Advocates for the protection of women charge that rape is systemic and endemic in South Africa. Police statistics confirm this: There are about 115 rapes per day, a level that is among the highest in the world.
Dispatches
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Chile’s constitution vote raises difficult questions for Catholics about equality and abortion
Chileans will get to vote on Sunday as to whether or not to adopt a new constitution. Chilean Catholics face a document that supports some Catholic ideas of equality and community yet also codifies abortion and euthanasia.
Posted inArts & Culture, Dispatches
The story behind the Vatican’s colossal sculpture of Jesus rising from nuclear destruction
Last week, Twitter users across the world made a startling discovery: A viral photo of the Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall revealed a colossal, looming sculpture that frames the pope during his addresses.
Posted inDispatches, Faith
Pope Francis prays at tomb of Celestine V, urges mercy and humility
Celestine V resigned from the papacy in 1294, the last pope to do so voluntarily before Benedict XVI. Francis, in his homily, praised him for this gesture of humility.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Popes rarely intervene in authoritarian politics. Nicaraguans want Pope Francis to make an exception.
For critics of the first Latin American pope, Francis’ recent expression of concern about the crackdown on Catholics in Nicaragua was too little too late.
Posted inDispatches, Faith
In Asia and the Amazon, the synod gives voice to Catholics on the margins
As the diocesan phase of the synod ended on Aug. 15, America touched base with some well-informed sources for insight into how the synod has gone so far in the Amazon region and Asia.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Jesuits pledged $100 million in reparations for sale of enslaved persons. Descendants say progress has been too slow.
Last year, the Jesuits pledged to raise $100 million to support the work of the Descendants Truth and Reconciliation Foundation. Yet, according to Joseph M. Stewart, the president of the foundation, progress has been far too slow.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Catholic Relief Services C.E.O. on the alarming signs of our times: hunger, drought and war
Sean Callahan, president and C.E.O. of Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services, returned last month from tours and consultations with C.R.S. partners in Ukraine, Ghana and Ethiopia.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
‘Beyond Bad Apples’: A new report explores how clericalism is shaped by sex, gender and power
“Rather than describing clericalism as an individual reality—a problem of ‘bad apples’—this study maps clericalism as a structural reality shaped by the interaction of three forces: sex, gender, and power,” the authors write.
Posted inDispatches, Faith
In South Africa’s synodal process, lay enthusiasm is often met with gatekeeping from priests
Bruce Botha, S.J., said one notable achievement of the synodal process was that many people who experienced themselves on the margins of the church felt that they were heard.