John Allen skriver i dag om de filippinske katolikkene, bl.a.:
On any list of the most consequential Catholic nations today, the Philippines would easily finish in the top five, and there’s a good case to be made that it’s #1.
It’s the third largest Catholic nation on earth, and unlike its two larger peers, Brazil and Mexico, its levels of faith and practice remain robust. For another, given the swelling Filipino diaspora, in a staggering number of places today, from the Arabian Peninsula to Malaysia, Hong Kong, and beyond, often the most dynamic pockets of Catholic life are populated by enthusiastic Filipino ex-pats.
(That, by the way, is also true of Sweden, with an estimated 13,000 Filipinos living in the country, most working in hotels, as gardeners, caregivers, or in some other domestic capacity. The Filipinos truly are the new Irish, the blue-collar immigrant group carrying the Catholic faith with them wherever they go.)
I Norge er det enda flere filippinere, 21.000, og Norges befolkning er bare halvparten av Sveriges. Men John Alle skriver videre om Filippinenes situasjon i dag:
Today, the Catholic Church in the Philippines is in crisis. The crisis isn’t primarily self-generated, the result of an abuse scandal or financial meltdown or theological controversy. Instead, it’s the product of the deeply polarized reactions to the country’s new leader, President Rodrigo Duterte. … H