tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/pope-francis-11517/articlesPope Francis – The Conversation2024-03-28T12:50:01Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2232662024-03-28T12:50:01Z2024-03-28T12:50:01ZOne year ago, Pope Francis disavowed the ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ – but Indigenous Catholics’ work for respect and recognition goes back decades<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583533/original/file-20240321-24-zghkkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C0%2C5289%2C3618&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tzotzil women line up for Holy Communion during a Catholic Mass in Chiapas state, Mexico, in 2016. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXMexicoPopeIndigenous/0e5d46785792469db2511651be315c40/photo?Query=609821321857&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It has been more than 500 years since Vatican decrees gave European colonizers permission <a href="https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/doctrine-discovery-1493">to carve up the “New World</a>” – and just one since Pope Francis disavowed them.</p>
<p>On March 30, 2023, Francis <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2023/03/30/230330b.html">repudiated the “Doctrine of Discovery</a>”: a set of ideas the Spanish and Portuguese, in particular, used to justify seizing land they had “discovered” and colonizing Indigenous people in the land they came to call the Americas. <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2023/03/30/230330b.html">The Vatican’s statement</a> not only rejected the doctrine, but also apologized for historical atrocities carried out by Christians and affirmed the rights and cultural values of Indigenous peoples. </p>
<p>The repudiation can hardly undo centuries of oppressing Indigenous people and stealing their lands. Yet the statement is monumental in ways that signal cultural and political shifts within the Catholic Church. It recognized decades of work by Indigenous Catholics to demand that their very own church respect their history, culture and faith – a focus of my work <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=oC3uu6YAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">as a historian of Mexico and religion</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An older man in white wears a crown of yellow flowers, standing amid other men, and near a hat covered in brightly colored ribbons." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pope Francis wears a crown of flowers, gifted to him by Indigenous Mexicans, as he arrives in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico, in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MexicoPope/820da54fa77c4b70820f7a84dead3c4d/photo?Query=francis%20flowers%20indigenous%20mexico&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=3&currentItemNo=1">AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia</a></span>
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<h2>‘New World,’ new owners</h2>
<p>The Doctrine of Discovery has its roots in 15th century papal documents, called “papal bulls,” which were issued amid Spain’s and Portugal’s colonial expansion in Africa and the recently “discovered” Americas.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/doctrine-discovery-1493">Inter Caetera</a>,” for example, which was issued in 1493, drew a line 100 leagues, or around 350 miles, to the west of the Azores and Cape Verde in the Atlantic Ocean. The document declared that all lands west of that line were free to be discovered, colonized and Christianized by the Kingdoms of Castile and León – modern-day Spain. </p>
<p>In other words, the Catholic Church gave Spain a monopoly on the New World, on the condition that the natives be converted to Christianity. Soon after, however, Spain and Portugal negotiated the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2967633">Treaty of Tordesillas</a>, settling Portuguese claims over modern-day Brazil.</p>
<p>More broadly, the Doctrine of Discovery shaped European kingdoms’ approach to colonizing the Americas, Asia and Africa. It was, simply put, the legal foundation of their claims over non-Christian peoples and territories.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An old-fashioned map of the world with several sections in vivid green and blue." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Cantino planisphere, made by an unknown Portuguese cartographer in 1502. A line on the left shows the Americas divided into Spanish and Portuguese territories.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cantino_planisphere_(1502).jpg">Biblioteca Estense Universitaria/Wikimedia</a></span>
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<p>Three centuries later, the Supreme Court of the newly independent United States cited the doctrine in a significant decision, <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/21/543/">Johnson v. McIntosh</a>. According to this 1823 ruling, Indigenous peoples had no permanent right to the territory they lived on.</p>
<h2>Seeds of change</h2>
<p>Despite forced Christianization, church leaders repeatedly despaired that Indigenous Latin Americans had <a href="https://theconversation.com/latin-americas-colonial-period-was-far-less-catholic-than-it-might-seem-despite-the-inquisitions-attempts-to-police-religion-214691">not fully become Catholic</a>. The Spanish reluctantly tolerated Indigenous Catholic practices, such as worshipping the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/history/regional-history-after-1500/mexican-phoenix-our-lady-guadalupe-image-and-tradition-across-five-centuries">Virgin of Guadalupe</a>, an apparition of Mary in Mexico, and associating her with the Nahuátl mother goddess, Tonantzin. They reasoned that the Indigenous were novice Christians who would learn in time – an attitude that persisted for centuries.</p>
<p>The Catholic Church addressed multicultural questions in the 1960s, during <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-resists-change-but-vatican-ii-shows-its-possible-102543">the Second Vatican Council</a>. Over four years, in thousands of hours of meetings and consultations, the church embarked on its first major reforms in centuries. </p>
<p>The council approved using vernacular languages in Mass instead of Latin, promoted cooperation with other faiths and signaled a shift toward tolerating the diverse ways Catholics expressed their faith around the world. One of the resulting documents, “<a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19651207_ad-gentes_en.html">Ad gentes</a>,” promoted missionary activity among unconverted peoples. However, it recognized that all cultures contained “seeds” of Christianity and that cultural diversity in the church would strengthen the body of the Catholic Church as a whole.</p>
<h2>Building a movement</h2>
<p>Almost immediately, Indigenous Catholics throughout Latin America began organizing to make these possibilities real. </p>
<p>In Mexico, a group of young priests and seminarians organized the <a href="https://www.amerindiaenlared.org/uploads/adjuntos/1349836940_attach52.pdf">Movement of Indigenous Priests</a>. Spearheaded by a young Indigenous priest, Eleazar López Hernández, they pushed back against the notion that men entering the priesthood had to choose between their Indigenous and priestly identities.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A boy in a red headdress and bright blue shirt stands holding a small brass instrument." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A young Indigenous musician waits ahead of a Mass that Pope Francis celebrated in San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXMexicoPope/7a8d960f2bd240ddba65d1e2566b455c/photo?Query=730687673175&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>At the core of their demands was the insistence that multiple Catholicisms could exist within the same Catholic Church. For instance, in 1971, <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/4a55a5e688ec5dc2862ecae0a7ca1de5/">López Hernández</a> testified about the importance of having Indigenous priests in Indigenous communities. These Catholics, he argued, deserved clergy who spoke their language, could participate meaningfully in traditional rituals, understood their roots, and who could honor Indigenous spirituality in addition to Catholicism’s message of salvation.</p>
<p>Their demands inspired new Catholic institutions. In 1969, several dioceses founded the Regional Seminary of the Southeast, called SERESURE. The seminary’s <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/4a55a5e688ec5dc2862ecae0a7ca1de5/">explicit mission</a> was to train priests to work in poor Indigenous areas, and it became a hub for Indigenous Catholicism. SERESURE developed an innovative structure that drew on <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/644412">Indigenous traditions of governing their communities by assembly</a>, challenging strictly hierarchical church practices.</p>
<p>Yet SERESURE was <a href="https://www.sinembargo.mx/21-02-2016/1626817">shuttered in 1989</a> over <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/4a55a5e688ec5dc2862ecae0a7ca1de5/">allegations of incorrect doctrine</a>, Marxism and supporting <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501750755/reagans-gun-toting-nuns/">armed revolutionary movements</a>. There was some truth to the first two allegations, but the third had little basis in truth.</p>
<p>It spoke, however, to the types of work some church agents were doing with Indigenous people in the region. Young priests, religious sisters and lay Catholics were fanning out to work with communities living in desperate poverty, trying to both provide economic opportunity and preserve local cultures and languages. This poverty had given birth to <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/specters-of-revolution-9780199936595?cc=us&lang=en&">armed movements in Mexico</a>, Guatemala and beyond during the Cold War.</p>
<p>For many of these Catholics, salvation did not only mean going to heaven, but building a more just world.</p>
<h2>Steps forward – and back</h2>
<p>By the early 1990s, conflicts between the Vatican and Indigenous peoples had bled into the public sphere.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo shows several seated men in white watching two men in headdresses dance with their arms raised." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pope John Paul II watches a performance of the Mayan Creation dance during a 1993 visit to Mexico, where he apologized for Christian colonizers’ abuses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/POPEMEXICOVISIT-/7945d4eed7e4da11af9f0014c2589dfb/photo?Query=930811034&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Mosconi</a></span>
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<p>John Paul II <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/1987/september/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19870920_indigeni-fort-simpson.html">increased attention to</a> Indigenous Catholics with <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/travels/1990/travels/documents/trav_messico.html">his visits to southern Mexico</a>. During his papacy, however, the Vatican celebrated 1992 as <a href="https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/ROA-Times/issues/1990/rt9005/900508/05080701.htm">the 500th anniversary</a> of bringing Christianity to the New World.</p>
<p>Indigenous movements across the Americas rejected such a rosy depiction of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1571458">colonization, enslavement and forced conversion</a>. Instead, they organized protests under the banner of “500 Years of Resistance,” celebrating Indigenous resilience, culture, language and spirituality. In Tehuacán, Mexico, Indigenous Catholic priests led a march of nearly 20,000 Nahua people that culminated in an open-air Mass <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/4a55a5e688ec5dc2862ecae0a7ca1de5/">conducted in Nahuátl</a> – the language of the Mexica, or Aztecs.</p>
<p>It was not until 2013, after Francis’ election as pope, that <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-25445819">the Vatican approved Nahuátl</a> as an official language of the Catholic Church – meaning it can be used to conduct Mass inside churches. In addition, the Vatican ordered Mexican bishops to translate Catholic liturgy and texts into Nahuátl. </p>
<p>This was a large first step in recognizing the decades of work of Indigenous Catholics to insist that multiple Catholicisms can and should exist side by side.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TQ8l9__cS3M?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The first official Catholic Mass held in the Nahuatl language, in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Since 2015, the Mexican Catholic Church has hosted an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ8l9__cS3M&t">annual Nahuátl Mass</a> in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Mass opened with traditional rural Indigenous music, and the offerings and decorations evoked the sights, sounds and smells of an Indigenous community parish – an open embrace of Indigenous Catholicisms.</p>
<p>Across the Catholic world, the Vatican has been <a href="http://secretariat.synod.va/content/sinodoamazonico/en/documents/final-document-of-the-amazon-synod.html">opening to multicultural Catholicisms</a> in recent years. The Nahuátl Mass is but one example, as is the repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery. </p>
<p>Francis’ statement was important as an institutional recognition of historical atrocities. More profoundly, it was a validation of Indigenous Catholic activists’ demands for <a href="https://adn.celam.org/seminaristas-indigenas-a-menudo-queremos-ir-al-seminario-pero-la-gente-piensa-que-no-tenemos-capacidad/">inclusion on their terms</a>, even while disputes over multiculturalism continue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223266/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eben Levey received funding from a Fulbright Fellowship and from the University of Maryland, College Park for his dissertation research. </span></em></p>Indigenous Catholics have long argued they should be able to embrace both sides of that identity.Eben Levey, Assistant Professor of History, Alfred UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2254912024-03-12T12:36:06Z2024-03-12T12:36:06ZUkraine war: Pope Francis should learn from his WWII predecessor’s mistakes in appeasing fascism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581248/original/file-20240312-30-1hong4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C1497%2C835&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Appeasement: Adolph Hitler meeting Cesare Orsenigo, the papal nuncio to Germany, in 1935</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">US Holocaust Museum/Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pope Francis has provoked fury by suggesting in a television interview that Ukraine should find “the courage to raise the white flag”. Speaking to the Italian-language Swiss public broadcaster RSI, he added: “When you see that you are defeated … you need to have the courage to negotiate.”</p>
<p>This injudicious comment reminded me instantly of the man once described as <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/2000-03-01/hitlers-pope-secret-history-pius-xii">Hitler’s Pope</a>. As Pope Pius XII, Eugenio Pacelli led the Catholic Church throughout the second world war. However, while Hitler’s determination to eliminate the Jewish people was brought to his attention, he did not publicly condemn it. Freedom of practice for German Catholics mattered more.</p>
<p>As historian Richard J. Evans reminded us in his essay <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n20/richard-j.-evans/why-did-he-not-speak-out">Why did he not speak out?</a>, when German forces occupied Rome in September 1943, Heinrich Himmler ordered that: “All Jews without regard to nationality, age, sex or condition, must be transferred to Germany and liquidated there.” The roundup took place within sight of the Vatican and Pius XII could not ignore it entirely. He summoned the German ambassador, Ernst von Weizsäcker, to a private meeting and made it plain that he was shocked. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/o6tiwLV-xss?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Pope says Ukraine should ‘raise white flag’ and end war with Russia.</span></figcaption>
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<p>To placate His Holiness, the SS released a few Jews who had converted to Catholicism and some who had married Catholics. Of the 1,259 Italian Jews incarcerated in a military college pending deportation, 1,007 were sent to Auschwitz. Pope Pius did not protest. Gratified by his diplomatic silence, Weizsäcker <a href="https://www.davidkertzer.com/books/pope-war">told his masters in Berlin</a> that the leader of Catholicism had “refrained from making any ostentatious remarks on the deportation of the Jews from Rome”. </p>
<p>Though he admired the authoritarian regimes of Franco in Spain and Salazar in Portugal, Pius XII was not pro Nazi. However, he had served as a Papal Nuncio in Germany between 1917 and 1929 and took an interest in the country. He considered National Socialism to be anti Christian and, in 1935, <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/pope-pius-xii-and-the-holocaust">described the Nazis</a> as “miserable plagiarists who dress up old errors with new tinsel”. </p>
<h2>‘Catholics will be loyal’</h2>
<p>Nevertheless, at his first meeting with Hitler in May 1939, Pope Pius demonstrated that his real ambition was to protect the Catholic church in Germany. He told the German chancellor: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am certain that if peace between Church and state is restored, everyone will be pleased. The German people are united in their love for the Fatherland. Once we have peace, the Catholics will be loyal. More than anyone else.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Protecting Catholicism would remain Pius XII’s priority when Germany went to war. Historian David Kertzer <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/05/31/hitlers-pope-struck-dirty-deal-nazi-prince-stay-silent-persecution/">explains that</a> : “Hitler never intended to restore the prerogatives of the Church in Germany, but he knew how to dangle various enticements.” Nazi diplomats did not have to work too hard to <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/pope-pius-xii-and-the-holocaust">keep the Pope silent</a> on topics that might embarrass Hitler.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Pope Pius XII appears on the balcony at St Peters after his election on March 2 1939." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581249/original/file-20240312-16-3rbt6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581249/original/file-20240312-16-3rbt6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581249/original/file-20240312-16-3rbt6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581249/original/file-20240312-16-3rbt6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581249/original/file-20240312-16-3rbt6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581249/original/file-20240312-16-3rbt6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581249/original/file-20240312-16-3rbt6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pope Pius XII appears on the balcony at St Peters after his election on March 2 1939.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Correio da Manhã Fund, Arquivo Nacional</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In October 1941, Harold Tittman, an American diplomat at the Vatican, urged the Pope to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1964/06/18/archives/documents-explain-piussview-of-nazis.html">condemn Nazi atrocities</a>. Pius XII remained silent. He feared that criticism of Hitler’s regime would provoke harm to German Catholics. In August 1942 Pius XII received a <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/vatican-archive-letter-shows-ukrainian-priest-tried-to-save-jews-in-holocaust/">letter from Andrej Septyckj</a>, a Ukrainian Cleric, bearing news of the massacre of 200,000 Jews in Ukraine. He invited Septyckj to “bear adversity with serene patience”. </p>
<p>Pius XII flirted with public criticism of Nazi inhumanity in his 1942 <a href="http://catholictradition.org/Encyclicals/1942.htm">Christmas Eve broadcast</a>. In this, he expressed concern for “thousands of persons who, without fault on their part, sometimes only because of their nationality or race, have been consigned to death or to a slow decline”. He did not identify the victims as Jews. His support for Jewish people was limited to discreet diplomacy. </p>
<h2>Evil then and now</h2>
<p>Documents in the Vatican archives show that Pius XII received information about the systematic murder of Jews in Poland in September 1942. As I discovered while researching my book, <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/reporting-the-second-world-war-9781350149489/">Reporting the Second World War - The Press and the People 1939-1945</a>, he could have learned as much by reading British newspapers. In autumn 1942, titles including The Times and Daily Mail reported the World Jewish Congress’s belief that a million Jews had already died. The Manchester Guardian reported the existence of “a vast system of organised traffic in human beings” in which “the fit may survive for as long as they are useful: the aged and unfit may perish at will”. </p>
<p>Pius XII’s enthusiasm for fascist regimes was motivated by fear of communism. He recognised that national socialism was substantially more brutal. Indeed, he knew that it was murderously antisemitic on an colossal scale. When he could do so without compromising Catholic interests, he sometimes helped Jews. But Pius XII always prioritised defence of Church assets and prerogatives. </p>
<p>Today, his successor might contemplate the damage inflicted on his wartime predecessor’s reputation by his meek collusion with the wrong side. Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba <a href="https://twitter.com/DmytroKuleba/status/1766819132878553269">responded caustically</a> to Pope Francis’s crass comments with: “Our flag is a yellow and blue one. This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags”.</p>
<p>In risking the impression that he considers Russia the likely winner of war in Ukraine, the pope might take care not to promote peace at the expense of justice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225491/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Luckhurst has received funding from News UK and Ireland Ltd. He is a member of the Free Speech Union and the Society of Editors</span></em></p>Between 1939 and 1945, Pope Pius XII put the interests of the Catholic Church in Germany before the fate of European Jews.Tim Luckhurst, Principal of South College, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2210762024-01-18T13:27:58Z2024-01-18T13:27:58ZNicaragua released imprisoned priests, but repression is unlikely to relent – and the Catholic Church remains a target<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569921/original/file-20240117-20-1jrits.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C1%2C1017%2C656&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A priest and Catholic worshippers pray in front of an image of 'Sangre de Cristo,' burned in a fire on July 2020, at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Managua.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/priest-and-catholic-faithful-pray-in-front-of-an-image-of-news-photo/1242786617?adppopup=true">Oswaldo Rivas/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Bad news has been the norm for Catholics in Nicaragua, where clergy and church groups have been frequent targets of a wide-ranging crackdown for years. But on Jan. 14, 2024, they received a happy surprise: The government unexpectedly released two bishops, 15 priests and two seminary students from prison and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/14/nicaragua-bishop-rolando-alvarez/">expelled them</a> to the Vatican.</p>
<p>Those released included <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/religious-prisoners-conscience/forb-victims-database/rolando-alvarez">Bishop Rolando Álvarez</a>, a high-profile political prisoner who was detained in 2022 for criticizing the government and then sentenced to 26 years in prison for <a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/nicaraguan-bishop-rolando-alvarez-receives-26-year-sentence/">alleged treason</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/dictatorship-banishes-monsignor-rolando-alvarez-and-18-other-religious-political-prisoners-to-the-vatican/">They also included</a> priests <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/nicaragua-arrests-four-more-priests-intensifies-crackdown-catholic-church-2023-12-30/">detained by</a> President Daniel Ortega’s government in late December 2023 <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2024-01/priest-arrested-in-nicaragua-following-mass-on-new-year-s-eve.html">for expressing solidarity</a> with Álvarez and other political prisoners. Days later, Pope Francis <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/01/world/europe/nicaragua-pope-francis-church.html">criticized the regime</a> in his New Year’s message and then <a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/pope-francis-reiterates-concerns-about-crisis-in-nicaragua/">called for</a> “respectful diplomatic dialogue.”</p>
<p>Nearly six years after <a href="https://infobuero-nicaragua.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/PUBLICADO-200908.-FUNIDES.-Nicaragua-en-movimiento-2016-2020-SEI_2020_01-2.pdf">mass protests erupted</a> against Ortega and then were brutally repressed, these prisoner releases offer some hope to Nicaragua’s opposition. As <a href="https://www.global.ucsb.edu/people/kai-m-thaler">my research</a> <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003197614-16/nicaragua-rachel-schwartz-kai-thaler">has shown</a>, however, <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IICx95ZZzKjfHqiU-oVEityK70vwBv5f/view?usp=sharing">the Ortega regime is unrelenting</a> in trying to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2022.0023">retain power</a>, which suggests this is not necessarily a turning point. In fact, the government reportedly <a href="https://confidencial.digital/nacion/dictadura-secuestra-al-sacerdote-ezequiel-buenfil-tras-el-destierro-de-19-religiosos/">took yet another priest into custody</a> on Jan. 16.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Several rows of people seated in church pews, all looking ahead." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nicaraguans attend mass in San Juan de Oriente on June 24, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-attend-a-mass-during-celebrations-in-honour-of-san-news-photo/1259026822?adppopup=true">Stringer/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why target the church?</h2>
<p>Ortega first led Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, after his left-wing revolutionary organization, the Sandinista National Liberation Front, or FSLN, spearheaded the overthrow of dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle. In the 1980s, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.16993/ibero.38">FSLN clashed with the Vatican</a> and church hierarchy over the group’s socialist politics, even as many <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3712105">poorer Nicaraguan Catholics embraced them</a>.</p>
<p>When Ortega took office again in 2007, however, he did so <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20788575">with the blessing of Christian leaders</a>. During the 2006 elections, he had turned to <a href="https://doi.org/10.16993/ibero.38">alliances with Catholic</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s41603-017-0005-6">Protestant elites</a> to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2017.0032">return to power</a> in exchange for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X08326020">adopting</a> conservative social policies like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61545-2">banning abortion</a>.</p>
<p>Over the next decade, <a href="https://doi.org/10.5129/001041522X16281740895086">Ortega remained popular</a>, presiding over economic growth in collaboration <a href="https://doi.org/10.15517/aeca.v43i0.31556">with business leaders</a> and developing new public infrastructure and services.</p>
<p>Yet he and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-2456.2010.00099.x">FSLN party he controlled</a> were also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/lap.2019.64">consolidating power</a> and <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/regimen-de-ortega-una-nueva-dictadura-familiar-en-el-continente/oclc/967515148">governing in an increasingly authoritarian</a> manner. Ortega won <a href="https://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/peace/americas/nicaragua_2011_report_post.pdf">reelection in 2011</a> and then retained power in <a href="http://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2017.0032">fraudulent elections</a> in 2016. Opposition candidates were disqualified, and Ortega’s running mate was his wife, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/31/world/americas/nicaragua-daniel-ortega-rosario-murillo-house-of-cards.html">Rosario Murillo</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3917/pal.112.0083">Unexpectedly</a>, Ortega’s popularity and his relationship with the church came crashing down in April 2018, when the government announced cutbacks in social security benefits for retirees. Nicaraguans from <a href="https://doi.org/10.5129/001041522X16281740895086">all backgrounds</a> <a href="https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=7549585">took to the streets</a>, and Ortega and Murillo responded with a <a href="https://gieinicaragua.org/#section04">furious crackdown</a>, unleashing police and pro-government paramilitaries <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr43/9213/2018/en/">armed with military-grade weapons</a>.</p>
<p>Cathedrals and churches <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/bishops-journalists-attacked-church-nicaragua">tried to</a> <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/41597a7a2b9356e668ff2b579dc7cb1d/1">offer refuge</a> to protesters, but <a href="https://www.oas.org/en/iachr/jsForm/?File=/en/iachr/media_center/preleases/2021/302.asp">over 300 people were killed</a>. Church leaders facilitated a national dialogue between the government and an opposition coalition, <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/nicaraguan-bishops-end-role-mediators-national-dialogue">but withdrew</a> as <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/06/nicaragua-aumenta-la-violencia-y-la-represion-estatal-a-pesar-de-los-multiples-esfuerzos-de-dialogo/">repression continued</a>.</p>
<p>When popular Catholic leaders <a href="http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/38768/">criticized violence</a> against protesters, the regime began viewing the church <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/22/world/americas/nicaragua-protests-catholic-church.html">as a rival</a> threatening Ortega’s waning legitimacy. Police, paramilitaries and FSLN supporters started <a href="https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-12-23/exiles-arrests-and-740-attacks-nicaragua-redoubles-its-persecution-of-the-catholic-church.html">harassing and attacking</a> clergy and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-religion-arson-rosario-murillo-latin-america-82bb721aa3ec25e4af34a26e75568599">Catholic institutions</a>.</p>
<p>In 2019, the pope <a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-9016f14a1a9b476ab5cb1d61397fc273">recalled Silvio Báez</a>, the auxiliary bishop of Managua and a prominent critic of Ortega, from Nicaragua. Yet other bishops and priests still found themselves <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/nicaraguan-president-daniel-ortega-goes-catholic-church-latest-effort-rcna44618">in the regime’s crosshairs</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two people in baseball hats hold posters with pictures of a man in clerical robes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nicaraguan citizens in Costa Rica demonstrate in front of the Nicaraguan Embassy in August 2022 to protest the detention of Bishop Rolando Alvarez.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nicaraguan-citizens-hold-a-demonstration-in-front-of-the-news-photo/1242597067?adppopup=true">Oscar Navarrete/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nicaragua-catholic-priests-exile-ortega-f5ae508a4295f7ae5b359f96064eea46">fled into exile</a> or were blocked <a href="https://confidencial.digital/nacion/sacerdote-desterrado-silencio-de-los-obispos-no-ha-detenido-la-persecucion/">from entering</a> Nicaragua if they traveled abroad. Others who stayed were kept under surveillance. Priests who expressed support for political prisoners or continued to criticize the regime, even in vague terms, could be <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/catholic-clergy-report-surveillance-beatings-amid-nicaraguas-crackdown-2023-07-07/">arrested or beaten</a>. </p>
<p>The government expelled 12 formerly detained priests to the Vatican <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/nicaragua-sends-catholic-priests-rome-after-talks-with-vatican-2023-10-19/">in October 2023</a> after what the regime called “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/nicaragua-sends-catholic-priests-rome-after-talks-with-vatican-2023-10-19/">fruitful conversations</a>.” But Álvarez, the highest-profile political prisoner, was still held by the government and was stripped of his citizenship after <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-united-states-government-caribbean-daniel-ortega-rosario-murillo-c7930c6340472867148ca7e79e09f1eb">refusing to go into exile</a> in February 2023.</p>
<h2>Broader patterns of repression</h2>
<p>Attacks on the church <a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/2022/10/nicaragua-crackdown-religious-actors-further-imperils-return-democracy">are a symptom</a> of the Ortega regime’s absolute intolerance for dissent.</p>
<p>With <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2024/country-chapters/nicaragua">over 3,000 nongovernmental organizations</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/nicaragua-has-kicked-out-hundreds-of-ngos-even-cracking-down-on-catholic-groups-like-nuns-from-mother-teresas-order-190222">shut down</a> since 2018, the church has become Nicaragua’s only <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/23/world/americas/nicaragua-catholic-church-daniel-ortega.html">major nonstate institution</a> with nationwide reach. </p>
<p>In a country where <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/Nicaragua/#report-toc__section-1">over 40% of the people</a> identify as Catholic, many normally turn to the church in times <a href="https://popolna.org/realidades-municipales-presentadas-en-informe-de-red-local/">of need</a>. Suppressing Catholic institutions means Nicaraguans must turn to the state for aid, which <a href="https://www.divergentes.com/nicaragua-un-espia-en-cada-esquina/">monitors citizens</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/pol.2013.10">has been accused of denying</a> services for perceived disloyalty.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.vozdeamerica.com/a/universidad-de-jesuitas-en-nicaragua-suspende-operaciones-tras-ser-acusada-de-ser-un-centro-de-terrorismo-/7227873.html">At least 27</a> Catholic and <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/news/2023/09/group-experts-nicaragua-finds-escalating-persecution-against-dissent-and-crackdown?sub-site=HRC">secular universities</a> have also <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/17/nicaragua-seizes-catholic-university-accused-of-being-centre-of-terrorism">been closed or seized</a> by the government, as have <a href="https://latamjournalismreview.org/news/daniel-ortegas-war-against-journalism-54-media-outlets-have-been-shut-down/">more than 50</a> <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/nicaragua-shuts-catholic-radio-stations-led-by-bishop-critical-regime-2022-08-02/">media outlets</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="T-shirts with pictures of a man in a blue jacket making a 'V' sign with his fingers, and shirts that say 'FSLN,' hang on display outside." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">T-shirts depicting Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega for sale in Managua in July 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/shirts-depicting-nicaraguan-president-daniel-ortega-are-news-photo/1539099812?adppopup=true">Oswaldo Rivas/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The government’s decision to expel clergy on Jan. 14 is also in line with its tendency to either <a href="https://www.articulo66.com/2022/09/29/estos-son-los-nicaraguenses-desterrados-por-el-regimen-ortega-murillo-en-lo-que-va-de-2022/">block opponents’ reentry</a> into Nicaragua or force them <a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/husband-and-son-of-former-miss-nicaragua-director-expelled-and-banished/">into exile</a>. In many cases, Nicaragua has then revoked critics’ citizenship, as when it expelled 222 political prisoners <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/09/nicaragua-frees-222-political-prisoners-flies-to-us">in February 2023</a> to the United States.</p>
<p>When imprisonment or threats have not shaken critics’ resolve, Ortega and Murillo appear to have decided that <a href="https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/nicaraguas-political-repression-will-continue-despite-prisoner-release">keeping them abroad is best</a>. Not only does this reduce the risks of anti-regime action in Nicaragua, but it may diminish international scrutiny of <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/10/government-critics-languish-nicaraguan-prisons">political prisoners’ mistreatment</a>.</p>
<h2>Cautious criticism</h2>
<p>Since 2018, repression in Nicaragua has come in waves, with the brutal violence that repressed the protests shifting toward <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2024/country-chapters/nicaragua">an environment</a> of <a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/five-years-of-police-state-in-nicaragua-ban-on-assembly-protests-free-speech-and-elections/">constant surveillance</a>, legal actions against independent institutions and opponents, and periodic arrests. Moments of seeming calm, however, have often been followed by <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr43/4631/2021/en/">harsh crackdowns</a>, such as <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/09/20/nicaragua-trumped-charges-against-critics">a slew of arrests</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2022.0023">ahead of the 2021 elections</a>.</p>
<p>Even as repression has mounted, the Vatican has <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/pope-worried-about-nicaraguan-bishop-s-prison-sentence-/6959873.html">been cautious</a> about criticizing Ortega and Murillo, and some Nicaraguans and <a href="https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/why-is-pope-francis-quiet-about-nicaragua">Catholics abroad</a> <a href="https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-americas/2022/08/nicaraguan-ngos-urge-pope-francis-to-speak-out-on-oppression">have urged the pope to do more</a>. Yet the Vatican’s restraint has not appeared to decrease <a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/ortega-represses-151-priests-and-nuns-imprisonment-banishment-and-exile/">threats against clergy</a> or limits on activities <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/nicaragua-police-ban-catholic-procession-church-crackdown-2022-08-12/">like religious processions</a>.</p>
<p>In January 2024, however, Francis pointedly <a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/pope-francis-reiterates-concerns-about-crisis-in-nicaragua/">called attention to the crisis</a> during two speeches, days after <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/nicaragua-arrests-four-more-priests-intensifies-crackdown-catholic-church-2023-12-30/">a dozen priests</a> were arrested. One week later came the release of Álvarez and his colleagues – free to leave Nicaragua, but not to come back. </p>
<p>Catholic leaders remain Nicaragua’s <a href="https://confidencial.digital/nacion/obispos-alvarez-brenes-y-baez-con-mas-alta-opinion-favorable-en-nicaragua/">most popular figures</a>, according to independent polling. This makes them a continued threat to Ortega and Murillo’s quest for <a href="https://confidencial.digital/nacion/ortega-a-nicas-en-redes-sociales-si-publican-contra-mi-van-presos/">total control</a>. Ezequiel Buenfil Batún, the priest detained Jan. 16, belonged to a religious order <a href="https://confidencial.digital/nacion/dictadura-secuestra-al-sacerdote-ezequiel-buenfil-tras-el-destierro-de-19-religiosos/">whose legal status was revoked</a> that same day, along with several other nongovernment organizations.</p>
<p>As many Nicaraguans <a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/luis-haug-nicaraguans-feel-they-are-hitting-rock-bottom/">lose hope</a> of conditions improving and dozens of political prisoners <a href="https://confidencial.digital/nacion/dictadura-mantiene-tortura-a-presos-politicos-que-realizaron-huelga-de-hambre-en-la-modelo/">remain jailed</a>, any positive news like the priests’ release is welcome. But it holds no guarantees of broader change ahead.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221076/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kai M. Thaler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When President Daniel Ortega returned to power in 2006, church figures supported him. Violent repression after the 2018 protests has soured the relationship and made clergy targets for intimidation.Kai M. Thaler, Assistant Professor of Global Studies, University of California, Santa BarbaraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2207612024-01-10T13:30:13Z2024-01-10T13:30:13ZPope Francis called surrogacy ‘deplorable’ – but the reasons why women and parents choose surrogacy are complex and defy simple labels<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568467/original/file-20240109-17-1nw9j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=137%2C31%2C6938%2C4678&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pope Francis baptizes 16 infants in the Sistine Chapel on Jan. 7, 2024, in Vatican City.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pope-francis-baptises-16-infants-in-the-sistine-chapel-on-news-photo/1914446578?adppopup=true">Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pope Francis made headlines on Jan. 8, 2024, when he called for a global surrogacy ban, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/08/world/europe/pope-francis-surrogacy-ban.html">stating</a>, “I deem deplorable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs.”</p>
<p>The use of surrogacy, in which a woman carries and delivers a child for someone else, has grown exponentially in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2016.03.050">recent years</a> and is expected to <a href="https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/surrogacy-market">continue to do so</a>. While headlines often surface when celebrities like <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/paris-hilton-on-why-she-chose-surrogacy-for-her-children">Paris Hilton</a> grow their family using the technology, it also gets attention on the rare occasion a surrogate <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1356176/Surrogate-mother-wins-case-baby-giving-birth.html">refuses to relinquish the child they carried</a>, or when <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-red-market-scott-carney?variant=32123686453282">surrogates experience exploitation</a>.</p>
<p>Such human rights violations appear to be the reason that Francis condemned the practice. But in so doing, I argue, the pope is failing to recognize how varied and nuanced the experiences of intended parents, surrogates and children are.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.baylorpress.com/9781481310567/conceiving-family/">I have researched surrogacy</a> <a href="https://candler.emory.edu/faculty-profiles/danielle-tumminio-hansen/">for over a decade</a> and have learned many things: Some women indeed become surrogates out of desperation and <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/wombs-in-labor/9780231169905">are abused in the process</a>, as the pope says. But others, like the Christian ethicist <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=31699">Grace Kao</a>, are thriving professionals who make the choice for altruistic reasons and never accept remuneration.</p>
<p>The complex reasons why women become surrogates and why parents choose to create families in this way <a href="https://oneill.law.georgetown.edu/a-lack-of-consensus-around-surrogacy-regulation-at-the-national-level/">make it nearly impossible</a> to issue a universal conclusion about it. Instead, like many technologies, surrogacy’s ethical value is dependent upon the people and systems who use it. </p>
<h2>Catholicism and surrogacy</h2>
<p>While the pope framed his condemnation of surrogacy as a human rights abuse, the Catholic tradition has <a href="https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19870222_respect-for-human-life_en.html">consistently opposed</a> <a href="https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20081208_dignitas-personae_en.html">surrogacy, in vitro fertilization</a> and <a href="https://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/abortion/respect-for-unborn-human-life">abortion</a> on the grounds that they violate natural law. </p>
<p>Natural law is a philosophy that states there are certain unchangeable parts of human nature that God endows. Catholic theologians who support this basic view extrapolate that intercourse within heterosexual marriage is the only acceptable way to reproduce, that life begins at conception, and that an embryo has a right to life from conception until natural death.</p>
<p>Hence, the Roman Catholic Church only encourages reproduction within the confines of heterosexual marriage, and when a heterosexual couple cannot conceive via intercourse, they are encouraged to adopt or remain childless.</p>
<p>The church has consistently condemned IVF because conception takes place outside of heterosexual intercourse. IVF results in the destruction of embryos and involves conception via a test tube. The church likewise has never supported surrogacy, so the pope’s recent assessment of surrogacy as “despicable” is consistent with the church’s overall views of reproduction.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, surrogacy is the only form of assisted reproduction documented in the Bible, unless one considers Mary’s conception of Jesus to be a form of assisted reproduction. In the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2016-18&version=NRSVUE">Book of Genesis</a>, the wife of Abraham begs her husband to have sex with <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301577539_Hagar_the_Egyptian_Wife_Handmaid_and_Concubine">her slave Hagar</a> in order to procreate. Sarah abuses the slave and orchestrates both sex and procreation without Hagar’s consent. </p>
<p>Hagar eventually bears a son <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/religion/articles/2008/01/25/why-scholars-just-cant-stop-talking-about-sarah-and-hagar">named Ishmael</a>. Later, Sarah demands that both Hagar and Ishmael be cast out into the wilderness. Muslims regard Ishmael as a prophet and believe he and Abraham built <a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/introduction-cultures-religions-apah/islam-apah/a/the-kaaba">the Kaaba</a> in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.</p>
<h2>Myths and fears</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Four women standing together wearing masks, with two of them holding new-born babies." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424528/original/file-20211004-13-1ggnsgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C31%2C5176%2C3554&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424528/original/file-20211004-13-1ggnsgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424528/original/file-20211004-13-1ggnsgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424528/original/file-20211004-13-1ggnsgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424528/original/file-20211004-13-1ggnsgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424528/original/file-20211004-13-1ggnsgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424528/original/file-20211004-13-1ggnsgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nurses with babies born to Ukrainian surrogate mothers in Kyiv.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nurses-hold-babies-as-foreign-couples-gather-to-collect-news-photo/1219071333?adppopup=true">Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Fast forward to modern times, and surrogacy is now performed predominantly in high-priced in vitro fertilization centers in one of two ways. In “traditional surrogacy,” the fertilized egg belongs to the surrogate. In “gestational surrogacy,” which is <a href="https://surrogate.com/about-surrogacy/types-of-surrogacy/what-is-traditional-surrogacy/">more common today</a>, the fertilized egg comes from either the intended mother or a donor.</p>
<p>In both cases, that egg combines with a sperm to become an embryo that grows in the surrogate’s womb and not the intended mother’s.</p>
<p>Gestational surrogacy may be preferable because it allows intended mothers to maintain a genetic connection with their child. Others may prefer it because of fears that a surrogate could lay claim to the child with whom <a href="https://www.americansurrogacy.com/blog/the-legal-and-emotional-risks-of-traditional-surrogacy/">she had a biological connection</a>.</p>
<p>The concern that a surrogate will try to steal or adopt a child is one of many legal and ethical fears surrounding surrogacy. In the 1980s, the <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/new-jersey/supreme-court/1988/109-n-j-396-1.html">Baby M Case</a> in the United States attracted much media attention because it tapped into these fears. In this situation, the surrogate, named Mary Beth Whitehead, attempted to retain custody of the baby she birthed. </p>
<p>The case <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/deu339">fueled a stereotype</a> of surrogates as emotionally unstable, defying the reality that surrogates undergo psychological testing before participating in a procedure.</p>
<p>Documented instances of surrogates retaining children are also rare. Research shows that surrogates often experience pregnancy and birth differently than they did with their <a href="https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/33/4/646/4941810">own children</a>. They also often see themselves as <a href="https://academic.oup.com/california-scholarship-online/book/17848">heroes or gift givers</a> instead of mothers. </p>
<p>If the public perceives surrogates negatively, intended parents often fare no better. They are often categorized as selfish, desperate and rich, especially when they choose surrogacy <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/may/25/having-a-child-doesnt-fit-womens-schedule-the-future-of-surrogacy">without a medical reason</a>. </p>
<p>Those popular images of intended parents fail to account for the <a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/reproductive-trauma-second-edition">reproductive trauma</a> many of them experience prior to turning to surrogacy. The decision to hire a surrogate is <a href="https://syndicate.network/symposia/theology/conceiving-family/#:%7E:text=In%20Conceiving%20Family%3A%20A%20Practical,class%20and%20are%20often%20white">often the last option</a> for parents who have tried everything else and are, as <a href="https://www.baylorpress.com/9781481310567/conceiving-family/">I’ve proposed in my own research</a>, attempting to write a happy ending to the story of their reproductive lives.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.filia.org.uk/latest-news/2023/4/19/dont-buy-adopt-stop-surrogacy-now">Critics</a> counter that individuals who use surrogates should be turning to adoption instead. However, this logic fails to recognize that adoption can be traumatic <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105309">for the child</a> and <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2276293/">the birth mother</a>. Adoption, therefore, isn’t a cure-all for individuals who can’t conceive via heterosexual intercourse.</p>
<h2>Ethical concerns about surrogacy</h2>
<p>It is true that surrogacy is expensive, at least in the U.S., where use of the technology routinely costs over <a href="https://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/family-finance/articles/how-much-surrogacy-costs-and-how-to-pay-for-it">US$100,000</a>. The cost is so extreme because intended parents pay health care fees for both themselves and the surrogate, many of which aren’t covered by insurance. </p>
<p>They also have to pay legal and agency fees and compensate the surrogate, which alone can range from <a href="https://www.westcoastsurrogacy.com/become-a-surrogate-mother/surrogate-mother-compensation">$45,000 to $75,000</a>. Contrast that price tag to the one in India prior to its ban on international surrogacy in 2015: Couples who traveled there could expect to spend <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2010/04/surrogacy-tourism-india-nayna-patel/">$15,000 to $20,000</a> in total for their surrogacy journey. The extreme costs of surrogacy in the U.S. also limit its availability to the wealthy. </p>
<p>In addition, feminists are divided on how surrogacy affects women. Some feminists feel that surrogates have a right to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3174860">choose what to do with their bodies</a>. Others object to surrogacy on the grounds that systemic oppression drives women into surrogacy, or that it’s unethical for people to <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/wombs-in-labor/9780231169905">buy women’s bodies</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2010/04/surrogacy-tourism-india-nayna-patel/">Cases documented in India</a> support these concerns. Investigative journalist <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-red-market-scott-carney?variant=32123686453282">Scott Carney</a> found one prominent Indian surrogacy clinic where surrogates were kept in crowded bedrooms on restricted diets and forced to have Cesarean sections in order to streamline the labor and delivery process. </p>
<p>Scholars also worry about surrogacy’s <a href="https://cbc-network.org/issues/making-life/surrogacy/?fbclid=IwAR13wlHiYvqQ_crLOiatzk6XpkFvp0WKXBWOYfi4BURgMLm00aY4EZDC9Sk">impact on children</a>.
Extensive research hasn’t been conducted with children of surrogates, but research by social scientists studying children born via egg and sperm donation largely mirrors the findings of adoption research: Children have questions about their identity, and they find answers from individuals who are <a href="https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/15/9/2041/2915461">part of their birth story</a>.</p>
<p>Yet agencies and governments rarely regulate how surrogates, intended parents and children interact following the baby’s birth. </p>
<h2>The case for surrogacy</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman in a green shirt stands in front of colorful red and orange flowers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424575/original/file-20211004-12705-rfkwei.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424575/original/file-20211004-12705-rfkwei.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424575/original/file-20211004-12705-rfkwei.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424575/original/file-20211004-12705-rfkwei.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424575/original/file-20211004-12705-rfkwei.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424575/original/file-20211004-12705-rfkwei.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424575/original/file-20211004-12705-rfkwei.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Actress Gabrielle Union has talked openly about her surrogacy journey.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/gabrielle-union-attends-the-veuve-clicquot-polo-classic-at-news-photo/1344504189?adppopup=true">Frazer Harrison/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Such objections might lead to the conclusion that there is never a reason to hire a surrogate. But this might be too simplistic. Even with the documented struggles on the parts of both intended parents and surrogates, many are profoundly grateful for the technology.</p>
<p>Intended parents often feel surrogates are “<a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520259645/birthing-a-mother">gifts from God</a>” who help them reach their dream of parenthood. Meanwhile, some surrogates believe their powers of procreation provide them with a unique opportunity to help others. Many surrogates see their ability to create life as a source of power, a profound act of altruism that is part of their legacy.</p>
<p>When I spoke with a group of surrogates in Austin, Texas, while conducting research for my book, I found that their stories aligned with <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Surrogate-Motherhood-Conception-In-The-Heart/Ragone/p/book/9780367289249">the findings of other researchers</a> who discovered that many surrogates had positive experiences in which they <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520259645/birthing-a-mother">experienced themselves as heroes</a>. These women felt empowered because they helped infertile heterosexual couples and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbms.2018.10.019">gay couples</a> create families. Without surrogacy, these individuals would have no way to have a genetic connection with their children. </p>
<p>The surrogates acknowledged that sometimes intended parents could be difficult, that pregnancy and labor could be challenging, and that it could be confusing when a checkout clerk at the grocery store asked what they were planning to name the baby.</p>
<p>Becoming a parent through surrogacy can be awkward and humbling, confusing and miraculous all at the same time.</p>
<p>But when surrogates and intended parents can act freely, with <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520259645/birthing-a-mother">appropriate regulations and the support of society</a>, there is the potential for them to discover that family is not just biological but also social and relational. In those encounters, many experience the technology as life-giving, both metaphorically and literally.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/becoming-a-parent-through-surrogacy-can-have-ethical-challenges-but-it-is-a-positive-experience-for-some-167760">article first published on Oct. 6, 2021</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220761/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Danielle Tumminio Hansen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Surrogacy can exploit women, but others may choose to be involved for altruistic reasons. A scholar points out that surrogacy’s ethical value is dependent upon the people and systems who use it.Danielle Tumminio Hansen, Assistant Professor of Practical Theology & Spiritual Care, Emory UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2201262023-12-19T13:17:40Z2023-12-19T13:17:40ZPope Francis’ approval of blessings for LGBTQ+ couples is a historic gesture, according to a Catholic theologian<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566409/original/file-20231218-20-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=37%2C3%2C2141%2C1329&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pope Francis speaks during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on Oct. 18, 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VaticanLGBTQ/8556ca299dda4df394f5e8864e86a1c1/photo?Query=pope%20francis%20same%20sex&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=46&currentItemNo=1">AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pope Francis’ <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2023/12/18/0901/01963.html#en:%7E:text=in%20lingua%20inglese-,Declaration,Presentation,-This%20Declaration%20considers">Dec. 18, 2023, announcement</a> that Catholic priests may bless LGBTQ+ couples and others in “irregular” situations marks a definitive shift in the Roman Catholic Church’s posture toward many types of loving relationships. It may also mark a definitive turning point within the Roman Catholic Church.</p>
<p>Across the last few years, Francis has <a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-support-for-civil-unions-is-a-call-to-justice-and-nothing-new-148607">made gesture</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/it-shouldnt-seem-so-surprising-when-the-pope-says-being-gay-isnt-a-crime-a-catholic-theologian-explains-198566">after gesture</a> indicating his desire to find a way for the Catholic Church to accompany and welcome people whose loving relationships do not fit into the church’s sacramental understanding of marriage as between a man and a woman, ordered toward procreation and ended only by death.</p>
<p>He has telegraphed <a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-7b465b60945f40deb3a68b3de742f84a">for a long time</a> his desire to come to some new arrangement that would welcome loving relationships in the church without transforming the church’s doctrine on marriage and sexuality all at once – the Dec. 18 declaration seems to do exactly that. </p>
<h2>Pastoral emphasis</h2>
<p>First, let’s be clear about what this new declaration is not. The declaration does not permit the marriage of LGBTQ+ couples, or couples where parties are divorced without annulment of the marriage. Neither does the declaration permit any recognition of a civil marriage.</p>
<p>The declaration is specific that the blessing of relationships outside marriage must not be done in any way that might be confused with a marriage ceremony. In fact, the declaration encourages priests to be <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2023/12/18/0901/01963.html#en:%7E:text=prayer%20preceding%20this-,spontaneous,-blessing%2C%20the%20ordained">responsive to “spontaneous</a>” requests for a blessing, and it forbids the creation of “<a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2023/12/18/0901/01963.html#en:%7E:text=The%20popular%20understanding%20of%20blessings%2C%20however%2C%20also%20values%20the%20importance%20of%20descending%20blessings.%20While%20%E2%80%9Cit%20is%20not%20appropriate%20for%20a%20Diocese%2C%20a%20Bishops%E2%80%99%20Conference%2C%20or%20any%20other%20ecclesial%20structure%20to%20constantly%20and%20officially%20establish%20procedures%20or%20rituals%20for%20all%20kinds%20of%20matters">procedures or rituals</a>” that would provide anything like a script for a blessing ceremony.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two people stand in front of a cathedral while another man in white priestly garments blesses them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566410/original/file-20231218-19-qx13c9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566410/original/file-20231218-19-qx13c9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566410/original/file-20231218-19-qx13c9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566410/original/file-20231218-19-qx13c9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566410/original/file-20231218-19-qx13c9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566410/original/file-20231218-19-qx13c9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566410/original/file-20231218-19-qx13c9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Same-sex couples take part in a Catholic public blessing ceremony in Cologne, Germany, on Sept. 20, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VaticanLGBTQExplainer/fd76861aa59c4f43ab97ac397e74b082/photo?Query=pope%20francis%20same%20sex&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=46&currentItemNo=13">AP Photo/Martin Meissner</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Still, the declaration is remarkable for what it does do. Sidestepping difficult doctrinal questions that <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255544/the-5-cardinals-behind-the-latest-dubia-issued-to-pope-francis">divide Catholics</a>, the document’s emphasis is pastoral – it is oriented toward caring for and ministering to people rather than teaching doctrine.<br>
The word “pastoral” appears 20 times in the declaration. Francis’ emphasis is unmistakable: The subject of the declaration is not marriage or sexual morality; the declaration is about something else.</p>
<h2>What ‘blessings’ mean in the church</h2>
<p>In fact, the declaration is about blessings and what they mean in the Catholic Church.</p>
<p>A long stretch of the document is devoted to defining and clarifying what the Roman Catholic Church means by the word “blessing.” <a href="https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_risposta-dubia-2023_en.html#:%7E:text=For%2C%20when%20one%20asks%20for%20a%20blessing%2C%20one%20is%20expressing%20a%20petition%20for%20God%E2%80%99s%20assistance%2C%20a%20plea%20to%20live%20better%2C%20and%20confidence%20in%20a%20Father%20who%20can%20help%20us%20live%20better">Francis has said that</a> “when one asks for a blessing, one is expressing a petition for God’s assistance, a plea to live better, and a confidence in a Father who can help us live better.” A blessing is an “<a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2023/12/18/0901/01963.html#en:%7E:text=a%20superabundant%20and-,unconditional%20gift,-.">unconditional gift</a>” that “<a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2023/12/18/0901/01963.html#en:%7E:text=divine%20gift%20that%20%E2%80%9C-,descends,-%2C%E2%80%9D%20the%20human%20thanksgiving">descends</a>,” while our human thanksgiving “ascends” to God. </p>
<p>Blessings, in this pastoral sense, are events when our human dependence on God’s mercy is expressed as a desire for closeness with God. God, in Catholic belief, responds through the church. “<a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/audiences/2020/documents/papa-francesco_20201202_udienza-generale.html#:%7E:text=It%20is%20God%20who%20blesses">It is God who blesses</a>” in these situations, Francis has written. God’s blessing manifests through priests and ministers.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://b2c-cbp-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/pdfs/9780899425603.pdf">Book of Blessings</a> provides formulas for everything from blessing a new home or a safe voyage to blessings for elderly people and seeds at planting time. Yet often enough in Catholic life, blessing is requested for an object like a rosary or Bible. </p>
<p>When these desires for blessing arise spontaneously, the church’s ministers always accommodate them. The church’s doctrine says blessing is abundant and inexhaustible. “Such blessings are meant for everyone; no one is to be excluded from them,” <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2023/12/18/0901/01963.html#en:%7E:text=Such%20blessings%20are%20meant%20for%20everyone%3B%20no%20one%20is%20to%20be%20excluded%20from%20them">the Dec. 18 declaration says</a>.</p>
<h2>Sidestepping difficult issues</h2>
<p>These meanings of “blessing” are distinct from the blessing in the Rite of the Sacrament of Marriage, which is specific to the “union of a man and a woman, who establish an exclusive and indissoluble covenant.” </p>
<p>Yet, within the scope of that much more broad, pastoral understanding of blessing, Francis has said with this declaration that blessing should not be withheld from LGBTQ+ couples or anyone else.</p>
<p>In this way, the pope has sidestepped the more difficult doctrinal questions while still inviting all couples to present themselves for the blessings they desire. </p>
<p>But the pope has not sidestepped the controversy. In recent decades, the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/anglican-church-lgbtq-issues-4f635708fdb24df166ac8237f9473f00">Anglican Communion</a> and the <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2010/08/27/lutheran-split">Lutheran Church</a> have been roiled by controversy over LGBTQ+ acceptance. More recently, the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/congregations-leaving-united-methodist-church-lgbtq-bans-70b8c89ea49174597f4548c249bab24f">Methodist Church</a> in the United States has split over the issue. </p>
<p>Catholics are divided in a similar way, and this declaration is not likely to cool down divisions. In fact, I believe, those divisions will likely deepen – especially in the United States, where Catholic bishops <a href="https://www.usccb.org/news/2023/statement-usccb-vaticans-document-addressing-pastoral-blessings">have been tepid</a> in their response to the declaration and <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2023/11/02/cardinal-christoph-pierre-interview-246416">Francis has not been embraced enthusiastically</a>. </p>
<p>Yet for now, the Roman Catholic Church has made a historic gesture of welcome that invites all people to experience the love of God in a community of believers devoted toward building up a more just and equitable world. “The Church is … the sacrament of God’s infinite love,” <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2023/12/18/0901/01963.html#en:%7E:text=The%20Church%20is%20thus%20the%20sacrament%20of%20God%E2%80%99s%20infinite%20love">the declaration says</a>. </p>
<p>Pope Francis has been constant in that loving, pastoral emphasis. For as much as the Dec. 18 declaration has changed, it has not changed that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220126/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven P. Millies does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In emphasizing the church’s love for all, including people in LGBTQ+ relationships, the pope has sidestepped thorny doctrinal issues.Steven P. Millies, Professor of Public Theology and Director of The Bernardin Center, Catholic Theological UnionLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2170632023-11-28T19:13:45Z2023-11-28T19:13:45ZAs disasters and heat intensify, can the world meet the urgency of the moment at the COP28 climate talks?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561994/original/file-20231127-23-mddbin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=49%2C65%2C5406%2C2952&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Eight years ago, the world agreed to an ambitious target in the Paris Agreement: hold warming to 1.5°C to limit further dangerous levels of climate change. </p>
<p>Since then, greenhouse gas emissions have kept increasing – and climate disasters have become front page news, from mega-bushfires to unprecedented floods. </p>
<p>In 2023, the world is at 1.2°C of warming over pre-industrial levels. Heatwaves of increasing intensity and duration are <a href="https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/extreme-heat-in-north-america-europe-and-china-in-july-2023-made-much-more-likely-by-climate-change">arriving around the world</a>. We now have <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_SPM.pdf">less than 10 years</a> before we reach 1.5°C of warming. </p>
<p>This week, the <a href="https://www.cop28.com/">COP28 climate talks</a> will begin against a backdrop of evermore strident warnings from climate scientists and world leaders. United Nations chief António Guterres has warned climate action is “dwarfed by the scale of the challenge” and that we have “<a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/09/1141082">opened the gates of hell</a>”. In his <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/20231004-laudate-deum.html">latest climate letter</a>, Pope Francis quotes bishops from Africa who dub the climate crisis a “tragic and striking example of structural sin”.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Global monthly land and ocean anomalies from 1850, relative to the 1901-2000 average" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562273/original/file-20231128-17-3u0pgj.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562273/original/file-20231128-17-3u0pgj.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562273/original/file-20231128-17-3u0pgj.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562273/original/file-20231128-17-3u0pgj.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562273/original/file-20231128-17-3u0pgj.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=704&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562273/original/file-20231128-17-3u0pgj.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=704&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562273/original/file-20231128-17-3u0pgj.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=704&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Global monthly land and ocean anomalies from 1850, relative to the 1901-2000 average.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/global-temperature-anomalies/anomalies">NOAA</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the United Arab Emirates, the 198 nations in the <a href="https://unfccc.int/about-us/about-the-secretariat">UN’s climate framework</a> will gather for COP28. Can we expect to see real progress – or half-measures? </p>
<p>Watch for these three key issues facing negotiators. </p>
<h2>1. Taking stock of progress on climate action</h2>
<p>This year, a critical issue will be the <a href="https://unfccc.int/documents/631600">global stocktake</a>, the key mechanism designed to ratchet up climate ambition under the 2015 Paris Agreement. This is the first time each nation’s emission cut targets and benefits from climate adaptation or economic diversification plans have been assessed. </p>
<p>The stocktake reveals what track we are on. Do the combined emission cut promises from all countries mean we can limit warming to 1.5°C? If not, what is the “emissions gap” – and how much more ambitious do nation’s emission reductions need to be?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/uns-global-stocktake-on-climate-offers-a-sobering-emissions-reckoning-but-there-are-also-signs-of-progress-217093">UN's 'global stocktake' on climate offers a sobering emissions reckoning − but there are also signs of progress</a>
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<p>There’s been progress, but not nearly enough. If all national emissions pledges became a reality, global warming would peak between 2.1-2.8°C. </p>
<p>That leaves an emissions gap of around 22.9 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent over the period to 2030. </p>
<p>It is very good that the worst-case scenarios – unchecked warming and 4+ degrees of global heating by 2100 are <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-worst-climate-scenarios-may-no-longer-be-the-most-likely/">now looking unlikely</a>. But a 2°C world would bring unacceptable harm and irreversible damage. </p>
<p>We’ll need much more ambitious targets and support to cut global greenhouse gas emissions 43% by 2030 and 60% by 2035 compared with 2019 levels if we are to reach net zero CO₂ emissions by 2050 globally. A major measure of COP28’s success will be whether the major emitting nations agree on more ambitious emission reduction actions.</p>
<h2>2. Who pays for climate loss and damage?</h2>
<p>For decades, nations have wrestled over the fraught question of who should pay for loss and damage resulting from climate change. </p>
<p>Now we’re close to finalising arrangements for the new <a href="https://unfccc.int/news/cop27-reaches-breakthrough-agreement-on-new-loss-and-damage-fund-for-vulnerable-countries">Loss and Damage Fund</a>. This will be the second major issue for negotiators at COP28. </p>
<p>So far, governments have drawn up a blueprint for the new fund. Expect to see debate over who will manage the fund – the World Bank? A UN agency? – and whether emerging economies such as China will provide funds. To date, there’s no target for how much money the fund will hold and disburse. The blueprint must be formally adopted at COP28 before it can begin operating. </p>
<p>Why a new fund? Other climate finance commitments are aimed at cutting emissions or helping societies adapt to climate impacts. This fund <a href="https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/what-you-need-know-about-cop27-loss-and-damage-fund">deals specifically</a> with the loss and damage from the unavoidable impacts of climate change, like rising sea levels, prolonged heatwaves, desertification, the acidification of the sea, extreme weather and crop failures.</p>
<p>Think of the damage from the <a href="https://theconversation.com/pakistan-floods-what-role-did-climate-change-play-189833">unprecedented floods</a> in Pakistan or Libya, for instance. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562068/original/file-20231128-21-rkxo1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="libya flood, image of destroyed city with floodwater from air" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562068/original/file-20231128-21-rkxo1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562068/original/file-20231128-21-rkxo1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562068/original/file-20231128-21-rkxo1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562068/original/file-20231128-21-rkxo1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562068/original/file-20231128-21-rkxo1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562068/original/file-20231128-21-rkxo1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562068/original/file-20231128-21-rkxo1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Libya’s devastating floods in September killed thousands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Where’s the climate finance?</h2>
<p>A major issue in climate negotiations is how countries can transform their economies so they are “climate ready”, with lower emissions and boosted resilience. For developing countries, this requires massive levels of investment and new technologies to let them “leapfrog” fossil fuel dependency.</p>
<p>This is likely to be a critical sticking point. To date, climate finance has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/developing-countries-propose-100bn-climate-damage-fund-2023-09-06/">flowed too slowly</a>. Under the Paris Agreement, rich countries promised to provide funds of A$150 billion a year every year. This has been slow in coming, though it is <a href="https://www.oecd.org/climate-change/finance-usd-100-billion-goal">nudging closer</a>, with $130 billion flowing in 2021.</p>
<p>Unless we see significant progress on climate finance – including making the Loss and Damage Fund a reality and meeting the existing commitments – we’re unlikely to see progress on other key issues such as ratcheting up emission cuts under the stocktake mechanism, phasing out fossil fuels and work on preserving biodiversity. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-september-we-went-past-1-5-degrees-in-november-we-tipped-over-2-degrees-for-the-first-time-whats-going-on-218228">In September we went past 1.5 degrees. In November, we tipped over 2 degrees for the first time. What's going on?</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How do you build a 198-government consensus?</h2>
<p>One reason climate negotiations advance slowly is the need for consensus. </p>
<p>All 198 governments must agree on each decision. This means any one nation or group of countries can block a proposal or force the wording to be changed in order for it to be approved. </p>
<p>The votes of less wealthy countries – including small island nations and <a href="https://unctad.org/topic/least-developed-countries/list">least developed countries</a> – therefore carry as much weight as the G20 nations, who account for about 85% of global GDP. This has in the past worked to increase the level of climate action, including the focus on 1.5°C as the global warming target.</p>
<p>The COP28 President is <a href="https://www.cop28.com/en/cop28-presidency">Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber</a>, who has attracted controversy due to the fact he heads the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. Expect to see <a href="https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/09/27/phase-out-or-phase-down-fight-over-fossil-fuels-heats-up-in-run-up-to-cop28">considerable debate over wording</a>. Will governments agree to the “phasing down of fossil fuels” or just the “phasing down of unabated fossil fuels”? </p>
<p>It might sound like quibbling but it’s not – the second option, for instance, implies the heavy use of yet-to-be-proven carbon capture and storage technologies and offsets.</p>
<p>Sultan al-Jaber has, to his credit, promoted some progressive agenda items including a focus on the conservation, restoration, and sustainable management of nature to help achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.</p>
<p>Here, there are welcome commonalities with the major global biodiversity pact struck late last year, the <a href="https://www.cbd.int/gbf/">Global Biodiversity Framework</a>, aimed at stemming the extinction of species and degradation of ecosystems. Healthy ecosystems store carbon and help people adapt to the climate change already here.</p>
<p>As nations prepare for a fortnight of intense negotiation, the stakes are higher than they have ever been. Now the question is – can the world community seize the moment? </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cop28-inside-the-united-arab-emirates-the-oil-giant-hosting-2023-climate-change-summit-217859">COP28: inside the United Arab Emirates, the oil giant hosting 2023 climate change summit</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan Mackey has received funding from the Australian Government to support his work with the IPCC 6th Assessment Report. He is a volunteer member of the Great Eastern Ranges connectivity conservation initiative science advisory group and board.</span></em></p>In what’s likely to be the hottest year on record, nations are gathering to try and hash out faster action on climate change. Here are the three main issues facing negotiators.Brendan Mackey, Director, Griffith Climate Action Beacon, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2149892023-10-10T14:53:40Z2023-10-10T14:53:40ZCatholic synod: the voices of church leaders in Africa are not being heard – 3 reasons why<p>The Catholic church today is <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2022-11/pope-polarization-is-not-catholic-dialogue-is-the-only-way.html">deeply polarised</a>. This has created doctrinal fissures that are seemingly unbridgeable. </p>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/polarization-in-the-church-how-can-it-be-overcome">many rumbling contestations</a> on questions of identity, mission, faith and morality. Other questions touch on pastoral life, the nature of marriage and family life, denial of holy communion to divorced and remarried Catholics, clerical celibacy, authority in the church and reproductive rights. </p>
<p>There is also a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-is-increasingly-diverse-and-so-are-its-controversies-189038">serious erosion of religious authority</a>. Many church leaders have lost their credibility because of what Pope Francis calls the “<a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/7/13/pope-francis-says2ofcatholicclergyarepaedophiles.html">leprosy of clerical sexual abuse</a>” and <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-04/pope-papal-foundation-scandals-damage-church-charity-work.html">financial scandals</a>. </p>
<p>The church in Africa hasn’t been spared these issues. In parts of the continent, the <a href="https://international.la-croix.com/news/religion/bishop-who-was-victim-of-tribalism-is-to-be-nigerias-next-cardinal/16161#:%7E:text=The%2059%2Dyear%2Dold%20bishop,him%20to%20assume%20his%20office.">challenges</a> of ethnocentrism, abuse of religious authority and internal division are hurting the church’s credibility and effectiveness. And some national churches seem silent on rising crises of democracy and leadership across Africa.</p>
<p>There have always been divisions in the church, but its effectiveness and credibility <a href="https://concilium-vatican2.org/en/original/ilo/">in Africa</a> have been affected by clannish divisions and internal fights over money, power and position. This raises the question: how can the church be <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Health-African-Christian-Religion/dp/1498561276">the conscience of the continent</a> if it’s ravaged by the same internal problems found in political institutions? </p>
<p>Most of the controversies that faced the church in its first 500 years were resolved through basic synodal principles – the word synod means “walking together”. These principles were developed by African scholars and church leaders like Cyprian, Athanasius, Aurelius and Augustine.</p>
<p>In 2021, Pope Francis convened a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-synod-of-bishops-a-catholic-priest-and-theologian-explains-168937">worldwide consultation on the future of the Catholic church</a>. This synod will conclude in 2024. Decisions made this year and next will define the future of modern Catholicism for many years to come. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-the-first-post-colonial-papacy-to-deliver-messages-that-resonate-with-africans-201638">Pope Francis: the first post-colonial papacy to deliver messages that resonate with Africans</a>
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<p>Sadly, in the <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20231004-pope-opens-church-meeting-amid-tensions-with-conservatives">process</a> so far, there seems to be no clear African agenda articulated through African Catholic church leaders. </p>
<p>I have <a href="https://www.logos.com/product/209729/faith-in-action-volume-1-reform-mission-and-pastoral-renewal-in-african-catholicism-since-vatican-ii">observed</a> the preparations of Africa for this synod. I’m afraid that the mistakes made by the continent’s church leaders in previous synods – including two held specially to address Africa’s challenges in <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_14091995_ecclesia-in-africa.html">1994</a> and <a href="https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/synod/documents/rc_synod_doc_20091023_elenco-prop-finali_en.html#top">2010</a> – are being repeated. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://addisababa.synod2023.org/#:%7E:text=AFRICA%20SYNODAL%20CONTINENTAL%20ASSEMBLY%20Final,to%206th%20of%20March">African continental meeting</a> that took place in Ethiopia in March 2023 didn’t come up with a clear agenda to address the challenges facing African Catholics.</p>
<p>African delegates are faced with three major challenges going into the current consultations. First, they are simply responding to what is tabled in the <a href="https://www.synod.va/en/highlights/working-document-for-the-continental-stage.html">working document for the synod</a> rather than setting their own agenda. Second, they are treating the continent like a homogeneous entity. Third, they’re failing to demonstrate the changes that African Catholic leaders wish to make in their leadership styles, and pastoral and social ministries in local dioceses and religious congregations, without constantly looking up to Rome for instructions and directions.</p>
<h2>Drowned voices</h2>
<p>The latest synodal process began in 2021 with grassroots consultations, and national and continental assemblies. It has now entered the most decisive moment. </p>
<p>This is why it is important that African voices are heard. As a <a href="https://works.bepress.com/stanchuilo/">theologian</a> who has studied the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/009182961204000303?journalCode=misb">development of the synodal process in Africa</a>, I worry that African Catholic voices may instead be drowned.</p>
<p>First, African delegates at the synod are not formulating their own agenda. During the <a href="https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/synod/documents/rc_synod_doc_20151026_relazione-finale-xiv-assemblea_en.html">two consultations on the family in 2014 and 2015</a>, Africans framed their responses to the synod’s working document as a rejection of a western agenda for change to the traditional family. They pushed back against a perceived attempt to impose on the rest of the church a new understanding of marriage that includes the blessing of same-sex relations. </p>
<p>African delegates have failed to present their position on how to deal with issues of marriage, polygamy, denial of communion to polygamists, childlessness, burial rites and widowhood practices. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-visit-to-africa-comes-at-a-defining-moment-for-the-catholic-church-197633">Pope Francis' visit to Africa comes at a defining moment for the Catholic church</a>
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<p>Second, the problems that face Africa are often localised. They require contextualised solutions. Yet, African delegates often treat the continent as homogeneous, with similar social, economic and political challenges. In the 2015 synod, Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea appealed to the delegates from Africa to <a href="https://www.lastampa.it/vatican-insider/en/2015/09/30/news/synod-africans-are-singing-from-different-songsheets-1.35228596/">speak with one voice</a>, as if Africa had one voice. </p>
<p>There is a need to present Africa in its diversity and richness. The churches of Europe, for instance, have always presented their issues in a more localised, national and specific sense – the German Catholic Church is implementing its <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/catholic-church-germanys-controversial-synodal-path/a-64971479#:%7E:text=In%20Germany%2C%20the%20Synodal%20Path,or%20remarry%20after%20a%20divorce.">own synodal path</a>. African delegates must resist the continued colonial structure, racialised thinking and mentality that sees Africa as one country rather than a continent of diversity and dynamic pluralism. </p>
<p>Finally, African delegates must move away from constantly asking Rome and the pope to help solve the issues within the church in Africa. The delegates must focus attention on the current situation of the church and society in Africa, and how African Catholics can solve their own problems by courageously confronting the internal challenges facing the church in the continent. </p>
<p>The Catholic church is witnessing its fastest growth in Africa (<a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/iacs/2022/04/30/global-christianity/#:%7E:text=April%2030%2C%202022&text=Following%20recent%20trends%2C%20the%20Catholic,growth%20in%20Europe%20(0.3%25)">2.1%</a> between 2019 and 2020). Out of a global population of <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250362/number-of-catholics-in-asia-and-africa-continues-to-rise">1.36 billion Catholics, 236 million are African</a> (20% of the total). This growth is happening alongside a rise in poverty, social unrest, coups, wars and illiberal democracy.</p>
<h2>What next</h2>
<p>African delegates must demonstrate a deeper understanding of the continent’s social and religious challenges. They must capture the hopes and dreams of their congregants, and articulate how the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-popes-new-letter-isnt-just-an-exhortation-on-the-environment-for-francis-everything-is-connected-which-is-a-source-of-wonder-213135">Catholic church can support social transformation</a> through authentic and credible religious experiences and practices.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Poor-Merciful-Church-Illuminative-Ecclesiology/dp/1626982651">Pope Francis</a> has said the future of the church and the world will be determined by how those who <a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-visit-to-africa-comes-at-a-defining-moment-for-the-catholic-church-197633">inhabit the peripheries of life are lifted up</a>. African delegates need to speak up for the millions of Africans who are poor and marginalised. </p>
<p>The Catholic church in Africa must become a champion for human rights, good governance and women’s empowerment. It needs to model the image of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-worldwide-consultations-for-the-global-synod-reflect-pope-francis-efforts-toward-building-a-more-inclusive-catholic-church-213129">inclusive church</a> in its structures and priorities. It needs to nurture a new generation of Africans who understand the diverse challenges facing the continent and seek African solutions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214989/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stan Chu Ilo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Divisions and tensions in the global church are affecting the church in Africa.Stan Chu Ilo, Research Professor, World Christianity and African Studies, DePaul UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2131352023-10-06T12:31:37Z2023-10-06T12:31:37ZThe pope’s new letter isn’t just an ‘exhortation’ on the environment – for Francis, everything is connected, which is a source of wonder<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552272/original/file-20231005-19-erj0sa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C8%2C5455%2C3628&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pope Francis cleans the sky from pollution in graffiti by the artist Maupal, inspired by 'Laudato Si.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ItalyPope/0711f333eb9e4a61bb22e623c3add160/photo?Query=laudato&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=43&currentItemNo=9">AP Photo/ Andrew Medichini</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Eight years have elapsed since Pope Francis released “<a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si_en.pdf">Laudato Si</a>,” his encyclical urging “care for our common home.” Though hailed as an eloquent plea to protect the environment, climate change was just one part of the pope’s message, from encouraging solidarity with the poor to criticizing “blind confidence” in technology. </p>
<p>On Oct. 4, 2023, Francis released an <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/20231004-laudate-deum.html">addendum to “Laudato Si</a>,” addressed to “all people of good will on the climate crisis.” October 4 marks the feast day of the pope’s namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, <a href="https://theconversation.com/birds-worms-rabbits-francis-of-assisi-was-said-to-have-loved-them-all-but-todays-pet-blessings-on-his-feast-day-might-have-seemed-strange-to-the-13th-century-saint-211865">who famously loved all of creation</a>. The new installment, “Laudate Deum” – “Praise God” – is no less sweeping in the way it links environmental problems with economic, social and technological issues.</p>
<p>Like “Laudato Si,” the new document strongly reproaches wealthy nations that contribute the most to climate change, accusing them of ignoring the plight of the poor. It offers a similar rebuke of rampant individualism, lamenting that responses to global crises of climate change and the pandemic have led to “greater individualism” and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/16/business/oxfam-pandemic-davos-billionaires/index.html">hoarding of wealth</a>, rather than increased solidarity. </p>
<p>Scarcely any facet of modern life emerges unscathed by Francis’ sometimes withering critiques. In his view, societies have failed to respond to crises that are profoundly interrelated: global inequality, pollution and even new forms of artificial intelligence that feed the illusion of humans’ unlimited power. His 2015 broadside, in fact, targeted today’s “<a href="https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/just-catholic/globalization-technocratic-paradigm">technocratic paradigm</a>” with such vehemence that one critic <a href="https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/09/why-the-pope-is-wrong-about-climate-000257/">likened these passages</a> to the rantings of an “Amish hippie.”</p>
<p>At the root of Earth’s interlocking crises, the pope argued in 2015 and again in 2023, is a denial of the fact that all life exists in relationships. The larger whole in which all beings are embedded is, for Francis, both an inescapable reality and a source of wonder.</p>
<h2>An integrated vision</h2>
<p>I am <a href="https://es.ucsb.edu/people/lisa-sideris">an environmental ethicist</a>, and my work explores both science and religion. And while these fields often look at the natural world through very different lenses, they also <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520294998/consecrating-science">share a common value: wonder</a>. Francis’ social critique, I believe, stems from his vision of life – one filled with awe for the depth of meaning and mystery to be found in an interconnected world.</p>
<p>Conversely, the list of social and environmental ills Francis addresses in his environmental documents all involve a tendency to fracture and obscure the bigger picture – to ignore the larger context of each particular issue. He criticizes “<a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si_en.pdf">excessive anthropocentrism</a>,” for example: overlooking humans’ bonds with the rest of creation. Within society, excessive individualism similarly prioritizes “parts” at the expense of the whole community.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552268/original/file-20231005-26-bpv8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in white robes bends over a small table to sign something, as men in black and purple robes stand behind him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552268/original/file-20231005-26-bpv8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552268/original/file-20231005-26-bpv8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552268/original/file-20231005-26-bpv8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552268/original/file-20231005-26-bpv8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552268/original/file-20231005-26-bpv8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552268/original/file-20231005-26-bpv8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552268/original/file-20231005-26-bpv8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Pope Francis attends a 2021 meeting in the Vatican, sending an appeal to participants in the 26th United Nations climate change conference.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pope-francis-attends-the-meeting-faith-and-science-towards-news-photo/1235688943?adppopup=true">Alessandro Di Meo/Pool/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Cheap consumer goods <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-story-of-stuff-extern_b_490351">mask the full cost of production</a>, such as the environmental and health costs of manufacturing, obscuring the relationship between customers’ habits and their harmful consequences. The <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/trains-vs-planes-whats-the-real-cost-of-travel/a-45209552">impacts of air travel</a>, for example – air and noise pollution, land use, carbon emissions – are not factored into the ticket price. Failure to see these connections contributes to what Francis assails as an unsustainable “<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/11/26/247332384/pope-slams-disposable-culture-that-marginalizes-many">throwaway culture</a>.” </p>
<p>Meanwhile, ubiquitous technology – with an app for everything at each person’s fingertips – encourages a techno-fix mentality. Francis’ environmental writings reprove tech solutions that target the symptoms of problems without addressing their deeper causes. Geoengineering may offer hope <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/aug/03/stop-burning-fossil-fuels-now-no-co2-technofix-climate-change-oceans">to mitigate the effects of climate change</a>, but not if societies keep burning fossil fuels in the meantime. Social media supposedly helps build connections, but researchers have found that people who go on the apps to maintain relationships <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21642850.2022.2158089">feel more lonely</a> than other users. In <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-08/pope-warns-against-dehumanizing-tyranny-of-technocracy.html">an August 2023 speech</a>, Francis warned of social media’s “reduction of human relationships to mere algorithms.”</p>
<h2>Integral ecology</h2>
<p>In Francis’ eyes, all these problems result from denial of how deeply interconnected the world is. When humans attempt to declare “<a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si_en.pdf">independence from reality</a>,” he writes, relationships are the first casualty. </p>
<p><a href="https://trumpeter.athabascau.ca/index.php/trumpet/article/view/1560">The word “reality</a>” appears over 40 times <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html">in the pope’s 2015 encyclical</a>, by my count. In <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/20231004-laudate-deum.html#_ftn29">his 2023 addendum</a>, Francis once more features the word prominently. He argues that nonhuman creatures have their own “reality” and that climate change is a complex “global reality” that many try to deny, or simplify by blaming others – notably developing societies – rather than recognize their own role. </p>
<p>To understand what he means by “reality,” <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/faith-and-justice/integral-ecology-everything-connected">I look to the idea of “integral ecology,</a>” a term popularized by Francis’ 2015 encyclical. In short, integral ecology is a holistic way of thinking about economic, social, political, ethical and environmental problems. The Earth is not confronting a variety of separate crises, Francis insists, but rather “<a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si_en.pdf">one complex crisis</a>” with many faces. <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/20231004-laudate-deum.html">His new document</a> reinforces this idea, stressing that climate concerns are about more than ecology, because care for the Earth and care for one another are intimately linked.</p>
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<span class="caption">Nuns hold a banner reading ‘I ask you in the name of God to defend Mother Earth’ during the Global Climate March in Bogota, Colombia, in 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nuns-hold-a-banner-of-pope-francis-reading-i-ask-you-in-the-news-photo/499165760?adppopup=true">Guillermo Legaria/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Mystery in a dewdrop</h2>
<p>The pope often turns to <a href="https://theconversation.com/birds-worms-rabbits-francis-of-assisi-was-said-to-have-loved-them-all-but-todays-pet-blessings-on-his-feast-day-might-have-seemed-strange-to-the-13th-century-saint-211865">Saint Francis of Assisi</a>, patron saint of animals, as a model of integral thought. The 13th century saint understood the “inseparable bond” that exists “between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society, and interior peace,” <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html">the pope wrote in 2015</a>. St. Francis spoke of <a href="https://ignatiansolidarity.net/blog/2015/06/04/canticle-of-brother-sun-and-sister-moon-of-st-francis-of-assisi/">all of creation as family</a>, praising “Mother Earth,” “Brother Moon” and “Sister Sun.”</p>
<p>In 2015, the pope wrote admiringly about his namesake’s sense of awe, adding that without wonder, humans’ attitude is that of “<a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html">masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters</a>.” </p>
<p>Indeed, wonder can create a shift in how people understand themselves in relation to something larger. There has recently been a <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/between-cultures/202211/the-wonders-of-awe">renaissance of interest</a> across many fields of study in the power of wonder to encourage behaviors that are good for the environment and for human health and relationships.</p>
<p>Psychologists have found that experiences of wonder <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000018">can shrink the ego</a>, encouraging generosity, humility and ethical decision-making. Wonder also weakens the perception of boundaries, increasing a person’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-0JpJjPe74">sense of connection</a> with something larger than the self. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1097627">Other studies suggest</a> that experiences of awe have the power to broaden people’s moral concerns, increasing their consideration toward other humans, plants, animals and the environment.</p>
<p>For the pope, however, integral reality is about more than humans and nature; it encompasses relationships between all living things and God – an even larger, <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/earthbeat/faith/mystery-trinity-and-global-solidarity">mysterious reality that is divine</a>.</p>
<p>“The universe unfolds in God, who fills it completely,” he writes in both documents. Therefore, “There is a mystical meaning to be found in a leaf, in a mountain trail, in a dewdrop, in a poor person’s face.” All are knit together in wondrous patterns of interconnection.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213135/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa H. Sideris does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Integral ecology, a holistic way of looking at problems the world faces today, is key in the pope’s writings about the environment.Lisa H. Sideris, Professor of Environmental Studies, Affiliate Faculty in Religious Studies, University of California, Santa BarbaraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2131292023-10-04T12:32:39Z2023-10-04T12:32:39ZThe worldwide consultations for the global synod reflect Pope Francis’ efforts toward building a more inclusive Catholic Church<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551819/original/file-20231003-25-d0sesg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C1024%2C679&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pope Francis leads a prayer vigil at St. Peter's Square in Vatican City on Sept. 30, 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pope-francis-leads-together-ecumenical-prayer-vigil-for-the-news-photo/1698698850?adppopup=true">Antonio Masiello/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The 16th Synod of Bishops, the <a href="https://www.synod.va/en/news/new-dates-for-the-synod-on-synodality.html">first part of which will take place in Rome on Oct. 4-29, 2023</a>, and the second in 2024, will be the culmination of a two-year, worldwide conversation in the Catholic Church. </p>
<p>The term “synod” usually refers to a local or regional meeting of church leaders. The Synod of Bishops was <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/motu_proprio/documents/hf_p-vi_motu-proprio_19650915_apostolica-sollicitudo.html">established by Pope Paul VI in 1965</a> as a permanent body in the Catholic Church, although its members do not meet on a regular schedule. It specifically refers to a meeting of selected bishops from around the world to advise the pope on <a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib2-cann330-367_en.html#CHAPTER_II.">matters of governance</a>. </p>
<p>The Synod of Bishops was set up after the Second Vatican Council, which was held from 1962 to 1965, to bring reforms and updates to the church. The Second Vatican Council stated that the entire college of all Catholic bishops, under the authority of the pope, <a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html">also serve as the church’s highest authority</a>. Paul VI instituted the Synod of Bishops as a way for Catholic bishops to exercise this authority. The council also stated that lay Catholics have an active role to play in the church.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/artssciences/religiousstudies/thompson_daniel.php">theologian who studies the Catholic Church</a>, with an emphasis on the period during and after Vatican II, I argue that this upcoming synod reflects Pope Francis’ efforts to advance the reform agenda of Vatican II. He wants all Catholics to take an active role in thinking about the future of their church and wants the bishops to exercise their authority by first listening to the people. </p>
<h2>A more open church?</h2>
<p>Typically, there are three types of meetings of the Synod of Bishops.</p>
<p>Ordinary general assemblies usually get together every three or four years. The pope can also call an extraordinary meeting to discuss a more pressing topic and problem. Finally, popes have called special meetings of bishops in a certain region. For example, Francis held a special <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20200202_querida-amazonia.html">Synod on the Amazon in 2019</a>. </p>
<p>The 16th Synod of Bishops is an ordinary general assembly. At the direction of Francis, its preparation, initiated <a href="https://www.synod.va/en/synodal-process/opening-of-the-synodal-process.html">at a celebration in Rome in 2021</a>, involved a worldwide conversation among Catholics about their church.</p>
<p>Catholics from around the world were invited to meet in their local dioceses, pray together and discuss questions about their church. Some <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/us-synod-report-finds-participants-share-common-hopes-lingering-pain">700,000 Catholics across the U.S.</a> took part in these conversations.</p>
<p>The local churches collected and summarized the results of these meetings. Leaders at the regional, national and, finally, continental levels drafted reports on these conversations. </p>
<p>On the basis of all these earlier documents, in May 2023 the Vatican released its working document called “<a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2023/06/20/230620e.html">Instrumentum Laboris</a>” for the upcoming synod. </p>
<p>This meeting is therefore significant because it pictures the Catholic Church not as a top-down hierarchy but rather as an open conversation. For the first time, its voting members will not only be bishops but other Catholics as well. The changes indicate Francis’ intention to give all Catholics a voice in the decision-making process of the church.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2021/october/documents/20211009-apertura-camminosinodale.html">As Francis himself puts it</a>, the synod offers an opportunity “of moving not occasionally but structurally towards a synodal church, an open square where all can feel at home and participate.”</p>
<h2>Working document</h2>
<p>Some <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2023/07/07/230707a.html">450 people are expected to be in Rome</a> for the first part of the synod. This number will include representatives of religious orders and other Catholic organizations, as well as theologians from Catholic universities. </p>
<p>The pope’s expanded list will include a number of lay men and women. Additionally, representatives from other Christian churches will also attend the synod – although they will not have voting rights. </p>
<p>Those gathered in Rome will meet in both large sessions known as “general congregations” and small working groups, divided by the synod’s official languages – Italian, English, Spanish, French and Portuguese. Its official documents <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2023/09/21/synod-participant-list-chinese-bishops-246130#:%7E:text=There%20will%20be%20five%20official,French%20and%20one%20in%20Portuguese.">will be issued in Italian and English</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551822/original/file-20231003-21-4h0tv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Rows of priests in green robes and pink skullcaps stand in a huge, ornate cathedral." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551822/original/file-20231003-21-4h0tv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551822/original/file-20231003-21-4h0tv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551822/original/file-20231003-21-4h0tv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551822/original/file-20231003-21-4h0tv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551822/original/file-20231003-21-4h0tv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551822/original/file-20231003-21-4h0tv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551822/original/file-20231003-21-4h0tv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Pope Francis celebrates Holy Mass during the opening of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2021 at the Vatican.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pope-francis-celebrates-holy-mass-on-the-occasion-of-the-news-photo/1345971127?adppopup=true">Vatican Pool Galazka/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The working document outlines four broad areas of discussion: synodality, communion, mission and participation. The first term refers to the idea that the church as a whole should incorporate the synod’s process of focused conversations, listening and dialogue into its structure. The next two – communion and mission – refer to how a global church can balance unity and diversity in pursuit of its aims. The final term, participation, refers to the ways in which Catholics, both clergy and lay people, can take part in the church. This topic also includes discussion about what institutions and structures the church would need to create to serve its mission. </p>
<p>When participants talk about these topics, they will discuss issues that have divided the church, such as the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people, the role of women in the church, relations between the Catholic Church and other churches, and relations between the church and different cultures, among others.</p>
<h2>Francis’ leadership style</h2>
<p>This Synod of Bishops reflects Francis’ style of leadership and his vision of the Catholic Church for the future. In his address to the synod held on Oct. 9, 2021, the pope said the success of the mission of the church depends on the closeness of the church to its people and their <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2021/october/documents/20211009-apertura-camminosinodale.html">ability to listen to one another</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551823/original/file-20231003-21-gebwvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman and man walk holding a large red book whose cover says 'La Parola di Dio'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551823/original/file-20231003-21-gebwvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551823/original/file-20231003-21-gebwvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551823/original/file-20231003-21-gebwvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551823/original/file-20231003-21-gebwvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551823/original/file-20231003-21-gebwvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551823/original/file-20231003-21-gebwvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551823/original/file-20231003-21-gebwvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Participants arrive for a vigil prayer led by Pope Francis and other religious leaders before the 2023 Synod of Bishops assembly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/participants-arrive-for-an-ecumenical-vigil-prayer-led-by-news-photo/1698848638?adppopup=true">Isabella Bonotto/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The internal enemy of the mission of the church, according to Francis, is “<a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-08/pope-to-priest-of-rome-i-am-on-the-journey-with-you.html">clericalism</a>,” the idea that clergy – priests and bishops – are somehow a spiritually superior class, separate from and above regular lay people. Francis himself has modeled a different version of the papal office by <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/pope-francis-live-vatican-guesthouse-not-papal-apartments">rejecting many customs that he associates with clericalism</a>. For example, he has continued to live in a modest apartment rather than in the Vatican palace. </p>
<p>Through the process of consultation and conversation, Francis intends to combat clericalism in the Catholic Church by offering a different model for how the church can work. As Austen Ivereigh, a British journalist and biographer of Francis, <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250119391/woundedshepherd">has written</a>: “The opposite of clericalism [for Francis] is synodality, meaning a method and process of discussion and participation in which the whole people of God can listen to the Holy Spirit and take part in the life and mission of the Church.” </p>
<p>After an additional year of conversations with the wider church, participants <a href="https://www.synod.va/en/news/new-dates-for-the-synod-on-synodality.html">will gather in Rome again in 2024</a>, when they will continue the discussions and vote on recommendations to the bishops. The bishops will in turn make recommendations to the pope, who will have the final say.</p>
<p>If Francis’ model of the church is persuasive, this synod, I believe, will be the beginning of an ongoing process in the church, the first of many conversations to come.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213129/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Speed Thompson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the Synod of Bishops meets in Rome, a Catholic theologian explains the preparations that went into the consultative process and what it says about Pope Francis’ vision for the future church.Daniel Speed Thompson, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2137222023-10-02T12:29:39Z2023-10-02T12:29:39ZPope Francis has appointed 21 new cardinals – an expert on medieval Christianity explains what it means for the future of the Catholic Church<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551264/original/file-20230930-19-qn921n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C0%2C5964%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New cardinals at St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on Sept. 30, 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXVaticanNewCardinals/55e2e1150801420ca3e91bb06eab2313/photo?Query=Pope%20Francis%20created%2021%20new%20cardinals&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=12&currentItemNo=1">AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Sept. 30, 2023, Pope Francis swore in <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-07/pope-announces-consistory-for-creation-of-new-cardinals.html">21 clergymen as new members of</a> the College of Cardinals. The College is an important part of the church’s governance structure – each new member <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/vatican-news/pope-francis-names-21-new-cardinals-including-vaticans-ambassador-us">takes a formal oath</a> during a ritual ceremony in the presence of present members of the College. </p>
<p>This assembly of cardinals, <a href="https://slmedia.org/blog/consistory-2023">known as a consistory</a>, is the ninth that Francis has held to create new cardinals since 2013, when he succeeded the retiring Pope Benedict XVI. </p>
<p>The new appointments will take the <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/documentation/cardinali---statistiche/elenco_per_eta.html">membership of the College from 221 to 242</a>, including retirees. Francis has ensured that the College includes clergy from around the world and is <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2023/07/09/pope-francis-new-cardinals-conclave-245656">representative of the diversity</a> within Catholicism. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/joanne-pierce">specialist in medieval Christianity</a>, I have studied the complex history of the College of Cardinals. Shaped by past challenges, it is a crucial institution – for its members will elect the next pope and help develop the policies the Catholic Church will follow in the future.</p>
<h2>Early church leadership</h2>
<p>During the Roman Empire, when Christianity was illegal, Christians would meet secretly. These meetings were often held <a href="https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/biblical-archaeology-sites/when-did-christianity-begin-to-spread/">in private homes called house churches</a> – domestic buildings that were later <a href="http://historyofchristianart.com/files/Origins_Program_Dura_Europos_A.pdf">adapted solely for worship</a> by members of the local Christian community. </p>
<p>It was during this time that leadership of these communities developed into three main orders of ordained clergy: <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+3&version=NRSVCE">Overseers became bishop</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+5%3A+17-22&version=NRSVCE">elders became priests</a>, and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+3%3A+8-13&version=NRSVCE">ministers became deacons</a>. </p>
<p>After the legalization of Christianity in the early fourth century, Christians were free to build large, more elaborate public buildings for worship, which often expanded some of these original house churches. New churches were also built in various sections of Rome, as well as in seven areas surrounding the city — like suburbs – <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14324a.htm">called the suburbicarian churches</a>. </p>
<p>By the sixth century, key members of the clergy staffing many of these Roman and Italian churches, especially the older ones, were referred to as cardinals, from the Latin word referring to a hinge, or a central joint. Leading deacons, senior priests and prominent bishops serving these parishes were all called cardinals. </p>
<h2>Papacy as a political prize</h2>
<p>Over these later centuries, Christianity also spread more widely north of the Alps, and the numbers of Christian churches and clergy expanded. However, because of ongoing warfare, conquest and political turmoil, Christianity in western Europe entered a more turbulent period. Popes came to exert political as well as spiritual power, leaving the office of the papacy vulnerable to the influence of competing secular powers, as well as powerful local Roman families and foreign rulers. </p>
<p>This became such a problem that in 769, under Pope Stephen III, <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14289a.htm">a council held at one of the central churches in Rome</a> – St. John Lateran – ruled that no layperson could be elected pope or influence the election of anyone to the papacy; only candidates holding the title of cardinal could be elected pope.</p>
<p>This requirement improved the situation for a time, but also contributed to the increasing political power of cardinals, traditionally the popes’ closest advisers.</p>
<p>In the later ninth and 10th centuries, however, the papacy again became a political prize for prominent Roman families and Italian nobility. This period, called the “<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Age-of-Faith/Will-Durant/The-Story-of-Civilization/9781451647617">nadir of the papacy</a>,” produced a series of unworthy popes, including Pope Stephen VI, who put the corpse of his <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/the-cadaver-synod-putting-a-dead-pope-on-trial/">predecessor on trial</a>; and Pope John XII, at 17 the youngest pope ever elected, who <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08426b.htm">spent his papacy in the mid-10th century</a> in drinking, gambling and debauchery.</p>
<p>However, many changes took place during the next two centuries, supported by reform-minded clergy and rulers in what is now France. </p>
<p>Several popes, notably Popes Leo IX and Gregory VII, brought organizational improvements to the bureaucratic structure of the Catholic Church in the <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780195396584/obo-9780195396584-0131.xml">11th and early 12th centuries</a>; many individual cardinals came to direct administrative departments. </p>
<p>In 1059, Pope Nicholas II declared that <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/papalel.asp">a pope could only be elected</a> by members of the College of Cardinals, and a <a href="https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum11.htm">special election consistory</a> was mandated in 1179.</p>
<h2>Vatican II and other developments</h2>
<p>In the following centuries, cardinals in the Catholic Church continued to assume important roles in Rome as curial officers, diplomats – called papal legates – and experts in the <a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib2-cann330-367_en.html#CHAPTER_III">Catholic legal system, the canon law</a>. Others served as advisers to rulers in Catholic countries or directed groups of bishops in their local pastoral ministry.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
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<span class="caption">Pope Benedict XV, cardinals and others pray for peace in Europe at St Peter’s (San Pietro) on Feb. 7, 1915, at the Vatican.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pope-benedict-xv-cardinals-and-faithfuls-praying-for-peace-news-photo/872464604?adppopup=true">DeAgostini/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Several popes made more substantial changes in the number and selection of cardinals in the 20th and 21st centuries. The requirements for a cardinal candidate were narrowed. In 1917, Pope Benedict XV <a href="https://guides.library.utoronto.ca/c.php?g=251196&p=1673402">promulgated a universal Code of Canon Law</a>. In it, the office of cardinal was restricted to priests and bishops, and deacons were excluded.</p>
<p>Later, on the eve of the Second Vatican Council, held from from 1962 to 1965, Pope John XXIII declared that <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/john-xxiii/la/motu_proprio/documents/hf_j-xxiii_motu-proprio_19620415_cum-gravissima.html">all cardinals must be ordained bishops</a>. Subsequently, John Paul II – pope from 1978 until his death in 2005 – dispensed certain exceptional priests, often elderly theologians, from this requirement. The first so honored in 1983 was the <a href="https://aleteia.org/2021/09/04/remembering-the-life-of-henri-de-lubac/">French theologian Rev. Henri de Lubac</a>, and the first American, named in 2001, was <a href="https://www.fordham.edu/academics/faculty/endowed-chairs/mcginley-chair/avery-cardinal-dulles-biography/">Rev. Avery Dulles, S. J.</a>.</p>
<p>In addition, popes at this time, <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/it/speeches/1946/documents/hf_p-xii_spe_19460220_la-elevatezza.html">stressing the universality of the church</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180523005422/http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2018/cardinal-stats-pope-makes-college-more-international-not-much-younger.cfm">added several new cardinals</a> from countries around the world.</p>
<h2>A larger College of Cardinals</h2>
<p>Partly because of this stress on diversity, the size of the College of Cardinals increased dramatically. During the later medieval period, popes and councils set the maximum number of cardinals who could serve at one time, varying from 20 in the 14th century to 70 in the 16th century. That limit remained in effect until the 20th century, when John XXIII <a href="https://cardinals.fiu.edu/consist-58.htm">expanded the College</a> to 88 cardinals, which his successor, Pope Paul VI, expanded to 134 – less than half the size of the College today. </p>
<p>The duties expected of individual cardinals have also changed. During his papacy, Paul VI set out rules for the retirement of all bishops and priests, as well as cardinals: All were expected to submit a letter of intent to retire when they reached the age of 75. </p>
<p>He also set another age limit: After reaching the age of 80, cardinals would not be eligible to vote in a papal election, although they <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/it/motu_proprio/documents/hf_p-vi_motu-proprio_19701120_ingravescentem.html">kept the title of cardinal</a> for the remainder of their lives. Even before the September 2023 consistory, almost half of the total number of cardinals were over 80, and so <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/documentation/cardinali---statistiche/elenco_per_eta/distribuzione-per-tipo.html">were barred from voting</a> in future papal elections.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551015/original/file-20230928-15-xqp6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Clergymen in green robes seated in the pews." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551015/original/file-20230928-15-xqp6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551015/original/file-20230928-15-xqp6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551015/original/file-20230928-15-xqp6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551015/original/file-20230928-15-xqp6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551015/original/file-20230928-15-xqp6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551015/original/file-20230928-15-xqp6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551015/original/file-20230928-15-xqp6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The College of Cardinals at the Holy Mass, presided over by Pope Francis at the Vatican Basilica, on Aug. 30, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-cardinals-at-the-holy-mass-at-the-end-of-the-consistory-news-photo/1419592930?adppopup=true">Grzegorz Galazka/Archivio Grzegorz Galazka/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Cardinals and the future of the church</h2>
<p>During his pontificate, Francis’ selections have continued to shape the composition of the College of Cardinals in several ways. </p>
<p>Many believe that with his appointments, Francis has tried to ensure that his vision of the church’s future will continue after his death; he is 86 years old and in failing health. </p>
<p>Given the fact that the vast majority of cardinals under 80 are Francis appointees, some commentators have noted that the <a href="https://religionnews.com/2023/09/25/pope-conclave/">pope has “stacked</a>” the College with cardinals who are inclined to agree with his more liberal focus on inclusivity and social justice issues, rather than Benedict XVI’s stress on doctrinal orthodoxy and traditional values. Francis’ latest round of cardinal appointments have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/09/04/pope-wars-against-american-bishops/">further underscored this tension</a>.</p>
<p>Some more conservative Catholic bishops and cardinals have criticized the pope’s statements and actions as increasingly divergent from Catholic traditional teaching. The late Cardinal George Pell from Australia, who served over a year in prison until his conviction for child sex abuse was overturned in 2020, <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2023/01/17/commentary-cardinal-pells/">called Francis’ pontificate a “catastrophe</a>” in an anonymous letter sent to other cardinals in 2022. </p>
<p>Other bishops and cardinals disagree. For example, <a href="https://www.archchicago.org/about-us/cardinal-blase-j-cupich">Cardinal Blase Cupich</a>, archbishop of Chicago, <a href="https://www.archchicago.org/about-us/cardinal-blase-j-cupich">has publically approved</a> of the pope’s determination to “situate the church for its future” by <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/cardinal-cupich-francis-giving-new-life-vatican-ii-reforms">emphasizing a more collaborative approach</a>, and praising Francis’ <a href="https://www.archchicago.org/statement/-/article/2020/10/04/statement-of-cardinal-blase-j-cupich-archbishop-of-chicago-on-pope-francis-encyclical-letter-fratelli-tutti-">stress on inclusion</a> rather than division.</p>
<p><a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/by-stacking-the-odds-in-his-favour-does-pope-francis-risk-splitting-the-vote-at-the-next-conclave/">Whatever the outcome</a> of the next papal election, members of the College of Cardinals, as bishops in active ministry, diplomats, intellectuals and papal advisers, <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2023/07/17/pope-francis-cardinals-conclave-245695">will have a profound role</a> in shaping that future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213722/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne M. Pierce does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The College of Cardinals is an important part of the church’s governance structure. Its members elect the next pope and help develop future policies for the church.Joanne M. Pierce, Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2126652023-08-31T16:35:16Z2023-08-31T16:35:16ZUkraine recap: fallout from death of Yevgeny Prigozhin will be felt far beyond Moscow<p>Where were you when you heard that Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s aircraft had crashed and he was presumed dead? For Ukraine watchers it was something of a surreal JFK moment. And, like the Zapruder tape, the video footage of the Russian mercenary group commander’s Embraer Legacy 600 private jet falling out of the sky is hard to forget.</p>
<p>Within minutes of the visuals emerging, journalists and other commentators were scrambling to reach conclusions: was it a bomb on board? Had the aircraft been shot from the sky? The Wagner Group boss had been travelling with colleagues from Moscow to St Petersburg: had he met with Vladimir Putin? Had they buried the hatchet over his aborted “mutiny” in June? Wasn’t he supposed to be with his troops in Belarus? What about that video of him in Africa just days before? So many questions.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x2BAYebRVfk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Yevgeny Prigozhin’s private jet crashes.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Many questions remain. The Kremlin’s version of the crash was that it was just that: a crash. It took four days for official confirmation that the Wagner Group boss had been aboard the jet along with six other passengers and three flight staff. Putin’s blandly sinister reaction was that his erstwhile friend and ally was a “talented businessman” with a “complicated fate” who “made serious mistakes in his life”.</p>
<p>It’s unlikely that we will ever know for sure exactly what led to his death and, if – as seems likely – this was an assassination, who ordered it. But as Stefan Wolff, an expert in international relations at the University of Birmingham notes, people who seriously cross the Russian leader rarely <a href="https://theconversation.com/yevgeny-prigozhin-wagner-group-boss-joins-long-list-of-those-who-challenged-vladimir-putin-and-paid-the-price-212181">live very long thereafter</a>. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510322/original/file-20230215-22-dna0kj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510322/original/file-20230215-22-dna0kj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510322/original/file-20230215-22-dna0kj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510322/original/file-20230215-22-dna0kj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510322/original/file-20230215-22-dna0kj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510322/original/file-20230215-22-dna0kj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510322/original/file-20230215-22-dna0kj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>Since Vladimir Putin sent his war machine into Ukraine on February 24 2022, The Conversation has called upon some of the leading experts in international security, geopolitics and military tactics to help our readers <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/ukraine-12-months-at-war-134215?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Ukraine12Months">understand the big issues</a>. You can also <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/ukraine-recap-114?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Ukraine12Months">subscribe to our fortnightly recap</a> of expert analysis of the conflict in Ukraine.</em></p>
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<p>As Wolff points out, Prigozhin’s direct challenge to Putin’s authority when he led his men out of Ukraine and across the border and on the road to Moscow, meeting with Russian military brass and receiving a rapturous welcome in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, would have seriously irritated the Russian president. Not to mention making him look foolish, indecisive – even weak. </p>
<p>US president Joe Biden probably said what many of us were thinking when he gave his assessment of Prigozhin’s death: “I don’t know for a fact what happened, but I’m not surprised. There’s not much that happens in Russia that Putin’s not behind. But I don’t know enough to know the answer.”</p>
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<p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/yevgeny-prigozhin-wagner-group-boss-joins-long-list-of-those-who-challenged-vladimir-putin-and-paid-the-price-212181">Yevgeny Prigozhin: Wagner Group boss joins long list of those who challenged Vladimir Putin and paid the price</a>
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<p>The question as to how far Putin himself has been has weakened by this episode is an interesting one. On the one hand Prigzhin’s death may have given anyone seeking to challenge the Russian president pause for thought. On the other hand, Matthew Sussex from the Australian National University in Canberra believes that the mercenary group boss’s death after he had apparently been given reassurances as to his safety is a message to Russia’s elites that they can’t trust a word their leader says. </p>
<p>As Sussex <a href="https://theconversation.com/wagner-chief-prigozhin-reportedly-killed-but-has-putin-cooked-his-own-goose-212180">writes here</a>: “Putin’s politics of terror has a self-destructive flaw: ruling through fear and deception inevitably prompts those who might be targets (which is essentially anyone) to eventually try to change the rules of the game.”</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/wagner-chief-prigozhin-reportedly-killed-but-has-putin-cooked-his-own-goose-212180">Wagner chief Prigozhin reportedly killed, but has Putin cooked his own goose?</a>
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<p>The Russian president was conspicuous by his absence at the Wagner Group boss’s funeral in St Petersburg this week. Prigozhin was hailed in one tribute from the “grateful people of Africa” as a “second Nelson Mandela”, which will no doubt come as a surprise to many people in the numerous African countries in which the Wagner Group has taken on contract work. </p>
<p>Ezenwa Olumba of Royal Holloway, University of London and Idris Mohammed of Usmanu Danfodiyo University in Sokoto, Nigeria – both scholars of conflict in Africa – have been researching countries where the Wagner Group is involved and <a href="https://theconversation.com/wagner-group-what-yevgeny-prigozhins-death-means-for-stability-in-africa-212467">write that</a>: “A common denominator among these countries is the presence of insurgencies or civil wars, abundant natural resources, corrupt leadership, and unconstitutional governance.” </p>
<p>The Russian mercenaries, they believe, rarely act to improve the situation, tending rather to prolong the conflict, enriching themselves and their clients at the expense of the majority of the people and allegedly involving themselves in serious human rights abuses and violence.</p>
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<p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/wagner-group-what-yevgeny-prigozhins-death-means-for-stability-in-africa-212467">Wagner Group: what Yevgeny Prigozhin's death means for stability in Africa</a>
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<h2>On and above the battlefield</h2>
<p>More than 18 months into this bloody war, Ukraine is now reckoned to be one of – if not the – most mine-contaminated countries in the world. In March alone, 226 people were killed by landmines in Ukraine and 496 injured. About 30% of Ukraine is now thought to be contaminated by mines, which will take decades to clear. And, tragically, this means the deaths and injuries will continue long after the shooting stops.</p>
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<img alt="A red skull and crossbones placard warns people of landmines in the area." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545821/original/file-20230831-29-tc6x1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545821/original/file-20230831-29-tc6x1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545821/original/file-20230831-29-tc6x1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545821/original/file-20230831-29-tc6x1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545821/original/file-20230831-29-tc6x1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545821/original/file-20230831-29-tc6x1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545821/original/file-20230831-29-tc6x1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Insidious weapon: people will still die from landmine explosions long after the war finishes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/white-skull-crossbones-symbol-on-red-2234678911">yalyashenko/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Sarah Njeri, a researcher from SOAS who has spent decades in conflict resolution, peacebuilding and disarmament advocacy, has travelled widely studying the effects of landmines and other unexploded ordnance. She discusses the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-after-the-shooting-stops-landmines-will-keep-killing-as-weve-seen-in-too-many-countries-211559">devastating effect they have on a country’s recovery from war</a>, rendering vast tracts of land uninhabitable and – importantly for a country such as Ukraine which relies so much in agriculture – dangerous if not impossible to farm on.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-after-the-shooting-stops-landmines-will-keep-killing-as-weve-seen-in-too-many-countries-211559">Ukraine war: after the shooting stops landmines will keep killing -- as we've seen in too many countries</a>
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<p>Above the battlefield, meanwhile, some good news for Ukraine when Washington reversed its position and decided to allow countries to whom it had sold its state-of-the-art F-16 warplanes to supply them to Ukraine. At present there are about 40 aircraft being made available by Denmark and the Netherlands and more are expected to follow. </p>
<p>Matthew Powell, an expert in air power at the University of Portsmouth, says it will still take months to train Ukrainian pilots to handle the aircraft but once they are deployed they should give Ukraine an <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-months-of-negotiations-ukraine-will-be-getting-the-f-16-warplanes-it-has-been-begging-for-heres-why-thats-important-212135">edge in the air</a>. Importantly, too, their use will also give Ukraine’s airforce – and military in general – an opportunity to learn more about Nato operations as their deployment will require closer integration with Nato systems.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/after-months-of-negotiations-ukraine-will-be-getting-the-f-16-warplanes-it-has-been-begging-for-heres-why-thats-important-212135">After months of negotiations Ukraine will be getting the F-16 warplanes it has been begging for – here's why that's important</a>
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<p>From hi-tech to lo-tech: Ukraine carried out a successful raid on an airfield in Kursk, western Russia last weekend using low-cost cardboard drones. The drones – or to give them their proper name, the Corvo Precision Payload Delivery Systems (PPDS) – were manufactured by Australian form Sypaq and supplied by the Australian government: 100 a month from March as part of a £15.7 million aid deal. </p>
<p>These lightweight drones, which cost about £2,750 apiece and are assembled from a flatpack, reportedly damaged a Mig-29 and four Su-30 fighter jets, two Pantsir anti-aircraft missile launchers, gun systems, and an S-300 air surface-to-air missile defence system. As design expert Paul Cureton of Lancaster University writes, it’s a good example of how innovative design choices can have a <a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-australian-made-cardboard-drones-used-to-attack-russian-airfield-show-how-innovation-is-key-to-modern-warfare-212629">massive impact on warfare</a> as military and commercial demands symbiotically spur on development.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-australian-made-cardboard-drones-used-to-attack-russian-airfield-show-how-innovation-is-key-to-modern-warfare-212629">Ukraine war: Australian-made cardboard drones used to attack Russian airfield show how innovation is key to modern warfare</a>
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<p>Russia, meanwhile, is reported to have deployed a quantity of its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. According to a <a href="https://reform.by/320546-novoe-issledovanie-chatham-house-kto-drug-kto-vrag-i-nuzhno-li-nam-jadernoe-oruzhie">Chatham House poll</a> conducted in June 2022, 80% of the urban population of Belarus is opposed to hosting Russian nuclear weapons. But happily for Putin, he keeps a friendly president in power there, so they don’t have much say in the matter.</p>
<p>As Veronika Poniscjakova, an expert in military strategy and international relations at the University of Portsmouth, writes, since the invasion of Ukraine last February, both Putin and his predecessor, Dmitry Medvedev, have regularly hinted at the possibility that Russia could, if pushed, <a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-the-implications-of-moscow-moving-tactical-nuclear-weapons-to-belarus-212296">resort to the use of its nuclear arsenal</a>. She points to Russia’s nuclear doctrine, updated in 2020, which says that Russia would use such weapons if “aggression against the Russian Federation with the use of conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is in jeopardy”. This, she warns, could be open to a wide interpretation.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-the-implications-of-moscow-moving-tactical-nuclear-weapons-to-belarus-212296">Ukraine war: the implications of Moscow moving tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus</a>
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<h2>History matters</h2>
<p>Pope Francis ruffled more than a few feathers this week when he gave a video address to the All-Russian Meeting of Catholic Youth in St Petersburg in which he urged them not to give up on the heritage of “Mother Russia”, declaring: “You are the descendants of great Russia: the great Russia of saints, rulers, the great Russia of Peter I, Catherine II, that empire – educated, great culture and great humanity.”</p>
<p>Now it’s probable his emphasis was meant to be on the last bit of this statement, reminding Russian youngsters that they share in the greatness of the likes of Tolstoy, Tchaikovsky, Dostoevsky, Rachmaninoff and the like. But in Kyiv it sounded like a tone-deaf paean to two autocrats, one of whom Putin is <a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-invasion-suggests-putin-is-more-vladimir-the-reactionary-than-peter-the-great-186133">wont to likening himself to</a> and the other of whom invaded Crimea in the late 18th century. </p>
<p>Olivia Durand, of Oxford University – who has written for us several times reflecting on Putin’s use of history to justify his invasion of Ukraine – takes us through the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-popes-message-to-young-russians-not-to-forget-great-russia-of-catherine-ii-and-peter-i-has-not-gone-down-well-in-ukraine-212638">battle for Russia’s soul</a>, why empire and religion are so bound up with each other in the Russian psyche and why the Pope’s words would have caused such angst among Ukrainians.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-popes-message-to-young-russians-not-to-forget-great-russia-of-catherine-ii-and-peter-i-has-not-gone-down-well-in-ukraine-212638">Why Pope's message to young Russians not to forget 'great Russia of Catherine II and Peter I' has not gone down well in Ukraine</a>
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<p>Finally, to tide you over until the next recap in a fortnight, a little light reading. Russia’s War Against Ukraine: The Whole Story, by historian Mark Edele, is as he himself notes: “a book by an outsider written for outsiders”. If you are interested in finding out more about this remarkable book, read <a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-is-unlikely-ever-to-return-to-the-russian-empire-in-a-new-book-mark-edele-unpacks-whats-at-stake-in-a-bloody-war-211497">this excellent review</a> from Marko Pavlyshyn, an emeritus professor in Ukrainian Studies at Monash University.</p>
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<p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-is-unlikely-ever-to-return-to-the-russian-empire-in-a-new-book-mark-edele-unpacks-whats-at-stake-in-a-bloody-war-211497">'Ukraine is unlikely ever to return to the Russian Empire': in a new book, Mark Edele unpacks what's at stake in a bloody war</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p><em>Ukraine Recap is available as a fortnightly email newsletter. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/ukraine-recap-114?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+Newsletter+Ukraine+Recap+2022+Mar&utm_content=WeeklyRecapBottom">Click here to get our recaps directly in your inbox.</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212665/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
A selection of the best of our coverage of the conflict from the past fortnight.Jonathan Este, Senior International Affairs Editor, Associate EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2108572023-08-24T12:26:44Z2023-08-24T12:26:44ZWith fewer than 1,500 Catholics in Mongolia, Pope Francis’ upcoming visit brings attention to the long and complex history of the minority religious group<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542225/original/file-20230810-19-5i7hoe.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C0%2C1630%2C1070&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hulagu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, seated with his Eastern Christian queen Doquz Khatun.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/hulagu-khan-also-known-as-hulegu-hulegu-or-halaku-was-a-news-photo/1354437053?adppopup=true">History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pope Francis is set to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/pope-visit-mongolia-will-thrill-tiny-catholic-community-cardinal-says-2023-07-17/">make the first-ever visit to Mongolia</a>, a country with fewer than 1,500 Catholics, all of whom have come to the faith since 1992. But the pope’s visit is a reminder that the country has a long and complex history with Christianity, among many other faiths. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/mongolia">Mongolia has only 3.4 million people, and at least 87.4% are Buddhists</a>. The small Catholic community came into existence after this landlocked country, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, began to abandon its <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2645157">communist ideology and embraced different religions</a>. At that time, it also restored diplomatic relations with the Vatican and welcomed Catholic missionaries.</p>
<p>But Catholicism has been known to the Mongols <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Mongols-and-the-West-1221-1410/Jackson/p/book/9781138848481">since the early 13th century</a>. As a <a href="https://search.asu.edu/profile/1268668">scholar of religions in Asia</a>, I am aware that Nestorianism, a Christian tradition commonly known as the Church of the East, reached the periphery of the Mongolian plateau as early as the eighth century, long before the Mongols became active in that area. Several old tribes in the Mongolian steppes were <a href="https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/13943/">converted to Nestorianism around 1000 C.E.</a> </p>
<h2>The Mongol Empire</h2>
<p>The Mongol Empire was founded by Genghis Khan in 1206 after he conquered all the other nomadic tribes on the Mongolian Plateau. Later on, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-the-mongol-empire/339475953C6AECE567FA50F1AED951A7">the empire extended from Mongolia to the Eastern Mediterranean regions</a>.</p>
<p>Initially the Mongols practiced a Shamanic religion, worshipping the God Tengri. However, to be able to rule all conquered subjects across the vast empire, Genghis Khan issued the “Great Yasa,” a regulation allowing people under his regime the freedom to freely practice their faiths. Under the Mongol Empire, people practiced <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40109471">Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam</a>. </p>
<p>The conquered tribes included Nestorian Christians, who believed that Jesus Christ had both human and divine natures and rejected that Mary was the mother of God. Christian women dominated the inner court of the Mongol Empire <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25183572">following their marriages with several Mongol Khans</a>. </p>
<h2>The messengers of the papacy</h2>
<p>The Mongol conquest paved the way for long-distance cultural, religious and commercial exchanges across the vast Eurasian continent. For the first time Catholic missionaries were able to travel along the land route to East Asia.</p>
<p>Genghis Khan and his sons launched a series of military campaigns in Central Asia and West Asia, conquering vast land across the Eurasian continent and reaching the <a href="https://www.medievalists.net/2022/02/mongol-conquest-hungary/">borders of modern-day Hungary and Turkey</a>.</p>
<p>During the conquest, the Mongols often <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Mongols-and-the-West-1221-1410/Jackson/p/book/9781138848481">spared many Christians in Central and West Asia</a>, even though they killed those who resisted the Mongol rule. </p>
<p>The conquest shocked many in the Latin world in Europe and Muslims in the Middle East. In 1241, soon after the Mongol troops invaded Hungary and Romania, Pope Innocent IV sent Catholic missionaries, including an Italian Franciscan priest called <a href="https://open.bu.edu/handle/2144/585">John of Plano Carpini</a>, to the Mongol court seeking peace. </p>
<p>In 1246, on orders of the pope, Carpini visited the Mongol court and urged the new ruler of the Mongol Empire, Güyük Khan, Genghis Khan’s grandson, to convert to Catholicism. Güyük Khan instead asked that he summon the pope and other European rulers to <a href="https://open.bu.edu/handle/2144/585">swear allegiance to him</a>.</p>
<p>Catholic missionaries could not find a way to convert the Mongols but continued their efforts with the successive rulers. </p>
<p>In 1248 a Franciscan priest named William of Rubruck, a companion of French King Louis IX, met a Dominican priest, Andrew of Longjumeau, during his visit to Jerusalem. At that time, Louis IX was leading the crusades against Muslims in the Eastern Mediterranean region, and William of Rubruck was fascinated with Andrew of Longjumeau’s suggestion of building an alliance with the Mongols against the Muslims. </p>
<p>In 1253, William of Rubruck visited the Mongol court in Karakorum to urge Genghis Khan’s grandson Möngke Khan to convert. <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Mongols-and-the-West-1221-1410/Jackson/p/book/9781138848481">Möngke Khan instead handed him a letter for Louis IX</a> in which he not only refused to convert to Christianity but threatened to invade the heartland of Europe if the Europeans did not accept the Mongols’ eternal God, Tengri. </p>
<h2>Catholicism and Nestorianism</h2>
<p>William of Rubruck’s visit did not bring any immediate results in terms of conversions, but it left a more far lasting impact. </p>
<p>Before his visit there was not much communication between Catholic missionaries and Nestorians, but William of Rubruck was able to chronicle the activities of the Nestorian community within the Mongol Empire. The visits of Catholic missionaries also prompted many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004288867_005">Mongol Nestorians to start going on pilgrimages to West Asia</a> as a way to expand their influence beyond their comfort zone under the Mongol Empire. </p>
<p>In 1287 a Nestorian monk, Rabban Bar Sauma, embarked on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem from Khanbaliq, near modern Beijing. Later Sauma’s student Rabban Markos became a patriarch with a title Yahballaha III, <a href="https://uni-salzburg.elsevierpure.com/en/publications/two-letters-of-yahballaha-iii-to-the-popes-of-rome-historical-con/publications/?type=%2Fdk%2Fatira%2Fpure%2Fresearchoutput%2Fresearchoutputtypes%2Fcontributiontobookanthology%2Fchapter">or the chief of the Nestorian Church</a>, in the Mongol-ruled Ilkhanate Empire in modern-day Iran.</p>
<p>At the same time, the Catholic missionaries also started to expand their influence in Central Asia. In 1307 a Franciscan priest, John of Montecorvino, built a Catholic church in Khanbaliq and <a href="https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/corvino1.asp">became the patriarch under the order of Pope Clement V</a>. He had converted about 6,000 people in Mongolia by 1313. </p>
<h2>Religious revivals in Mongolia</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544343/original/file-20230823-27-51fiyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A priest leads a service while worshippers, including two nuns, stand with prayer books and heads bowed." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544343/original/file-20230823-27-51fiyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544343/original/file-20230823-27-51fiyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544343/original/file-20230823-27-51fiyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544343/original/file-20230823-27-51fiyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544343/original/file-20230823-27-51fiyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544343/original/file-20230823-27-51fiyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544343/original/file-20230823-27-51fiyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Catholic Mongolians pray during a Mass at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church in Ulan Bator, Mongolia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/catholic-mongolians-pray-during-a-mass-at-st-peter-and-st-news-photo/2178763?adppopup=true">Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Over the next few centuries, the religious landscape in Mongolia continued to change, depending on who was ruling the region. </p>
<p>Many Mongols converted to Tibetan Buddhism during the later part of the 13th-century reign of the Kublai Khan, another grandson of Genghis Khan, who favored the religion. But after 1368, when <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108687645">the Mongols withdrew from central China and left Khanbaliq</a>, the practice of Tibetan Buddhism and Catholicism was suppressed. The Nestorian community gradually disappeared and never revived again.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/our-great-qing-now-available-in-paperback/">under the Qing dynasty</a> that ruled China and Mongolia in the 17th century, Buddhism was revived. But again, in the 20th century Mongolian politics changed drastically when the country adopted communism following the Soviet Union’s intervention, and the practice of <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520244191/modern-mongolia">Buddhism declined again</a>.</p>
<p>After Mongolia became a democracy in 1992, Mongols were allowed to freely practice their faiths again: Buddhism began to flourish, and Catholic missionaries arrived in the country and built a small Catholic community.</p>
<p>When the pope visits this complex religious terrain, his visit will be significant from the geopolitical and religious perspective: In June 2023, the pope’s peace envoy visited Russia as part of international peacemaking efforts. But no pope has ever visited its other close neighbor, China, which <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2022/05/china-vatican-relations-in-the-xi-era/">does not have diplomatic relations</a> with the Vatican. </p>
<p>Overall, I argue that the pope’s groundbreaking visit to Mongolia might <a href="https://aleteia.org/2023/08/06/vietnam-oks-permanent-papal-representation-in-the-country">send important signals</a> in East Asia and, in particular, to the much larger Catholic community in China.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210857/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Huaiyu Chen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Catholic community that Pope Francis will visit later this month has a complex history that goes back to the 13th century, when the Mongol Empire was founded by Genghis Khan.Huaiyu Chen, Professor of Religious Studies, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2081622023-06-22T13:05:37Z2023-06-22T13:05:37ZUkraine war: failed African peace mission underscores need for more powerful political and military pressure on Putin<p>African peace missions to Ukraine and Russia last week came up <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-65951350">empty-handed</a>. Led by South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa, the delegation included leaders and senior officials from Congo-Brazzaville, Comoros, Egypt, Senegal, Uganda and Zambia. </p>
<p>Their plan was <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/africas-peace-delegation-new-chapter-africa-and-ukraine-war">based</a> on establishing a ceasefire “through negotiations and diplomatic means”. High on the agenda were calls for Ukrainian and Russian grain and fertiliser exports to resume unimpeded and the return of children taken during the conflict.</p>
<p>The delegation met Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in Kyiv on Friday June 16, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in the margins of the St Petersburg economic forum the following day. Both leaders <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/african-leaders-arrive-ukraine-talks-with-russias-putin-2023-06-17/">rejected</a> the plan as unworkable. </p>
<p>This was merely the latest in a series of peace plans that have emerged over the past month or so – and it gained similarly little traction. An earlier <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/pope-asks-italian-cardinal-carry-out-peace-mission-ukraine-war-vatican-says-2023-05-20/">initiative by the Vatican</a> was rejected by Zelensky immediately after his <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/13/volodymyr-zelenskiy-lands-in-italy-to-meet-the-pope-as-ukraine-wins-ground">meeting with Pope Francis</a> on May 13. </p>
<p>Another <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/indonesia-proposes-demilitarised-zone-un-referendum-ukraine-peace-plan-2023-06-03/">proposal</a> by the Indonesian defence minister, Prabowo Subianto, at the Shangri-La Dialogue annual defence conference in Singapore involved establishing a demilitarised zone and a UN referendum in what he called “disputed territory”. It was widely derided as a “Russian plan” by Ukraine and its western partners.</p>
<h2>The China card</h2>
<p>By contrast, <a href="https://www.mfa.gov.cn/eng/zxxx_662805/202302/t20230224_11030713.html">China’s peace plan</a> is still in the running. Officially announced on February 24 2023, the first anniversary of the invasion, western leaders were not particularly enthusiastic – but did <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/24/china-calls-for-russia-ukraine-war-peace-talks">not reject</a> it out of hand either. </p>
<p>Putin <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-64993665">described</a> it as a potential basis for ending the war during his meeting with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in Moscow the following month. Zelensky signalled cautious optimism about China’s engagement in mediation after his hour-long phone call with Xi at the end of April.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-what-china-gains-from-acting-as-peacemaker-204629">Ukraine war: what China gains from acting as peacemaker</a>
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<p>A <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/17/china/china-special-envoy-ukraine-europe-peace-talks-intl-hnk/index.html">tour</a> by China’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs, Li Hui, to Kyiv, Moscow and several other European capitals in May yielded few concrete results, but ended with a Chinese <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/neither-ukraine-nor-russia-have-shut-door-talks-china-envoy-2023-06-02/">commitment</a> to consider continuing engagement.</p>
<h2>West still favour’s Kyiv plan</h2>
<p>The western favourite, so far, remains the Ukrainian peace plan. This was first <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ip7wXSfxx0&t=17s">presented as a five-point plan</a> by Zelensky at the UN General Assembly meeting in September 2022. Two months later, at the G20 summit in Bali, the Ukrainian president <a href="https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/11/15/7376378/">outlined</a> the current ten-point version. Then, and also at the May 2023 G7 summit in Hiroshima, Zelensky <a href="https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/prezident-ukrayini-vzyav-uchast-u-samiti-krayin-velikoyi-sim-83069">proposed further discussions</a> at a global peace summit. </p>
<p>This idea now has new momentum after <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/denmark-would-like-host-ukraine-peace-summit-july-ritzau-news-2023-05-22/">Denmark offered</a> to host such a summit – suggesting that key players from the global south including India and Brazil, as well as China, should attend.</p>
<p>None of this makes it any more likely that negotiations between Russia and Ukraine about the end of the war are imminent. The main reason is that the fundamental disagreement remains. Zelensky demands a complete Russian withdrawal from all occupied Ukrainian territories, including Crimea, as a precondition for talks. Russia <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-02-28-23/h_bda0263d1df654e223b81166d6c934e1">insists</a> that Ukraine should accept the “new territorial realities” on the ground, and enter negotiations on that basis. </p>
<h2>Mutual distrust</h2>
<p>As long as this gap between the positions of Kyiv and Moscow remains, any plans that prioritise a ceasefire over Russian withdrawal, such as the African and Indonesian proposals, are stillborn. Neither Ukraine nor its western partners can accept this, as it would freeze the current frontline and give Russia yet more time and opportunity to consolidate its hold on these illegally occupied territories.</p>
<p>Any such deal would also be eerily reminiscent of the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/what-are-minsk-agreements-ukraine-conflict-2022-02-21/">Minsk accords of September 2014 and February 2015</a>, which established an unstable ceasefire and whose non-implementation provided part of the pretext for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.</p>
<p>Notwithstanding these problems, pressure on both sides to start negotiating an end to the war will continue to grow. The African peace mission was significantly motivated by the fact that the countries on the continent have massively suffered from the economic consequences of the war. </p>
<p>If, for example, there is no extension of the UN-Turkish brokered deal on grain shipments from Ukrainian Black Sea ports, which is <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/un-chief-calls-for-acceleration-of-black-sea-grain-deal-exports/ar-AA1cOwMz">due for renewal in July</a>, more African pressure on both sides is likely. The currently <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/news/russia-thinking-of-ditching-grain-deal-due-to-wests-cheating/vi-AA1cxAsC">hardening Russian line</a> does not bode well in this regard, and indicates the limited leverage that peace initiatives such as those by the African leaders really have.</p>
<p>Real pressure will have to come from more powerful players – key among them China and, arguably, other BRICS countries such as India and Brazil. In this context, the stabilisation of relations between China and the west is critical.</p>
<p>This is at least back on course as a result of recent shuttle diplomacy – notably, the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/blinken-wrap-up-rare-visit-china-may-meet-xi-jinping-2023-06-18/">visit</a> by US secretary of state Antony Blinken to China, and that by a high-level Chinese government delegation, led by the prime minister Li Qiang, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/chinas-premier-li-visit-germany-france-first-overseas-trip-2023-06-15/">to Germany and France</a>. These are extremely important engagements because they create incentives for Beijing not to throw its full weight behind Moscow. </p>
<p>It also means the doors are not closed on future cooperation between China and the west during any actual peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.</p>
<p>These bigger geopolitical machinations in the background are important because they <a href="https://www.navigatingthevortex.com/p/moving-on-from-ukraine-china-west#details">shape the broader context</a> in which an end to the war will eventually come about. But they are just that – background to an ongoing brutal war, forced upon a sovereign European state by its revisionist eastern neighbour. </p>
<p>Ultimately, the key pressure point – for now, at least – remains military in nature. The more successful Ukraine’s counteroffensive, the stronger its position in the run-up to negotiations and at the negotiation table.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208162/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stefan Wolff is a past recipient of grant funding from the Natural Environment Research Council of the UK, the United States Institute of Peace, the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK, the British Academy, the NATO Science for Peace Programme, the EU Framework Programmes 6 and 7 and Horizon 2020, as well as the EU's Jean Monnet Programme. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Centre in London and Co-Coordinator of the OSCE Network of Think Tanks and Academic Institutions.</span></em></p>Despite a procession of peace plans for Ukraine, irreconcilable divisions remain between Kyiv and Moscow.Stefan Wolff, Professor of International Security, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2072942023-06-08T05:56:36Z2023-06-08T05:56:36ZPope Francis is recovering from hernia surgery. But what exactly is a hernia?<p>Pope Francis has had an operation this week to remove a hernia, which his <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-06/pope-francis-surgery-gemelli-hospital-surgeon-briefing.html">surgeon said</a> had been causing him increasingly frequent pain.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1666582472329506817"}"></div></p>
<p>This planned surgery was to remove a type of hernia caused by scarring from previous operations, known as an incisional hernia.</p>
<p>Hernias are common and there are many different types. Not all need surgery. But what actually is a hernia? And if you do need surgery, what can you expect?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/health-check-why-can-you-feel-groggy-days-after-an-operation-74989">Health Check: why can you feel groggy days after an operation?</a>
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<h2>What is a hernia? Am I at risk?</h2>
<p>Your abdomen has a number of layers of muscle that help protect and wrap around your internal organs. A <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/hernia">hernia</a> occurs when tissues or organs bulge through a weak point in that muscular wall. </p>
<p>Hernias can be present at birth but can also arise later in life when the abdomen is under a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5586997/">lot of pressure</a>. </p>
<p>Pregnant women are prone to developing hernias, as are people who are overweight, those lifting heavy weights (either at work or in the gym), and people with chronic health conditions that increase abdominal pressure, such as constipation.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/health-check-what-causes-constipation-114290">Health Check: what causes constipation?</a>
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<h2>Types of hernias</h2>
<p>There are different types of hernia.</p>
<p><strong>1. Inguinal hernias</strong></p>
<p>These occur when fatty tissue or a bit of the small bowel pokes through a weak area in the lower abdominal wall. They tend to develop on one side of the groin.</p>
<p>Inguinal hernias are the most common type of hernia and account for almost <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1258/shorts.2010.010071">three-quarters</a> of all abdominal wall hernias. </p>
<p><a href="https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/25/4/835/655815?login=true">Some</a> 27% men and 3% of women will develop an inguinal hernia at some point in their lives. The <a href="https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/165/10/1154/57933">risk</a> increases with age.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530790/original/file-20230608-19-rgqeqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man holding groin" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530790/original/file-20230608-19-rgqeqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530790/original/file-20230608-19-rgqeqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530790/original/file-20230608-19-rgqeqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530790/original/file-20230608-19-rgqeqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530790/original/file-20230608-19-rgqeqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530790/original/file-20230608-19-rgqeqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530790/original/file-20230608-19-rgqeqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The first sign of a hernia may be a painful or noticeable bulge in your groin on either side of the pubic bone.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pain-groin-bladder-concept-prostatitis-inflammation-2072288714">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>2. Femoral hernias</strong> </p>
<p>Fatty tissue or a bit of the small bowel can also poke into two deeper passages in the groin called the femoral canals. Hernias through these passages are known as femoral hernias. They’re far less common than inguinal hernias and are <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9414042/">much more common</a> in women than in men.</p>
<p><strong>3. Umbilical hernias</strong></p>
<p>These occur when fatty tissue or a bit of the small bowel bulges through the opening of the abdominal muscles close to the belly button.</p>
<p>They are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2537019/">most common</a> in newborns and infants younger than six months. They result from the abdominal opening that the umbilical cord passes through not sealing properly after birth. </p>
<p>The vast majority of these hernias don’t cause any issues and will disappear by the time the child is five years old. </p>
<p>Adults can get umbilical hernias too. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK459312/">Risk factors</a> include being overweight and having a chronic condition that increases abdominal pressure, such as a chronic cough or fluid in the abdomen (called ascites) that often arises from liver disease.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530801/original/file-20230608-24-bm4n8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Graphic of woman's body and different types of hernia" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530801/original/file-20230608-24-bm4n8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530801/original/file-20230608-24-bm4n8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530801/original/file-20230608-24-bm4n8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530801/original/file-20230608-24-bm4n8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530801/original/file-20230608-24-bm4n8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530801/original/file-20230608-24-bm4n8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530801/original/file-20230608-24-bm4n8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There are different types of hernia, some more common than others.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/hernia-types-vector-illustration-cross-section-1072863614">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>4. Hiatus hernias</strong></p>
<p>These occur when the upper part of the stomach bulges through the large muscle separating the abdomen and chest (the diaphragm). You’re <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21178776/">more likely</a> to develop these if you are older or overweight.</p>
<p>Many people with small hiatus hernias will have no symptoms. But in some people, large ones can be associated with reflux symptoms, such as heartburn and regurgitation.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-gastric-reflux-18791">Explainer: what is gastric reflux?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>5. Incisional hernias</strong></p>
<p>These hernias can occur after surgery, which is what happened with Pope Francis.</p>
<p>These arise when there is a weakness in the abdominal wall located at the site of a cut made during a previous operation. Pope Francis’ incisional hernia was repaired because the loops of small bowel in that hernia were getting partially blocked and causing pain.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530743/original/file-20230608-27-icn0yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Surgeons performing an operation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530743/original/file-20230608-27-icn0yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530743/original/file-20230608-27-icn0yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530743/original/file-20230608-27-icn0yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530743/original/file-20230608-27-icn0yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530743/original/file-20230608-27-icn0yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530743/original/file-20230608-27-icn0yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530743/original/file-20230608-27-icn0yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Surgery may be needed to remove a hernia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/surgeon-hands-on-sterile-gloves-performing-1535134103">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>6. Others</strong></p>
<p>There are several other types of hernias. These include <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3910527/">muscle hernias</a> where part of the muscle can poke through surrounding tissue. These are most common in leg muscles after an injury.</p>
<h2>What to do about a hernia?</h2>
<p>The first sign of an inguinal or femoral hernia may be a painful or noticeable bulge in your groin. This bulge will generally become more noticeable when you stand up, cough or strain during a bowel movement. For umbilical or incisional hernias, you may notice a bulge on the abdomen.</p>
<p>You should seek urgent medical attention if you have a hernia and experience severe abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, difficulty in passing wind or if the hernia becomes very firm and tender. This could <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4245506/">signify</a> the blood supply to the bit of bowel inside the hernia is cut off or the bowel has become twisted and is fully blocked. </p>
<p>Fortunately, the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1743919113000873">vast majority</a> <a href="https://bmcsurg.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12893-022-01873-9">of</a> abdominal hernias can be repaired with surgery. </p>
<p>In many cases, such as with Pope Francis, this surgery is carried out with the assistance of a surgical mesh. This is a medical device that supports damaged tissue around hernias as it heals. Mesh helps to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8675396/">reduce the risk</a> of a hernia returning. </p>
<p>Most people are able to go home the same day or the day after surgery, with a full recovery expected within a few weeks. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/surgery-rates-are-rising-in-over-85s-but-the-decision-to-operate-isnt-always-easy-116814">Surgery rates are rising in over-85s but the decision to operate isn't always easy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207294/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vincent Ho does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hernias are common. Not all need surgery. Here’s what we know about hernias, who’s most at risk, and how they’re treated.Vincent Ho, Associate Professor and clinical academic gastroenterologist, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2032292023-04-06T19:32:12Z2023-04-06T19:32:12ZThe Vatican just renounced a 500-year-old doctrine that justified colonial land theft … Now what? — Podcast<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/a51538ad-52c3-4f39-b060-550a73ea8017?dark=true"></iframe>
<p>Last week, the Vatican finally <a href="https://apnews.com/article/vatican-indigenous-papal-bulls-pope-francis-062e39ce5f7594a81bb80d0417b3f902">distanced itself from the Doctrine of Discovery</a> — a hundreds of years old decree that justified land theft and enslavement of people who were not Christian. </p>
<p><a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/episodes/the-vatican-just-renounced-a-500-year-old-doctrine-that-justified-colonial-land-theft-now-what">In this episode of <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em></a>, political and Indigenous studies scholar Veldon Coburn explains why the Vatican’s repudiation of the Doctrine is a huge symbolic victory. We also examine what this repudiation may mean for members of Indigenous Nations, what prompted this renouncement, and what still needs to happen.</p>
<p>Coburn said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“For an Indigenous person like myself, it’s profound because after four, five hundred years, since the first Papal Bull was issued, I didn’t think I’d see it. Even though it may not have great material influence over my relationship with the colonial state, I do know that it’s very difficult to get the church to change positions on things because, I mean, you had to twist their arm for a long time to get them to see that the sun was at the centre of the solar system and not the Earth.” </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Moral justifications for settler colonialism</h2>
<p>Coburn explained how the Doctrine became the ideological justification for settler colonialism and enslavement in the Americas, Africa and much of the former colonies as well as the basis of a legal framework that continues to operate and support land dispossession today. </p>
<p>For example, Coburn brings up a 2005 court case involving the Oneida Nation. He said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I know people cherished Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but she wrote the decision for the courts in 2005… It was kind of a cruel decision too. It’s like, we stole your land. We get it. You’re not getting it back. And then she explicitly cites the Doctrine of Discovery [denying] Indigenous title to the Oneida Nation in New York State.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We also get into the difference between western ideas about land and Indigenous Knowledge. And how ownership and commodification were central to this decree.</p>
<p>Coburn explained how the original decree declared Indigenous territories ready to be claimed because, under western Christian philosophies, land was to be used to generate profit. Coburn said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“They viewed our ‘non-usage’ of the whole territory as wasting God’s gifts. So these were to be exploited … in market exchange for the creation of wealth.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A protest sign is held up. It says: Rescind the Doctrine of Discovery (sic)." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519874/original/file-20230406-28-jfzc31.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519874/original/file-20230406-28-jfzc31.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519874/original/file-20230406-28-jfzc31.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519874/original/file-20230406-28-jfzc31.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519874/original/file-20230406-28-jfzc31.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519874/original/file-20230406-28-jfzc31.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519874/original/file-20230406-28-jfzc31.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A protester holds a sign as Pope Francis takes part in a public event in Iqaluit, Nunavut, July 29, 2022, during his papal visit across Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The legacy of the Doctrine</h2>
<p>While the Church’s role in land theft was quickly taken up by new political entities, the lingering effects of the Doctrine are still evident in current legislative practices. </p>
<p>Christian and European supremacist ideas are evident in the decree: Indigenous Peoples and their existence on land was not sufficient evidence of proper governance. These ideas continue to function as a rationale for ongoing colonial practices. </p>
<h2>A welcome symbolic gesture</h2>
<p>For followers of the church, Coburn said, the Vatican’s official repudiation may work to alleviate the moral stain of colonial plunder. It may also serve as an admittance of culpability. </p>
<p>Mostly, Coburn suggests, the repudiation is a symbolic gesture offered alongside many others. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“…as we’ve seen with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau … the symbolic has moved ahead quite quickly [while] the material aspects of our lived existence still linger in a state that’s more resembling of the worst times of colonial assertions of sovereignty over it. So it really hasn’t changed. They’re still holding onto our land and saying, well, we said we’re sorry. What more can we do? There’s a lot more… the rightful return, restorative justice means: land back.” </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Read more</h2>
<p><a href="https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/capitalism-and-dispossession"><em>Capitalism and Dispossession</em> by Veldon Coburn</a></p>
<p><a href="https://humanrights.ca/story/doctrine-discovery">What is the Doctrine of Discovery?</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.afn.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/18-01-22-Dismantling-the-Doctrine-of-Discovery-EN.pdf">Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery</a>:
Recommendations from the Assembly of First Nations on how to dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery</p>
<p><a href="https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/capitalism-and-dispossession"><em>Corporate Canada at Home and Abroad</em> (May 2022) (edited by David P. Thomas and Veldon Coburn)</a>: “This edited collection brings together a broad range of case studies to highlight the role of Canadian corporations in producing, deepening and exacerbating conditions of dispossession both at home and abroad.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/03/30/1167056438/vatican-doctrine-of-discovery-colonialism-indigenous?tpcc=nlraceahead">The Vatican repudiates ‘Doctrine of Discovery,’ which was used to justify colonialism</a>:
“The ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ that was used to justify snuffing out Indigenous people’s culture and livelihoods is not part of the Catholic faith.”</p>
<p><a href="https://thenarwhal.ca/rcmp-arrests-wetsuweten-gidimten-camp/">RCMP arrest five land defenders on Wet’suwet’en territory as Coastal GasLink construction continues</a>: Dinï ze’ (Hereditary Chief) Gisday’wa says: “There’s no such thing as Crown land in Canada … It belongs to us, the Natives.” In 1997, the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed the Wet’suwet’en never gave up their Rights and Title to the territory in a landmark case called Delgamuukw-Gisdaywa.</p>
<h2>Listen and Follow</h2>
<p>You can listen to or follow <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em> on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dont-call-me-resilient/id1549798876">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9qZFg0Ql9DOA">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/37tK4zmjWvq2Sh6jLIpzp7">Spotify</a> or <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com">wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts</a>. <a href="mailto:DCMR@theconversation.com">We’d love to hear from you</a>, including any ideas for future episodes. Join The Conversation on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationCA">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheConversationCanada">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@theconversation">TikTok</a> and use #DontCallMeResilient.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203229/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The Vatican has repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery, a 500-year-old decree used to justify settler colonialism. Scholar Veldon Coburn explains this symbolic victory and what still needs to happen.Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientBoké Saisi, Associate Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2028732023-03-31T11:41:33Z2023-03-31T11:41:33ZThe Pope Francis puffer coat was fake – here’s a history of real papal fashion<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518162/original/file-20230329-24-yl530w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1748%2C1153&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The AI-generated images of Pope Francis that fooled much of the internet. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/midjourney/comments/120vhdc/the_pope_drip/">Created by Midjourney</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Before news of his <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-65125655">hospitalisation for a respiratory infection</a> this week, a fake image of Pope Francis wearing a <a href="https://time.com/6266606/how-to-spot-deepfake-pope/">Balenciaga-style</a> white puffer jacket was <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/midjourney/comments/120vhdc/the_pope_drip/">posted to Reddit</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/singareddynm/status/1639655045875507201?s=20">Twitter</a>. The image – created through AI programme <a href="https://www.midjourney.com/home/?callbackUrl=%2Fapp%2F">Midjourney</a> – had many viewers fooled into believing that the head of the Catholic church had dramatically updated his style.</p>
<p>As an art historian and an ecclesiastical historian, the image has fascinated me, not least in thinking about the rich history of papal fashion.</p>
<p>First of all, it caught my eye because it looks like shot silk (fabric made of silk woven from two or more colours producing an iridescent appearance). Intentionally or not, it’s a nice nod to the <a href="https://aleteia.org/2019/08/28/why-does-pope-francis-wear-a-sash/"><em>fascia</em></a>, a sash worn by clerics over their cassocks.</p>
<p>This detail hints at the way papal dress and indeed the attire of many people in formal positions works. It not usually just about the shape and colour, but also the quality or materials used. </p>
<p>Being the pope is a bit like dressing for a wedding every day: even as a guest you wouldn’t turn up in your denims. You honour your hosts by wearing the best you possibly can.</p>
<h2>The palette of the Pope</h2>
<p>In the 21st century, popes have increasingly worn only white, now generally identified as the papal colour. But red is also a pope hue of choice – for example, John Paul II (1920-2005) usually wore white, but he also wore <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Colorization/comments/nbfhyj/pope_john_paul_ii_by_yousuf_karsh_in_1979/">red capes and cloaks</a>.</p>
<p>Benedict XVI (1927-2022) brought back the <em>camauro</em> – <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-xpm-2013-feb-17-la-oe-allen-pope-fashion-20130217-story.html">nicknamed the “Santa hat”</a> – which is a red silk and velvet cap trimmed with ermine reserved for the pope’s use. The <em>camauro</em> goes back to at least the 12th century when it was related more closely to philosophers and teachers and the hat they wore, known as a <em>pileus</em>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518229/original/file-20230329-1469-5kepao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting of Pope Gregory the Great writing at a desk wearing a shiny red cape." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518229/original/file-20230329-1469-5kepao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518229/original/file-20230329-1469-5kepao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518229/original/file-20230329-1469-5kepao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518229/original/file-20230329-1469-5kepao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518229/original/file-20230329-1469-5kepao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1058&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518229/original/file-20230329-1469-5kepao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1058&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518229/original/file-20230329-1469-5kepao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1058&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pope Gregory the Great (c. 540–604), in a painting by Carlo Saraceni (c. 1610).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gregorythegreat.jpg">National Gallery of Ancient Art, Rome</a></span>
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<p>Historically, portraits of senators, lawyers and academics often show them wearing red which is used to communicate a message of “official”. </p>
<p>Cardinals, the most senior clerics in the Roman Catholic Church next to the pope, wear red precisely because it is a papal colour and their power (or more accurately, influence) derives entirely from the pope.</p>
<p>Pope Paul II (1417-1471) tried to ensure quality over quantity when, amid shortages, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/17934885/ONCE_UPON_A_TIME_THE_KERMES">he officially reserved</a> the very best red dye for himself and his cardinals.</p>
<p>As a result of the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, trade from the eastern Mediterranean was disrupted. This meant that the supply of red dye kermes – which derives from the galls produced by parasitic wasps on oak trees indigenous to the Mediterranean basin and eastern Continent – was severely curtailed.</p>
<p>It was not until the middle of the 16th century that <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/cochineal">cochineal</a> – which comes from parasitic insects on prickly pear cactuses – became available in Europe because of Spanish and Portuguese expansion into South America. </p>
<p>Whatever the dye, papal quality is also communicated by fabrics which hold unparalleled depths of hue: silk, not cotton or linen, alpaca not ordinary wool.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518230/original/file-20230329-22-h8xtel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Portrait of John Paul II wearing a red cape and holding a wooden crucifix." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518230/original/file-20230329-22-h8xtel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518230/original/file-20230329-22-h8xtel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518230/original/file-20230329-22-h8xtel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518230/original/file-20230329-22-h8xtel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518230/original/file-20230329-22-h8xtel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518230/original/file-20230329-22-h8xtel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518230/original/file-20230329-22-h8xtel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Portrait of John Paul II wearing a red cape, by Guido Greganti (1983).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/rome-italy-august-28-2021-portrait-2060097083">Renata Sedmakova/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Historians know from <a href="https://archive.org/details/RationaleDivinorumOfficiorumDurandoEBeletho/page/n7/mode/2up">13th century sources</a> that popes have always worn white next to their skin (though from at least the 15th century <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-and-off-the-avenue/where-the-pope-gets-his-socks">their socks have been red</a>). </p>
<p>White represents Christlike purity, innocence and charity, while red symbolises compassion and the pope’s willingness to sacrifice himself for his people.</p>
<p>In ancient Rome, red was the colour of imperial power whereas white was associated specifically with the city. So, the papal colours represent the pope’s universal significance as head of the Catholic church as well as his local position as Bishop of Rome.</p>
<p>Popes can also wear blue – <a href="https://archive.org/details/diuominiillu00vesp/page/30/mode/2up">Pope Nicholas V</a> (1997-1455) particularly liked this colour. John Paul II, on one of his famous hiking trips, wore his white cassock <a href="https://www.monacosporthotel.com/en/activities/itineraries/the-hiking-trails-of-pope-john-paul-ii-_63c20.html">under a padded blue jacket</a>.</p>
<p>For papal fashion purposes, blue can stand in for red. In penitential seasons (<a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/42900/what-is-advent-anyway-a-cna-explainer">Advent</a> and <a href="https://christianity.org.uk/article/what-is-lent">Lent</a>) or during periods of mourning, bright colours are not appropriate. But dip your bright red silks in a final dye bath of indigo and you get peacock (<em><a href="https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004415447/BP000041.xml">pavonazzo</a></em>) which has the iridescence of the bird’s feathers.</p>
<p>Someone with the social conscience of Pope Francis I probably doesn’t give two hoots about what he wears. But as a Jesuit – one of the most highly educated, intellectual and thoughtful of all the groups in the Roman Catholic Church – he would understand the values of continuity and devotion communicated by both what he wears and how he wears it.</p>
<p>I would like to imagine, as he recovers from his respiratory infection, that he would be cheered up by high-tech mashups, such as this image of himself in a puffer coat – so long as they play within the rules of such a dignified man in such a venerable office.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202873/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carol Richardson receives funding from British Academy/Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p>Popes wear white to represent Christlike purity and red to symbolise compassion.Carol Richardson, Professor of Early Modern Art History, History of Art, The University of EdinburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2016382023-03-12T15:23:57Z2023-03-12T15:23:57ZPope Francis: the first post-colonial papacy to deliver messages that resonate with Africans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514818/original/file-20230312-4561-9x10he.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pope Francis at Martyrs Stadium in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, in February 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Guerchom Ndebo/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When he was presented to a cheering crowd at St Peter’s Square, Vatican City, on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/13/pope-francis-mario-bergoglio-election">13 March 2013</a>, few people outside Latin America knew much about Jorge Bergoglio.</p>
<p>But a decade later, based on my work as a scholar of Catholicism, I would argue that most Catholics know and love Pope Francis. They also see a deep connection between his message and priorities, and their dreams and hopes for a better church and a world that is reconciled.</p>
<p>When Pope Francis was introduced in 2013, I was working as an African expert on global Catholicism for Canada Television. I went blank when the new pope was presented to the world on live TV because I had no biographical information on him. So, I <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/pope/opinion-what-happens-in-the-catholic-church-matters-to-everyone-1.1193979">ran off the list</a> of what we African Catholics wanted from the new pope. </p>
<p>This included a decentralised and decolonised Catholicism, with more powers given to local church leaders to address local challenges using their own cultural and spiritual resources. There was also the urgent need to give African Catholics more places at the decision-making table in the world church. </p>
<p>Before Pope Francis, many of these challenges were either ignored, spiritualised or papered over through moral platitudes. Pope Francis has taken them on. He is the first post-colonial pope to <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_constitutions/documents/20220319-costituzione-ap-praedicate-evangelium.html">challenge the system</a> within the church and society that exploits the poor and vulnerable. </p>
<p>Pope Francis’ papacy is anchored on what he calls a “<a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/world/news/2019-12/the-revolution-of-tenderness.html">revolution of tenderness</a>”. This reflects two central themes: the courage to dream and the culture of encounter.</p>
<p>These two themes have resonated with African Catholics. They awaken a sense of hope that by collectively tapping into Africa’s human, material and spiritual resources, it’s possible to address the continent’s social, economic and political challenges. </p>
<h2>The courage to dream</h2>
<p>The word “dream” is a constant in Pope Francis’ vocabulary. It is the title of one of his recent books, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Let-Us-Dream-Better-Future/dp/1982171863/ref=sr_1_1?adgrpid=80694070239&hvadid=585362630358&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1009824&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=8693299832780598455&hvtargid=kwd-1004150851821&hydadcr=19673_13388860&keywords=let+us+dream+pope+francis&qid=1678516851&sr=8-1">Let us Dream: The Path to a Better Future</a>. In it, he invites people to work together as one human family and break the chains of domination driven by nationalism, economic protectionism and discrimination. </p>
<p>He described his <a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-visit-to-africa-comes-at-a-defining-moment-for-the-catholic-church-197633">recent trip to Africa</a> as a dream come true. It gave him the opportunity to <a href="http://www.vaticannews.cn/en/pope/news/2023-02/pope-at-audience-visit-to-drc-and-south-sudan-to-bring-peace.html">share a message of hope and peace</a> with the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-visit-to-africa-comes-at-a-defining-moment-for-the-catholic-church-197633">Pope Francis' visit to Africa comes at a defining moment for the Catholic church</a>
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<p>When he <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-03/pope-francis-urbi-et-orbi-blessing-coronavirus.html">stood alone</a> at St Peter’s Square in March 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis asked humanity “to reawaken and put into practice that solidarity and hope capable of giving strength”, and embrace the courage to dream again. </p>
<p>Reflecting on the question Jesus asked his disciples in the Bible, “<a href="https://www.bible.com/bible/116/MAT.8.26.NLT">Why are you afraid?</a>”. He encouraged humanity not to lose hope because of the fear and despair surrounding the loss of lives from the virus.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514772/original/file-20230311-1750-odqfsn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man in a white robe walking towards a set of stairs, a single white and gold seat is at the top of the stairs and a crucifix hangs on the wall behind it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514772/original/file-20230311-1750-odqfsn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514772/original/file-20230311-1750-odqfsn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514772/original/file-20230311-1750-odqfsn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514772/original/file-20230311-1750-odqfsn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514772/original/file-20230311-1750-odqfsn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514772/original/file-20230311-1750-odqfsn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514772/original/file-20230311-1750-odqfsn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Pope Francis walks to deliver a special blessing at the Vatican’s St Peter’s Square during the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vatican Pool - Corbis/Getty Images</span></span>
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<h2>The culture of encounter</h2>
<p>In his speech to the <a href="https://time.com/4049905/pope-francis-us-visit-united-nations-speech-transcript/">UN General Assembly in 2015</a>, Pope Francis invited the world to embrace a <a href="https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/responses/a-culture-of-encounter-pope-francis-ubuntu-paradigm-for-global-fraternity">culture of encounter</a>. </p>
<p>This, he said, would lead to a “revolution of tenderness” and the globalisation of love and solidarity.</p>
<p>I have argued in <a href="https://works.bepress.com/stanchuilo/">my research</a> that the “culture of encounter” is his way of capturing the communal ethics of <a href="https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Ubuntu_(philosophy)#:%7E:text=as%20a%20whole.-,Meaning%20of%20the%20word%20ubuntu,Bantu%20languages%20have%20similar%20terms.">ubuntu</a>, which encompasses African values of community, participation, inclusion and solidarity. </p>
<p>Under this theme, Pope Francis is <a href="https://www.osservatoreromano.va/it/news/2023-03/quo-051/the-transfiguration-of-pope-francis-and-god-s-people-in-africa.html">challenging people</a> to envision a world freed from violence and war; of a common humanity dwelling in peace in a healthy climate; and of economies that work for all, especially the poor.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/francis-is-the-first-jesuit-pope-heres-how-that-has-shaped-his-10-year-papacy-200667">Francis is the first Jesuit pope – here's how that has shaped his 10-year papacy</a>
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<p>In his letter to bishops, <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20201003_enciclica-fratelli-tutti.html">Fratelli Tutti (no.195)</a>, Pope Francis says the culture of encounter can shatter socially and historically designed narrow structures, systems and institutional practices. The dream of a better world, he says, can be realised if people learn to love rather than hate. </p>
<p>Pope Francis challenges all global citizens to contribute to mending the interconnections that have been ruptured among peoples, nations, cultures, churches and religions. These ruptures, he says, are the result of long years of exclusionary practices, unjust economic and global systems, and false ideologies of identity. </p>
<h2>Realising the dream</h2>
<p>In his apostolic exhortation <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20200202_querida-amazonia.html">Querida Amazonia</a>, Pope Francis writes about four dreams he has for all people.</p>
<p>First is a social dream, where everyone can live an abundant life in dignity and in a healthy environment. This can be realised, he proposes, through “an arduous effort on behalf of the poor”.</p>
<p>The second is a cultural dream where people’s cultures are affirmed. Their talents are valued, and they can apply their human potential and material resources as free agents. For an African continent that continues to suffer the effects of colonialism in both church and state, Pope Francis proposes a strong resistance to the destructive forces of neocolonialism.</p>
<p>The third dream is the hope for humanity that flourishes through responsible stewardship of Earth’s resources. This invites all peoples to care for, protect and defend the environment.</p>
<p>The fourth dream is Pope Francis’ hope that the Catholic church will become a community of communities, where people seek common ground. This requires the rejection of any forms of exclusionary practices in the church. It advocates the liberation of the poor, and the protection of the rights of the vulnerable and those who have suffered neglect, oppression and abuse. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/it-shouldnt-seem-so-surprising-when-the-pope-says-being-gay-isnt-a-crime-a-catholic-theologian-explains-198566">It shouldn't seem so surprising when the pope says being gay 'isn't a crime' – a Catholic theologian explains</a>
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<p>Realising this dream, in Africa particularly, requires dismantling the structures of neocolonialism, the global structures of injustice, and the dependency cycle that continues to characterise the relationship between the continent and the rest of the world. </p>
<p>It will also require a new crop of transformational leaders who are on the side of the people. Leaders who place the interests of their countries and the continent above selfish, ethnic or partisan interests. </p>
<h2>New identity</h2>
<p>Pope Francis’ revolution of tenderness can help bring about a new cohesive identity in Africa built on a historical consciousness of who we are, how far we have come and how we can reach the future of our dream. </p>
<p>The courage to dream and the culture of encounter are capable of ushering in new ethics of co-operation, collaboration and inclusion so that the common good is promoted and preserved for the benefit of all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201638/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stan Chu Ilo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pope Francis’ papacy is anchored on what he calls a “revolution of tenderness”.Stan Chu Ilo, Research Professor, World Christianity and African Studies, DePaul UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2006672023-03-10T13:40:44Z2023-03-10T13:40:44ZFrancis is the first Jesuit pope – here’s how that has shaped his 10-year papacy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514040/original/file-20230307-14-9bcxwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C4%2C1020%2C677&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pope Francis attends his weekly general audience in Vatican City on Feb. 15, 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pope-francis-attends-his-weekly-general-audience-at-the-news-photo/1466415224?phrase=%22pope%20francis%22&adppopup=true">Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since Jorge Mario Bergoglio first stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica as Pope Francis on March 13, 2013, he has made no shortage of statements that attract attention. “<a href="https://www.ncronline.org/francis-explains-who-am-i-judge">Who am I to judge</a>?” he famously said about gay priests. “Nowadays there is <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2016/06/20/160620d.html">an economy that kills</a>,” he once declared – a comment that led critics to rather implausibly label the pontiff <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/12/15/pope-marxist-label/4030929/">a Marxist</a>.</p>
<p>As the Argentinian pope approaches the 10th year of his papacy, his positions on issues deemed “political” still <a href="https://theconversation.com/it-shouldnt-seem-so-surprising-when-the-pope-says-being-gay-isnt-a-crime-a-catholic-theologian-explains-198566">make their way into headlines</a>. But as is the nature of headlines, the framework from which his positions emerge isn’t always apparent.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/artssciences/religiousstudies/gabrielli-timothy.php">a researcher of Catholicism</a>, I’d like to shed some light on a common pattern in Pope Francis’ writings. It’s a pattern that I believe is rooted in the pope’s spirituality as a Jesuit – a member of the <a href="https://www.jesuits.org/about-us/the-jesuits/">Society of Jesus</a> – a Catholic religious order founded by St. Ignatius Loyola in the 16th century. </p>
<h2>Saint’s legacy</h2>
<p>The “<a href="https://store.loyolapress.com/the-spiritual-exercises-of-saint-ignatius-ganss">Spiritual Exercises</a>,” written by St. Ignatius, is a guide to spiritual development that Jesuits and others have used for centuries. It encourages participants to pay careful attention to the inner movements of the spirit or soul that shape their decisions and actions. </p>
<p>The goal of the <a href="https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/andrew-garfield-spiritual-exercises/">step-by-step exercises</a> is to recognize oneself as a sinner, but – crucially – a sinner loved by God. A “spiritual director” helps the participant first to recognize brokenness in their life, then to perceive God’s love by contemplating the life of Jesus. Ultimately, the exercises lead people to deepen their relationship with Christ, so that they may discern how best to make decisions. </p>
<p>Like a spiritual director, Francis’ first step is often to acknowledge a “presenting problem,” as a doctor might say: the symptom or apparent issue that is bothering someone. He then eliminates superficial solutions that don’t address the underlying “disease,” before calling for a more fundamental change.</p>
<p>In 2018, for example, U.S. bishops were set to vote on two proposals related to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-sex-abuse-crisis-4-essential-reads-169442">clerical sex abuse</a>: a code of conduct for clerics and new review boards to evaluate bishops’ conduct. Commentators from all quarters howled when Francis <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/13/18089134/usccb-catholic-bishop-pope-francis-vote-clerical-sex-abuse">halted the vote</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514513/original/file-20230309-121-jyl2c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A crowd of people in winter clothing holding candles during a nighttime vigil." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514513/original/file-20230309-121-jyl2c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514513/original/file-20230309-121-jyl2c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514513/original/file-20230309-121-jyl2c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514513/original/file-20230309-121-jyl2c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514513/original/file-20230309-121-jyl2c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514513/original/file-20230309-121-jyl2c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514513/original/file-20230309-121-jyl2c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Portuguese Catholics hold candles during a vigil in Lisbon for the victims of clerical sexual abuse.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/portuguese-members-of-the-faithful-hold-candles-during-a-news-photo/1468641791?phrase=catholic%20church%20sex%20abuse&adppopup=true">Horacio Villalobos/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Instead, he insisted that the bishops go on <a href="https://www.usccb.org/about/leadership/holy-see/francis/upload/francis-lettera-washington-traduzione-inglese-20190103.pdf">a religious retreat</a>. The Church’s credibility had been “undercut and diminished,” he warned. Francis called on them to relearn how to relate to one another, and to lay Catholics, by spending time in prayer with the gospels, so that they would focus less on “pointing fingers” and more on “seeking paths of reconciliation.”</p>
<p>Without that more fundamental change, Francis wrote, codes and boards could merely be about meeting corporate-style “standards of functionalism and efficiency,” and the call to fundamentally mend relationships would go unheeded. Policies might indeed be necessary, but not before the bishops reminded themselves of their fundamental task to follow Jesus in building relationships with one another and laity.</p>
<p>Several months afterward, the group <a href="https://www.usccb.org/news/2019/us-bishops-vote-favor-three-additional-bishop-accountability-measures-during-baltimore">adopted new rules</a> for oversight of bishops. Critics argued the reforms <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/06/13/catholic-bishops-adopt-long-promised-abuse-plan-bishops-police-bishops/">did not go far enough</a>, however, particularly in terms of involving lay people or law enforcement.</p>
<h2>Going to the root</h2>
<p>Yet the 2018 episode underscores a broader theme of Francis’ papacy: When accompanying a person, the church or even the whole world on a spiritual journey, pointing out problems and tinkering with surface-level solutions is never going to be good enough. What’s needed, he insists, is a cure for a deeper malaise. </p>
<p>As he said early in his papacy, describing the mission of the church today, “I see the church as <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2013/09/30/big-heart-open-god-interview-pope-francis">a field hospital</a> after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds.” </p>
<p>In Francis’ eyes, both the church and society are wounded, and the church does not stand apart from the world’s problems – in fact, it must not, because it is Christ’s ongoing presence on earth. But both must acknowledge their deeper sources of brokenness in order to find true solutions.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514511/original/file-20230309-26-eun3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The pope, wearing a white skullcap, bends down to kiss the hand of a child in his mother's lap." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514511/original/file-20230309-26-eun3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514511/original/file-20230309-26-eun3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514511/original/file-20230309-26-eun3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514511/original/file-20230309-26-eun3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514511/original/file-20230309-26-eun3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514511/original/file-20230309-26-eun3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514511/original/file-20230309-26-eun3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Pope Francis blesses a child attending the weekly general audience at the Vatican in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pope-francis-blesses-a-sick-child-attending-the-weekly-news-photo/1094264400?phrase=%22pope%20francis%20blesses%20a%22&adppopup=true">Andreas Solaro/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>This ethos is apparent in Francis’ approach to one of the most pressing problems today: climate change. In 2015, he issued the first papal document dedicated exclusively to <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html">ecological degradation</a>. It begins, <a href="https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20150630_laudato-si-ecosoc_en.html">said a key adviser to Francis</a>, with “a spiritual listening to the results of the best scientific research on environmental matters available today,” which demonstrates that our environmental situation is <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-science-everyone-needs-to-know-about-climate-change-in-6-charts-170556">bad and getting worse</a>.</p>
<p>That’s the presenting problem. A superficial response is <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html#_ftnref85">purely technological</a>: Humans can gain ever greater control over the natural world and its changes. The structures resulting from that vision of domination stand at the root of environmental degradation because technology alone will always come up short, Francis argued.</p>
<p>To perceive the proper place of technological innovation, the world needs an “ecological conversion,” he wrote – a spiritual shift so that people perceive how “everything is connected,” from honeybees and supply lines to compost and impoverishment.</p>
<p>This idea comes from the New Testament, he said, which narrates Jesus’ “<a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html#_ftnref78">tangible and loving relationship with the world</a>.” In the pope’s interpretation, because everything hangs together in Christ, the source of all creation, everything is interconnected. Indeed, the pope’s attention to interconnectedness and healing seems to guide his views on everything from homosexuality to economic inequality.</p>
<h2>Spiritual director in chief</h2>
<p>A few months into Francis’ papacy, an interviewer asked, “<a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2013/september/documents/papa-francesco_20130921_intervista-spadaro.html">Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio</a>?”</p>
<p>“A sinner,” he replied, echoing Ignatius’ “Spiritual Exercises.” </p>
<p>After decades of practicing Jesuit spirituality, Francis has now spent 10 years as pope applying those practices to a much larger audience, reflecting on the deeper roots of brokenness in the world – and urging people toward fundamental change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200667/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Gabrielli does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>‘I see the church as a field hospital,’ Pope Francis once said – not a place where superficial solutions will do much good.Timothy Gabrielli, Gudorf Chair in Catholic Intellectual Traditions, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1994242023-02-09T09:05:11Z2023-02-09T09:05:11ZWhat does the Bible say about homosexuality? For starters, Jesus wasn’t a homophobe<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508641/original/file-20230207-21-ed2xy3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pope Francis was recently asked about his views on homosexuality. He <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/pope-francis-says-laws-criminalising-lgbt-people-are-sin-an-injustice-2023-02-05/">reportedly replied</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This (laws around the world criminalising LGBTI people) is not right. Persons with homosexual tendencies are children of God. God loves them. God accompanies them … condemning a person like this is a sin. Criminalising people with homosexual tendencies is an injustice.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This isn’t the first time Pope Francis has shown himself to be a <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html">progressive leader</a> when it comes to, among other things, gay Catholics. </p>
<p>It’s a stance that has <a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-visit-to-africa-comes-at-a-defining-moment-for-the-catholic-church-197633">drawn the ire</a> of some high-ranking bishops and ordinary Catholics, both on the African continent and elsewhere in the world.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-visit-to-africa-comes-at-a-defining-moment-for-the-catholic-church-197633">Pope Francis' visit to Africa comes at a defining moment for the Catholic church</a>
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<p>Some of these Catholics may argue that Pope Francis’s approach to LGBTI matters is a misinterpretation of Scripture (or the Bible). But is it? </p>
<p>Scripture is particularly important for Christians. When church leaders refer to “the Bible” or “the Scriptures”, they usually mean “the Bible as we understand it through our theological doctrines”. The Bible is always interpreted by our churches through their particular theological lenses. </p>
<p>As a biblical scholar, I would suggest that church leaders who use their cultures and theology to exclude homosexuals don’t read Scripture carefully. Instead, they allow their patriarchal fears to distort it, seeking to find in the Bible proof-texts that will support attitudes of exclusion. </p>
<p>There are several instances in the Bible that underscore my point.</p>
<h2>Love of God and neighbour</h2>
<p>Mark’s Gospel, found in the New Testament, records that Jesus entered the Jerusalem temple on three occasions. First, he visited briefly, and “looked around at everything” (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/mrk.11.11">11:11</a>). </p>
<p>On the second visit he acted, driving “out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves” (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/mrk.11.15">11:15</a>). Jesus specifically targeted those who exploited the poorest of the people coming to the temple. </p>
<p>On his third visit, Jesus spent considerable time in the temple itself (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/MRK.11.NIV">11:27-13:2</a>). He met the full array of temple leadership, including chief priests, teachers of the law and elders. Each of these leadership sectors used their interpretation of Scripture to exclude rather than to include. </p>
<p>The “ordinary people” (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/mrk.11.32">11:32</a> and <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/mrk.12.12">12:12</a>) recognised that Jesus proclaimed a gospel of inclusion. They eagerly embraced him as he walked through the temple. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.bible.com/bible/100/MRK.12.24.NASB1995">Mark 12:24</a>, Jesus addresses the Sadducees, who were the traditional high priests of ancient Israel and played an important role in the temple. Among those who confronted Jesus, they represented the group that held to a conservative theological position and used their interpretation of the Scripture to exclude. Jesus said to them:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Jesus recognised that they chose to interpret Scripture in a way that prevented it from being understood in non-traditional ways. Thus they limited God’s power to be different from traditional understandings of him. Jesus was saying God refused to be the exclusive property of the Sadducees. The ordinary people who followed Jesus understood that he represented a different understanding of God.</p>
<p>This message of inclusion becomes even clearer when Jesus is later confronted by a single scribe (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/100/mrk.12.28">12:28</a>). In answer to the scribe’s question on the most important laws, Jesus summarised the theological ethic of his gospel: love of God and love of neighbour (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/MRK.12.NIV">12:29-31</a>).</p>
<h2>Inclusion, not exclusion</h2>
<p>Those who would exclude homosexuals from God’s kingdom choose to ignore Jesus, turning instead to the Old Testament – most particularly to <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/GEN.19.NIV">Genesis 19</a>, the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Their interpretation of the story is that it is about homosexuality. It isn’t. It relates to hospitality.</p>
<p>The story begins in <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/GEN.18.NIV">Genesis 18</a> when three visitors (God and two angels, appearing as “men”) came before <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abraham">Abraham</a>, a Hebrew patriarch. What did Abraham and his wife Sarah do? They offered hospitality. </p>
<p>The two angels then left Abraham and the Lord and travelled into <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2019%3A1-29&version=NIV">Sodom (19:1)</a> where they met Lot, Abraham’s nephew. What did Lot do? He offered hospitality. The two incidents of hospitality are explained in exactly the same language. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2019%3A1-29&version=NIV">“men of Sodom” (19:4)</a>, as the Bible describes them, didn’t offer the same hospitality to these angels in disguise. Instead they sought to humiliate them (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2019%3A1-29&version=NIV">and Lot (19:9)</a>) by threatening to rape them. We know they were heterosexual because Lot, in attempting to protect himself and his guests, offered his virgin daughters to them <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2019%3A1-29&version=NIV">(19:8)</a>. </p>
<p>Heterosexual rape of men by men is a common act of humiliation. This is an extreme form of inhospitality. The story contrasts extreme hospitality (Abraham and Lot) with the extreme inhospitality of the men of Sodom. It is a story of inclusion, not exclusion. Abraham and Lot included the strangers; the men of Sodom excluded them.</p>
<h2>Clothed in Christ</h2>
<p>When confronted by the inclusive gospel of Jesus and a careful reading of the story of Sodom as one about hospitality, those who disavow Pope Francis’s approach will likely jump to other Scriptures. Why? Because they have a patriarchal agenda and are looking for any Scripture that might support their position.</p>
<p>But the other Scriptures they use also require careful reading. <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/lev.18.22">Leviticus 18:22</a> and <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/lev.20.13">20:13</a>, for example, are not about “homosexuality” as we now understand it – as the caring, loving and sexual relationship between people of the same sex. These texts are about relationships that cross boundaries of purity (between clean and unclean) and ethnicity (Israelite and Canaanite). </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%203%3A28&version=NRSVUE">Galatians 3:28</a> in the New Testament, Paul the apostle yearns for a Christian community where:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Paul built his theological argument on the Jew-Greek distinction, but then extended it to the slave-free distinction and the male-female distinction. Christians – no matter which church they belong to – should follow Paul and extend it to the heterosexual-homosexual distinction. </p>
<p>We are all “clothed in Christ” (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/gal.3.27">3:27</a>): God only sees Christ, not our different sexualities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199424/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gerald West does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Those who exclude any groups of people from God’s kingdom choose to ignore the teaching of Jesus.Gerald West, Senior Professor of Biblical Studies, University of KwaZulu-NatalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1973752023-02-01T06:12:04Z2023-02-01T06:12:04ZPope prepares for South Sudan peace mission – but many people there aren’t ready to forgive<p>Pope Francis, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland plan to visit South Sudan in February 2023 to try and move <a href="http://www.christianunity.va/content/unitacristiani/en/news/2022/2022-12-01-ecumenical-pilgrimage-for-peace.html">the nation towards peace</a>. </p>
<p>The three church leaders will meet church and civil groups. The visit follows a retreat held at the Vatican in 2019, when South Sudanese political leaders were urged to end a civil war that has cost more than <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-southsudan-idUSKCN1RN27G">400,000 lives</a>. </p>
<p>Churches are powerful <a href="https://www.baylorpress.com/9781481308229/christianity-and-catastrophe-in-south-sudan/">authorities in South Sudan</a>, where many people are <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/621868/summary">Christian</a> (estimates of <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-report-on-international-religious-freedom/south-sudan/">60%-80%</a> are highly contested). When South Sudanese political leaders visited the Vatican in 2019, the pope surprised people by <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-africa-47903916">kissing the feet</a> of President Salva Kiir and opposition leader (and former vice president) Riek Machar, as the pontiff urged them <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-southsudan-idUSKCN1RN27G">towards peace</a>.</p>
<p>Religious leaders can provide <a href="https://nsuworks.nova.edu/pcs/vol19/iss1/4/">an alternative diplomatic route</a> when others have failed to reconcile. For example, churches in Columbia have been active in <a href="https://www.usip.org/blog/2022/11/latest-usip-resurgent-efforts-colombias-peace-process">promoting peaceful relations</a>. </p>
<p>I have spent a decade carrying out research on peace and conflict in South Sudan, and research suggests that the two big challenges these religious leaders face are understanding both why people are not ready to forgive and why local institutions face difficulties helping resolve the violence. </p>
<p>Religious leaders have previously called on people to forgive each other as part of a move towards peace. <a href="https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781847013385/spiritual-contestations-the-violence-of-peace-in-south-sudan/">In my forthcoming book</a> I highlight how, for many South Sudanese, forgiveness is seen as undesirable when the violence of the perpetrator is ongoing, and doesn’t provide accountability. </p>
<p>People also feel this ignores people’s obligations to those who were killed during war. Among the communities where I have researched, people want compensation in order to provide for the family of the dead, to <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/article/dead-are-just-to-drink-from-recycling-ideas-of-revenge-among-the-western-dinka-south-sudan/425A11D0B27561FDCA5979AD4A431B41">keep their memory alive</a> and to allow full reconciliation. </p>
<p>Christian churches have sensibly sought to work with existing peacemaking institutions and <a href="https://bradscholars.brad.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10454/17138/Martin%27s%20PhD%20Thesis%20%28Post-viva%20final%20submission%20%20May%201%2C%202018%29.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">not only with political leaders</a>. Local peacemaking is also subject to ongoing, high-level political interference including through the remaking of <a href="https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781847013385/spiritual-contestations-the-violence-of-peace-in-south-sudan/">the meanings of peace rituals</a>. </p>
<p>In areas where I conducted research, decades of governments’ legal reforms, shifting economies and the lack of compensation in peacemaking had undermined local institutions’ <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/article/dead-are-just-to-drink-from-recycling-ideas-of-revenge-among-the-western-dinka-south-sudan/425A11D0B27561FDCA5979AD4A431B41">ability to end violence</a>. </p>
<p>Decades of armed conflicts have had political, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/article/dead-are-just-to-drink-from-recycling-ideas-of-revenge-among-the-western-dinka-south-sudan/425A11D0B27561FDCA5979AD4A431B41">social and spiritual consequences</a>. Local beliefs have long suggested that killers and their communities become subject to “<a href="https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781847013385/spiritual-contestations-the-violence-of-peace-in-south-sudan">spritual pollution</a>” that can have deadly physical manifestations, such as sickness, and that can only be resolved through rituals and reconciliation. </p>
<p>Armed combatants have tried to remake rituals to protect themselves from <a href="https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781847013385/spiritual-contestations-the-violence-of-peace-in-south-sudan/">this “pollution”</a>, but the scale of killing, the use of guns and the patterns of violence all leave fears that situation is unresolved.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The pope offered help to South Sudanese leaders at a previous meeting at the Vatican.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Religious authorities, including those largely invisible to the international community such as <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/182485#metadata_info_tab_contents">Nuer prophets</a> and Dinka spear masters, have a powerful role in setting the <a href="https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/amet.12138">moral limits of lethal violence</a>, and deciding <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03050629.2021.1918126">how war should be fought</a> and resolved.</p>
<h2>Understanding the past</h2>
<p>Wars for a separate South Sudan state started soon after Sudan’s independence from Britain in 1956. Peacemaking by Christian churches in what is now South Sudan also has a long history. </p>
<p>It has also often involved collaboration between different churches including Catholics, Anglicans and Presbyterians. In 1972, the World Council of Churches hosted peace negotiations that ended the war between the Sudan government and the Anyanya rebels who were <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/root-causes-of-sudans-civil-wars/addis-ababa-agreement-the-regional-governments-197283/A9E8251ED9C9F823FF26CB78F8883A49">fighting for southern independence</a>. </p>
<p>From 1983 until the 2005 peace agreement, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) fought against the Sudan government. To gain international support and local recruits, from the 1990s the SPLA framed <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.5325/jafrireli.4.2.0129.pdf">the conflict in religious terms</a>.</p>
<p>These terms pitted the pro-Christian SPLA in what is now South Sudan against the Islamic Sudan government. However, much of the fighting in the 1990s and 2000s was between South Sudanese groups. </p>
<p>The SPLA v Sudan government wars ended with the <a href="https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/SD_060000_The%20Comprehensive%20Peace%20Agreement.pdf">2005 peace agreement</a> that made the SPLA the official army of the south and promised a referendum on southern independence. In 2006, the SPLA absorbed large numbers of anti-SPLA troops from elsewhere in the South in order to reduce divisions between groups. South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011. </p>
<p>Armed conflict escalated again in South Sudan in December 2013 when the army divided along the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article/113/451/300/135552">historic pro- and anti-SPLA lines</a>. This fighting
included <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/01/16/south-sudan-ethnic-targeting-widespread-killings">the targeting of civilians</a> and led to regional <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14678802.2020.1820161">rebellions</a> and the rapid rise of armed opposition. </p>
<p>Within five years, these wars had resulted in <a href="https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/centres/health-humanitarian-crises-centre">400,000 deaths</a>. <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/uk/south-sudan-emergency.html">Millions were displaced</a>, and <a href="https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/108930/1/CRP_chiefs_courts_hunger_and_improving_humanitarian_programming.pdf">hundreds of thousands experienced famine</a>. </p>
<p>In 2018, <a href="https://docs.pca-cpa.org/2016/02/South-Sudan-Peace-Agreement-September-2018.pdf">a peace agreement</a> was signed by the South Sudan government and the largest armed opposition group. However, fighting continued between the government and groups who did not sign the agreement.</p>
<p>In early 2022, armed conflict resulted in the government gaining territory from opposition parties who had signed the peace agreement. At the end of 2022, violence broke out between political factions in Upper Nile state, and offensives were carried out in Jonglei state by groups historically aligned to the opposition.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/kiir-and-machar-insights-into-south-sudans-strongmen-182522">Kiir and Machar: insights into South Sudan's strongmen</a>
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<h2>What’s been tried before?</h2>
<p>In the late 1990s, international and local church leaders engaged with <a href="https://www.cmi.no/file/3278-We-Have-Lived-Too-Long-to-Be-Deceived---RVI-2014-Juba-Lecture-Series-2015.pdf">South Sudanese chiefs and other local religious leaders</a> to try to end violent divisions. A meeting in the <a href="https://riftvalley.net/news/what-happened-wunlit-reliving-south-sudans-most-successful-peace-conference">village of Wunlit</a> was considered a success both because communities resumed peaceful relationships, but also because their political leaders were apparently forced to reconcile. This prompted churches to support dozens of similar processes <a href="https://riftvalley.net/publication/local-peace-processes-sudan">over the subsequent decades</a>. </p>
<p>From 2014, South Sudanese church leaders were official observers at the internationally brokered peace meetings. Church leaders have also publicly criticised <a href="https://www.catholicregister.org/home/international/item/25554-south-sudan-churches-decry-warring-factions-for-ignoring-people-s-needs">the warring parties</a> when they have not supported peace.</p>
<p>One part of <a href="https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781847013385/spiritual-contestations-the-violence-of-peace-in-south-sudan/">my upcoming research</a> describes how South Sudanese, over the last century, have often understood governments and warring parties as “god-like” because they claim to be able to arbitrarily show favour or destruction, without accountability. In such a context, religious authorities have a particularly important role in holding governments and warring parties to account. </p>
<p>To end these wars, church leaders need to take seriously the politics and potential violence of peace and forgiveness.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197375/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Naomi Ruth Pendle receives funding from the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council and the British Academy. </span></em></p>Pope Francis will be part of a peace mission to South Sudan, where thousands have been killed in ongoing violence.Naomi Ruth Pendle, Lecturer in International Development, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1985662023-01-26T21:56:44Z2023-01-26T21:56:44ZIt shouldn’t seem so surprising when the pope says being gay ‘isn’t a crime’ – a Catholic theologian explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506685/original/file-20230126-36898-bos38c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1%2C1024%2C680&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pope Francis leads the second vespers service at St. Paul's Basilica on Jan. 25, 2023, in Rome.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pope-francis-leads-the-celebration-of-the-second-vespers-on-news-photo/1459422783?phrase=pope%20francis&adppopup=true">Alessandra Benedetti/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Once again, Pope Francis has called on Catholics to welcome and accept LGBTQ people.</p>
<p>“Being homosexual isn’t a crime,” the pope said in an <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-gay-rights-ap-interview-1359756ae22f27f87c1d4d6b9c8ce212">interview</a> with The Associated Press on Jan. 24, 2023, adding, “let’s distinguish between a sin and a crime.” He later <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-lgbtq-people-religion-marriage-862075728690d103bd99bbe8e1e65aba?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=b97447689d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_01_30_02_48&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-b97447689d-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D">issued a note</a> clarifying that his remarks on “sin” referred to sexual activity outside of marriage. During the interview, Francis also called for the relaxation of laws around the world that target LGBTQ people. </p>
<p>Francis’ long history of making similar comments in support of LGBTQ people’s dignity, despite the church’s rejection of homosexuality, has provoked plenty of criticism from some Catholics. But I am a <a href="https://ctu.edu/faculty/steven-millies/">public theologian</a>, and part of what interests me about this debate is that Francis’ inclusiveness is not actually radical. His remarks generally correspond to what the church teaches and calls on Catholics to do.</p>
<h2>‘Who am I to judge?’</h2>
<p>During the first year of Francis’ papacy, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/07/29/206622682/pope-francis-discusses-gay-catholics-who-am-i-to-judge#:%7E:text=Answering%20a%20question%20about%20reports,who%20am%20I%20to%20judge%3F%22">when asked about LGBTQ people</a>, he famously replied, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” – setting the tone for what has become a pattern of inclusiveness.</p>
<p>He has given <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2021/06/27/james-martin-lgbt-ministry-pope-francis-240938">public support</a> <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2022/11/11/james-martin-pope-francis-244131">more than once</a> to James Martin, a Jesuit priest whose efforts to <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/building-a-bridge-james-martin?variant=32117748236322">build bridges</a> between LGBTQ people and the Catholic Church have been a lightning rod for criticism. In remarks captured for a 2020 documentary, Francis expressed support for the legal protections that <a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-support-for-civil-unions-is-a-call-to-justice-and-nothing-new-148607">civil unions</a> can provide for LGBTQ people.</p>
<p>And now come the newest remarks. In <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-gay-rights-ap-interview-1359756ae22f27f87c1d4d6b9c8ce212">his recent interview</a>, the pope said the church should oppose laws that criminalize homosexuality. “We are all children of God, and God loves us as we are and for the strength that each of us fights for our dignity,” he said, though he differentiated between “crimes” and actions that go against church teachings.</p>
<h2>Compassion, not doctrinal change</h2>
<p>The pope’s support for LGBTQ people’s civil rights does not change Catholic doctrine about marriage or sexuality. The church still teaches – and will certainly go on teaching – that any sexual relationship outside a marriage is wrong, and that marriage is between a man and a woman. It would be a mistake to conclude that Francis is suggesting any change in doctrine. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A crowd of people in jackets look up at a tall cross in front of them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506523/original/file-20230126-18-5b14ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506523/original/file-20230126-18-5b14ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506523/original/file-20230126-18-5b14ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506523/original/file-20230126-18-5b14ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506523/original/file-20230126-18-5b14ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506523/original/file-20230126-18-5b14ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506523/original/file-20230126-18-5b14ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A rosary march in Warsaw in 2019 ended with a prayer apologizing to God for pride parades in Poland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/around-a-thousand-people-took-part-in-a-rosary-march-in-news-photo/1173890431?phrase=catholic%20gay%20law&adppopup=true">Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rather, the pattern of his comments has been a way to express what the Catholic Church says about human dignity in response to rapidly changing attitudes toward the LGBTQ community across the past two decades. Francis is calling on Catholics to take note that they should be concerned about justice for all people.</p>
<p>The Catholic Church has condemned discrimination against LGBTQ people for many years, even while <a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P85.HTM">it describes</a> homosexual acts as “intrinsically disordered” in its catechism. Nevertheless, some bishops around the world support laws that criminalize homosexuality – <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-gay-rights-ap-interview-1359756ae22f27f87c1d4d6b9c8ce212">which Francis acknowledged</a>, saying they “have to have a process of conversion.”</p>
<p>The “<a href="http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html#INTRODUCTION">law of love embraces the entire human family and knows no limits</a>,” the Vatican office concerned with social issues said in a 2005 compilation of the church’s social thought.</p>
<p>In 2006, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recognized that LGBTQ people “have been, and often continue to be, <a href="https://www.usccb.org/resources/ministry-to-persons-of-homosexual-iInclination_0.pdf">objects of scorn, hatred, and even violence</a>.” And expressing care for other human persons – “<a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html">especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted</a>” by the indifference or oppression of others – represents obligations for all Catholics to embrace.</p>
<p>As the Francis papacy now nears the end of its 10th year, it is becoming more and more common to hear Catholic leaders attempting to make LGBTQ people feel included in the church. Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich has <a href="https://www.archchicago.org/statement/-/article/2021/03/15/statement-of-cardinal-blase-j-cupich-archbishop-of-chicago-on-same-sex-unions#:%7E:text=with%20respect%20and%20sensitivity">called on pastors</a> to “redouble our efforts to be creative and resilient in finding ways to welcome and encourage all LGBTQ people.” New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan has <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/gay-groups-st-patricks-parade-all-right-cardinal-dolan">welcomed LGBTQ groups</a> in the St. Patrick’s Day parade, against the wishes of many New York Catholics. </p>
<p>In this most recent interview, Francis emphasized that being LGBTQ is “<a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253452/being-homosexual-is-not-a-crime-pope-francis-reiterates-in-new-interview#:%7E:text=It%20is%20a%20human%20condition">a human condition</a>,” calling Catholics to see other people less through the eyes of doctrine and more through the eyes of mercy.</p>
<h2>A new ‘political reality’</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/1651/gay-lesbian-rights.aspx">rapid change</a> that has happened in prevailing social attitudes about the LGBTQ community in recent decades has been difficult to process for a church that has never reacted quickly. This is especially because the questions those developments raise touch on a gray area where moral teaching intersects with social realities outside the church.</p>
<p>For decades, church leaders have been working to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-resists-change-but-vatican-ii-shows-its-possible-102543">reconcile the church with the modern world</a>, and Francis is stepping in places where other Catholic bishops have already trodden.</p>
<p>In 2018, for example, German bishops reacting to the legalization of gay marriage acknowledged that acceptance of LGBTQ relationships is a new “<a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/01/24/german-bishops-grapple-blessings-gay-marriage">political reality</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two same-sex couples stand in a church." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506521/original/file-20230126-20-54hefc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506521/original/file-20230126-20-54hefc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506521/original/file-20230126-20-54hefc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506521/original/file-20230126-20-54hefc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506521/original/file-20230126-20-54hefc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506521/original/file-20230126-20-54hefc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506521/original/file-20230126-20-54hefc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An LGBTQ couple embraces after a pastoral worker blesses them at a Catholic church in Germany, in defiance of practices approved by Rome.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/chantal-hoeffer-and-ivonne-fuchs-hug-each-other-after-news-photo/1317339092?phrase=catholic%20gay&adppopup=true">Andreas Rentz/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are signs that parts of the church are moving even more quickly. Catholics in Germany, in particular, have called for <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250313/synodal-way-meeting-ends-with-call-for-same-sex-blessings-change-to-catechism-on-homosexuality">changes to church teaching</a>, including permission for priests to bless same-sex couples and the ordination of married men.</p>
<h2>The next chapter</h2>
<p>But those actions are outliers. Francis <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-only-on-ap-vatican-city-germany-religion-15c469ce6a29a797f8235dd35eccb118">has criticized</a> the German calls for reform as “elitist” and ideological. When it comes to the civil rights of LGBTQ people, the pope is not changing church teaching, but describing it.</p>
<p>I believe the challenge the Vatican faces is to imagine the space that the church can occupy in this new reality, as it <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-resists-change-but-vatican-ii-shows-its-possible-102543">has had to do</a> in the face of numerous social and political changes across centuries. But the imperative, as Francis suggests, is to serve justice and to seek justice for all people with mercy above all. </p>
<p>Catholics – including bishops, and even the pope – can think, and are thinking, imaginatively about that challenge.</p>
<p><em>This article was updated on Jan. 30, 2023 to include new comments from Pope Francis. Portions of this article originally appeared in <a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-support-for-civil-unions-is-a-call-to-justice-and-nothing-new-148607">a previous article</a> published on Oct. 22, 2020.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198566/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven P. Millies does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Catholic leaders’ attitudes toward LGBTQ people have shifted dramatically – but the actual theology behind them, not so much.Steven P. Millies, Professor of Public Theology and Director of The Bernardin Center, Catholic Theological UnionLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1973812023-01-25T13:24:24Z2023-01-25T13:24:24ZCalls for Pope Benedict’s sainthood make canonizing popes seem like the norm – but it’s a long and politically fraught process<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505189/original/file-20230118-14-a5g4i5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=57%2C0%2C3790%2C2555&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People pray in front of the tomb of the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI inside the grottos of St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, on Jan. 8, 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VaticanPopeEmeritusBenedictXVI/8d23357680c0479b865fc3ff47e71f54/photo?Query=pope%20benedict%20xvi&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=15232&currentItemNo=4">AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Like many others around the world, I watched the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI live on the internet. Before the service began, an unexpected announcement came over the loudspeakers requesting that members of the assembled crowd refrain from raising any banners or flags. Nevertheless, toward the end of the liturgy, at least one large banner was displayed, reading “<a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/sign-benedict-xvis-funeral-reads-115500453.html#:%7E:text=The%20Italian%20phrase%20is%20a,CBS3%20anchor%20Pat%20Ciarrocchi%20covered.">Santo Subito</a>,” an Italian phrase that means “sainthood now.”</p>
<p>Identical signs were <a href="https://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/conclave/pt040805a.htm">raised at the 2005 funeral of Pope John Paul II</a>, who was <a href="https://www.vatican.va/special/canonizzazione-27042014/index_en.html">officially canonized</a> nine years later. The connection between these events has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/many-thousands-expected-funeral-former-pope-benedict-2023-01-04/">not gone unnoticed</a>, leading some to raise questions about expectations that every future pope will be acclaimed as a saint. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/joanne-pierce">specialist in Catholic liturgy and ritual</a>, I know that in the contemporary church, no one, from popes to laypeople, is ever officially proclaimed a saint immediately after death. The way that saints are chosen has changed over the centuries, and that has affected the “wait time” between death and canonization.</p>
<h2>Antiquity and early Middle Ages</h2>
<p>In the early church, Christianity was illegal in the Roman Empire. Those who were executed after refusing to renounce their faith were venerated immediately after their deaths; individuals or small groups would pray at martyrs’ graves, believed to be places of special holiness, where <a href="http://projects.mcah.columbia.edu/courses/medmil/pages/non-mma-pages/syllabus/lecture-19.html">heaven and earth meet</a>.</p>
<p>Those who were imprisoned for their faith but released – called confessors — were venerated by their communities in the same way. </p>
<p>After the legalization of Christianity in the early fourth century, other men and women who had lived lives of exceptional virtue were also recognized as holy ones and called saints. For the next several centuries, most saints were venerated at the local level. </p>
<p>Bishops often approved many of these saints for <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-some-roman-catholic-saints-called-doctors-of-the-church-175912">wider regional veneration</a>. Just before the year 1000, Ulrich of Augsburg, an ascetic German bishop, became the first saint to be <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/04/24/papal-saints-once-a-given-now-extremely-rare/#:%7E:text=In%20993%2C%20St.,and%20documented%20potential%20saints'%20lives">officially canonized by a pope</a>. By the early 12th century, it was left to the the popes to officially proclaim most saints. In <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=6rql5Lv5yqYC&pg=PA202&lpg=PA202&dq=Pope+canonizing+saints++year1234&source=bl&ots=tVeOTYoosC&sig=ACfU3U0QMV2qMda9prglh_yTaJijjX79nQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj4vfj-4M38AhWCElkFHdNnD1A4ChDoAXoECAQQAw#v=onepage&q=Pope%20canonizing%20saints%20%20year1234&f=false">later years, popes insisted on this exclusive prerogative</a>.</p>
<h2>The later Middle Ages</h2>
<p>Although the cases – called causes – of those already locally revered for their holiness were brought to Rome for examination and approval, there was no set timeline for the process. However, no highly regarded Christian was canonized immediately after death. Instead, the investigation of their cases could take years to reach a conclusion.</p>
<p>The proclamation of St. Anthony of Padua in the 13th century was the <a href="https://stfrancis.clas.asu.edu/article/anthony-padua-chronology">fastest canonization</a> during this period. A member of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor – <a href="https://usfranciscans.org/">meaning Little or Lesser Brothers</a> – this young priest was acclaimed for his simple, eloquent preaching. </p>
<p>Anthony died in 1231 and, because of his reputation, was canonized less than a year later, even faster than St. Francis of Assisi, the renowned founder of the Franciscans. Only two years after Francis’ death in 1226, Pope Urban IX proclaimed him a saint because of his “<a href="https://www.papalencyclicals.net/greg09/g9mira.htm">many brilliant miracles</a>.”</p>
<p>Other causes could take longer. For example, the canonization of St. Joan of Arc took almost 500 years. During the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/hundred-years-war">Hundred Years’ War</a> between England and France in the 14th and 15th centuries, this French teenager experienced visions of saints directing her to liberate France. She helped win an important battle but was later captured and convicted by the English of heresy. In 1431, Joan was executed by being burned at the stake.</p>
<p>In 1456, <a href="https://popehistory.com/popes/pope-callixtus-iii/">Pope Callixtus III</a> declared Joan of Arc innocent of heresy, and she continued to be venerated by the French for centuries afterward. <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/studies-in-church-history/article/abs/reclaiming-a-martyr-french-catholics-and-the-cult-of-joan-of-arc-18901920/AC283FB4FB2AAFC9D19B328E1CCCA630">Increasing French nationalism</a> played a role in advancing her cause, and Pope Benedict XV proclaimed her a saint in 1920, praising her long-standing reputation for holiness and her life of “<a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xv/la/bulls/documents/hf_ben-xv_bulls_19200516_divina-disponente.html">heroic virtues</a>.”</p>
<h2>Modern changes</h2>
<p>In the 16th century, the canonization process became more standardized. The process of canonizing saints was handled in one specific office, the <a href="https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/csaints/documents/rc_con_csaints_pro_20051996_en.html">Sacred Congregation of Rites</a>, part of the overall papal bureaucracy, the Curia. Later, in the 17th century, Pope Urban VIII set a 50-year waiting period between the death of a potential candidate and the submission of a case for canonization, to ensure that only <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/03/15/its-time-catholic-church-stop-canonization-popes/">worthy candidates would be nominated</a>. </p>
<p>However, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-becomes-a-saint-in-the-catholic-church-and-is-that-changing-81011">process was reformed</a> during the 20th century. In 1983, Pope John Paul II set <a href="https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/csaints/documents/rc_con_csaints_doc_07021983_norme_en.html">a new five-year waiting period</a> for the Vatican office, now known as the <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/romancuria/en/dicasteri/dicastero-cause-santi/profilo.html">Dicastery for the Causes of the Saints</a>.</p>
<p>This waiting period before a cause may be submitted can be, and has been, waived at the discretion of the pope. In 1999, Pope John Paul II waived it <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/19/world/europe/mother-teresas-path-to-sainthood-cleared-by-vatican.html">for the cause of Mother Teresa</a>. The process began then, only two years after her death in 1997, and she was proclaimed St. Teresa of Calcutta by Pope Francis <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2020-09/saint-mother-teresa-kolkata-annivesary-canonization.html">in 2016</a>. </p>
<p>After the death of John Paul II himself in 2005, his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/3878/pope-benedict-forgoes-waiting-period-begins-john-paul-ii-beatification-process#:%7E:text=But%20Pope%20Benedict%20told%20clergy,during%20his%2026%2Dyear%20pontificate">again waived the waiting period</a> for his case to proceed. Only nine years later, in 2014, Pope Francis proclaimed John Paul II a saint.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505197/original/file-20230118-19-xko9mt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Hundreds of people gathered outside watching a ceremony on a large screen." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505197/original/file-20230118-19-xko9mt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505197/original/file-20230118-19-xko9mt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505197/original/file-20230118-19-xko9mt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505197/original/file-20230118-19-xko9mt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505197/original/file-20230118-19-xko9mt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505197/original/file-20230118-19-xko9mt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505197/original/file-20230118-19-xko9mt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">People watch the screening of the canonization of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II broadcast from the Vatican in 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ItalyVaticanPopesSaints/30d689f0aa09477d90a4da0a65849824/photo?Query=John%20Paul%20II%20saint&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=747&currentItemNo=36">AP Photo/Luca Bruno</a></span>
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<p>However, in the intervening years, questions were raised about what some considered to be a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/14/world/europe/john-paul-vatican.html">hasty or premature advancement</a> of John Paul II’s cause. </p>
<h2>Criticisms of the process</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.theage.com.au/world/list-popes-of-the-20th-and-21st-centuries-20130314-2g1lh.html">Eleven popes</a> have served the Catholic Church since 1900. Three – Leo XIII, Benedict XV and Pius XI – have not been nominated. Pope Pius X, who died in 1914, was canonized 40 years later in 1954. </p>
<p>So far in the 21st century, several more popes have entered or completed the process. Pius XII, who died in 1958, has been named “Venerable” – the second step of the canonization process – despite ongoing controversy over his actions during World War II. </p>
<p>But over the past 10 years, four popes – John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II – <a href="https://aleteia.org/2018/08/07/of-the-266-men-who-have-sat-upon-the-throne-of-peter-how-many-have-been-canonized/">have been proclaimed saints</a>, an unusual situation in modern Catholic history. </p>
<p>It can seem that canonizing popes has become routine in the 21st century. Some even suggest that this trend marks <a href="https://www.pillarcatholic.com/when-the-papal-saints-come-marching-in/">a new era of personal holiness</a> in those elected to the papacy. However, not everyone cheers this trend. </p>
<p>Critics cite the rapid canonization of Pope John Paul II as an example of potential problems. His lengthy reign and widespread popularity led to a special pressure on Pope Francis to move quickly on his cause. Afterward, however, more evidence was uncovered <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/11/18/saint-john-paul-ii-canonize-mistake-mccarrick-abuse">raising questions</a> about the pope’s handling of the clergy abuse crisis. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/03/15/its-time-catholic-church-stop-canonization-popes/">Politics within the church</a> can also come into play. For example, conservatives could push strongly to canonize a more traditionally minded pope, while progressives might support a candidate with a broader point of view. This seems to be why two popes – John XXIII, who called the Second Vatican Council in 1962 to reform and renew the church, and John Paul II, who strove to curb some of the more progressive elements – were <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2014/04/07/every-pope-a-saint-the-politics-of-canonization/">both canonized</a> at the same ceremony. </p>
<p>The papal power to waive even the brief five-year waiting period makes these problems even more acute. Some have even suggested imposing a moratorium on papal canonizations, or at least lengthening the <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/saintly-popes-people-question-whether-canonizing-popes-good-idea">waiting period</a> before a pope’s cause could be considered.</p>
<p>The Catholic Church teaches that saints are proclaimed so that others might be inspired by their lives and examples of “<a href="https://www.usccb.org/offices/public-affairs/saints">heroic virtue</a>.” But it takes time to thoroughly examine each cause individually, and hidden flaws may not be uncovered until much later after the candidate’s death. </p>
<p>This was true for St. John Paul II, and might be the case for Pope Benedict XVI. But no one is recognized a saint <a href="https://theconversation.com/smiling-pope-john-paul-i-takes-the-next-step-toward-sainthood-not-all-pontiffs-earn-this-distinction-188941">simply because he served as pope</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197381/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne M. Pierce does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A specialist in Catholic liturgy and rituals explains that while several popes have been canonized, it is a long process that may take several years to examine and uncover any hidden flaws.Joanne M. Pierce, Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1976332023-01-16T13:45:14Z2023-01-16T13:45:14ZPope Francis’ visit to Africa comes at a defining moment for the Catholic church<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504210/original/file-20230112-53024-f2g4xr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pope Francis in Nairobi, Kenya, during his first papal visit to the African continent in 2015. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nichole Sobecki/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>During his <a href="https://allafrica.com/stories/202212020298.html">planned visit</a> to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan in February 2023, Pope Francis intends to be in dialogue with African Catholics – but also to listen to political leaders and young Africans. </p>
<p>This visit comes at a defining moment in what is regarded as a fairly progressive papacy.</p>
<p>Pope Francis has convened a worldwide consultation on the future of the Catholic church. This consultation, called a <a href="https://www.synod.va/en/what-is-the-synod-21-24/about.html">synodal process</a>, began in 2021 and will conclude in 2024. </p>
<p>It is the most ambitious dialogue ever undertaken on bringing changes in Catholic beliefs and practices since the Second Vatican Council’s reforms in <a href="https://www.npr.org/2012/10/10/162573716/why-is-vatican-ii-so-important#:%7E:text=AP-,Pope%20Paul%20VI%20hands%20Orthodox%20Metropolitan%20Meliton%20of%20Heliopolis%20a,Orthodox%20churches%20nine%20centuries%20before">1965</a>. It is exciting for reform-minded Catholics, but distressing for conservative Catholics. </p>
<p>The ongoing synodal process has exposed the fault lines in modern Catholicism on the issues of women, celibacy, sexuality, marriage, clericalism and hierarchism. How Pope Francis – who marks a decade of his papacy this year – manages these increasingly divisive issues will, in my judgement, largely define his legacy. </p>
<p><a href="https://works.bepress.com/stanchuilo/">My research</a> has focused on how African Catholics can bring about a <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/as-pope-francis-visits-af_b_8633590">consensus approach</a> in managing these contested issues.</p>
<p>The big questions for me are how another papal visit to Africa at this point will address the challenges and opportunities that Africans are identifying through the synodal process – and how this plays into the state of Catholicism in Africa.</p>
<h2>The influence of African Catholicism</h2>
<p>The Catholic church is witnessing its fastest growth in Africa (recent statistics show <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/iacs/global-christianity/#:%7E:text=April%2030%2C%202022&text=Following%20recent%20trends%2C%20the%20Catholic,growth%20in%20Europe%20(0.3%25)">2.1%</a> growth between 2019 and 2020). Out of a global population of <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250362/number-of-catholics-in-asia-and-africa-continues-to-rise">1.36 billion Catholics</a>, 236 million are African (20% of the total).</p>
<p>African Catholics are not simply growing in number. They are reinventing and reinterpreting Christianity. They are infusing it with new language and spiritual vibrancy through unique ways of worshipping God. </p>
<p>Given its expansion, the Catholic church in Africa is well placed to be a central driver of social, political and spiritual life. In many settings, the church provides a community of hope where the fabric of society is weak because of war, humanitarian disasters and disease. </p>
<p>The DRC, for instance, has the highest number of Catholic health facilities in Africa at <a href="https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=cZ51EAAAQBAJ&pg=PT649&lpg=PT649&dq=the+Democratic+Republic+of+Congo+(DRC)+has+the+highest+number+of+Catholic+health+facilities+in+Africa+at+2,185&source=bl&ots=c6A8EdULGF&sig=ACfU3U0WBNUa2VbKVLfl4xQMRkmVMeaH2g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwigo7Te88P8AhV1WqQEHchBCSEQ6AF6BAgqEAM#v=onepage&q=the%20Democratic%20Republic%20of%20Congo%20(DRC)%20has%20the%20highest%20number%20of%20Catholic%20health%20facilities%20in%20Africa%20at%202%2C185&f=false">2,185</a>. It is followed by Kenya with 1,092 and Nigeria with 524 facilities. Additionally, bishops have mobilised peaceful protests against violence in the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/12/4/dr-congo-thousands-of-churchgoers-protest-rebel-violence">DRC</a> and <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/africa/news/2020-03/nigeria-bishops-protest-march-against-extremism.html">Nigeria</a>. </p>
<p>Another major feature of Catholicism on the continent is that it is witnessing a “youth bulge”. Central to Pope Francis’ advocacy for Africa is his appeal that churches, religious groups and governments show solidarity with young people. He calls them “the church of now”. </p>
<p>The pope expressed this most recently in <a href="https://www.aciafrica.org/news/6990/engage-your-history-keep-your-roots-intact-pope-francis-to-african-catholic-students">November 2022</a> during a synodal consultation with African youth. He denounced the exploitation of Africa by external forces and its destruction by wars, ideologies of violence and policies that rob young people of their future. </p>
<h2>Why DRC and South Sudan?</h2>
<p>Pope Francis comes to Africa as part of the synodal consultation. He takes the message of a humble and merciful church to some of the most challenging parts of Africa: the <a href="https://theconversation.com/conflict-in-the-drc-5-articles-that-explain-whats-gone-wrong-195332">DRC</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-sudan-root-causes-of-ongoing-conflict-remain-untouched-133542">South Sudan</a>. </p>
<p>These two countries illustrate the impact of neo-liberal capitalism and the effects of slavery, colonialism and imperialism. Together, they have unleashed the most destructive economic, social and political upheaval in modern African history. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/conflict-in-the-drc-5-articles-that-explain-whats-gone-wrong-195332">Conflict in the DRC: 5 articles that explain what's gone wrong</a>
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<p>Pope Francis is coming to listen especially to the poor, to young people and to women who have been violated in conflicts. He also hopes to address the hidden wounds of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-sex-abuse-crisis-4-essential-reads-169442">clerical sexual abuse</a> in the church.</p>
<p>Pope Francis will see how war, dictatorship and ecological disasters have denied ordinary people access to land, labour and lodging. These are the “three Ls” he <a href="https://cjd.org/2015/09/08/sacred-rights-land-lodging-and-labor/">proposes</a> as vital in giving agency to the poor. </p>
<h2>Some opposition</h2>
<p>Pope Francis will no doubt receive a warm welcome during his visit. Most African Catholics embrace his message of a poor and merciful church because it speaks to their challenges. </p>
<p>But there are many African Catholics, particularly high-ranking church leaders, who are yet to embrace this reform agenda. The previous two popes encouraged a centralising tendency, which promoted unquestioning loyalty to Rome by African bishops. As a result, these bishops resisted attempts by African theologians to modernise and Africanise Catholic beliefs and practices to meet local needs and circumstances. </p>
<p>This has led to some African bishops being uncomfortable with Pope Francis’ <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html">progressive agenda</a> on liberation theology, openness to gay Catholics, condemnation of clerical privilege and power, and inclusion of women in mainstream leadership. </p>
<p>Rather than being a strong church that looks like Africa, some of the Catholic dioceses on the continent have embraced medieval traditions – like Roman rituals and Latin – that alienate ordinary African Catholics, especially young people. </p>
<h2>Africa’s future role</h2>
<p>Pope Francis has often <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/speeches/2022/november/documents/20221119-cuamm.html">spoken</a> of giving Africa a voice in the church and in the world. </p>
<p>Many African Catholics wonder how this will happen when, for the first time in more than 30 years, there is just one African holding an important executive function at the Vatican. This is Archbishop Protase Rugambwa of Tanzania, the secretary of the <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2022-06/dicastery-evangelization-vatican-praedicate-evangelium.html">Dicastery for the Evangelization of Peoples</a>, a department at the Vatican’s central offices. </p>
<p>Many African Catholics hope that Pope Francis will announce some African appointments to the Vatican during his February 2023 visit. </p>
<p>They also are hoping he will create a pontifical commission for Africa, similar to the <a href="http://www.americalatina.va/content/americalatina/es.html">Latin American commission</a> created in 1958. This will be a significant way of giving African Catholics a voice in the church of Rome. </p>
<p>Pope Francis hasn’t fully recovered from the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/knee-problem-forces-pope-francis-cancel-july-africa-trip-2022-06-10/">health challenges</a> that led to the cancellation of the trip last July. But he is making this trip because <a href="https://www.lastampa.it/vatican-insider/en/2015/11/29/news/pope-opens-holy-door-today-bangui-is-the-spiritual-capital-of-the-world-1.35211106/">he believes</a> that Africa matters. </p>
<p>Through the sessions that the pope will conduct with Africans, especially young people, it’s hoped that the Catholic church in Africa can help address the causes of war and suffering in the DRC and South Sudan, and the obstacles to reforming the church in Africa.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197633/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stan Chu Ilo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>African Catholics are growing in number. They are also reinventing and reinterpreting Christianity.Stan Chu Ilo, Research Professor , World Christianity and African Studies, DePaul UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1967742023-01-11T20:27:11Z2023-01-11T20:27:11ZResidential school system recognized as genocide in Canada’s House of Commons: A harbinger of change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503879/original/file-20230110-11-l4i24f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C10%2C538%2C390&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A rare photo from an Indian Residential School in Fort Resolution, N.W.T. These systems have been labeled a form of genocide by the Canadian House of Commons. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Department of Mines and Technical Surveys/Library and Archives Canada)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/residential-school-system-recognized-as-genocide-in-canada-s-house-of-commons--a-harbinger-of-change" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>In a historic move, Canada’s House of Commons <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/house-motion-recognize-genocide-1.6632450">unanimously recognized</a> the Indian Residential School System (IRS) as genocide on Oct. 27, 2022. </p>
<p>The resolution builds on the 2015 contribution of the <a href="https://nctr.ca/">Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada</a>. The commission was <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/five-reasons-the-trc-chose-cultural-genocide/article25311423/">barred</a> from using the term genocide for legal reasons and instead called the practice cultural genocide. </p>
<p>The recent motion was introduced by member of Parliament Leah Gazan. The move follows <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/pope-address-maskwacis-alberta-1.6531231">Pope Francis’s acknowledgement</a> during his visit to Canada of the ongoing trauma and damage done by residential schools to Indigenous communities. </p>
<p>It’s possible that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/pope-francis-residential-schools-genocide-1.6537203">the Pope’s reference to the Indian Residential Schools as genocide</a> swayed some members of Parliament to agree to this new resolution because this was the second time the concept was introduced to the House. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/i-survived-the-60s-scoop-heres-why-the-popes-apology-isnt-an-apology-at-all-187681">I survived the ’60s Scoop. Here's why the Pope's apology isn't an apology at all</a>
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<img alt="Profile of MP Gazan in front of Canadian flag." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503317/original/file-20230105-14-hc5tkw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=289%2C22%2C4657%2C3255&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503317/original/file-20230105-14-hc5tkw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503317/original/file-20230105-14-hc5tkw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503317/original/file-20230105-14-hc5tkw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503317/original/file-20230105-14-hc5tkw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503317/original/file-20230105-14-hc5tkw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503317/original/file-20230105-14-hc5tkw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">MP Leah Gazan introduced the motion in the House of Commons.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby</span></span>
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<p>Gazan’s motion says that in the opinion of the House of Commons, Canada’s residential school system violated Article 2 of <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf">the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide</a>. Article 2 explains that for something to be considered genocide, an “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group…” must be evident.</p>
<p>Although Canada’s resolution is non-legally binding, the motion helps Canadians reconceptualize the Indian Residential School system. </p>
<p>Now, genocide can be used to describe the residential schools without the qualifying adjective or disclaimer that it is “only” cultural. This change is beyond a mere alteration of words. For both Canada and the world, it is a significant and consequential change. </p>
<h2>International debates: the Genocide Convention</h2>
<p>The scope of genocide is an <a href="https://doi.org/10.7202/1038713ar">ongoing debate</a> in international law. The current international definition has been reproduced in numerous international statutes, including the <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/RS-Eng.pdf">Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court</a>.</p>
<p>The word genocide was created following the Second World War by the legal scholar, <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/ceu/9486-lemkin-raphael.html">Raphael Lemkin</a>, to describe the destruction of a nation or ethnic group through various means. </p>
<p>The Convention defines genocide as acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group by five acts: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>a) Killing members of the group,<br>
b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group,<br>
c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,<br>
d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, and<br>
e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Typically, during debates on the Genocide Convention, items (a) to (c) of the definition are designated elements of physical genocide, while (d) and (e) are identified as biological genocide. This excludes cultural elements and restricts its scope to physical and biological genocide. </p>
<p>These debates on the scope of the Genocide Convention highlight differing views regarding <a href="https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/611058?ln=en">physical, biological and cultural actions</a> intended to terminate a group. Physical genocide is killing or serious injury to a targeted group. Biological genocide is destroying a group’s reproductive capacity. Cultural genocide is destroying a group’s specific characteristics. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503319/original/file-20230105-20-vwir44.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503319/original/file-20230105-20-vwir44.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503319/original/file-20230105-20-vwir44.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503319/original/file-20230105-20-vwir44.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503319/original/file-20230105-20-vwir44.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503319/original/file-20230105-20-vwir44.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503319/original/file-20230105-20-vwir44.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pope Francis acknowledged the trauma of the IRS during his papal visit to Canada. Here, he watches a dance in Iqaluit.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ejil/chy025">critical look</a> at the Genocide Convention reveals an element of cultural genocide. </p>
<p>Recognizing cultural genocide within the scope of the Genocide Convention acknowledges that cultural, physical and biological genocide all lead to groups’ <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3811037">social death</a> — what the Genocide Convention attempts to prevent. </p>
<h2>The Genocide Convention and Canada</h2>
<p>The House of Commons’ acceptance of the term genocide supports arguments that what is dominantly conceived as cultural genocide falls within the scope of the Genocide Convention. This now raises new questions about how that interpretation may be applied to Canadian cases. </p>
<p>The House of Commons resolution also indicates new perceptions of old colonial beliefs and emphasizes harms caused by residential schools. </p>
<p>In 1948, at the time of passing the Genocide Convention, the colonial practice to culturally destroy and “civilize natives” was not publicly discouraged. And <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/canada-threatened-to-abandon-1948-accord-if-un-didnt-remove-cultural-genocide-ban-records-reveal">Canada successfully campaigned against the use of the term “cultural genocide”</a> during discussions on the Convention. </p>
<p>This type of challenge, led by MP Gazan, to these old colonial beliefs and systems is one of many steps that can help lead to massive changes. Old colonial practices and beliefs still abound in <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/book/26823">literature</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01436590600780011">international law</a>. There is much work to be done. For example, in Canada, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/what-is-a-hate-crime-1.1011612">section 318</a> of Canada’s <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/page-42.html#h-121176">Criminal Code</a> on hate crime restricts genocide to physical and biological destruction. </p>
<h2>Impact of resolution</h2>
<p>The House of Commons’ recognition of the residential school system as “genocide” within the scope of the Genocide Convention supports viewing cultural genocide as genocide. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-hypocrisy-recognizing-genocide-except-its-own-against-indigenous-peoples-162128">Canada's hypocrisy: Recognizing genocide except its own against Indigenous peoples</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>By doing away with “culture” in describing the IRS, the Canadian House of Commons has now recognized cultural destruction as a possible means of genocide. </p>
<p>Following the path of the House of Commons, individuals may now legitimately refer to the residential school system as genocide. The resolution would also likely <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/boarding-homes-class-action-settlement-1.6702587">impact future negotiations and cases</a> to compensate victims of the IRS.</p>
<p>This resolution may not have any current implication legally in an international court of law. But it represents a shift in the way we think about our history and may affect future international jurisprudence.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504104/original/file-20230111-46330-9gl7i5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504104/original/file-20230111-46330-9gl7i5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504104/original/file-20230111-46330-9gl7i5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504104/original/file-20230111-46330-9gl7i5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504104/original/file-20230111-46330-9gl7i5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504104/original/file-20230111-46330-9gl7i5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504104/original/file-20230111-46330-9gl7i5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.meetview.ca/sshrc20230120/">Click here to register for In Conversation With Cindy Blackstock</a></span>
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</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196774/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Temitayo Olarewaju is a recipient of the Law Foundation of British Columbia Graduate Fellowship and a Graduate Fellow at the W Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics.
</span></em></p>Canada’s recent resolution to label the Indian Residential School system as genocide (and not cultural genocide) is not a mere alteration of words, it is a significant and consequential change.Temitayo Olarewaju, PhD Candidate, Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1955942023-01-09T06:13:19Z2023-01-09T06:13:19ZHow faith can inspire environmental action<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503045/original/file-20230104-19747-p3gob0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=57%2C24%2C5335%2C3062&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/concept-conceptual-group-green-forest-tree-1892748178">design36 / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It has become clear that meaningful progress on climate change is not going to be achieved by one person or indeed, one government. Coordinated action between governments, industry, local leaders and society is needed urgently. The recent <a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/1CMA4_1CMP17_1COP27_preliminary_draft_text.pdf">COP27 decision</a> itself mentions the importance of local communities, cities, indigenous peoples and children. But strikingly absent is the role of faith or religion. </p>
<p>Roughly 84% of the global population identifies with some sort of religion, a figure expected to rise to <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/">87% by 2050</a>. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11625-022-01197-w">Our research</a> shows there is potential for faith to mobilise social environmental change, yet it is usually left out of conversations about sustainability. </p>
<p>Religion can have a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21606544.2020.1796820">significant and positive influence</a> on people’s behaviour when it comes to the environment. Spiritual practices and <a href="https://fore.yale.edu/World-Religions/Christianity/Liturgy">liturgies</a> are being developed to help believers integrate environmental concerns with their spirituality. </p>
<p>Two key publications are Pope Francis’s encylical <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html">Care for our Common Home</a> and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh’s <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/441707/zen-and-the-art-of-saving-the-planet-by-thich-nhat-hanh/9781846046544">Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet</a>. Both highlight the relevance of religious ideas to environmental crises and guide people to live sustainably. </p>
<p>Faith can be a driving force behind environmentally responsible investment. The organisation <a href="https://www.faithinvest.org/">FaithInvest</a> helps religious institutions use their financial resources ethically and sustainably. Religious groups can also coordinate collective action on the climate. Ahead of COP27, faith leaders from around the world <a href="https://greenfaith.org/religions-worldwide-call-for-end-to-fossil-fuel-projects-just-transition/">published a letter</a> calling for an end to new fossil fuel projects.</p>
<p>Of course, the same influences can and have been used to obstruct action on climate change, and formal institutional commitment does not necessarily translate to personal action. Our research helps explain how mechanisms of religious belief can be used to inspire environmental action. </p>
<h2>Faith and the planet</h2>
<p>We were interested in understanding processes of personal and practical change towards sustainability among Christians in the UK. We studied responses to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s 2020 Lent book, <a href="https://spckpublishing.co.uk/saying-yes-to-life">Saying Yes to Life</a>, authored by Ruth Valerio. The book presented theological perspectives on the importance of taking care of the natural world, focusing on environmental challenges such as water scarcity, air pollution, land degradation, biodiversity loss and energy use. </p>
<p>We surveyed 133 people from a range of age groups and church backgrounds before and after engaging with the text, and conducted focus groups. We found that this intervention significantly influenced participants’ beliefs and behaviour related to the environment. </p>
<p>After engaging with the text, people had more positive attitudes towards the environment. Most reported at least a short-term increase in pro-environmental behaviours, particularly around energy use, food choices and recycling. </p>
<p>Framing environmental issues in theological terms also influenced participants’ environmental attitudes. They reported perceiving nature as sacred, feeling more connected to the natural world, and adopting a belief that humans should care for creation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three young friends walking through a field of wheat and smiling" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503048/original/file-20230104-3468-2a8825.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503048/original/file-20230104-3468-2a8825.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503048/original/file-20230104-3468-2a8825.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503048/original/file-20230104-3468-2a8825.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503048/original/file-20230104-3468-2a8825.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503048/original/file-20230104-3468-2a8825.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503048/original/file-20230104-3468-2a8825.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Research participants said reading Ruth Valerio’s ‘Saying Yes to Life’ inspired them to feel more connected to the natural world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-group-friends-hiking-together-on-583872667">Jacob Lund / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We identified three steps that people go through when their faith is mobilised into action. The first step is revealing, where the nature of environmental problems and pre-existing theological beliefs (such as humans having a divine right to dominate the environment) are illuminated to the individual. For our participants, this came through thoughtful reading of the text and discussion with other believers.</p>
<p>The second step is reflecting. People then consider how their own beliefs and lifestyles might need to be reconsidered according to new theological ideas or scientific information. </p>
<p>The final step depends on the degree of environmental commitment already held. For those whose lifestyles are incompatible with the new information, the step of redirecting describes a process of internal (cognitive or spiritual) and external (behavioural) change. For those already pursuing pro-environmental lifestyles, the step of reinforcing involves further strengthening these commitments.</p>
<h2>Tackling the environmental crisis</h2>
<p>Currently, many conversations about the environment are framed by economics – the <a href="https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/what-is-the-triple-bottom-line">triple bottom line</a> (a concept urging businesses to think about profit, people and the planet), natural capital and <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/green-investing.asp">green investment</a>. Appealing to moral and spiritual worldviews could inspire people to think about environmentalism in terms of justice, sacred duty, compassion, empathy and kindness.</p>
<p>Having a community of faith that can support, reinforce and sustain environmental action is another critical function of religion. Many participants mentioned the hope and resolve that came from knowing they were part of a larger body of Christian believers working for change. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Photo of a pair of hands reaching up to the sky, cupped around the sun" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503046/original/file-20230104-104784-2q6ntg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503046/original/file-20230104-104784-2q6ntg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503046/original/file-20230104-104784-2q6ntg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503046/original/file-20230104-104784-2q6ntg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503046/original/file-20230104-104784-2q6ntg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503046/original/file-20230104-104784-2q6ntg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503046/original/file-20230104-104784-2q6ntg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Religion offers untapped potential as a source of motivation for environmental action.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-hands-holding-sun-dawn-freedom-1561794796">KieferPix / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Appealing to faith-based worldviews has potential to bypass political divides and cultural affiliations that have stifled action. Indeed, in this research, the greatest shifts towards environmental concern were among participants who self-identified as politically conservative.</p>
<p>Faith is fundamental to many people’s outlook on the world. Our research shows that religion offers a powerful opportunity to inspire environmental action. But there is work to be done on both sides. Religious leaders could further incorporate environmental matters into their spiritual teaching and practice, and scientists and policymakers could engage more with people of faith. </p>
<p>Humanity’s ability to avert environmental catastrophe will depend on sustainability becoming embedded into every institution and cultural setting. Religion is no exception.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195594/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Ives does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The majority of the world’s population identifies with a religion – could their faith be used to save the planet?Christopher Ives, Associate Professor of Sustainability Science, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.