Pope Leo XIV and the future of global Christianity.

The 1.4 billion Roman Catholics worldwide have a new spiritual leader - Pope Leo XIV. Robert Francis Prevost is the 267th pope, the first American, and the first from the Augustinian order. Born in Chicago, he has a mathematics degree from Villanova and a theological education from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. The new pope spent 20 years in Peru as a bishop, archbishop, and cardinal, making him in many peoples' eyes both a North and South American.

Catholics comprise about one-half of Christians worldwide. But I thought this pope's (somewhat unexpected) elevation would make a good opening hook to discuss the enormous changes that have swept global Christianity in the 21st century and how those changes, as they continue will affect the faith and vice versa. Among the huge recent shifts in both Catholicism and Christianity in general are the decline of Christian faith in Europe and the movement of the entire religious tradition's center of gravity to the global South. There has also been, as we've seen in the USA, a rapid rise of evangelical and charismatic forms of the faith. Christianity is both a very healthy religious tradition that is not in decline, and one that is having trouble adapting to new demographic realities and a new age of global connectivity.

Closer to our June 8th Sunday mtg, look here for a few optional background readings on the evolution of Christianity inside and outside of the West.

OPTIONAL background readings --
· TBA.