The number of Americans who do not identify with any religion continues to grow at a rapid pace. One-fifth of the U.S. public – and a third of adults under 30 – are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentages ever in Pew Research Center polling. In the last five years alone, the unaffiliated have increased from just over 15% to just under 20% of all U.S. adults. Their ranks now include more than 13 million self-described atheists and agnostics (nearly 6% of the U.S. public), as well as nearly 33 million people who say they have no particular religious affiliation (14%
Over
the past 20 years, the United States has granted permanent residency status to
an average of about 1 million immigrants each year. ... U.S. government statistics show that a
smaller percentage come from Europe and the Americas than did so 20 years ago,
and a growing share now come from Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle
East-North Africa region. With
this geographic shift, it is likely that the religious makeup of legal
immigrants also has been changing. ... While
Christians continue to make up a majority of legal immigrants to the U.S., the
estimated share of new legal permanent residents who are Christian declined
from 68% in 1992 to 61% in 2012. Over the same period, the estimated share of green
card recipients who belong to religious minorities rose from approximately one-in-five
(19%) to one-in-four (25%). This includes growing shares of Muslims (5% in 1992,
10% in 2012) and Hindus (3% in 1992, 7% in 2012). The share of Buddhists,
however, is slightly smaller (7% in 1992, 6% in 2012), while the portion of
legal immigrants who are religiously unaffiliated (atheist, agnostic or nothing
in particular) has remained relatively stable, at about 14% per year.
Based on previously unreleased secret documents from European Archives
including the Vatican, the 4-part series, Secret Files of the Inquisition unveils the
incredible true story of the Catholic Church's 500-year struggle to
remain the world's only true Christian religion.
Links to the official websites of the documentary:
The last person to be officially
executed by the Roman Catholic Church under the Roman Inquisition (discussed in Part 3 of this documentary series) on charges of apostasy from the
Catholic faith is the Italian priest, scientist and philosopher, Giordano Bruno. He was accused of Copernicanism, infinite universe and
the possibility of other habitable worlds besides earth. He refused a
full and unconditional recantation at his trial, and the Inquisitor, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, S.J., pronounced the guilty verdict and
handed him over to civil authorities for execution in 1600. The last
person to be executed by the Spanish Inquisition on charges of heresy and
apostasy is Cayetano Ripoll, who was accused of renouncing Catholicism
for Deism, and executed on 26 July 1826. Infamous for its ferocious persecutions of Jews (discussed in Part 2 of this documentary series) and Moors (Muslims), the Spanish Inquisition was
only abolished in 1834. The Roman Inquisition went into decline in the aftermath of the scandal involving the young Jewish boy, Edgardo Mortara who was secretly baptised and forcibly removed from his Jewish parents and placed under the protection of Pope Pius IX (discussed in Part 4 of this documentary series).
France 1308 - High in the Pyrenees in the southwest of what is now France, in a time
when the Church of Rome proclaims itself the one true religion, heresy has
taken hold. Inquisitors are sent to exterminate the
heresies by hunting down the condemning believers to burn at the stake.
In 1308 the
entire village of Montaillou is taken prisoner of the Inquisition. No one
is safe - not even the village priest and the chatelaine of its castle.
From the secret files - the extraordinary revelations of village life under
the Inquisition.
PART 2: The Tears of Spain
Spain 1468 - A land where Christians, Muslims and Jews have lived in
tolerance for centuries. That time is ending. A young King and Queen
proclaim themselves Catholic Monarchs and start an Inquisition. Jews who
had converted to Christianity are accused of secretly sabotaging the
Christian faith. They become the pawns in a game of chess with dire
consequences. Thousands perish in a ritual called the act of faith. In
Zaragossa, the inquisitor is assassinated - setting off a wave of
reprisals. Mothers will die to protect their children - and the highest
in the land will pay the ultimate price. It is the beginning of the
Spanish empire and a long dark night that will last for centuries.
PART 3: The War on Ideas - Italy
Italy 1522 - The decadence of a Medici Pope in Rome outrages the devout
priest in Germany named Martin Luther. In the face of the Protestant
Reformation, a fanatical monk sets out to exterminate the heresy. On his
path to power he will create the Roman Inquisition. And he will become
the most hated Pope in history. Powerful leaders of the Catholic Church
are arrested and imprisoned, accused of reading books banned by the
Church. Free-thinking students are silenced. Darkness descends on the
centers of learning and Renaissance. The Roman Inquisition leaves a
legacy that lasts into the twentieth century.
PART 4: The End of the Inquisition
The secret files of the Inquisition are locked away for centuries. A
Spanish priest devotes his life to exposing the brutal records of the
Inquisition. Napoleon spreads the ideas of the Enlightenment. He
conquers Italy, abolishes the Inquisition and orders its files sent to
Paris. Spain's greatest painter, Goya, will depict the Inquisition for
the first time - and then run for his life. The kidnapping of a young
Jewish boy secretly baptized will be one of the desperate last attempts
at exerting the power of the Inquisition. A devoted father fights to get
back his son. The boy becomes a symbol for a Pope who is about to lose
his dominion on earth.
The
statistical information, which refers to the year 2011, reveals
details about the Catholic Church in the 2,979 ecclesiastical
circumscriptions around the planet. The number of Catholics in the
world increased from 1.196 million in 2010 to 1.214 million in 2011,
an increase of eighteen million faithful, corresponding to a growth
of 1.5%. Over the last three years the presence of baptised Catholics
in the world has remained stable at around 17.5%.The
number of Catholics with respect to the total population varies
considerably between the continents. Their numbers have increased in
Africa (by 4.3%), which has reported a 2.3% increase of its
population between 2010 and 2011. In Asia, an increase in Catholics
greater to an increase in the population was also recorded (of 2%
compared to 1.2%). In the Americas and in Europe the increase in
numbers of Catholics is equal to the population increase (.3%). In
2011, the total of baptised Catholics had a distribution of, by
continent: the Americas (48.8%); Europe (23.5%); Africa (16%); Asia
(10.9%); and Oceania (.8%).
A new Pew Research Center survey of Muslims around the globe finds that
most adherents of the world’s second-largest religion are deeply
committed to their faith and want its teachings to shape not only their
personal lives but also their societies and politics. In all but a
handful of the 39 countries surveyed, a majority of Muslims say that
Islam is the one true faith leading to eternal life in heaven and that
belief in God is necessary to be a moral person. Many also think that
their religious leaders should have at least some influence over
political matters. And many express a desire for sharia – traditional
Islamic law – to be recognized as the official law of their country.
The Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project is a beta website furnishing demographic data and survey results on global religions across the countries of the world.
Posts
