Prospectiva: África, ciudades y Espíritu Santo
Can numbers say something about the future of Christianity? George Weigel thinks so.
Weigel claims the past and present – together with a numeric projection about the future – can reveal something about what might happen to Christianity globally over the next 35 years.
The Status of Global Christianity is a study recently published by the International Bulletin of Missionary Research which illustrates a timeline between 1900-2050, and makes projections about Christians through the next generation. The study highlighted some high and low numbers across the globe.
George Weigel, a distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., found that three groups in particular were creating a unique phenomenon: Christians in Africa, urban Christians, and charismatic Christians.
Weigel, in a Feb. 25 column at First Things, pointed out that by 2050 there will be as many Christians in Africa as there are in Latin America and Europe combined – totaling to a projection of 1.2 billion. Africa has shown exponential Christian growth over the past century, revealing a promising future for Christianity on the continent.
Christians living in urban areas are projected to decline by six percent by 2050, making their total number 59 percent. However, Christianity made an urban comeback this century at 65 percent today, compared to only 29 percent in 1900.
Although there are approximately 644 million pentecostal and charismatic Christians today, that number is expected to reach well over 1 billion over the next 35 years, making it one of the fastest growing groups in the religious world today.
“These three phenomena – African growth, urbanization and the rise of Pentecostalism – also help account, I suspect, for the greater fragmentation of the Christian world,” stated Weigel, adding that the rise of “entrepreneurial Christianity” – that is, founding one’s own church – is contributing to these three staggering numbers.
“That helps explain why the number of Christian denominations grew from 1,600 in 1900 to 45,000 today, with projections of 70,000 in 2050,” he continued, saying that this entrepreneurial Christian attitude will also be partially responsible for what Christianity will look like in 2050.
Although some commendable Christian growth is anticipated globally, there is also an equally declining number that has been exposed within European countries.
For example, in Europe Christianity has dropped by 43 percent since 1900, making its current Christian population only 23 percent; Christianity within Europe is expected to drop even more by 2050.
“It’s worth noting that, in a century of dramatic, aggregate Christian growth, European Christianity had the lowest annualized growth rate (0.16 percent),” Weigel pointed out.
He added that in 1900 “there were some 267 million Catholics in the world … today, the world Church counts 1.2 billion members, with a projected growth to 1.6 billion by the middle of the century. Yet in the last quarter of the twentieth century Catholicism was displaced by Islam as the world’s largest religious community, as the global Muslim population grew from 571 million in 1970 to today’s 1.7 billion.”
There is some good news about the global human condition that ought to be kept in mind when remembering the bad news of the past and current century, Weigel stated, pointing to the projection that 88 percent of adults will be literate in a world of 9.5 billion in 2050, compared to only 27 percent in 1900.
In addition to this accomplishment, 89 percent of the 7.3 billion human beings today profess religious beliefs, while only two percent are atheists and nine percent are agnostics.
“Chief Poobah of the New Atheists Richard Dawkins and his friends are not exactly winning the day,” he continued.
However, even if the majority of humans around the world profess religion, only 14 percent of non-Christians know a Christian: this means that 86 percent of non-Christians do not even have a Christian acquaintance, shedding light on the current problem of Christian isolation.
This failure of Christian evangelization could prove to be an interesting development for Christianity over the next 35 years, Weigel indicated.
“Christianity seems stuck in something of a rut,” Weigel said, pointing to the fact that Christians make up 33 percent of the global population today, and will probably only see a three percent increase by 2050.
“There’s a lot of work to do in fulfilling the Great Commission,” Weigel concluded, “especially with those who have no contact with the faith”.
New statutes for economic reform are in effect at the Vatican
By Andrea Gagliarducci
Statutes of the Vatican Council for Economy, Secretariat for the Economy, and General Auditor went into effect March 1, having been signed Feb. 22 by Msgr. Bryan Wells, assessor of the Secretariat of State.
The text of the statutes have not been released by the Holy See Press Office, but can be seen in the Vatican’s Courtyard of San Damaso, where they are displayed.
The statutes of the Secretariat for the Economy stressed over which Vatican bodies the Secretariat exercises its functions of financial control and oversight, and clarified its relations with the Council of the Economy.
The statutes of the Council for the Economy clarify functions and competences of the Council. Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban, one of the members of the Council for the Economy, told CNA Feb. 13, “the Council for the Economy will be mostly entrusted with providing financial policies that the Secretariat for Economy will then foster.”
The issuance of the statutes has been characterized by a harsh internal discussion, which also brought a leak of some of the Secretariat for the Economy’s receipts, targeting Cardinal Pell.
The Italian weekly L’Espresso dedicated last week two articles to the issue, headlined “Peccati cardinali” (Cardinal sins) and “I lussi del moralizzatore” (The luxuries of a moralizer).
According to L’Espresso, the Secretariat had spent around $560,000 between July last year and January this year, and alleged that Pope Francis had queried the purchase of a $5,000 kitchen unit with Cardinal Pell.
The leaks were faulted in an official statement Feb. 27 by Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office.
Fr. Lombardi said that “leaking confidential documents to the press for polemical ends or to foster conflict is not new, but is always to be strongly condemned, and is illegal.”
The director of the Holy See Press Office stressed that “the fact that complex economic or legal issues are the subject of discussion and diverse points of view should be considered normal. In light of the views expressed, the Pope issues guidelines, and everybody follows them.”
“The article makes direct personal attacks that should be considered undignified and petty,” Fr. Lombardi underscored.
He then said, “it is untrue that the Secretariat for the Economy is not carrying on its work with continuity and efficacy. In confirmation of this, the Secretariat is expected in the next few months to publish the financial statements for 2014 and the estimated budgets for 2015 for all of the entities of the Holy See, including the Secretariat itself.”
The following day, the Secretariat for the Economy rejected accusations that Cardinal Pell has made excessive expense claims, and dismissed as “completely false” the reports that Pope Francis has discussed the expenses with Cardinal Pell.
A spokesperson for the Secretariat for the Economy said that “since March 2014 when the Secretariat was initiated, the operational costs of the Secretariat, which include some initial set up costs, were in fact below the budget set when the office was established.”
The release also pointed out that “the Secretariat currently has twelve staff working on implementing new financial management routines to improve transparency and accountability. The Secretariat will shortly present to the Council for the Economy the Audited Financial Statements for 2014. This will include a detailed account of all Vatican entities, including the Secretariat for the Economy”.
Fuente: Catholic News Agency/EWTN News
Nuevos estatutos económicos del Vaticano
El debate interno sobre los poderes de la Secretaría guiada por el cardenal Pell produjo un resultado equilibrado, pero todavía puede ser mejorado.
Por Andrea Tornielli- Vatican Insider
La publicación de los nuevos estatutos que regulan las actividades de la Secretaría de Estado, del Consejo para la Economía y del Revisor General, publicados en el sitio web de la Santa Sede, han dado pie a diferentes lecturas.
La primera es la que reconoce en estos textos una victoria sustancial del cardenal australiano George Pell, prefecto de la Secretaría para la Economía: los poderes de su dicasterio son, efectivamente, considerables, tanto en relación con las facultades de vigilancia y control como en relación con la administración del personal. En realidad, nadie se imaginaba que el purpurado, lamado “ranger” e incluso “zar” de las finanzas vaticanas, viera disminuidos radicalmente sus poderes a doce meses de su nombramiento.
La segunda lectura es la que percibe en los nuevos estatutos una derrota para el purpurado y sus colaboradores, pues en el documento aprobado por Papa Francisco se revoca el paso de la gestión de los inmuebles vaticanos, establecido en julio de 2014, de la Apsa a la Secretaría para la Economía. Y parece evidente la voluntad de mantener cierta distancia entre la vigilancia, el control de los gastos y la administración del personal y de los bienes (muebles o inmuebles) que el mismo Pell habría deseado incluir en la segunda sección de la Secretaría, definida “administrativa”. Incluso en vista del nacimiento del VAM (Vatican Asset Management), una estructura autónoma que se encargará de la gestión de todas las inversiones y que, según el proyecto que se está studiando, sería dirigida por el presidente del IOR Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, hombre de confianza del mismo cardenal Pell.
Al leer los nuevos estatutos, promulgados “ad experimentum”, por lo que podrán ser modificados o ajustados (y por este motivo es imposible dar un parecer definitivo sobre la configuración de la cúpula de las estructuras económico-administrativas vaticanas), se comprende que la Secretaría para la Economía, a pesar de contar con nuevos poderes, no será un “súper-dicasterio” que se ocupará de todo por encima de todos. Se puede concluir que después de los nueve meses de “gestación” de los nuevos estatutos en el seno de la misma Secretaría, durante el último periodo ha surgido una confrontación interna (a veces áspera) que dio como resultado un trabajo colegial, con varios entes, instituciones y personas que contribuyeron con sus consejos, sugerencias y observaciones. En este sentido, tanto la primera como la segunda interpretaación parecen fuera de lugar: con la promulgación de los nuevos estatutos no hay vencedores ni vencidos. Lo único que hay es la intención de construir, más allá de las personas, un sistema de “check and balances” capaz de funcionar y de ofrecer una mayor transparencia y racionalización de los gastos. Un dato poco difundido de los nuevos estatutos es la mayor autonomía con respecto a las iniciativas de la Secretaría para la Economía de la que parece gozar el Gobernatorado de la Ciudad del Vaticano, sometido como el resto de las instituciones y entes de la Santa Sede al poder de vigilancia del nuevo dicasterio que dirige Pell, pero más libre en relación con la administración del personal y de los recursos.
Desde los últimos meses de 2014, algunos presentaron la contraposición interna como el enfrentamiento entre dos mentalidades: la anglosajona, encarnada por Pell y su intención de introducir en el Vaticano las reglas de la buena administración y de la transparencia que no siempre han sido aplicadas; y la de los curiales italianos, que se opondrían a estas reglas de la buena administración, rememorando con nostalgia, en algunos casos, las operaciones opacas del pasado más o menos reciente. Lo que es cierto es que en los últimos tiempos los medios de comunicación han retomado e insistido en las historias poco edificantes y claras relacionadas con el IOR, la Apsa y, en general, con una cierta gestión “a la italiana”. Pero esta representación de la realidad es demasiado reductiva. No hay que olvidar que en las últimas décadas ha habido eclesiásticos no italianos en puestos clave para la administración de las finanzas del Vaticano, como el obispo Paul Marcinkus o el cardenal Edmund Casimir Szoka. Sería, pues, reductivo, considerar cualquier objeción a la creación del “súper-dicasterio” como una resistencia a las reglas de la buena administración.
Con los tres nuevos estatutos, Francisco demuestra querer seguir con decisión por el camino de la transparencia, valiéndose de la ayuda de nuevos y viejos colaboradores en una Curia colegial, en la que el papel de la Secretaría de Estado sigue siendo preponderante.