The State of Our Souls

A topic for a solemn day:

A new poll reveals a related dynamic from another perspective, what the researcher Jack Jedwab calls a “decoupling” of belief in God from the sense of attachment to one’s religion. You can lose one, but keep the other, and plenty of Canadians are doing it.

A new poll by Leger for the Association for Canadian Studies shows about half of Canadians believe in God, a measure that has been roughly stable for the last few years.

It is common for Canadians to believe in God and feel unattached to their religion, the poll shows. But it is even more common for Canadians to report deep skepticism about God’s existence, even to the point of firm atheism, while also feeling closely attached to their religion.

 

Laziness.

Canadians want the rewards of a religion without the effort, the knowledge, or the self-effacement. They don't want to act, go somewhere once a week, understand the reason for a ritual or look within themselves for self-improvement or discovery.

Canadians didn't have a spiritual epiphany. They succumbed to inertia.

Did Christ do all of those things just so people could think about possibly doing the bare minimum once a year?

In the mean time:

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Tuesday that ‘the Holy See had been informed a few days ago of the decision of the Chinese authorities to transfer [Bishop Shen Bin from Haimen to Shanghai] and learned from the media of the installation this morning.’

 

Then he is not a bishop, is he?

** 

The Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI), often at loggerheads with social policy decisions of the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP government, has lauded the government for categorically opposing the demand for the legalization of same-sex civil marriage in the federal Supreme Court.

The Indian government declared its opposition to the redefinition of marriage in a March 12 filing to the Supreme Court on Sunday. Reuters reported the government directed the court to reject challenges to the current legal framework expressed by same-sex couples. According to Reuters, which saw the filing, “The Ministry of Law believes that while there may be various forms of relationships in society, the legal recognition of marriage is for heterosexual relationships and the state has a legitimate interest in maintaining this.”

The Court has set up a five-member constitution bench during a hearing on March 13 to discuss the government's strong objection. The matter will be discussed on April 18 in another hearing that will be televised in India.

“What the Indian government has said to the Supreme Court is in full accord with the Christian teaching on marriage relationship,” Father John Karuvelil, moral theology professor at Jnana Deepa Vidyapeeth at Puna, India’s leading theological college, told the Register March 23.

Father Karuvelli pointed out, “The aim of human sexuality is not merely personal satisfaction, but human completion which is possible only in their duality and complementarity. A preoccupation with personal satisfaction is often the result of an inversion of the person in selfishness and self-centeredness.” 

“Only heterosexual relationships can protect the institution and sanctity of marriage, the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life for the good of society at large," he emphasized.

**

Armed bandits killed one person and kidnapped more than 100 others in a March 14 raid on a predominantly Catholic town in north-central Nigeria, according to a Catholic priest and other local sources.

Father Dauda Musa Bahago, a coordinator for the Justice, Development, and Peace Commission, a Catholic aid organization, told CNA the attack took place in his hometown of Adunu, in Niger state, during a memorial Mass in a nearby town for Father Isaac Achia, a Catholic priest who was burned to death Jan. 15. The bandits began attacking Adunu at 9 a.m., then moved to attack the town hosting the memorial service but turned back when they encountered Nigerian army soldiers guarding the town, Father Bahago said.

Three weeks after the attack, 62 people are still being held for ransom by Muslim Fulani bandits, Father Bahago said. One man, Moses Tanko Arada, was killed March 29 when no ransom was paid, and the kidnappers released three women as part of the negotiation process, he said.

The others managed to escape, he said.

“They were demanding a ransom of an amount in Naira equivalent to more than $450,000 but were bargaining for a lesser amount in the last few days,” Father Bahago said.

Adunu — a town of 5,000 people approximately 20 miles east of Minna, the Niger state capital — is more than half Catholic with Protestant and Muslim residents making up the rest of the population, Father Bahago said.

Additional attacks took place in the same area on April 1 and April 4, the priest told CNA. More information was not immediately available on April 5.

On March 14, about 300 people gathered in the town of Kaffinkoro for a Mass for Father Achia, Bahago said.

While the Mass was underway, more than 300 bandits encircled Adunu, six miles away, and the neighboring village of Kwagana, he said. The bandits abducted residents, destroyed homes, and looted shops, he said. The priest said a medical worker was shot near Kwagana.

 **

The challenge facing the Catholic Church in much of Germany, especially traditionally Catholic regions like Bavaria, is akin to revitalizing a tree with deep roots but dead branches, now struggling to stay alive.

That’s not the case in Berlin. Here, where Catholicism has never been a dominant force after the Reformation, and rising irreligiosity has earned the city a reputation as “the atheist capital of Europe,” there’s not much of a tree to save. Instead, evangelization looks more like planting seeds in untamed soil. And the resulting Catholic dynamic is often creative, edgy — and a little wild.