Top priority

adminonDecember 17, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

Praying hand in hand © vchal (shutterstock)

U.S. bishops want to increase outreach to former parishioners who have turned their backs on the Catholic Church. This is a top priority, Bishop Barron told the plenary session of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

One in two Catholics leaves the church at a young age, says auxiliary bishop in Los Angeles. On average, church dropouts are 13 years old, he said. "Half of the children we have baptized in the past 30 years are now former Catholics," says Barron. The most common reason for leaving the church, they say, is a lack of faith in Catholic teachings.

Other factors, he said, include widespread relativism, science and a rejection of church sexual morality. At the same time, he says, most nonbelievers are not fundamentally hostile to religion.

Reaching people through social networks

When it comes to reaching people again, the Internet is both a problem and an opportunity. Due to the high mobility of people, the "paradigm of parish membership" is now outdated, Barron summed up. Young people in particular are accessible to the church via social networks, he said. At the same time, a trend toward social isolation is reinforced by the new media.

One of the main topics of discussion at the Assembly in Baltimore is the abuse crisis. In the first days, the bishops debated the right responses and decided on a central reporting system for abuse. In accordance with Pope Francis' "Motu Proprio" decree, on 1. June 2020 to be operational.

A quarter of all U.S. Catholics don't go to Mass

At Baltimore meeting, bishops discuss how to respond to membership decline. In an interview with our site, Klaus Prompers, journalist and former ZdK member, said: "Just before this bishops' plenary, a new Pew Research study came out that found a quarter of all Catholics have now reduced their Mass attendance. Whereas in 2008 45 percent of all Catholics attended religious services at least once a month, it is to be feared that this year the figure will be even lower. Catholics' willingness to donate is also waning. The credibility of the church has suffered so much."

Criticism of death penalty for homosexuals in Uganda © Manuel Lopez

The Catholic relief organization Misereor criticizes the planned death penalty for homosexuals in Uganda. The bill, popularly known as the "Kill the Gays" bill, is reportedly expected to be passed before the end of the year.

"For Misereor the principle applies that human rights are indivisible. And that guides us also in the question of dealing with homosexuals around the world," said the head of the department Africa and Middle East, Maria Klatte, on Friday to the portal catholic.de. The fact that Uganda is now apparently once again attempting to introduce the death penalty for homosexuals is shocking, he said.

"The death penalty is forbidden for us as a Christian organization anyway," Klatte continued: "In the sense of the indivisible dignity of man, Misereor also condemns the persecution of homosexuals."Should the law actually be passed, the aid organization will not withdraw from the country, but will continue project cooperation with its Ugandan partners – "because the plight of the people in the country remains".

Penalties had been significantly increased

Parliament in Uganda had last tightened legislation against homosexuals in 2013. At the time, penalties for homosexual acts had been significantly increased despite international protests; however, parliament had not introduced the death penalty for homosexuals. A year later, the Ugandan Constitutional Court overturned the law on formal grounds.

According to media reports, the government justified the new attempt to tighten the penalties with an increase in "unnatural sex", which it wanted to combat. Homosexuality is not in the nature of Ugandans, but there is "massive recruitment by homosexual people in schools," media quote Ethics and Integrity Minister Simon Lokodo as saying.

Homosexuality completely rejected in many cases

The law, known locally as the "Kill the Gays" bill, is reportedly set to be passed before the end of the year. Klatte stressed that homosexuality is "not an easy ie" even in the Catholic Church in Africa.

In many cases, it is referred to there as a "Western concept of life" and completely rejected. "A de-tabooing and objectification must be achieved here," the Misereor expert demanded. In the dialogue with the African church, too, an approach must be pursued that prohibits discrimination against homosexuals.

The aid organization Save the children draws attention to exploitation of child refugees in Italy: according to the organization, more and more young girls in particular are lured to Europe, where they are then exploited.

In Italy, according to the aid organization Save the Children, child refugees are forced into prostitution and drug trafficking. The increasing number of child refugees is exacerbating the problem and massively increasing the danger to the girls and boys, according to a report released Friday in Berlin, which cites eyewitnesses.

According to the aid organization, in 2016 more than 10.500 unaccompanied child refugees arrived in Italy. This is more than twice as many as in the same period of the previous year. According to Save the Children's account, girls from Nigeria or Romania in particular – as young as 13 – are lured to Italy by false promises to work as babysitters, waitresses or hairdressers. The traffickers sometimes availed themselves of the help of teachers or other trusted persons. The girls and young women would then be forced into prostitution and become victims of physical, sexual and emotional violence. Many boys would be forced into child labor and criminal business such as drug dealing and theft; they would also be sexually abused.

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