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Denver, Colo., Jun 6, 2020 / 05:06 pm (CNA).- As restrictions meant to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus have forced churches to close or limit their activity in recent months, priests across the U.S. may be feeling “nonessential” as they struggle to support or even engage with their parish community, one psychologist said.

Dr. Christina Lynch, a supervising psychologist for Denver’s St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, told CNA the quarantine measures around the country may be causing priests to feel unneeded and to struggle with their priestly identity. She said priests need encouragement to overcome these challenges.

“Shepherds have been removed from their flocks, and flocks and been removed from their shepherds. They’re losing their sense of priestly identity and purpose. A newly ordained priest [told me], ‘I am not a minister without a community, and it’s been really hard,’” she said.

“This is the time God created [these priests] to be here, at this juncture in this country during the terrible time of pandemic and riots. There’s a purpose and a mission for [priests who were] ordained for that, to bring the sacraments to the people of the Catholic Church, and they need to support each other in that.”

As the novel coronavirus spread in March, all U.S. Catholic dioceses curtailed public Masses to prevent the spread of the disease.

Beginning in mid-April, many dioceses have begun resuming the offering of public Masses, although with limitations on attendees and regulations including the use of masks and hand sanitizer. Other dioceses have not yet resumed public Masses.

Over the Memorial Day weekend, Lynch issued a questionnaire to about a dozen priests, representing different parts of the country and different priestly demographics – including vocation directors and seminary rectors, middle-aged pastors and recently ordained priests.

The survey asked questions about how the pandemic has affected the priests’ mental health, what type of support they need, and what pressures they expect to arise in the future. Lynch expressed hope that the questionnaire would help her better understand the current condition of priests, so she can help prepare psychologists to support them.

The results, she found, were that clergy said they were experiencing a greater psychological strain from the pandemic, resulting in loneliness, depression, cynicism, anger, and fear.

“The number one message I heard was that this quarantine has brought to the surface a growing crisis in priestly identity,” she said.

Being without parishioners over the last few months has in some cases led to a feeling of isolation and purposelessness among priests, Lynch explained. Because priests are limited in their interactions and ministerial duties, she said, they may feel like they are trapped and lacking control.

While marijuana dispensaries, abortion clinics, and porn shops have remained open, she said, religious institutions have been deemed nonessential by state governments. In some cases, state regulations have demanded that churches open more slowly, or with a smaller number of people than other social gatherings. In many cases, courts have rejected these rules, although the U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld a regulation on churches in California.

“They’re getting that message from the secular. In other words, the governments. They’re opening all these other kinds of stores and saying they’re essential. [But] the churches can’t open… They don’t consider the spiritual, and yet people thrive when they have faith and when they’re in community,” Lynch said.

She said the pandemic has also caused “decision fatigue” and forced priests to make choices they may never have faced before, such as large staff cutbacks. The lack of normalcy and community may also increase temptations among priests, who find it more difficult to pray.

To combat these difficulties, she said, parishioners need to show their appreciation for their pastors, and priests need to offer fraternal support to one another. She said it is important to remind priests that things will be back to normal and highlight the value of their ministry during these difficult times.

“The laity needs to reach out and send them notes and tell them they’re essential and tell them how important they are,” she said.

Priests can also play a role in helping one another recognize that they are essential, she said.

“I think building comradery, calling priests in your fraternity when you’re friends with them or not, and just reaching out and supporting each other. I think that’s one of the best things priests can do to help each other.”

[…]

Washington D.C., Jan 29, 2020 / 12:01 pm (CNA).- In the wake of basketball star and father-of-four-daughters Kobe Bryant’s death, #GirlDad has gone viral on social media with fathers sharing the unique joy of raising daughters. However, in many parts of the world, fewer girls are born than boys today because of sex-selective abortion.

Demographics experts say that “large-scale female feticide” has also occurred in the U.S. in the last decade, in a new analysis published Jan. 27.

“These new data are worrisome, if not alarming—for they demonstrate that large-scale female feticide has been taking place among certain U.S. sub-populations over the past decade,” researchers Nicholas Eberstadt and Evan Abramsky found when they looked at U.S. birth statistics.

“The ‘global war against baby girls’ has opened a front in the United States of America,” they said.

The phenomenon of mass female feticide in Asia over the last 40 years has been driven by easily available or unconditional abortion access, cultural preferences for boys, and inexpensive prenatal gender determination technology, Eberstadt explains.

While the natural biological sex ratio at birth hovers around 103-105 boys born for every 100 baby girls, in China and India the ratios hit 115 and 111 respectively in 2017.

With the sex ratio skewed in the two most populous countries in the world, sex-selective abortion accounts for millions of “missing baby girls” each year.

Eberstadt and Abramsky’s 2020 analysis also found unnatural imbalances in sex ratios at birth in the U.S. among foreign-born mothers from China and India.

Among foreign-born Chinese mothers, more than 110 boys were born for every 100 girls in the U.S. between 2014-2018. For the third child born, this figure jumps to 122.8 for Chinese foreign-born mothers and 115.3 for Indian foreign-born mothers.

The researchers conclude this can be understood as approximately 8,400 “missing” births of newborn girls in the U.S. from Chinese and Indian mothers between 2014-2018, while the exact number of sex-selective abortions that occurred among those sub-population groups is unclear.

Eberstadt and Abramsky said that they found “some measure of reassurance” in that there was  no conclusive evidence that the same sex ratio at birth (SRB) exists among Asian-Americans born in the U.S.

The abnormal trend only applies to foreign-born mothers from China and India, countries with “mass female feticide.”

This week over 100,000 people have posted photos of fathers and daughters on Instagram with #girldad in tribute to Kobe Bryant, who was the father of four girls. Bryant and his eldest daughter, Gianna, died in a helicopter accident Jan. 26, along with seven others.

The trend was sparked by ESPN analyst Elle Duncan, who shared a memory of a conversation with Bryant.

She said that she had asked Kobe Bryant if he wanted more children, even if there was a chance of having another girl, and said Bryant replied, without hesitation, “I would have 5 more girls if I could. I’m a girl dad.”

“I would have 5 more girls if I could. I’m a girl dad.”@elleduncanESPN‘s story about how much Kobe loved his daughters is something special. pic.twitter.com/1KJx17QRjY

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 28, 2020

Following the episode of Sports Center, professional athletes posted photos of themselves and their daughters online with #GirlDad, fathers across the globe followed suit.

“This is trending nationwide because there’s no greater or more significant relationship than that of a dad and his daughter(s),” Duncan wrote on Twitter Jan. 28 with a post that linked to the thousands of family photos shared with her in the past few days.

Please if you’re feeling any kind of way, scroll through this feed and look at all these PROUD #girldad ‘s .. this is trending nationwide because there’s no greater or more significant relationship than that of a dad and his daughter(s) .. i hope it eases your blues. ?? pic.twitter.com/DbUQVbVO22

— Elle Duncan (@elleduncanESPN) January 28, 2020

[…]

Washington D.C., Jan 8, 2020 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- Law enforcement officials have conducted interviews with several senior figures at the Papal Foundation, a U.S. based charity which supports the charitable works of the Holy Father.

Officers from the FBI… […]