VOLUNTARY CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP

  China's Birth Rate Hits Historic Low The number of babies born in China last year fell to a almost six-decade low, a four percent fall from the previous year.    It was the lowest    number of births in China since 1961, the last year of a widespread famine. Women in the work force who are educated don’t see marriage as necessary to achieving financial security for themselves. Many cannot afford to have children as living costs increase and their jobs demand more time and energy. Most Chinese older adults rely heavily on their families to pay for health care, retirement and other expenses. Many will have to shoulder the burden of taking care of their parents, in-laws and grandparents, without the support of siblings. Why add children?    China’s main state pension fund, which relies on tax revenues from its work force, risks running out of money by 2035 because of a decline in the number of workers, While China has reversed it one child policy, now a...

  Francis Returns Authority Over Liturgical Translations To Local Bishops  contains an English translation of the APOSTOLIC LETTER ISSUED MOTU PROPRIO OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF FRANCIS  MAGNUM PRINCIPIUM. NYTIMES  : “It’s hugely important,” said Rita Ferrone, a specialist in Catholic liturgy who writes for Commonweal, a liberal Catholic magazine. She said that by loosening Rome’s grip on the language of prayers, Francis had restored the intention of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and erased some of the rollbacks of his predecessor, Benedict XVI. “It was especially astute that he put it into canon law because it makes it official.” I think this is more about the relationship between the Vatican and Bishops Conferences than about the "liturgy wars." UPDATE!!!    Fr. Thomas Reese's  Software Model and Specific Proposals . What do think of his model and some his specific proposals, e.g. new prefaces specific to each Sunday, and more Eucharist Praye...

  Rising Morbidity and Mortality Rates in Midlife Among Non-Hispanic Whites is the original research article which I read in April. Angus Deaton, one of the co-authors is a Noble prize winner so it was unlikely to have many flaws. Anne Case and he are both at Princeton which now has an easy read version  here . The findings are pretty well summarized by the abstract which I have abridged as follows: 1) A marked increase in the all-cause mortality of middle-aged white non-Hispanic men and women in the United States between 1999 and 2013. This change was unique to the United States; no other rich country saw a similar turnaround. It reversed decades of progress in mortality. 2) This midlife mortality reversal was confined to white non-Hispanics. Black non-Hispanics and Hispanics at midlife, as well as those aged 65 and above in every racial and ethnic group, continued to see mortality rates fall. 3) This increase for middle aged whites was largely accounted for by increasing dea...

  Read  What happened when Walmart left.  We have all read articles on what happens when Walmart comes. This is what happens when it left the county in the US that has the lowest life expectancy. It is not just about jobs and taxes, its about health and social life. "Socialization. We lost our socialization factor. Now it’s hard to keep track of people, there’s no other place like it where you can stand and chat.” There used to be 28 churches of her United Methodist denomination in the county, now there are six; there were seven bars in Welch, all but one have closed; there were three cinemas, now it’s down to one; there are no community centers left; many of the corner shops have gone. “There’s nothing here,”  McKinney says.  McKinney has one other, rather astonishing, reason to regret that the store closed.  Walking.  Walking ?   “I went to Walmart for the walk,” What part do Big Box stores play in in your part of the country? in your life?...

 One ultraconservative blog describes this article as two of Francis' closest confidantes attack US, American conservatives in Pope's own journal   Evangelical Fundamentalism and Catholic Integralism in the USA: A surprising ecumenism  appears in the current issue of  La Civiltà Cattolica, a journal whose subtitle “Reflecting the mind of the Vatican since 1850” indicates its control by the Vatican.    The article is by Antonio Spadaro S.J., its    Editor-in-chief who is regarded as very close to Francis, and by Marcelo Figueroa, Presbyterian pastor, Editor-in-chief of the Ar gentinean edition of L’Osservatore Romano. Remember Francis had extremely good relationships with evangelicals in Argentina. At times this mingling of politics, morals and religion has taken on a Manichaean language that divides reality between absolute Good and absolute Evil. President George W. Bush spoke in his day about challenging the “axis of evil” and stated i...