World Religions News

Honoring oneself, creating sacred boundaries, and cultivating self-worth allows a human being to better engage with the world.

The post A Bisl Torah — Holy Selfishness appeared first on Jewish Journal.

[…]

The post A Moment in Time: “Choosing our Move” appeared first on Jewish Journal.

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — After an organization of traditionalist Catholic priests announced plans earlier this month to appoint new bishops without the approval of the pope, the Vatican’s doctrine department met with the head of the group on Thursday (Feb. 12) and later issued a statement warning against schism.

The appointment of bishops has long been a point of friction between the Vatican and the Society of St. Pius X, which was founded in 1970 by the conservative Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, a conservative French prelate who objected to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. In 1988, the society consecrated four bishops without the approval of the Vatican, which then declared them automatically excommunicated. Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications in 2009, and dialogue has been ongoing with the Vatican since then.

Today, the society, with nearly 1,500 members, is not in full communion with the church, but its priests’ ability to hear confessions and conduct marriages was recognized in 2017. According to the society, its following is growing, particularly in France, where most of its members live. But of the society’s 264 seminarians, 84 hail from the United States.

In an interview posted on the SSPX website, the group’s superior general, the Rev. Davide Pagliarani, said he first wrote to Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, the prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, last summer to request an audience with the Holy Father to discuss the society’s intentions. Pagliarani said he never received a reply. After writing again a few months later, he said, the dicastery responded but did not address the issue of bishops. 

“It was deemed necessary first that we approach the Holy See — which we did — and wait for a reasonable period for a response,” Pagliarani said.

The Vatican’s statement on Thursday said the meeting took place “with the blessing of Pope Leo XIV” and addressed the letters SSPX has sent to the doctrinal department going back to 2017. Fernandez “proposed a path of dialogue” centered on theological issues, the statement added. “The purpose of this process would be to highlight, in the topics discussed, the minimum requirements necessary for full communion with the Catholic Church,” it read, and “outline a canonical statute.” 

The statement made clear that this dialogue rests on the condition “that the Fraternity suspend the decision to carry out the announced episcopal ordinations.”

Fernandez asked that the entire church accompany this journey in prayer.

In his interview, Pagliarani said that the urgency of the episcopal appointments was due to the growth of the society, especially in the past decade. “In this critical context, our bishops are growing older, and, as the apostolate continues to expand, they are no longer sufficient to meet the demands of the faithful worldwide,” he said.

The society is named after Pope Pius X, known for his anti-modernist stance. It retains the Tridentine Mass in Latin, which was greatly restricted under Pope Francis.

“They’ve always been very careful to have it both ways — never quite fully breaking away, while also insisting they’re not in schism,” said Stephen Bullivant, co-author of the forthcoming book “Catholic Traditionalism in the United States,” which found that an estimated 100,000 to 110,000 Catholics attend a traditional Latin Mass on a typical Sunday in the U.S., constituting a small but highly visible minority.

Bullivant said that while the Vatican has been “remarkably patient” in allowing SSPX to retain some kind of bond with the official church, “it’s very hard to imagine Rome doing that again, because if it did, that situation would just go on forever.”

A dialogue with the Vatican would be on “Rome’s terms,” he said, which means the acceptance of the validity of the Second Vatican Council. “This feels like the last throw of the dice — an attempt to pull Rome’s bluff,” he added.

A new wave of artists is transcending traditional notions of Christian music, drawing young global audiences to faith-based rap, Afrobeats and R&B.

Often boosted by social media, many of them got their start with independent labels or by uploading self-made songs to streaming platforms. Now, bigger labels and streaming services are catching on.

People are looking for “something soul-feeding, something forward-looking, positive,” said James “Trig” Rosseau Sr., CEO of Holy Culture Radio. “They find a sonic coziness, but then a message that is feeding that need.”

Interest in the music has proliferated since 2022, said representatives at Spotify and Amazon Music. However, breaking into the mainstream has been challenging for this group of mostly Black and/or African artists who are making music that can’t always be defined and that hasn’t been well-represented in the Christian music industry.

“Over the last two years, there’s something happening momentum-wise, and it still feels underground, but now it’s starting to get the visibility that it’s deserving,” said Angela Jollivette, who previously oversaw the Grammy Awards’ Gospel/Contemporary Christian categories and runs Moonbaby Media, a music supervision and production company.

Christian rap’s star rose around 2013 when rapper Lecrae Moore won his first Grammy. Today, newer artists are modernizing Christian hip-hop. Florida rappers Caleb Gordon and Alex Jean are among those leaning into rap’s subgenres as well as Afrobeats, the popular blend of West African music styles. Nigerian Christian Afrobeats pioneer Limoblaze is now signed to Moore’s Reach Records label, and Afrobeats artists such as CalledOut Music and “The Voice UK” winner Annatoria are on the rise.

“I think the world is now like, we can hear ourselves represented,” Moore said. “To me, that is a picture of the faith. We’re a global faith.”

Dallas-based Ghanaian Canadian artist Ryan Ofei, a former member of Christian act Maverick City Music, pivoted to Afrobeats-R&B fusion, releasing his first solo album in 2024. He said the growing vein of Christian music is less “preachy” but still a “massive evangelistic tool” for nonchurchgoers.

“You can bob your head, you can have a long drive,” Ofei said. “But the whole time, you’re still edified, and you can still feel the presence of the Lord.”

Family-friendly but not childish

Christian rap, R&B and Afrobeats artists say they want to write music they can play around their children — but without sacrificing the craft.

“I’m giving them sounds that are ghetto and cool, but not profane,” said rapper Jackie Hill Perry. She called Christian rap today less intellectual and more “vibe-driven” than when she started more than a decade ago.

Rapper Childlike CiCi got her start as a secular artist recording in “trap houses,” a term for drug-selling homes where some of hip-hop’s biggest names also propelled trap music to popularity. A few years after becoming a Christian in 2019, Childlike CiCi sought to make music she couldn’t find — rooted in faith but inspired by trap and its more aggressive counterpart, drill.

“When people think of Christian hip-hop, they expect it to just be like Kidz Bop,” she said. “I think it’s bigger than that. Like, the Bible is not Kidz Bop.”

Some artists found Christian rap corny at first. But London-based Limoblaze said Moore’s music transformed his faith “from a religious practice to an actual relationship with Jesus.”

Capitalizing on Afrobeats’ global popularity and his own growing audience, Limoblaze met with Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and Amazon about three years ago. Months later, Amazon launched its first Afrogospel playlist, he said.

“I think Christian Afrobeats is slowly but eventually going to be on a mainstream level, at least in the African music scene,” said Limoblaze.

Compared to mainstream counterparts, streaming numbers for these subgenres remain smaller, but their fanbases’ dedication is outsized, said Lauren Stellato, programming lead for Christian and gospel music at Amazon Music.

“These young artists and young fans are bringing faith into sounds and spaces that they really already live in,” she said. “The audiences are responding to it because it feels natural.”

Some artists have collaborated with popular Christian acts like Forrest Frank, and Christian rap is breaking into secular, mainstream spaces. Christian rappers Gordon, Jean, nobigdyl., Hulvey, Jon Keith and GAWVI performed at the 2024 Rolling Loud Miami festival. Months later, Rolling Loud gave a solo set to Christian rapper Miles Minnick, who spoke this year on a Grammy panel and performed at a Super Bowl event.

Alternative to traditional worship

Churches have long resisted acts that veer from tradition, like Kirk Franklin’s modern gospel sound in the 1990s, said Emmett G. Price III, dean of Africana studies at Berklee College of Music. Price added that although there is still resistance, newer artists are important because “you don’t have a homogenous Black church.”

When traditional worship songs don’t resonate, there’s nothing “ungodly” about wanting God in other music, Moore said.

Artist CèJae said her R&B songs are still rooted in the Bible, but they also explore personal themes like heartbreak and struggling to pray regularly.

“We don’t get the feeling part sometimes,” she said of traditional gospel. “Or if we do, it sometimes seems like a recycled message.”

U.K.-based alternative artist Sondae said the sonic diversity helps people find music they can connect with — whether that’s gospel, Afrobeats or contemporary worship songs that appeal more to white audiences.

“I feel like God has blessed his harvest in such a way that there’s different flavors of fruits popping up everywhere, and everyone’s getting blessed,” he said.

Challenges in a broadening genre

Christian rap, R&B and Afrobeats artists still lack the same industry buy-in, financial resources and radio exposure contemporary Christian and secular artists have, said Jollivette, who is working with the Recording Academy to develop a rhythm and praise Grammy. Some have won in existing faith-based Grammy categories by competing against artists with vastly different sounds.

Christian music is also a lyric-based term, so categorizing artists in a “generation that doesn’t really draw genre distinctions” is challenging, said Mat Anderson, senior vice president of label strategy and operations at Sony Music Entertainment’s Provident Entertainment.

Observers say the quality of Christian hip-hop and its counterparts has improved over the years, but skeptics remain.

Christian rapper Torey D’Shaun said on rapper nobigdyl.’s podcast that even rap he admired artistically didn’t resonate at first. A Kendrick Lamar lyric led D’Shaun to faith after hearing his East St. Louis upbringing reflected on Lamar’s “good kid, m.A.A.d city” album, with parallel tales in Los Angeles, he said.

“We should be allowed to make denser music than youth group music,” said D’Shaun, a member of nobigdyl.’s indie tribe rap collective

CèJae said streaming representatives have told her more platform playlists would help the genre take off, but there’s not enough Christian R&B music yet. Anderson from Sony Music said that’s starting to change.

Still, in a self-focused industry where it can be hard to make money and break out, Hill Perry said it’s important to heed the Bible’s call to humility. She advises artists to avoid obsessing over numbers and practice humility daily, which will translate into their careers. Limoblaze agrees.

“It’s such a resolve for me, knowing that whatever is going to happen is going to happen because of the Spirit of God and not because I am powerful, talented,” he said.

___

Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia is demanding criminal charges over a 2024 Israeli airstrike on an aid convoy in Gaza that killed seven people, including an Australian aid worker, the country’s prime minister said Wednesday in a case that has drawn sweeping condemnation and strained relations between the two countries.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he conveyed the request to visiting Israeli President Isaac Herzog during a meeting earlier in the day.

Australian Zomi Frankcom was one of four World Central Kitchen aid workers killed by an Israeli drone on April 1, 2024. The other aid workers were an American-Canadian dual citizen, a Palestinian and a Polish national. Three British security staff were also killed in the same airstrike.

There was no immediate response on Albanese’s request from Herzog, who visited the national capital, Canberra, on Wednesday after spending two days in Sydney, where he comforted Jews reeling from an antisemitic attack at Bondi Beach in December that left 15 dead.

Herzog’s visit triggers controversy

Though Australia’s major political parties largely back Herzog’s visit, Albanese spoke in Parliament on Wednesday to several lawmakers who opposed it, accusing the Israeli leader of inciting genocide in Gaza and inflaming community tensions within Australia.

The prime minister defended the visit and said it was an opportunity to “raise the issue” of the killed aid workers.

“That’s one of the reasons why you have dialogue in a respectful way; to get outcomes and to advance Australia’s national interests,” he told Parliament.

Four months after the aid convoy strike, an Australian inquiry found the airstrike resulted from procedural failures and errors on the part of the Israeli military.

Albanese said it was a “tragedy and an outrage” and that he made clear Australia’s “expectation that there be transparency about Israel’s ongoing investigation into the incident.”

“We continue to press for full accountability, including any appropriate criminal charges,” he added.

Israel’s president describes a ‘very emotional’ visit

Herzog told reporters that his visit has been “very emotional” in the wake of the suffering the Bondi massacre had caused Sydney’s Jewish community.

“It’s also an opportunity to bring the relations between our nations on a new beginning and a better future,” Herzog said outside Albanese’s office.

“I think the relations between us do not depend only on the issue of Israel and the Palestinians and the conflict but has a much broader base,” he added. “We should, together, make sure that it’s uplifted to new directions.”

Mainstream Jewish groups in Australia have welcomed the visit of Herzog, a former leader of the centrist Labor Party who now plays a largely ceremonial role.

Albanese and Herzog dined on Tuesday night at the prime minister’s official residence on Sydney Harbor before flying together to Canberra on Wednesday morning in an Australian air force jet.

Protests against Israel mark Herzog’s visit

Hundreds of demonstrators, some waving Palestinian flags, and several lawmakers gathered outside Parliament House to protest Herzog’s presence.

On Monday, as Herzog arrived in Sydney, thousands of demonstrators rallied there and also in downtown Melbourne. Australia’s two largest cities are home to 85% of Australia’s Jewish population.

Mehreen Faruqi, the Muslim deputy leader of the influential Greens party, told protesters outside Parliament House on Wednesday that Herzog was not welcome in Australia.

She condemned Albanese and New South Wales state Premier Chris Minns for police using pepper spray and aggressive tactics in clashes with protesters in Sydney on Monday. Police were given increased powers to arrest protesters due to Herzog’s visit.

“It is shameful that the premier of New South Wales and the prime minister of Australia are offering warm handshakes, photo opportunities and canapés to a war criminal, to a war criminal who has incited genocide, while those who are fighting for peace, who are protesting against the genocide, are attacked and assaulted and thrown to the ground,” Faruqi told the crowd, many of whom chanted “arrest Herzog.”

David Pocock, an independent senator and former captain of Australia’s rugby team, also joined the demonstration outside Parliament.

“It was the wrong decision to invite President Herzog at this time when we have seen so much strain on communities and tension in communities across the country,” Pocock told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

A heavy police presence at the Sydney rally on Monday prevented demonstrators marching from the Sydney Town Hall. Police arrested 27 demonstrators and charged nine, mostly with assaulting police.

Minns defended the police actions, saying that if the protesters had marched from the town hall, they might have clashed with thousands of mourners of the Bondi massacre who had gathered at an event with Herzog nearby.

Before returning to Israel, Herzog will visit Melbourne, where protests are planned for Thursday afternoon. In Melbourne, the Israeli president is to visit the ruins of the Adass Israel Synagogue, torched in late 2024.

Australia accused Iran of directing that arson attack and expelled Iranian Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi last August.