Digging into the crosstabs of a new poll released last week, I found some numbers surprising. While I was well aware of the decline in Americans identifying as Christian (90% in 1968 vs. 64% today), I did not realize that only 6% of United States residents identify with a non-Christian religion such as Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh or other faith traditions.
The same poll predicted that Christians would make up somewhere between 35% and 46% of the U.S. population by 2070. So, while the number of religiously unaffiliated Americans is expected to continue to swell, those adhering to other traditions will also grow exponentially in the coming decades. Twenty-first century Christians will undoubtedly need to continue to adjust to living amidst pluralism not only across the common planet that we share, but also in their own nation and neighborhoods.
This reality is one of the factors that drove Pope Francis to visit the enormous Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan, a country nine times the geographical size of Italy. The Holy Father addressed the Seventh Congress of World and Traditional Religions from September 13-15, held in the capital city of Astana, which is often referred to as Nur-Sultan, after the nation’s first president following independence, Nursultan Nazarbayev.
The pope continued his practice of highlighting the presence of the Church in areas where Catholics are a tiny proportion of the overall population; a priority he has demonstrated not only in his pastoral visits but also in his naming of cardinals from far-flung dioceses. Out of the 19 million Kazakhs, roughly 125,000 identify as Roman Catholic, a number well under 1%.
In addition to meeting the current president, civic leaders and diplomatic corps, he celebrated Mass and held conversations with men and women religious, pastoral workers and seminarians serving this small but vibrant community in the region. But the most public part of his visit was his address to the interfaith Congress, and its intentional connection to his Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together, sometimes called the Abu Dhabi Agreement.
In addressing the leaders of other religious traditions as siblings who are “children of the same Heaven,” he said: “Before the mystery of the infinite that transcends and attracts us, the religions remind us that we are creatures; we are not omnipotent, but men and women journeying toward the same heavenly goal. Our shared nature as creatures thus gives rise to a common bond, an authentic fraternity. It makes us realize that the meaning of life cannot be reduced to our own individual interests, but is deeply linked to the fraternity that is part of our identity. We mature only with others and thanks to others.”
The pope emphasized both religious freedom and the effects that pandemic has had on demonstrating what all “believers in the Divine” share. He claimed that four global challenges are particularly urgent in our day: our vulnerability and concomitant responsibility in the face of the pandemic; the scourge of war and challenge of peace; the need for fraternal acceptance, and lastly, a dearth of commitment to care for our planet in the face of climate change and exploitative cultures and mindsets.
During a visit to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cathedral, the pope blessed an icon where Mary is depicted with Kazakh features, called “The Mother of the Great Steppe.” The plan is to install the image in Oziornoje, at the Chapel of the National Shrine of the Queen of Peace, the primary patroness of the Kazakh Catholic community. There will then be a relatively permanent monument to the papal priorities of interreligious relationship and respectful coexistence in the predominantly Muslim nation that has sat at the crossroads of warring empires stretching from Alexander the Great and Genghis Kahn to the Soviet Union.
Originally from Collingswood, Michael M. Canaris, Ph.D., teaches at Loyola University, Chicago.
at the bottom and then tap “Add to Home Screen”
