Top Vatican diplomat consecrates Catholic church at Jesus' baptism site
The Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, on Friday consecrated a new church at a place on the banks of the Jordan River that the Catholic Church officially recognizes as the site where John the Baptist baptized Jesus.
Parolin inaugurated and consecrated the Church of the Baptism of the Lord at Al-Maghtas, known as Bethany Beyond the Jordan, before thousands of Jordanians, Palestinians, other Arabs and diplomats.
'My presence here today, according to the wishes of the pope, is meant to be a tangible sign of the closeness of the whole Church to the Christian communities of the Middle East,' Parolin said in his homily, read on his behalf in Arabic by the Rev. Jihad Shweihat.
'At a time in history when this region is experiencing serious upheaval, it is important that Christians also make their contribution to the building of a just and peaceful society,' he said.
Parolin celebrated Mass, accompanied by Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa. The ceremony also celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Catholic Church's annual pilgrimage to Jesus' purported baptismal site.
Parolin also anointed the church's altar, dedicating it as where the relics of Pope St. John Paul II and the recently canonized Holy Martyrs of Damascus and others will be placed.
Parolin's three-day visit to Jordan coincides with a new exhibition of 90 Jordanian artifacts of the nation's history at the start of Christianity.
The exhibition, 'Jordan: Dawn of Christianity,' is to debut at the Vatican next month. It celebrates Jordan's biblical roots through the centuries and commemorates 30 years of diplomatic ties between Jordan and the Holy See.
Jordan's tourism and antiquities minister, Lina Annab, described the exhibition's importance to journalists on Wednesday in Amman, saying many people outside the country do not realize that there are Jordanian Christians.
'This exhibition celebrates and sheds light on the origins and heritage as well as the enduring legacy and presence of Christianity in Jordan,' Annab said. 'The origins of Christianity are here. Jordan is an integral part of the Holy Land. We are more interested in really showcasing the importance of Jordan as far as the faiths that have lived on this land, whether the Islamic faith or the Christian faith.'
Three popes have visited the believed site of Jesus' baptism on the Jordanian banks of the Jordan River: John Paul II in 2000, Benedict XVI in 2009 and Francis in 2014. Pope Paul VI first visited Jordan in 1964.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Voice of America
02-03-2025
- Voice of America
March 2, 2025
3 As the sun sets, Palestinians sit at a large table surrounded by the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings as they gather for iftar, the fast-breaking meal, on the first day of Ramadan in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, March 1, 2025
Voice of America
27-02-2025
- Voice of America
Survey: Decline in number of US Christians is leveling off
The number of Americans who identify as Christian has declined steadily for years, but that drop shows signs of slowing, according to a new survey Wednesday from the Pew Research Center. The Religious Landscape Study finds 62% of U.S. adults call themselves Christians. While a significant dip from 2007, when 78% of Americans identified as Christian, Pew found the Christian share of the population has remained relatively stable since 2019. The rapid rise of the religiously unaffiliated — the so-called "nones" — has also reached at least a temporary plateau, according to Pew. Approximately 29% of U.S. adults identify as religiously unaffiliated, including those who are atheist (5%), agnostic (6%) or "nothing in particular" (19%). "It's striking to have observed this recent period of stability in American religion after that long period of decline," said Pew's Gregory Smith, one of the study's co-authors. "One thing we can't know for sure is whether these short-term signs of stabilization will prove to be a lasting change in the country's religious trajectory." By some measures, the U.S. remains overwhelmingly spiritual. Many Americans have a supernatural outlook, with 83% believing in God or a universal spirit and 86% believing that people have a soul or spirit. About seven in 10 Americans believe in heaven, hell or both. Young adults are less religious than their elders Despite this widespread spirituality, there are harbingers of future religious decline. Most notably, Pew found a huge age gap, with 46% of the youngest American adults identifying as Christian, compared to 80% of the oldest adults. The youngest adults are also three times more likely than the oldest group to be religiously unaffiliated. "These kinds of generational differences are a big part of what's driven the long-term declines in American religion," Smith said. "As older cohorts of highly religious, older people have passed away, they have been replaced by new cohorts of young adults who are less religious than their parents and grandparents." Michele Margolis, a University of Pennsylvania political scientist not affiliated with the Pew survey, has studied how religious involvement changes over a lifetime. Young adults frequently move away from religion. "Then when you get married and have kids, this is a time where scholars have noted that religion is more likely to become important," Margolis said. Margolis said one question going forward is whether the youngest American adults firmly reject organized religion, or if some of them will return to the religious fold as they age. Between 2007 and 2024, Pew religious landscape studies haven't indicated that Americans are growing more religious as they get older. Smith at Pew said "something would need to change" to stop the long-term decline of American religion, whether that's adults becoming more religious with age or new generations becoming more religious than their parents. How partisan politics intertwines with religious identity The long-term decline of U.S. Christianity and rise of the "nones" has occurred across traditions, gender, race, ethnicity, education and region. But it is much more evident among political liberals, according to Pew. The survey shows 51% of liberals claim no religion, up 24 points from 2007. Only 37% of U.S. liberals identify as Christian, down from 62% in 2007. Penny Edgell, a University of Minnesota sociologist and expert adviser for the Pew study, said this religious and political sorting aligns with whether people "support traditional, patriarchal gender and family arrangements." Edgell also notes that Black Americans defy the assumption that all Democrats are less religious than Republicans. "More Black Americans percentagewise are Democrats, but their rates of religious involvement are still really high," Edgell said. "That has something to do with the way that religious institutions and politics have been intertwined in historically unique ways for different groups." Roughly seven in 10 Black Protestants told Pew that religion is very important to them — about the same rate as evangelicals and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But Black Protestants are likely to identify as Democrats (72%), whereas evangelicals and Latter-day Saints are likely to identify as Republican (70% and 73%, respectively). The Pew survey tracks many religious traditions It's been nearly 10 years since the last Religious Landscape Study, which tracks religious data that the U.S. census does not. The new survey found that a majority of immigrants to the U.S. are Christian (58%), but they also follow the upward trend of the religiously unaffiliated, with a quarter of foreign-born U.S. adults claiming no religion. The number of Americans who belong to religions besides Christianity has been increasing, though it's still a small portion of the population (7%). That includes the 2% who are Jewish, and the 1% each who are Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu. Of U.S. Christian adults, 40% are Protestant and 19% are Catholic. The remaining 3% in Pew's survey include Latter-day Saints, Orthodox Christians, Jehovah's Witnesses and smaller Christian groups. The two largest Protestant denominations in the Pew survey remain the Southern Baptist Convention and the United Methodist Church – though both have lost many members since the first Religious Landscape Study in 2007. The Pew Religious Landscape Study was conducted in English and Spanish between July 2023 and March 2024, among a nationally representative sample of 36,908 respondents in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The survey's margin of error for results based on the full sample is plus or minus 0.8 percentage points.
Voice of America
16-02-2025
- Voice of America
With metal detectors, treasure hunters unearth pieces of British history
When Malcolm Weale saw the tiny, dirt-covered object he'd unearthed in an English field, he knew it was something special. In his hand was a silver penny minted during the reign of Guthrum, a Viking commander who converted to Christianity and ruled eastern England in the ninth century as Athelstan II. For Weale, finding the first silver coin minted by a Viking ruler in Britain was the pinnacle of decades of hunting with his metal detector in the fields and forests near his home in eastern England. "I was shaking," Weale said at the British Museum, where the coin was displayed Tuesday alongside other items unearthed by amateur history hunters in 2023 and 2024. "I knew that it was a life-changing, incredible, historical find. "I'd watched the series 'Vikings' on Netflix, and about a week later I've got the Guthrum penny in my hand," he said. The thrill of finding fragments of history beneath our feet drives detectorists like 54-year-old Weale, who was introduced to the pastime at the age of 7 and "was hooked." His find was on show as the museum released its annual report on the Portable Antiquities Scheme, a government-funded project that records thousands of archaeological discoveries made by the public each year. The coin sat alongside a set of 3,000-year-old bronze metalworkers' tools, a seventh-century gold and garnet necklace, and a gold signet ring with an intriguing link to Queen Elizabeth I. They have been officially classed as "treasure" by a coroner, meaning they will be independently valued and offered to local museums. Discoveries by detectorists, as well as beachcombers and mudlarkers — who search for items on riverbanks — shine new light into corners of British history. The necklace of glittering gold and garnet pendants found in Lincolnshire, central England, reveals the sophistication of Anglo-Saxon craftsmanship, and is surprisingly global. Archaeologist Helen Geake, who serves as a "finds liaison officer" for the antiquities program, said that it was likely made in England — "English craftsmen were by far the best in Europe" — with garnets from Sri Lanka. Andy Akroyd, 49, also struck gold when he was out metal detecting near his home in Bedfordshire, central England. "When I first saw it, I thought 'Oh it's a coin.' Then I saw it's a ring, I was thinking 1980s, cheap sovereign ring," Akroyd said. It turned out to be a 16th-century signet ring engraved with a phoenix, a mythical bird symbolizing rebirth that was associated with Elizabeth I. Found in an area used as a royal hunting ground in Elizabethan times, it was likely worn, and lost, by one of the queen's supporters. "When you find it, your journey is just beginning," Akroyd said. Then come the questions: "What is this, how is it here?" When items are declared treasure, their value is split between the finder and the owner of the land where it was found. Detectorists occasionally strike it rich — last year, a hoard of 1,000-year-old coins found in southwest England sold for 4.3 million pounds ($5.3 million). But the vast majority are in it for the thrill of discovery, not the money, Weale said. "You could be a multi-multi-millionaire, but you could never buy that feeling that you feel when you find something," he said. Both he and Akroyd say that they will soon be back out tramping the fields, in the mud and — this is England, after all — the rain. "You always find the best stuff when the weather's terrible," Weale said. Both men extol the mental health benefits of the methodical, slow-paced hobby, popularized to a wider audience by the gentle BBC sitcom "Detectorists." "All I'm thinking about when I'm out metal detectoring is history," Weale said. "Kings, queens — I'm totally in the zone. I'm not worried about bills, or even keeping warm. Sometimes I forget to eat." Akroyd said that some days he just sits, watching hares leap and birds of prey soar in the sky. "I lost my dad last year. I'll have a chat to my dad when I'm out in the field. 'Come on, Dad — what way now?'" Akroyd said. "He never finds me anything."
