✣ Highlights from the week online
Trying to find a Francis effect
Has the Pope failed? Yes, suggests Matthew Schmitz in the New York Times. He thinks Francis’s soft approach has not worked, citing research from Georgetown’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), which found that in 2008, 50 per cent of millennials reported receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday compared with 41 per cent in 2016. But Leah Libresco was not convinced at America magazine, where she responded to Schmitz: “Take a second and make a guess about how much participation in Lenten rituals has diminished for American Episcopalian or Lutheran millennials over the same period covered by CARA’s research. Ten percentage points? More? Less? I don’t know the answer, but I would be surprised if it is only Catholics that are falling away at these rates.”
