In 2021 Kendra Baker moved to Seattle after graduating from Western Washington University. She always lived her Catholic faith. Her father fell from the roof of their home and suffered wounds that put his life in danger. The family called a priest to pray with them. Hours later her father opened his eyes. “The doctors had told us to prepare ourselves for a funeral. He learned to walk again, to speak, to drive and can eat normally.” Kendra felt a “subtle impulse” to the religious life, motivated by something more than her father’s recovery. “It wasn’t a resounding voice of God saying: ‘Kendra, go to the convent now.’”

After much reflection and prayer, Kendra found a Religious Community aligned with her interest in contemplative spirituality and pastoral service. Initially, she was accepted as a candidate by the Carmelite Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Los Angeles, but afterwards there was an “impediment”: the debt of her student loan.

One who enters religious life in the Catholic tradition makes a vow of poverty, but it’s not right to charge debts to the Community on one’s arrival; in general, candidates pay their debts before. There are Communities with no income to attend to those payments. There are some 20% of Americans with University degrees that have student loan debts (namely, loans acquired during the period of studies to pay the University), and they have complications to follow their consecrated vocation once their studies have ended.

A Report of the United States National Conference of Religious Vocations warned in 2013 that “the educational debt has become a dissuasive element for many in discerning their religious vocation.” The average debt of student loans in the United States is around US$30,000.

Organizations have arisen that help candidates to Religious Orders with this problem, such as the Labouré Society, to which Kendra took recourse. Since 2003, this Society has supported 400 Catholics desirous of following the religious life.

The Labouré Society gives part of the necessary money and facilitates candidates to collect money in six months through telephone calls, writing of letters, and assisting at meetings with potential donors in their communities. Kendra thought she’d need between five and ten years to pay her debt with the Labouré Society’s system, but she achieved her objective in less than six months and will enter the Religious Community of her choice in Los Angeles this summer.

Kristen Chenoweth, a convert from Lutheranism to Catholicism, followed another path. At 30, she completed her degree in Family Ministry and a Master’s in the Administration of Non-Profit Organizations. She wished to enter the Community of the Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in Illinois, but was burdened with a US$80,000 debt in student loans. Kristen paid her loans by working, living austerely, collecting funds in Grand Rapids, Michigan and selling Rosaries on Etsy. She collected US$5,000 from the sale of Rosaries and US$23,000 with the help of the Dominican Sisters and her GoFundMe program. Then she was given the news that the Catholic Fund for Vocations, which supports student loans, would pay the rest.

The Fund for Vocations doesn’t request aspirants to collect funds, but to make monthly payments for their student loans during their time of formation for the religious life. This Fund began its activity in the year 2000 and has grown considerably over the last years. It allocated 28 grants amounting to US$900,000 last year, for amounts between 5,000 and 7,000 dollars.

Some Religious Orders request aspirants to have University degrees to enter the Order, especially institutions that offer medical and educational services. Some aspirants commit themselves to pay their students debts, but might meet with difficulties when it comes to their perpetual vows, if they committed themselves to pay them before their religious profession.

Gianna Casino studied Biochemistry and graduated with a US$20,000 debt. Her family committed to pay it by making monthly payments. However, her parents met with financial difficulties and the payments ceased. It was the Fund for Vocations that liquidated the rest of the remaining loan.

Gianna has begun studies to be a mental health clinical adviser at the Divine Mercy University. She completed her mental health formation at Harvard’s School of Medicine.

The lack of vocations poses new challenges, such as freedom from financial limitations, which make difficult entrance in a Seminary or Religious Congregation. To be noted is the solidarity of the Church, where some members of the Mystical Body resolve the needs for the good of other members and of all the ecclesial community.

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(ZENIT News – Asia News / Jerusalem, 04.22.2024).- Layan Nasir, a young Palestinian Christian woman, was arrested last week. “There are no reasons and no basis [for her arrest] other than the fact that we live under a colonial-settler occupation that has enjoyed impunity for so long and feels entitled to destroy the lives of millions,” said Rev Munther Isaac speaking to AsiaNews.

For the clergyman, who serves as pastor at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bethlehem, “Layan has been placed under ‘administrative detention’, just like close to 4000 other Palestinians. This is the term the Israelis use to justify detention of people” when they “have no charges against them.”

At night on 6 April in Birzeit, a Palestinian town, a patrol of about 15 Israeli soldiers showed up at her family’s home looking for the 23-year-old woman, without an arrest warrant or charge against her.

As the family told The Guardian newspaper, which reported the arrest, Israeli soldiers forced their way into the family home and pointed guns at Layan’s mother, Lulu Aranki, and her father, Sami, a Catholic-Anglican couple.

After searching for several minutes, the soldiers took Layan, not before blindfolding and handcuffing her, placing her under administrative detention, the only Christian woman in this situation.

For Rev Isaac, “Layan’s detention serves as a reminder of our life as Christians under Israeli occupation. Palestinian Christians are not just an integral part of the Palestinian people but have suffered just as the rest of the people.”

The young woman was arrested as a “preventive” measure but her family has not been notified why.

Her story, which risked going unnoticed like many others involving Palestinians, became front-page news after the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, expressed deep concern about her fate and called for her release on X (formerly Twitter).

“We should put all the pressure possible,” said the Lutheran clergyman, “not just to free her, but to free all our people from the occupation jails, to end the occupation and to achieve justice for everyone.”

Rev Isaac serves as pastor at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem and the Lutheran Church in Beit Sahour. He teaches at Bethlehem Bible College and is the director of the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference.

Now in its seventh year, the conference this year will be held between 21 and 26 May, centred on “Do Justice, Love Mercy: Christian Witness in Contexts of Oppression.”

“Our situation as Christians in Palestine is critical as we are at the lowest of our points since 1948, but we are not losing hope and most importantly. We believe in the justice of our cause.

“We see how our lands are stolen and our people attacked. Israel enjoys impunity and the western world seems not to care much about us. But we also know that our cause is just.

“This is the key. We will continue to exist and to spread our message not just because it is a duty as Palestinians but also because it is our duty as Christians.

Administrative detention allows Israel to hold a suspect for long periods without charges or trial. This measure, once enforced only to Palestinians, now applies to Israelis as well, although critics are sceptical about how it is applied.

A source of controversy and protests because it violates human rights, the measure is usually used when the authorities have information linking a suspect to a crime, but do not have enough evidence to support their claim in a court of law.

Detentions can be unilaterally renewed by a military court every six months and prisoners can remain in prison for years.

While some Palestinians have been detained without known charges, the most common reasons for administrative detention range from the promotion of violence online to (alleged) terrorist activities.

Layan is one of thousands of Palestinians held without charge, at least 85 are women, but she is the only one who is Christian.

Critics, activists, and human rights NGOs note that the law is part of the apartheid system enforced by the Jewish state against Palestinians.

“Israel routinely uses administrative detention,” says Btselem, an Israeli human rights NGO, “and has, over the years, placed thousands of Palestinians behind bars for periods ranging from several months to several years, without charging them, without telling them what they are accused of, and without disclosing the alleged evidence to them or to their lawyers.”

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(ZENIT News – Bitter Winter / Rome, 04.22.2024).- If some believe that the attack against religious liberty in France only targets “cults” and Islam, they are wrong. On April 13, a religious organization in an official statement lamented that it is a victim in France of “a serious violation of the fundamental rights to religious freedom and freedom of association.” The name of this religious organization is the Roman Catholic Church, and the statement came from the Holy See Press Office.

In short, a religious order called the Dominican Sisters of the Holy Spirit asked the Vatican to investigate the behavior of one of its nuns, Sabine de la Valette, who had taken the religious name of Sister Marie Ferréol. As usual in these cases, the Vatican ordered an apostolic visitation of the convent, under the authority of Cardinal Marc Ouellet. Following the visitation’s report, the Vatican decided in 2020 that Sister Marie should be dismissed from the Dominican Sisters of the Holy Spirit.

Unhappy with the decision, Sister Marie sued and asked the Tribunal of Lorient to declare that she had been wrongfully dismissed from her order. On April 3, the Tribunal found in favor of the ex-nun and ordered the religious order, Cardinal Ouellet, and the two Vatican envoys who conducted the apostolic visitation to pay more than Euro 200,000 to her as damages. According to media reports, the Tribunal found the visitation biased as Cardinal Ouellet was “friendly” with another nun known as an opponent of Sister Marie.

On April 13, the Vatican stated that it had learned of the case only from the media, Cardinal Ouellet “never received any summons from the Lorient Tribunal,” and neither the Cardinal nor the Holy See have been served with a copy of the verdict.

Assuming that what the media reported about the decision is true, the Vatican stated that what it still calls an “alleged” ruling (since it has not seen an official copy of it) “could raise not only significant issues concerning immunity, but if it ruled on internal discipline and membership in a religious institute, it might have constituted a serious violation of the fundamental rights to religious freedom and freedom of association of Catholic faithful.”

The Vatican is, of course, right. The decision has been appealed and may well go to Strasbourg to be examined by the European Court of Human Rights. The latter, as did courts in the United States and Canada, has constantly ruled that the decisions of expelling members from a religious body are based on theological and not only on legal reasons, on which secular courts cannot interfere without seriously violating religious liberty—just as the Vatican said. But it seeems that violating religious liberty is now a daily occurrence in France.

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(ZENIT News – The Daily Signal / Washington, 04.22.2024).- Planned Parenthood’s 2022-2023 annual report is out. Unlike last year’s annual report, now we’re finally able to see how the 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade is affecting Planned Parenthood’s abortion numbers and bottom line.

Spoiler alert: Abortions and government funding are at all-time highs. Actual health care for things such as cancer screening and preventive care continues to decline. More affiliates than ever are providing “transgender services.”

Here are the key takeaways:

In the medical data section, Planned Parenthood reported:

• 392,715 abortions, an all-time high, and up from last year’s 374,155 abortions.
• 410,272 breast cancer screenings and Pap tests, down from 470,419 the previous year.
• 129,216 preventive care visits, down from 187,234 the previous year.
• 1,721 adoption referrals, down from 1,803 the previous year and less than half of the 4,279 reported just four years ago.
• 2,250,913 million contraceptive services, down from 2,348,275 the previous year.
• 2.05 million unique patients, down from 2.13 million the previous year.

Planned Parenthood performed 228 abortions for every one adoption referral.

In a nod to the reality that women in pro-life states are still traveling out of state to get abortions, Planned Parenthood reports that demand in pro-abortion states rose up to 700%. Some 33,000 people have gotten travel and financial assistance.

In the long term, the trend of more abortions and fewer health services is even more stark. Pro-life scholar Michael New points out that “in the past 10 years, the number of abortions performed by Planned Parenthood has increased by 20%. Meanwhile, cancer screenings fell by more than 58%, and prenatal services declined by more than 67%.”

After going all-in on “gender-affirming hormone therapy” starting in the 2015-2016 reporting year, Planned Parenthood reports an all-time high of 45 clinics offering such services. Planned Parenthood buries the specific number of services in an “other” category in the medical data tables. We can reasonably infer that gender services drove a noticeable spike in the category. It went from 8,153 in 2015 to 177,237 in this year’s report.

Now take a look at the financial side of things. Planned Parenthood reported:

• $2.5 billion in net assets, up from $2.3 billion the previous year.
• $699 million in government funding, up from $670 million the previous year.
• $2 billion in total revenue, up from $1.9 billion the previous year.
• $178.6 million in excess revenue (calculated by subtracting total expenses from total revenues), a decrease from $204.7 million the previous year.
• $977.5 million in private contributions and bequests, including from 576,000 active individual contributors. Last year in those categories, Planned Parenthood reported $694.9 million and 727,000, respectively. That means that fewer people are contributing, but the ones who are writing checks are writing very, very big ones.

The sobering reality is that Planned Parenthood is swimming in cash and aborting more unborn children than ever before.

That’s despite more than a dozen states protecting unborn children with beating hearts, despite abortion clinics in pro-life states closing up shop or moving to abortion-friendly states, and despite Planned Parenthood laying off roughly 100 employees in the national office.

The pro-life movement has racked up lifesaving wins since Dobbs. But Planned Parenthood’s cold, hard data shows that the pro-life movement still has a lot of work to do to build a culture of life.

Take Planned Parenthood’s government funding, for example. Why such a dramatic increase? One culprit is the federal Title X family-planning program.

The Trump administration issued a regulation that required, among other things, that participants physically and financially separate any abortion activity from Title X activity. Rather than comply with the rule, Planned Parenthood clinics sided with abortion and pulled out of the program. But the Biden administration changed the regulation, and starting in 2022, Title X funding flowed to abortion providers, such as Planned Parenthood, once again.

Government funding isn’t the only place executive action is having an impact. Why are Planned Parenthood’s abortion numbers continuing to rise despite nearly two dozen states passing robust pro-life laws after the Dobbs decision? Planned Parenthood can thank the Food and Drug Administration.

In the spring of 2021, under the cover of containing COVID-19, the FDA stopped requiring that chemical abortion drugs be dispensed in person in limited health care settings, opening the door to telemedicine abortion and abortion pills being shipped by mail.

Then, in December 2021, the FDA announced it would make that policy permanent and create a process for retail pharmacies to dispense these pills without a doctor’s visit. In January 2023, the FDA officially updated the regulations for the abortion pill.

What does this mean in practice for an organization like Planned Parenthood?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest abortion numbers, abortion pills are now used in at least 56% of all abortions. And thanks to President Joe Biden and the FDA, it’s never been easier for Planned Parenthood to get dangerous do-it-yourself abortion pills into the hands of women and girls across the country.

These executive policy choices should not go unanswered. Congress’ federal role over the power of the purse provides a path forward. Congress can and should defund Planned Parenthood and redirect funding to real women’s health care.

It should restore the Trump-era pro-life Title X rule. It should prohibit the FDA’s reckless disregard for women’s health and safety that opened the door to dangerous DIY abortion pills.

All of this could be accomplished through the appropriations process through policy riders. In fact, each of these solutions was proposed for fiscal 2024 appropriations, but didn’t make it across the finish line. For the sake of women, girls, and unborn children everywhere, let’s hope pro-life policymakers in Congress hold the line as Congress begins considering fiscal 2025 appropriations.

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(ZENIT News – Center for Family and Human Rights / New York, 04.16.2024).- he UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on Artificial Intelligence (AI) that could have serious implications for freedom of speech.

Progressive UN member states proposed an AI resolution that gives policymakers the leverage to mandate that AI systems operate “ethically” and “fairly” in the name of “human rights”. Such provisions could be used to stifle conservative viewpoints on abortion and human sexuality, among other topics.

The resolution, proposed by the U.S., calls on governments to get involved in all levels of design, development, and implementation of AI technology to eliminate the risk of “improper or malicious design development” of AI systems that could hinder the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The agenda features a commitment to widespread access to “sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights”, a euphemism used to promote abortion services. Designing AI systems that promote the 2030 Agenda would systematically favor content that promotes the pro-abortion narrative to the detriment of pro-life speech.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. Ambassador to the UN, introduced the text before the General Assembly and said, “No government or other actor should use AI to undermine peace or repress human rights and that even the most well-intentioned people need help catching and rooting out vulnerabilities and bias.”

This comes at a time when the Biden Administration is ramping up efforts to combat “anti-rights” groups, an ambiguous term often used to refer to pro-life, socially conservative organizations.

In the past two decades, the UN system has sought to expand the original understanding of the UN Declaration of Human Rights and include rights that are at odds with the deeply held moral and religious beliefs of many people around the world. Major UN Agencies such as UN Women and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) often regard any criticism of abortion as an opposition to gender equality and human rights. As Thomas-Greenfield admitted, the resolution is supposed to amplify the work of UN entities and ensure that the AI systems align with their understanding of human rights.

Designing AI systems that promote the 2030 Agenda and UN agencies’ take on human rights could also result in the mass silencing of traditional views on human sexuality and gender norms and create the false impression that the progressive view is the only legitimate perspective.

At a recent UN event on technology-facilitated gender-based violence, a spokesman for the UNFPA said that we need to “dismantle harmful social norms to challenge stereotypes and harmful norms.” Such phrasing is a direct reference to online social conservative speech and content.

According to UN Women, those who say gender is binary or that marriage should only be between a man or a woman, are not only promoting harmful social norms but engaging in acts of gender-based violence. Efforts to combat traditional social norms are gaining traction around the world. In Mexico, Rodrigo Ivan Cortes, former congressman and pro-life leader was prosecuted for “misgendering” his fellow congressional representative.

The resolution also calls for multi-stakeholder collaboration on AI development and asks “the private sector, civil society, international and regional organizations, academia and research institutions and technical communities…to continue to work together.” However, oftentimes, these multi-stakeholder partnerships function as echo chambers where individuals may hold differing perspectives on technical matters yet share a steadfast commitment to the progressive view.

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(ZENIT News – Asia News / Paris, 04.16.2024).- The visit to Vietnam by the Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Richard Gallagher, which ends today, has been a moment of great joy for the country’s Catholic community. It also opened a new chapter in a long and singular relationship between the Holy See and the country’s rulers.

An interesting conference on this topic was held a few weeks ago in Paris at the headquarters of the Missions Etrangères de Paris (MÉP). Claire Tran, Associate Professor at Paris Cité University where she teaches History of Southeast Asia, spoke about Religions and Powers in Vietnam: The Case of Catholics (19th-20th Centuries), based on research she did at the Vatican Apostolic Archives.

Prof Tran underlined the strong Catholic presence in the Southeast Asian country. Thanks to its large Catholic community, Vietnam is quite unique if compared to neighbouring Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia. At seven million, Vietnamese Catholics represent the fifth-largest Catholic community in Asia (preceded only by the unique case of the Philippines as well as more populous countries like India, China, and Indonesia).

How can we explain Catholicism’s strong presence in Vietnam? One reason is the complex relationship that developed over time between the country’s Catholic minority and the authorities.

In the scholar’s opinion, that relationship is currently going through a promising period thanks to three factors: a national Church well versed in dialogue with the communist state, a very active and innovative Vatican diplomacy underpinning this dialogue, and Vietnam’s own diplomatic efforts in favour of greater openness in religious matters to support a more open economy.

In this sense, the early years of the Catholic presence in Southeast Asia region were quite interesting. Prof Tran cited a 1659 letter from Pope Alexander VII to the first apostolic vicar of what was then Cochinchina, Fr Pierre Lambert de la Motte, a MÉP missionary.

The missive shows not only that the pontiff urged respect for the country’s traditions, but also for those who ruled it.

“To the people,” he wrote, “preach obedience to their prince; pray to God with all your heart for their prosperity and salvation. Absolutely refuse to sow the seeds of any Spanish, French, Turkish, Persian, or other party. Do not use any argument to convince these peoples to change their lives and their culture, unless it is clearly contrary to religion and morals; do not introduce our ideas among them, but [our] faith.”

This does not mean that relations with local authorities were easy. From the start, the missionaries came up opposition since they refused to promote the cult of the emperor and ancestor worship.

The authorities’ gaze on Catholics constantly wavered from an interest in a mediating presence to repression of a potential danger.

To complicate matters, starting in the 19th century, France – who justified its colonial presence to save the missionaries from a hostile regime – and then the powers involved in the Cold War, who, to legitimise the fight against communism and the defence of the free world, looked to Western foreign missionaries as a Western Trojan horse to enter the empire.

This resulted in martyrdom for the Church in Vietnam with as many 300,000 Catholics killed for their faith. About 117 martyrs have been beatified, including bishops, priests, seminarians, catechists, and lay people: 96 Vietnamese, 11 Spanish and 10 French, including eight MÉP missionaries.

But, as early as 1919, after the First World War, the Vatican welcomed the first six Vietnamese seminarians sent to Rome for training with the aim of establishing a native Church that was not simply seen as an adjunct of Western powers.

Soon enough the first bishop was appointed at a time when the Vietnamese did not have access to the highest positions in the country’s political system.

The very presence of an apostolic delegate from 1924 onwards went in this same direction, even if this journey ended tragically in 1975 with the expulsion by the communist government at the end of the war.

Now, the relationship has been revived with the arrival in Hanoi last December of Archbishop Marek Zalewski as the Papal Resident Representative in Vietnam, a process made possible precisely by the vitality of the Vietnamese Church.

For Prof Train, it is no coincidence that in his letter to Vietnamese Catholics in July 2023, Pope Francis insisted on two points: the social role of the Church, which must participate in all sectors of the country’s life, and the commitment for Vietnamese Catholics to be good Christians and good citizens.

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The rules are in a training handbook that is starting to appear on Chinese social media, including chat platforms. The manual contains mainly “things not to do” and is aimed at nipping in the bud any dissent. In the recent past, self-immolation by Tibetan monks and ordinary Tibetans have not been uncommon, not to mention large-scale protests in favour of democracy, human rights, and religious freedom.

In the event of the Dalai Lama’s death, Buddhist monks will not be allowed to display pictures of their spiritual leader, nor perform any vaguely defined “illegal religious activities or rituals”.

To this end, Chinese authorities have distributed the handbook to monasteries in Gansu province, in the northwest of the country, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports.

For Golok Jigme, a former political prisoner now in exile, the handbook goes beyond Tibet’s current religious leadership, aiming at disrupting the process of recognising the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation.

The Dalai Lama and China

China annexed Tibet in 1951, and has ruled the autonomous region with an iron fist. Chinese authorities claim that only the Chinese government can choose the successor and next spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, in accordance with the country’s own laws.

Conversely, Tibetans believe that it is the Dalai Lama himself who chooses the body in which to reincarnate, a process that has occurred 13 times since 1391 when the first Dalai Lama was born.

Earlier this month, the current leader, 88-year-old Tenzin Gyatso, addressed hundreds of co-religionists who offered him a prayer for a long life. In his speech, he said that he was in good health and was “determined to live for more than 100 years.”

On several occasions he stressed that his successor – whom Tibetans want to choose via reincarnation, as their faith dictates, while China wants to select – would come from a free country, without Chinese interference.

The Dalai Lama had to flee Tibet after the failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule; since then, he has lived in exile in Dharamsala, India, becoming the longest-serving spiritual leader in Tibetan history.

This month the Panchen Lama, the second-highest office holder in Tibetan Buddhism, will mark his 35th birthday. Together with his family, he was seized by Chinese authorities on 17 May 1995 when he was a child, three days after he was recognised as a Panchen Lama by the current Dalai Lama.

For Tibetan Buddhism, the Panchen Lama is important because he is tasked with recognising the Dalai Lama’s new rebirth after his death.

With the abduction, China clearly signalled its intention that it would pick the next Dalai Lama.

Responding to Beijing’s meddling, Tenzin Gyatso in the past had suggested that he could be the last Dalai Lama or that the reincarnation could be done by a sort of conclave composed of the leading Buddhist abbots in the diaspora.

Charges of separatism

Human rights groups say the handbook, distributed in the Kanlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in the historical region of Amdo, is just Beijing’s latest effort to crack down on the religious freedom of the Tibetan people.

For Bhuchung Tsering, head of the research and monitoring unit of the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet, this is part of systematic attempts to make Tibetan Buddhists more loyal to the Chinese Communist Party and its political agenda rather than to their religious doctrine.

“This goes against all tenets of universally accepted freedom of religion of the Tibetan people that China purports to uphold,” he told RFA.

China has imposed several measures on monasteries to force monks to undergo political re-education and has strictly forbidden clerics and ordinary people from having contact with the Dalai Lama or other Tibetans in exile, who are openly accused of “separatism”.

In recent years, Beijing has intensified its repression in Tibet and other parts of the country inhabited by Tibetans, repeating what it has been doing in Xinjiang, home to ethnic Uyghur Muslims.

“The latest government campaigns against the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhists’ religious practices in Gansu province represent another attempt by the Chinese government to interfere in the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation process,” said Nury Turkel, a member of the bipartisan US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

Chinese repression

Specifically, the handbook warns monks to avoid any activity that could undermine national unity, damage social stability in the name of religion, or involve working with separatist groups outside the country.

No illegal organisation or institution can enter monasteries, while the monks’ educational system must avoid welcoming or promoting elements that support a “separatist ideology.”

Lastly, the rules also prohibit the dissemination of “separatist propaganda” via radio, internet, television, or any other means; any deception or fraud, open or covert, will be punished.

“While the Chinese government implements various political education and activities targeting Tibetans, the primary focus seems to be eradicating Tibetan identity through the dismantling of Tibetan religion and culture,” said Golog Jigme, a respected activist involved in raising awareness about the violation of Tibetan’s human rights and religious freedom.

Golog, who now lives in Switzerland, was jailed and tortured by Chinese authorities in 2008 for co-producing a documentary on the injustices faced by Tibetans under Chinese rule.

Within China, many ethnic Tibetans live in 10 autonomous Tibetan prefectures inside several Chinese provinces that border Tibet, most notably Gansu, Sichuan, Qinghai, and Yunnan.

In the Kanlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (Gansu), home to about 415,000 Tibetans who speak the Amdo dialect, the authorities distributed the handbook. The province has some 200 monasteries in varying sizes under its jurisdiction.

During a visit to two counties in Kanlho, last month, He Moubao, secretary of China’s State Party Committee, stressed the need for Tibetans to sinicise religion and implement party policy, warning that monks must be guided in this regard to maintain national unity and social stability.

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Meanwhile, back in Vietnam, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Secretary for Relations with States (Vatican’s “foreign minister”) arrived today for a six-day visit, a historical first.

Huệ’s is one Vietnam’s four “pillars” (along with the party chief, the prime minister, and the president). His visit to Beijing comes after President Võ Văn Thưởng was dismissed last month over unspecified wrongdoings and after Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bùi Thanh Sơn visited China following a trip to the United States.

An anti-corruption campaign has been underway in Vietnam for about a year, leading to the dismissal of several officials who held leading positions within the Communist Party.

Huệ seems to be one of the few qualified politicians to replace Thưởng (who had opened the country to foreign investors but also favoured dialogue with the Vatican by inviting Pope Francis to Vietnam), but not all observers agree.

“The last thing China wants is a country like Vietnam, that shares borders with it, getting too close to the U.S.,” said University of Adelaide Professor Jack Butcher speaking to Nikkei Asia.

China is Vietnam’s largest trading partner and a vital source of imports for its manufacturing sector, while Vietnam ranks No. 2 for Chinese exports after the United States.

Still, in Southeast Asia, the Vietnamese are the most concerned about Chinese influence, especially with regard to Chinese provocations in the South China Sea, where Beijing has repeatedly violated the maritime sovereignty of other countries.

Huệ today said that he hopes “China will have an important contribution to global peace, cooperation and development,” while the two countries further develop their economic and trading relations.

During’s Xi’s visit to Vietnam in December, the two communist neighbours signed a series of agreements, including the development of a community with a “shared future”.

Today, the Vietnam News Agency reported that Archbishop Gallagher is set to meet with his counterpart, Bùi Thanh Sơn, as well as Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính. After the meetings, the Vatican’s top diplomat will lead Eucharistic celebrations in the capital Hanoi as well as Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s financial hub.

Archbishop Gallagher’s visit is an important step in the rapprochement between Vietnam and the Holy See, after relations ended with the complete Communist takeover of the country in 1975.

After lengthy work by a joint commission, a major step towards re-establishment of full diplomatic relations was taken in July last year when former President Võ Văn Thưởng and Pope Francis signed an agreement on the presence of a permanent papal representative in Vietnam. Archbishop Marek Zalewski was appointed to the post and is currently serving in that capacity in Hanoi.

During the Secretary of State’s visit the issue of Pope Francis’s possible trip to Vietnam will be discussed. Last Christmas, then President Võ Văn Thưởng sent an official invitation for such a visit, something that Vietnamese Catholics hope will take place soon, perhaps even during the pontiff’s planned visit to other Asian countries next September.

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Hong Kong has its own regime, which is different from the rest of the Republic of China. On March 19, 2024, its lawmakers approved by unanimity the National Security Law, which introduced penalties such as life imprisonment for crimes related to treason, sedition and insurrection, and up to 20 years in prison for the theft of State secrets.

The United States, Great Britain and the European Union commented that the new Law can restrict liberties even more in Hong Kong. And they opine that the legislative process was accelerated. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, also described the “speedy” writing of the law and criticized it for being “ a regressive step in the protection of human rights.”

The approval of this National Security Law of Hong Gong, of more than 200 pages, happened in just one session, after a second and third reading  in the Legislative Council, as the city’s Congress  is called. It seems that its urgency seeks to “protect” Hong Kong  from “outside interference” and avoid what happened in 2003, when open debate in the civil society ended in protests with hundreds of thousands of people, and obliged the government to withdraw a  disposition that, in practice, impeded dissidence, according to the model in the rest of China.

Article 23 of the Basic Law establishes that Hong Gong has its own national security legislation, which was approved by 89 votes in favour and none against. Moreover, the judicial power was not convoked in the hearings of the Legislative Council as is usual.

A speedy approval of the Law was urgent. The Council’s 88 members intervened in the debate to support the Law. And Andrew Leung, President of the Assembly, added his vote  although he does not usually vote.

John Lee, the city’s Director, said that the approval of the Law, which came into force on March 23, was “an historic moment for Hong Kong.”

The new Law punishes dozens of crimes in five categories: treason, insurrection, theft of State secrets, espionage and sabotage that endangers national security, as well as outside interference.

John Lee sees the Law as “an effective padlock to avoid thieves, although it seems, rather, that the Authorities want to avoid “threats posed by outside forces.”

David Cameron, Britain’s Foreign Affairs Minister, pointed out that the new Law “harms even more the rights and liberties that are enjoyed” in Hong Kong and will have “implications of great reach” for the State of Law and institutions’ independence.

Vedant Patel, spokesman of the U.S. State Department, said to journalists on March 19 that the United States was “alarmed by the broad dispositions and what we interpret as vaguely defined dispositions” in the Law.

Given that Chinese Catholics can commit crimes during protests or actions related to the Hong Kong Authority and confess them in the Sacrament of Penance, priests could be accused of crimes against the Law of sedition, if they don’t reveal knowledge of these actions, which the secrecy of the Sacrament impedes them from violating. Under the banner of “National Security,” henceforth the Hong Kong police will be able to carry out any intervention against a priest.

Lee’s reference, on March 19, was that the Law “will enable Hong Kong  to prevent, suppress and punish effectively espionage activities, conspiracies and traps of foreign intelligence agencies, and the infiltration and sabotage carried out by hostile forces.” Is this opening the door to coerce or condemn Catholic priests who refuse to reveal deeds of the faithful made known in Confession?

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According to the most recent findings, around 30% of American adults regularly attend religious services, marking a gradual decrease over the last two decades, when this percentage was considerably higher. This drop in regular religious attendance is a phenomenon that has been increasing, reflecting social and cultural changes in American society.

Breaking down this data by religious groups, an interesting panorama emerges: Mormons, known officially as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, head the list as the group most committed to regular attendance of religious services. An impressive two-thirds of Mormons report that they attend church weekly or almost weekly, which reflects a high level of observance within this community.

Protestants are in second place, including a variety of Christian denominations. Approximately 44% of Protestants regularly attend religious services, which demonstrates a solid base of attendance within this diverse religious group.

Muslims and Catholics are in the third and fourth place respectively, in terms of regular attendance of religious services. Around 38% of Muslims and 33% of Catholics report that they attend services regularly, which indicates  a significant commitment to religious practice in these communities.

However, among the smallest religious groups, such as Jews, Orthodox, Buddhists and Hindus, regular attendance of religious services is considerably lower. Less than 30% of these groups report regular attendance of religious services, the majority stating that they rarely or never attend.

It’s important to point out that the data shows a downward trend in regular attendance of religious services in almost all religions. This decline has been especially pronounced among Catholics, with a drop of 45% to 33% in regular attendance over the last two decades. Jews, Orthodox, Buddhists and other religious groups have also experienced a decrease in regular attendance of religious services over this period.

Despite these general downward trends, there are some exceptions. For instance, adult Muslims and Jews showed a slight increases in attendance of religious services over the last two decades. This increase could reflect a renewed interest in religious practice within these communities.

In conclusion, the data compiled by Gallup gives a detailed vision of the evolution of religious attendance in the United States. Although religious practice continues being important for a significant part of the population, the tendencies indicate a general decrease in regular attendance of religious services in the country. The data is essential to understand the religious panorama in constant change in the United States and its implications for the future.

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