Stark growth of countries considered to be in breach of religious freedoms

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released a new report last week highlighting the countries with the worst religious persecution in the world. This year, the countries topping USCIRF’s list of the world’s most egregious religious freedom violators were Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, India, Iran, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan,…

Formation is important but not everything

The latest round of Irish diocesan submissions to the global Synodal Pathway renewed an urgent call for formation – adult formation, youth formation, seminary formation, formation across the board! Without formation it will be practically impossible to embed synodality or co-responsibility in the Church in Ireland, because nobody knows what exactly they mean, dioceses told…