Catholic parishes disproportionately closed in poor, Black and Latino neighbourhoods in the US
United States RNS While the number of US Catholics is increasing, the total number of Catholic parishes nationwide declined nine per cent between 1970 and 2020, according to a new report by Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. In 10 of the 11 dioceses studied, those closures are disproportionately happening in Black […]
Nuns in a time of nones: The winding path to today’s religious vocations
From 2020 to 2022, more than 900 women and men entered religious life. They all took their own, sometimes circuitous routes to get there. PAUL O’DONNELL, of Religion News Service, reports…
Discerning the call: In Catholic men’s religious orders, diversity brings new opportunities – and occasional friction
ELIZABETH E EVANS, of Religion News Service, reports on how religious communities are exploring different ways to mentor and walk alongside young men as they discern their calling…
“Atoning for a wrong”: US colleges confront slavery ties with descendant scholarships
DAVID SHERFINSKI, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports that while, from Harvard to Georgetown, universities and colleges are facing up to their links to slavery, but advocates say more must be done…
Lag in slavery reparations from US Jesuits irks descendants
United StatesAP Last year, the US branch of the Jesuits pledged to raise $US100 million for a reconciliation initiative in partnership with descendants of people once enslaved by the Catholic order. On Tuesday, a leader of those descendants expressed deep dissatisfaction with the order’s lack of progress since then. Joseph Stewart, in a publicly released letter to […]
Jesuits pledge $US100 million for descendants of people their order enslaved
Washington DC, USRNS The Society of Jesus has announced plans to raise $US100 million for the descendants of enslaved people it once claimed to own, making the Roman Catholic order’s initiative one of the largest financial efforts by any group to try to atone for the institution of slavery and address racial injustice in the […]
Adam Taylor succeeds Jim Wallis as Sojourners president
RNS Rev Adam Taylor has been named the new president of Sojourners, the national Christian social justice advocacy organisation founded and led by Rev Jim Wallis since the 1970s. Wallis will continue working with Sojourners through to July, 2021, when he will join the faculty of Georgetown University as director of a new centre focused […]
Norway at top, Yemen at bottom of rankings for women’s quality of life
New YorkThomson Reuters Foundation Norway and Switzerland are the best countries to be a woman and Yemen and Afghanistan the worst, said research on Tuesday which found the state of women’s rights is not “all doom and gloom” around the world. While life for women has improved in some 60 countries, it has deteriorated in […]
Reparations fund announced by US seminary with buildings constructed by slaves
RNS An Episcopal seminary in Virginia has announced plans to create a $US1.7 million endowment fund whose proceeds will support reparations for the school’s ties to slavery. Virginia Theological Seminary said in a 5th September statement that enslaved persons worked on its campus and the school “participated in segregation” after the end of slavery. “This […]
History of slaves sold for US Catholic-run university detailed in new genealogical website
RNS A genealogical association has launched a new website detailing the family histories of slaves who were sold to keep Catholic-run Georgetown University from bankruptcy in the 1800s. American Ancestors announced the new GU272 Memory Project website on 19th June, the anniversary of Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when some American slaves learned they had […]