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...

  It is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. (Mat 19:23 NIV) In  Lords of Charity  (its title in the June 26, 2017 print edition of America) Nathan Schneider, a reporter and professor of media studies at the University of Colorado, argues the case against oligarchical philanthropy as we know it, specifically targeting Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.  Is Bill Gates giving his money away?    Isn’t he buying control of additional sectors of the economy, setting the agenda in health care and school reform. His foundation rivals the World Health Organization. At least the WHO has some government accountability. He holds influence over the US public school system which his foundation consistently steers toward Microsoft products. He went to private school and was a college dropout; he is a good salesperson of a monopolistic product. Does that qualify him to redirect large areas of the economy outside his exper...

  USA: Why Liberal Morality and Conservative Politics? Gallup: The Acceptability of Various Moral Behaviors Topic 2017 Record First Year Gain Loss Year First Asked Birth Control 91% High 89% +2 2012 Divorce 73% High 59% +14 2001 Unmarried sex 69% High 53% +16 2001 Gambling 65% 63% +2 2003 Gay/lesbian relations 63% High 40% +17 2001 Unmarried pregnancy 62% High 45% +17 2002 Human Stem cell research 61% 52% +9 2002 The death penalty 61% Low 63% -5 2001 Doctor assisted suicide 57% High 49% +8 2001 Animal fur wearing 57% 60% -3 2001 Animal medical testing 51% Low 63% -14 2001 Abortion 43% 42% +1 2001 Sex between teens 36% 32% +4 2013 Pornography 36% High 30% +6 2011 Suicide 18% 13% +5 2001 Polygamy 17% High 7% +10 2003 Extramarital Affairs 9% 7% +2 2001 Data extracted and rearranged from  Americans Hold Record Liberal Views on Most Moral Issues Liberals have been very successful in spreading their moral views in these first two decades of the twenty first century.    As ...

  Half of Catholics attending Mass 28 years ago no longer do The above link is to Catholic Philly which is the archdiocese digital equivalent of a paper.    It is not really "new" news but in two very well done graphics it summarizes the statistics collected each October on Mass attendance. Like many other dioceses a count is made on all Sundays of October. Each graphic links to current events in the diocese. The first gives the total number, the second the percentage change from the previous year.    Of course we must be weary of false correlations. The only uptick occurred in 2002. The diocese noted all the attention given to the previous jubilee year; of course they also acknowledge that 9/11 might have had something to do with it. Besides the two clear graphics, they summarize the findings well: “But the data suggest two significant factors: the clergy sexual abuse crisis and the closure of Catholic churches through parish mergers. Regarding the former, even...

  Today is the first day of Lent for the Orthodox (as well as the Byzantine Catholics who use the Julian Calendar).  Last night at Vespers (which is the beginning of the liturgical day of Monday for those of the Byzantine tradition) the priest put aside his bright vestments toward the end of the service after announcing the beginning of Lent. At the end of Vespers he began the ceremony of mutual forgiveness by asking everyone in the congregation for forgiveness. Then each person in turn went up to embrace him and ask forgiveness of him, and then began forming a line at his right. The next person went up embraced the priest asking for forgiveness, then embraced the first person each asking each other for forgiveness, etc. During all this the choir sang the Easter Praises which like our Paschal Proclamation introduce their midnight Easter Liturgy. Those praises include the words "let us embrace each other, let us treat as brothers even those who hate us, for Christ has risen" T...