Latest news with #Protestantism
Herald Malaysia
6 days ago
- General
- Herald Malaysia
Meet the future of the Church: Seminarians gather in Rome for jubilee
More than 2,500 seminarians from 57 countries converged on Rome this week to pray at the tomb of St. Peter, receive a blessing from Pope Leo XIV, and celebrate their vocations in the Jubilee of Seminarians. Jun 25, 2025 Seminarian Thomas Hammen smiles in view of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome on Tuesday. June 24, 2025. | Credit: Courtney Mares/CNA By Courtney Mares More than 2,500 seminarians from 57 countries converged on Rome this week to pray at the tomb of St. Peter, receive a blessing from Pope Leo XIV, and celebrate their vocations in the Jubilee of Seminarians. 'Thank you for courageously accepting the Lord's invitation to follow him, to be disciples, to enter the seminary. You have to be courageous and not be afraid,' Pope Leo XIV told the young men gathered in St. Peter's Basilica on June 24. 'As Christ loved with the heart of man, you are called to love with the heart of Christ!' the pope said in his catechesis to the seminarians, urging them to 'love with the heart of Jesus.' Over two days, the jubilee pilgrims prayed the rosary together at the tomb of St. Paul, passed through the Holy Doors of the basilicas in Rome, and knelt before the Eucharist in adoration. Among them were seminarians from Albania to Argentina, India to Italy, and the United States to Ukraine — each carrying his own story of how God called him to the priesthood. Here are nine seminarians who shared how they heard the call to the priesthood: Thomas Hammen, 28, Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Florida 'I think a key message is that we're made to give ourselves away in love, while the culture says to only live for yourself… In my college years specifically, I experienced having everything the world told me that would make me happy and like Pope Leo has been saying over and over again, quoting St. Augustine, 'my heart was restless.' 'Thankfully at Florida State University, I had an awesome friend who invited me on a retreat, and it was on that retreat where there was Eucharistic adoration that I heard the truth that my heart is made for God and when I live for him I come fully alive and I'm able to step into the mission that he has for me. 'I'd say my vocation is a result of God showing me mercy … and from knowing that I'm loved, that comes a great conviction that I'm chosen for something great and that's really the source of my entire vocation to be a priest.' Hammen hopes to be ordained in 2030. Joseph Mlawa, Archdiocese of Agrigento, Italy 'I'm from Tanzania and now I'm a seminarian in Sicily.' 'Since I was little, I wanted to become a priest. However, it was a bit difficult because my parents died in 2006. But in 2015, there were missionaries who came to my parish and they helped me to come here to Italy to fulfill the calling of my vocation … They helped to pay my tuition for the nine years.' Thomas Stanczak, 35, Archdiocese of Milwaukee A recent convert from Protestantism, Stanczak said he 'read' his way into the Church. 'I think, as St. John Henry Newman says, 'to be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant,'' he said. 'I really felt a very strong call from the Lord during Mass … and when the Lord says for you to do something, it's hard to say no.' In Rome, he has had a 'wonderful experience' going to the churches from 'the different ancient martyrs and saints that we pray in the Roman canon, seeing Cosmos and Damien's church, John and Paul, Agnes and Lucy.' 'All these different wonderful saints have really helped me connect in a special way to the universal Church.'? He hopes to be ordained in 2030. Pietro, 24, Diocese of Locri-Gerace, Calabria, Italy 'I have to say that like St. Peter, I gave the Lord a lot of resistance. Finally, he somehow 'pulled me by the ears,' as we say… Slowly, with his strength, [the Lord] showed me day by day what is the meaning of my vocation, not only my vocation to the priesthood, but also to follow him with all my heart, as far as he will lead me, even to the point of giving my life.' 'There are so many challenges, as there always have been, and so I think if the Church continues to trust and rely on the Holy Spirit, then she will overcome them all.' Carlos Bárcenas, 26, Archdiocese of Panama 'The restlessness was already within me from my mother's womb,' Bárcenas joked. While studying mechanical engineering, he 'realized that [God] was asking me for something more. 'I want to be above all credible, acceptable, and consistent with Christian life,' he said. Pepe Zinkewich, 26, Archdiocese of Los Angeles 'I'm No. 9 of 10 kids. I grew up in a very heavily Catholic family … but I didn't really feel called to the priesthood until I went away for college. It was there that I got in contact with a very holy priest who loved the Eucharist and would die for it. And that really inspired me to follow Christ and devote myself to his Church.' 'Through prayer and spiritual direction, I found my vocation to the diocesan seminary, and I've loved every minute of it. Ever since I entered, I thought the priesthood was going to be quiet and simple, but it has turned out to be the adventure of a lifetime!' Zinkewich hopes to be ordained in 2029. José Ylef Felicidad, 22, Diocese of Arecibo, Puerto Rico 'I felt the call when I was 20 years old. It was through a priest friend of mine. Literally, the Lord was transfigured in him and he told me a phrase that moved me: 'He needs you.' His face changed to that of Jesus, but without ceasing to be him. It was extraordinary.' Felicidad's greatest aspiration is to leave behind 'everything for the Lord and for the holy people of God.' Randy Marfo, 25, from Ghana Marfo discovered his vocation at a young age when he was serving as an altar boy. This experience motivated him to follow a vocation to the priesthood. 'The biggest problem that my country is facing is that the population of Catholics is decreasing in these days because some of the priests are not doing what is expected of them, so Church members are leaving to other denominations, like Pentecostals or the Baptists.' He hopes to be ordained in 2030. William Iván Sánchez Velázquez, Diocese of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico 'I have been in the seminary for seven years now,' he said. 'I met with the bishop and, as soon as I finished school, I went straight to the seminary.' His hope is to become a priest who resembles 'the Good Shepherd' and to be 'dedicated to serving my sheep.' 'The Lord himself said: 'Pray to the Lord of the harvest.' The Lord provides. I firmly believe that the Lord answers the people who kneel to pray. We should not stop praying for vocations. That's the only thing to do: pray, pray, pray.' The Rome Experience The American seminarians taking part in the jubilee are in Italy this summer for the 'Rome Experience,' a six-week program to study, pray, and walk in the footsteps of the saints. These seminarians are taking classes on Church history and Christian art and architecture while also making pilgrimages to churches and holy sites throughout Rome. 'While I've been here, it's been so amazing to encounter the saints — to visit where they are buried, to hear their stories,' Hammen said. 'My hope is to return to the United States and share what I've experienced here.' The Jubilee of Seminarians is just one of many spiritual celebrations taking place in Rome during the holy year. Beginning Wednesday, the Vatican will also host a Jubilee of Bishops and a Jubilee of Priests.--CNA
LeMonde
14-06-2025
- Politics
- LeMonde
In Brazil, the evangelical wave is losing momentum
Letter from Rio de Janeiro The growth of evangelicals in Brazil had previously been described as unstoppable, exponential and inexorable. And yet, the expansion of evangelical groups in the country has turned out to be much less spectacular than predicted. According to the census conducted in 2022 by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), whose results were made public on June 6, evangelicals represent only 26.9% of the population – a level well below what specialists had expected. Evangelicals did gain 5.2 percentage points over 12 years and now number 47.4 million followers, while the Catholic Church brings together just 56.7% of the population (100.2 million people), down from 65.1% in 2010. But these figures are still far from the forecasts made by experts and media, who had predicted that more than a third of Brazilians had already converted to Protestantism. The Amazon region remains the most fertile ground for Pentecostalism. Four out of the five states with the highest proportion of evangelicals are in the Amazon, including Acre, which tops the list and where evangelicals (44.4%) now outnumber adherents of the Roman Catholic Church (38.9%). By contrast, the Northeast remains the stronghold of Catholicism, led by Piaui, where 77.4% of the population identifies as Catholic, compared to 15.6% evangelical.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
New book details ‘troubling history' of eugenics in Texas
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Eugenics, or the pseudoscience of human breeding, reached the height of its notoriety in the early 1900s but never truly disappeared, according to a new book that examines the influence that the debunked movement had on Texas. 'The Purifying Knife: The Troubling History of Eugenics in Texas,' written by Michael Phillips and Betsy Friauf, was published this week. It examines the history and influence of eugenics in the state. Co-author and former history professor Dr. Michael Phillips spoke with KXAN about the book on Wednesday. 'We had mixed feelings doing this book, because this comes in a time when there's so much dangerous rejection of science in terms of vaccines, in terms of climate change and other issues,' Phillips said. Phillips, who earned his doctorate in 2002 at the University of Texas at Austin, has focused his work on the history of racism in Texas. His first book 'White Metropolis: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion in Dallas, 1841–2001' published in 2006 and built off his UT Austin thesis. His and Friauf's research began in 2014. 'Although there were a lot of victims on the way to this science becoming marginalized, the scientific method ultimately did work, and mainstream science did reject it,' he said. 'Eugenics was accepted all across the political spectrum from the very conservative to what were called progressives then, who were the forerunners of liberals today, and it was just accepted scientific wisdom.' Before science moved past eugenics, 36 states passed laws enacting some of the movement's ideas. This included forced sterilization of people deemed 'unfit' — at least 60,000 people were victims of these laws. Texas was one of 12 states that didn't pass eugenics laws, Phillips said. 'Cotton growers in Texas and the big landowners were very much in favor of immigration, because they wanted to exploit Mexican workers as underpaid labor in their fields,' he said. 'Eugenicists were very anti-immigration. So [Texas] had a powerful economic interest that was afraid that if eugenics became law, that immigration from Mexico would stop and that would drive up the cost of their labor.' Fundamentalist Protestantism, which had become a force in Texas politics in the 1920s, was also opposed to eugenicist ideas derived from Darwin's theory of evolution. Phillips said that he sees the emerging pro-natalist movement as a home for discredited eugenics ideas — a natalist conference at UT Austin in March featured speakers who self-described as eugenicists, he said. But also leveled criticism at the environmental movement of the 1960s and 70s for allowing eugenicists. 'I think natalism is easier to sell than outright explicit eugenics. I think a lot of times, modern eugenicists describe themselves as pro-family,' Phillips said. 'But in the 1960s and 1970s … there was a real panic about the world becoming overpopulated. And they really pushed for birth control policy, but they always focused on Africa, Asia and Latin America. It was always places where people of color lived that they wanted to control population.' He warned that people should look critically at anyone who claims the existence of biological differences between racial groups or who believe IQ should determine if a person should be allowed to reproduce. 'There's an assumption that somehow, 'smarter,' whatever that means, is better. And I don't think that necessarily bears up in history,' he said. 'People who had ethics, emotional intelligence, a sense of the need for community, may not have scored well on IQ tests, but they function better in and help contribute to a better society.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Wire
30-05-2025
- Politics
- The Wire
The Life and Work of Christopher Hill
Menu हिंदी తెలుగు اردو Home Politics Economy World Security Law Science Society Culture Editor's Pick Opinion Support independent journalism. Donate Now Top Stories The Life and Work of Christopher Hill Rudrangshu Mukherjee 38 minutes ago No other historian mined the printed sources of the 17th century and wrote about all its aspects in the way Hill did. Christopher Hill. Photo: x/@radicaldaily Real journalism holds power accountable Since 2015, The Wire has done just that. But we can continue only with your support. Contribute now Christopher Hill (1912-2003) belonged to Balliol, and the 17th century belonged to Christopher Hill. No other historian mined the printed sources of that century and wrote about all its aspects – politics, economics, society and literature – in the way Hill did. He opened up the field and taught us to look at it afresh. His writing was informed by a staggering erudition and a rare passion. E.P. Thompson, dedicating a book to Hill, captured his loyalty to Balliol and his supreme control over the century that he made his own: 'Master of more than an old Oxford college'. In spite of this pre-eminent position, till Michael Braddick wrote this book, no one has attempted to write a biography of Hill. Many of his contemporaries – E.H. Carr, A.J.P. Taylor, Hugh Trevor-Roper, E.P. Thompson, Eric Hobsbawm to name a few – have had biographers. Braddick's book thus fills a major gap. Michael Braddick, Christopher Hill: The Life of a Radical Historian, Verso (2025) In a sense, it comes too late because very few historians and students of history are any longer interested in what Hill wrote and what he stood for. This indifference and neglect notwithstanding, it is good to have Hill's life and work retrieved from the condescension of the present. Christopher was born in York. His father was an affluent solicitor and his parents were Methodists. It was this ambience of dissenting Protestantism, Hill was fond of saying, that predisposed him to lifelong political apostasy. He went to St Peter's School, York, and came to Balliol as a scholar in 1931. It is said that the two History dons at Balliol, Vivian Galbraith and Kenneth Bell, were so impressed by his entrance papers that they not only awarded him 100% but also drove to York to ensure that Hill came to Balliol and did not get lured to Trinity College, Cambridge. Thus began Christopher's 43-year-long association with Balliol, of which he was to become Master in 1965. He took the top first in History in his year and won the distinguished Lothian Prize and the Goldsmith's Senior Studentship. He went on to be elected a Fellow by examination of All Souls. He came back to Balliol in 1938 as fellow and tutor in Modern History. His bonding with Balliol is best illustrated by an anecdote (not mentioned by Braddick). After his retirement, his successor as Master, Anthony Kenny, reintroduced formal Hall (formal dining in the College Hall). On the first occasion when formal Hall was reinstituted, a masked figure appeared beneath the organ loft and shouted, 'Long live the spirit of Christopher Hill.' The incident alludes to the loyalty that Hill commanded and also to his position against some traditional Oxford customs and practices. Hill was Oxford's most famous Marxist who had been a member of the British Communist Party from the mid-Thirties till the Soviet invasion of Hungary. His conversion to communism occurred while he was still an undergraduate. The impact of the Depression and the rise of fascism forced him to question the premises of the society in which he lived. Such queries led, as it did for many others in the Thirties, to Marxism and communism. Braddick dwells at length on Hill's activities and ideas when he was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). I thought that devoting so many pages to Hill's party activism was unnecessary, since such activities, and the beliefs they were based on, would become irrelevant to Hill's work as a historian post 1956. Presumably, Braddick thought that such a detailed account was important to establish Hill's radical credentials. The period when Hill was a party member – roughly mid-1930s to mid-1950s – is the most problematic phase of Hill's professional life. During these years, he remained an unalloyed and unreconstructed Stalinist. He spent time in Soviet Russia in the 1930s, when the terror of Stalinist collectivisation and the purges had begun. He did not take note of these developments. This is like someone visiting Berlin/Germany during the same period and failing to note what was being done to the Jews. Braddick writes of Hill's 'partisan defence of Stalinism'. A few pages before the use of this euphemistic phrase, Braddick notes Hill's paean to Stalin: 'He was a great and penetrating thinker … he was a highly responsible leader.' (Hill's words) As a practising historian, Hill endorsed Stalin the historian. No wonder during these years, he wrote a book on the Russian Revolution which had little or no mention of Trotsky. Hill swallowed the party line to risible and absurd limits. Braddick evades the critical issues involved here by remarking 'It is hard to know what to make of this paean to Stalin.' There is an enormous amount to be made from this. Hill was a victim and product of the greatest radical illusion of the 20th century. He was not alone: many others of equal eminence and erudition had willingly yielded to the predicament of sacrificing their reason to the altar of the party and the Soviet Union. It was a bizarre and self-inflicted blindness. Thompson, a member of the CPGB and Hill's comrade, was to write with more than a hint of regret that he began reasoning only at the age of 33 i.e. after he had left the party in the immediate aftermath of the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. Hill began reasoning when he was 45, after he resigned from the CPGB. It was only in 1981, in far away New Zealand and to a non-British audience, as Braddick notes, that Hill could confess, 'I was a sucker for Stalinism until I found out a lot more about it. I thought that the Communist Party held out an alternative. I was wrong.' Hill's scholarly output was enormous. He wrote 21 books and innumerable essays. The first book came out in 1940 and the last in 1996. That first book, The English Revolution 1640, despite its many drawbacks and its schematicism, has become a minor classic. Looking back at the book, Hill once said it was written by an angry young man in a hurry because he knew he was going to die. It was written up self-consciously as a last will and testament. It broke from prevailing historiography which saw the events of the 1640s either in constitutional terms or as a religious conflict. Hill tried to show that it was a more comprehensive social and economic transformation, the first significant moment in the birth of English capitalism and the bourgeoisie. From that first book to 1956, Hill did not publish any books on the 17th century. Post 1956 was a remarkably productive phase. It coincided significantly with his marriage to Bridget Sutton and his exit from the communist party. He wrote on a range of subjects concerning the 17th century – on puritanism, on the economic problems of the church, on the intellectual origins of the English Revolution and on the literature and political ideas of the 17th century. Looking back at the corpus of Christopher's writings, it is clear that all his books and articles were connected by a running theme. He wanted to understand the place of the English Revolution in history and to document and analyze the mental and cultural transformations that accompanied and facilitated the rise of capitalism. He looked at Puritanism and its relationship with capitalism and the political upheavals of the 1640s; he drew out the links of Puritanism with an intellectual and political radicalism which challenged the very premises of the new socio-economic formation even as it was being born. This is how he made the 17th century his own. He set the agenda for research on the period. It is difficult to even list, let alone summarise, all that Hill wrote. I will take the liberty of presenting here my own personal favourite and I dare say Hill's too. This is The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution (1972), conceived and written in the period of student radicalism and the flowering of counter culture. Here he drew out the revolution within the revolution, ideas and movements that aimed to overthrow what the English Revolution was trying to institute at every level of English life and society. Men and women, seldom written about, came alive in the book as did ideas and movements long relegated to the loony fringe of the 17th century. Hill brought to his archive a historical imagination that lit up a utopian and inevitably passing moment of teeming freedom. This book and, in fact, everything else that Hill wrote, is invariably marked by a sensitive use of literature as a source for history writing. He had the rare ability – most tellingly revealed in his great book, Milton and the English Revolution – of setting his reading of literary texts within a general view of the processes of historical continuity and change. His essays on Marvell, on Clarissa Harlowe, on Vaughan, not to mention his book on Bunyan, are rich in literary and historical understanding. Hill believed that the study of history humanises us. History can never be only the recounting of a success story. He quoted Nietzsche approvingly, 'History keeps alive the memory of great fighters against history.' Hill was only too aware that persons of his ideological persuasion would have to live with 'the experience of defeat' (the title of one of his books). History is a tragedy, Hill wrote, although not a meaningless one. Braddick, as I pointed out, avoids the more problematic aspects of Hill's communist past. Similarly, he doesn't discuss some very critical issues embedded in Hill's formidable academic output. What Hill described as 'The English Revolution'' in 1940 became in his more mature writings the' bourgeois revolution''. But Hill did not quite explain this term and what justified it. Did the bourgeoisie lead the revolution in the 1640s? Did that revolution, if it was one, lead to the formation of a bourgeois society? The only time Hill came to address such questions was in an essay titled 'A Bourgeois Revolution?' – an essay that Braddick does not discuss. (J.G.A. Pocock (ed.) Three British Revolutions, 1641, 1688, 1776, Princeton University Press, 1980). I think the question mark in the title is significant. Hill argued in this essay that the English Revolution 'was brought about neither by the wishes of the bourgeoisie, nor by the leaders of the Long Parliament. But its outcome was the establishment of conditions far more favourable to the development of capitalism than those that prevailed before 1640.' The English-Bourgeois Revolution was the product, Hill argued, of unintended consequences. This is a puzzling argument. What would happen to this argument if the Russian Revolution of 1917 was seen in terms of its outcomes – a violent totalitarian regime intended by Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin to suppress the working class and butcher the common people? It seems to me that Hill had not thought through the implications of his argument. Hence, perhaps the question mark in the title of the essay. There are questions also about Hill's method and reading of sources. Braddick quotes Keith Thomas, who is by no reckoning a denigrator of Hill, 'whatever Christopher Hill reads seems to provide him with additional support for views he already holds'' This is quite damning and very close to what J.H. Hexter in his critique of Hill called 'lumping'. Hill himself once admitted that he had a thesis to argue and he brought together evidence to buttress that thesis. It needs to be asked if this is a valid method and does it live up to what Thompson called the 'historian's discourse of proof'. Moving to his work as Master of Balliol, Braddick's account would suggest that he was a very popular Master. This may not always have been the case. There were Fellows of Balliol who believed that Hill formed cabals, worked on the principle 'if you are not with me, you are against him' and was not always very kind to those who differed with him. In spite of what I have written above, it would be wrong on my part not to note that Hill commanded respect from even people who did not agree with him or liked him. Richard Cobb, who always called Hill quasi mockingly, 'super God', wrote in Hill's support in the Times Literary Supplement during the (in)famous Hill-Hexter spat. In his letter, Cobb invited Hexter to visit Oxford and listen to a sermon delivered on the Sunday of seventh week of Michaelmas Term titled 'On the Sin of Pride'. Tariq Ali recalls Hill telling him that in the aftermath of the Soviet invasion of Hungary, when Thompson had resigned from the CPGB and Hill still hadn't, the former wrote to Hill a letter which Hill described as 'the rudest and the most obnoxious letter I have ever received in my life'. Braddick does not mention this letter. What was in that letter? Why was Hill delaying his resignation? How did a reconciliation between Hill and Thompson take place? Braddick's biography is good if a trifle adulatory and justificatory. Hill would have wanted us to go a little beyond. 'What canst thou say?' he would have asked us as he indeed did in the unforgettable last line of The World Turned Upside Down. Rudrangshu Mukherjee is chancellor and professor of history at Ashoka University. Views expressed are the author's own. Make a contribution to Independent Journalism Related News Prime Time | The Big Takeaways from the India-Pak Ceasefire In Contrast: Nehru's Take on a Young, Dissenting Irfan Habib and the Modi Govt's Treatment of Mahmudabad Ladakh: Local BJP Unit Joins Protests Against LG B.D. 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NDTV
25-05-2025
- General
- NDTV
US Men Are Flocking To Russian Churches That Promote Traditional Masculinity
Father Moses McPherson, a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, is promoting a rugged, traditional form of masculinity through his YouTube videos. He mocks activities he considers too feminine, such as wearing skinny jeans, crossing one's legs, or eating soup. In contrast, he showcases his physical strength through weightlifting videos set to heavy metal music. The priest, a father of five, has a unique background, having converted from Protestantism and previously worked as a roofer, as per BBC. Notably, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) has been expanding its presence in the US, largely due to conversions from other faiths. Over the past six months, Father Moses has guided 75 new followers to prepare for baptism at his Mother of God Church, located just north of Austin. "When my wife and I converted 20 years ago, we used to call Orthodoxy the best-kept secret, because people just didn't know what it was. But in the past year-and-a-half, our congregation has tripled in size," he said. The Orthodox Christian community in the US is relatively small, making up about 1% of the population. Within this community, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) stands out as a conservative jurisdiction. Founded by clergy who fled the Russian Revolution, ROCOR has gained attention in recent years, particularly following President Donald Trump's shift towards Moscow. Narrating his experience, Theodore, a software engineer, said he felt unfulfilled despite having a dream job and a loving wife. He believes societal expectations have been overly critical of men, particularly those who want to be breadwinners and support stay-at-home wives, labelling such relationships as toxic. Father Moses emphasises two paths to serving God: monastic life or marriage. For married couples, he advocates for a large family and rejects contraception, citing the lack of saintly approval for birth control. He also condemns masturbation as "pathetic and unmanly." Father Moses believes Orthodoxy represents a balanced, normal approach, contrasting it with what he sees as the overly feminised Western Christianity, particularly in some Protestant churches that focus on emotional expression. He criticises the "worship music" in these churches, associating it with excessive emotion, which he believes isn't suited for men.
