Pope Leo XIV has provided clues to how he governs the Vatican and Curia and manages international affairs, with his style differing in significant ways from Pope Francis, according to two reports. Commonweal magazine (January 8) reports that some of Leo’s recent appointments are reversing some of Francis’s reforms and applying American management practices to […]
After 60 years of continuous decline, French Catholicism is experiencing a notable if modest rebound in adult baptisms, though only time will reveal whether it represents lasting change or another fleeting “flux” in French Catholicism’s cyclical history, writes historian Guillaume Cuchet in the journal Etudes (January). While the rise from 4,468 baptisms in 2020 to […]
Members of Generation Z in Ireland are more open and interested in religion than their millennial counterparts, according to a report in the Irish Independent newspaper (January 17). Laura Lynott writes that especially among young people undergoing crises, such as their parents’ illnesses and death, adopting or returning to the Catholic faith is seen as […]
The prospects for Muslim democracies, which just over a decade ago seemed bright, have grown dimmer as key Islamic countries said to be on the cusp of democratic reform have fallen short of that goal, according to a study in the Journal of Democracy (January). In the early 2000s, “many scholars observed a pragmatist turn […]
The conflict between the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Karekin II, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has intensified, with an opposition now also forming within the church, consisting of young parish priests, believers, and several hierarchs eager to reform the church, reports Harutyun G. Harutyunyan (State University of Yerevan, Armenia) in an […]
The return of Alawite celebrations in public life in Syria suggests that the adherents of this syncretistic Islamic sect are gaining new confidence in their identity since the fall of the Bashar al-Asad regime, even as persecution has intensified, according to the Public Orthodoxy website (January 7). Fadi Abu-Deeb reports that this year many Alawites […]
Although ultra-Orthodox Jews have traditionally been anti-Zionist, the younger generation has embraced Israel as well as a more ethno-nationalist brand of the faith, writes Martin Francisco Saps in Arc Magazine (December 17), which covers religion and politics. The official Haredi—or ultra-Orthodox—stance toward Israel has been that it was established without God’s approval and the coming […]
Italian Muslims are taking a unique and more activist path compared to Islam in other European countries, alarming populist and conservative groups and political leaders, but also carrying tendencies that may avoid the confrontations and tensions experienced in other parts of Europe. Writing in the European Conservative magazine (December 10), Javier Villamor reports that “In […]
Young Catholics in the UK are increasingly taking up distinctive practices and gravitating to parishes that cater to these conservative youth subcultures, according to the study After Secularization. The study, published by the Catholic Truth Society and conducted by Stephen Bullivant, Hannah Vaughan-Spruce, and Bernadette Durcan, is based on a 2019 survey of British Roman […]
Secularization, immigration, conversions, and a young generation’s hunger for spiritual meaning are transforming the religious landscape of Norway and making a new place for Roman Catholicism in that country, reports Pierre Jova in the French Catholic weekly La Vie (December 10). While Catholicism remains a minority faith in this traditionally Lutheran nation of 5.5 million, […]
