Dodge City bishop under investigation for alleged abuse of a minor

Farm laborers tend to squash in a field on the outskirts of the central Californian town of Solvang on June 12, 2005. / Credit: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 1, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).
The U.S. Conference of C… […]

CNA Staff, Dec 11, 2020 / 12:09 am (CNA).- Americans who attend religious services weekly are the only demographic group appearing to show improved mental health in 2020, despite the stresses of the coronavirus pandemic and other events, says a new survey.

The survey otherwise shows significant self-reported mental health declines among those previously in excellent health.

In 2019, about 42% of those who reported attending religious services weekly told Gallup that their mental health was excellent. In 2020, 46% said the same, an increase of 4 percentage points. Only 35% of those who attend services nearly weekly or monthly reported excellent mental health, down 12 percentage points from last year. Among those who attend seldom or never, 29% reported excellent mental health, down 13 percentage points.

While coronavirus restrictions have often limited peoples’ ability to attend religious services, the Gallup survey did not ask respondents whether they faced such limits.

Overall, respondents reporting excellent health declined from 43% to 34%, while those who reported excellent or good health declined from 85% to 76%. About 18% reported fair mental health while 5% reported poor mental health.

Gallup has conducted the same November Health and Healthcare Survey every year since 2001. The latest Gallup survey was conducted Nov. 5-19. Its random sample of 1,018 U.S. adults age 18 and older claims a margin of error of plus or minus 4% for the total sample.

The coronavirus has killed some 290,000 Americans – generally the elderly and those with vulnerable health – and hospitalized even more. The virus and restrictions aiming to limit its spread have hindered social and economic life as well as mental health care. Unemployment and underemployment rates have soared.

The year 2020 also witnessed a controversial presidential election, protests against coronavirus restrictions, demonstrations against police after the death of George Floyd, and major civil unrest, riots and vandalism throughout the United States.

Survey responses of self-reported excellent mental health are “eight points lower than Gallup has measured in any prior year,” the polling company said Dec. 7.

The other demographic group showing little change in excellent mental health was by partisan affiliation: Democrats were down only 1 percentage point from last year, compared to other partisan groups. However, only 29% of Democrats self-reported excellent mental health, compared to independents, who were down 11 points to 32%, and Republicans, who were down 15 points to 41%.

Demographic groups which tended to report excellent mental health the most were those making $100,000 or more, those aged 50 to 64, married people, and men. Those groups which tended not to report excellent mental health were those making under $40,000, those aged 18-29, the unmarried, and women.

“These demographic patterns have been mostly consistent over the past 20 years,” Gallup said.

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Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke during the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, June 29, 2019. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

CNA Staff, Feb 27, 2024 / 13:38 pm (CNA).

Cardinal Raymond Burke this week invited Catholics to join in praying a nine-month novena seeking Mary’s intercession beginning on March 12 and culminating on the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Dec. 12. 

The American cardinal, who founded the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Wisconsin, announced the prayer initiative in a video address posted over the weekend. 

“Our Lord has not called us to fear. No matter the darkness of our age, men and women of faith are not without the truth and love of Christ, nor the faithful care of his mother,” Burke wrote in an accompanying letter posed to the Guadalupe shrine website. 

“The darkness of sin seems so great. But Our Lord has not called us to fear! Evil cannot approach the power of God’s grace. Sin cannot prevent Our Lord’s healing mercy from reaching those who repent and seek it. And nothing can diminish the care and protection of Our Lady for us, which remain as strong today as they were 500 years ago.”

A novena, a traditional Catholic practice usually consisting of a nine-day series of petitionary prayers, can also be much longer. Those who sign up to join Burke’s novena will receive, via email, short video reflections from the cardinal each month in addition to regular written reflections and prayers. 

Recalling St. Juan Diego, to whom Christ’s mother appeared under the name of Our Lady of Guadalupe in present-day Mexico in 1531, Burke invited “all Catholics, especially those in the Americas” to ask for the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe for “maternal care and protection.”

“The world wrestled with famine and disease, and war in the Holy Land threatened to reduce that beautiful and tortured region to chaos. Then, too, poisonous confusion from within the Church corroded the faith of Christians the world over,” Burke wrote. 

“And then, too, we saw the forces of sin retreat before the presence of Our Lady. Through St. Juan Diego’s humble and courageous cooperation with grace, Our Lady claimed the New World for Christ, drawing nearly 9 million new souls into the Church by the time of St. Juan Diego’s death in 1548. It is this same maternal care and protection that we seek today — a care and protection that she will grant us, should we earnestly ask for it.”

A native of Wisconsin, Burke previously shepherded the Diocese of La Crosse and the Archdiocese of St. Louis before being appointed in 2008 as head of the Church’s highest court, the Apostolic Signatura, until 2014. 

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