POINTERS June 2024

Description

INSIDE THIS ISSUE OF POINTERS:

Mass Attenders’ Attitudes to the Sexual Abuse Crisis in the Catholic Church in Australia
Part 2: Detailed results from the most recent survey

In this second and final article, I will examine data from 2016 in detail, showing how attitudes varied according to Mass attenders’ demographic characteristics, their level of involvement in parish life, and their personal spiritual outlook. The data come from a representative sample of 2,591 Mass attenders who were asked their views about clergy sexual abuse in a 2016 National Church Life Survey (NCLS) questionnaire variant designed for use in Catholic parishes. In 2016, the total number of people at Mass in Australia on a typical weekend was about 623,400, or 11.8 per cent of the total number of Catholics. At that time, almost 37 per cent of all attenders had been born in non-English-speaking countries.

Modernisation and Rituals in Isan for Cross-Cultural Missions

In mid-February 2024, the Christian Research Association organised a Public Research Seminar, which took place at the University of Divinity at Box Hill, Melbourne. The afternoon seminar included input from contributors to the ‘Religion and Society Special Edition’ of the Journal of Contemporary Ministry, three of which were reported in the March 2024 edition of Pointers. The following article by Dianne Sue is the edited extract of another of the contributions.

Australia: An ageing population

In 2001, around nine per cent of Australia’s 18.8 million population were aged 70 and over, while 20.8 per cent were aged under 15. Twenty years later, in 2021, 12.1 per cent of Australians were aged 70 and over, while 18.2 per cent were aged under 15. In 2001, there were around 2,500 Australians aged 100 and over, and by 2021, that number had more than doubled to over 5,500 centenarians.

Digital Congregations

Most Australians live, at least partly, in a digital world. We connect with work colleagues, friends, and members of our families over Skype, Zoom, Facebook, X, or other social media programs. We pick up both national and social news from our phones or tablets. The COVID-19 pandemic hastened the trend as many of us were cut off from other people physically and had to connect for work and pleasure through electronic means. If churches are going to connect meaningfully with people today, they too must look at what the digital world means for them.