DeCiccio a Roman Catholic. Both say they remain observant Christians and are, according to their press packet, a 'loving, happy couple.' The film follows them as they record songs in their studio, play gigs at churches, and try not to look 'too gay or too Christian' in a photo shoot. Director Robert Nuñez said he was drawn to Jason & DeMarco's story because '[I] always thought that gay people who clung to religion were like battered wives who wanted acceptance from an organization that just hated them.' 'For the Bible Tells Me So' looks at five families with gay children and attempts a theological refutation of Biblical passages that condemn homosexual behaviour.

Expected to be released in theaters in mid-October, this 'documentary' is the most focused on sex-and-faith questions. Director Daniel Karslake explained to the 'Times' that he intended to interview people 'on both sides of the issue.' When most conservative commentators declined to participate, he said, he tried to grapple directly with the Bible passages -- including Leviticus -- which explicitly proscribe man/man and woman/woman sexual relations. 'I think the real power of the film is that it gives people a firm piece of ground to stand on and say, 'You know, those verses actually don't wind up saying what they at first appear to mean,'' the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson told the 'Times'. Robinson, an Episcopalian bishop who has brought the Anglican communion to the brink of global schism, left his wife of 14 years to pursue a 'more authentic and satisfying' relationship with another man. He was elected the Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. [California Catholic Daily] 1371.11

Dangerous times in the House of Lords

Lord Taverne asked Her Majesty's Government: 'What steps they are taking to promote family planning as part of the campaign to reduce poverty in Africa'?

Baroness Royall of Blaisdon: My Lords, the Government are committed to improving sexual and reproductive health, including family planning, across Africa. In 2006, DfID provided £25.1 million to UNFPA and £7.5 million to the International Planned Parenthood Federation to support work on sexual and reproductive health and rights. We also work at country level and are funding reproductive health services in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe, enabling women, men and adolescents to avoid unwanted pregnancy and HIV.

Lord Taverne: My Lords, although I welcome and appreciate the Government's efforts, is it not a tragedy that funding for family planning, which has been pretty successful in reducing the birth rate even in some of the poorest countries, should now be reduced and that, because of the lobbying against contraception in the United Nations by the American evangelicals, unfortunately supported by the Catholic Church, the birth rate in countries such as Uganda is now more than seven children per woman-in rural Africa, it is more than six per woman? Does this not mean that any hope of achieving the millennium goals will be frustrated, that no progress can be made in the education of women and, indeed, that making poverty history will be a vain aim? Is it not surprising that there has not been more of a squeak of protest against this moral outrage from Her Majesty's Government, those who organise pop concerts and others who profess their concern about welfare in Africa?

Baroness Royall of Blaisdon: My Lords, in response to the last point, I am slightly outraged at the noble Lord's view of what this Government are doing on sexual health and reproduction. We have been leading the world. It is thanks to this Government that we now have a universally accepted target for sexual health and reproductive rights before 2015. This Government have done an excellent job, although I well recognise that it is important to keep family planning at the heart of development policy.

Lord Tebbit: My Lords, the noble Baroness said just now that moral considerations should not be the driver of policy. Did she really mean that?

Baroness Royall of Blaisdon: My Lords, where issues such as abortion are concerned, yes, I did mean it very firmly. [Hansard] 1371.12

International news

ARGENTINA  Respect for the terminally ill

The director of the Institute for Bioethics of the Catholic University of La Plata, Juan Carlos Caprile, said this week that respect for terminally ill patients demands they be cared for and not killed. Caprile commented on a proposed law in the province of Rio Negro that would allow terminally ill patients to put limits on their treatment in order not to prolong their illnesses. The director said palliative care is a better option because it helps terminally ill patients to avoid 'extraordinary sufferings.' He said the Institute is in agreement that disproportionate means should not be used if there is no chance for improvement, but he said, the Institute opposes the exclusion of food and hydration from basic care. According to Caprile, 'Reasonable therapeutic treatment is duly established in the so-called Palliative Care and helps avoid unnecessary suffering in these cases. In this sense, he said, 'the decisions of the patients should be considered starting from respect for their own life and the moral autonomy of the doctor whose task is not to destroy life but to save it. The relationship of freedom/responsibility between the patient and the doctor should not be conceived of in the sense that the doctor is a substitute for the will of the patient, but also neither should the doctor have to be the executor of the will of the patient in determining his death, justifying the exercise of supposed mercy in response to the patient's pain,' Caprile warned. He stressed that doctors should put their knowledge at the service of alleviating suffering, 'not only physical but also psychiatric and spiritual. When a patient is in a terminal state the doctor should give him or her basic hydration and nutrition as well as the rest of the so-called palliative care, avoiding the use of extraordinary or disproportionate means that have no prospect of improvement.' [CNA] 1371.13

BOLIVIA  Respect for life

In an article published by his archdiocesan newspaper, Archbishop Tito Solari of Cochamba noted this week that the Church 'proclaims respect for life from conception to natural death,' as life is a gift from God. Archbishop Solari said these points were essential to the Christian life and that 'one cannot call oneself Christian if one does not assume these points as part of one's identity.' He also said the bishops believe that the Church should be recognized as a collective body with public rights. 'Her entire mission is to serve the community, with preference for the poor, the humble and the marginalized,' he added. Archbishop Solari said these points were essential to the Christian life and that 'one cannot call oneself Christian if one does not assume these points as part of one's identity.' He said the bishops' intention was not to impose these points on members of the Assembly but rather 'to simply propose them. In no way do we understand our initiative to be a gesture against a party or an action that divides Bolivians. Rather, we think these could be points of great convergence and the basis for a renewed Bolivia,' the archbishop said. [CNA] 1371.14

CAMBODIA  Missionary work banned

The government of Cambodia has banned missionary work. While 95% of Cambodia's 13 million citizens are Buddhist, the Muslim and Christian minorities have generally been tolerated. But the government's new policy bars efforts to spread other religious beliefs. [CWNews] 1371.15

CHINA  No Vatican objection to Bishop of Beijing appointment

Chinese officials have announced the selection of a new Bishop of Beijing. Although he was not selected by the Pope, the AsiaNews service reports that the bishop-elect was one of several candidates to whom the Vatican raised no objection. The appointment appears to be a key test of the murky relationship between Beij