An Associated Press report said recently that Facebook is now being used to help recruit priests in France.

According to the report, this is part of an overall euro 250,000 campaign to encourage more males to become men of the cloth.  The April 20-May 5 campaign also includes 75,000 postcards showing a priest’s vestments with a button reading, “Jesus is my Boss” and the slogan, “Why not?”  It will be distributed throughout France, in restaurants, bars and movie theaters, among other places.

But the use of Facebook indicates the ever enlarging role the social network is playing in today’s world.  On its first week the page got over 1,200 fans.

Roman Catholicism is the main religion in France, comprising 64 percent of the population, or 41.6 million people out of a total 65 million.  However, only some 2 million attend church regularly, the report said.

There has also been a steady decline in the number of priests with only 24,000 today, compared to 42,000 in 1975.  Even the number of those who were ordained in 2009 (89) is a steep fall from a decade before at 116 in 1999.

Although the declining trend of ordainments is common in Europe and the United States, globally ordainments have actually increased, with the largest number of new priests coming from Asia and Africa.

The AP report noted, for example, that it is common for a church service in Italy to be conducted by priests from Brazil, Mozambique, the Philippines and other countries.

For Europeans and the United States, the most difficult obstacle towards becoming a priest is the vow of celibacy.  However, another difficult consideration is that the priesthood is a lifetime career choice whereas many people undergo many career changes in a lifetime.  Also, priests don’t make much money.  In Asia and Africa however joining the priesthood is a valued profession.  It also enables one to get an advanced education and earn a respectable living.

Even the average age of the European priests is indicative of a shortage of young Caucasian men entering the priesthood.  On the average, an Italian priest in 2003 was 60 years old, with one of every eight priests 80 years or over.

The decline is not related to the recent sex abuse scandals, the AP said.  The ad campaign however hopes to interest a younger age group of French men to become part of the Catholic priesthood.

The Telegraph UK for example described a half page ad of a 41-year-old man with the caption, “I am a man among others.  I’ve heard and responded to Christ’s call.  I love life.  I am a priest!”

The use of Facebook is also seen as a way to attract their target market and to reinvent the image of priests into something more young, new and contemporary.  The Telegraph UK report quoted French advertising guru Jacques Seguela who commented on the ad campaign and the sex abuse church scandals by saying, “The Church couldn’t call off the publicity campaign.  In any case, the ad is also a good counterattack in a crisis period.  This is a real grassroots reaction of the Church showing its modernization, in contrast with the image of a Pope mired in his own conservatism.”

The recently announced plans by the Vatican to designate a papal envoy to head the Legionaries of Christ renders this powerful, conservative Catholic order directly under Vatican control.

The Vatican made this move after an eight-month inquiry by five Vatican investigators who reported directly back to Pope Benedict XVI about the double life of its late founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the Associated Press reported.

The Vatican report said Maciel had been sexually assaulting minor seminarians and fathered at least three children from two different women—a daughter from what was described as a “stable relationship”, and two sons who are now grown, who admitted to being his children with another woman, according to CNN.

However, the Vatican hoped that by appointing a personal delegate to lead the order, they could help them “purify” what good still remains, and at the same time help them to undergo a “profound revision”, the AP said.

Maciel was born in Mexico in March 1920.  In January 1941 he founded the Legion of Christ, a powerful and wealthy order that spans 24 countries including Spain, Rome, Ireland, the United States, and several countries in South America and Central Europe.  Recently it had begun projects in Eastern Europe and the Philippines, according to CNN.

With a membership of over 800 priests and 2,500 seminarians, the Legion also has some 70,000 members in the Regnum Christi movement, which was also founded by Maciel. The Legion runs Catholic news outlets, charities, seminaries for boys, schools, and universities in Italy, Mexico and Spain, among others, The Seattle Times said.

In response to the Vatican announcement the Legionaries issued a statement on its website where they said that they “embrace his provisions with faith and obedience”, the AP said.

Critics and advocates of the victims are dissatisfied with the Vatican’s latest move.  They wanted the order to be dissolved.   Others felt the larger part of the Legion’s leadership should be taken out, noting that Macial could not have lived his double life without the knowledge of some of the order’s top leadership, the Seattle Times said.

The Vatican’s statement said, “Of this side of life, a great part of the Legionaries were in the dark — especially given the system of relationship built by P. Maciel, who very skillfully knew how to create alibis, obtain loyalty, trust and silence from those around him and strengthened his own role as charismatic founder,” the CNN reported.

The Vatican said that Macial “…created around him a defense mechanism that made him unassailable for a long period, making it difficult to know his true life.”

According to the AP, Maciel’s victims had tried in the 1990s to bring a canonical trial against him but were shut down.  The late Pope John Paul II had long championed the Legionaries for their orthodoxy and ability to bring in vocations and money.

In 2006, one year after Benedict became pope, the Vatican ordered Maciel to lead a “reserved life of penance and prayer,” and rendered him a priest in name only. He died in 2008 at age 87, the AP reported.

The Catholic church is also investigating complaints of abuse allegedly committed in Britain, Germany, Ireland and other countries, the CNN reported.

Belgium’s recent decision to ban the burka has stirred the interest of some similarly inclined European countries, even as it has wreaked the ire of the human rights group Amnesty international, The Vancouver Sun reported.

On Thursday night Belgium’s parliament voted to prohibit the burka, which covers  a woman’s entire face and body, and leaves just slits for the eyes.  The face veil niqab is also banned.  The measure, which was approved by a 136 to zero votes with two abstentions, is intended to help fight terrorism.

In passing the measure, it was noted that the burka and niqab permit full concealment of one’s identity.  It was also hoped that the ban will help to exercise equal rights for men and women, ABC News reported.

The Vancouver Sun said that some members of Belgium’s parliament noted that the veils are a symbol of the oppression of women in some Islamic societies.  There are half a million Muslims in Belgium, most of who do not wear the burka or the niqab.  OneIndia reported that the ban is expected to affect perhaps 100 women.

It will be imposed primarily in areas intended for public use such as streets, parks, sport arenas and buildings.  Women who do not follow the ban may be charged 22 pounds and be jailed for a week, OneIndia reported.

Belgium is the first country to ban the burka and the niqab.  However this may start a domino effect as France President Nicolas Sarkozy introduced a similar ban to start in September.  Legislation is also being introduced and/or considered to ban the burka in Italy, Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland, according to the Vancouver Sun.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International has expressed displeasure at Belgium’s new legislation saying that it is a discriminatory and dangerous precedent because it obstructs women’s rights to freedom of expression and religion.

Another group, Human Rights Watch expressed doubt that banning the burka and niqab would protect public safety, much less the rights of Muslim women, OneIndia reported.

The law must now be ratified by Belgium’s senate, but it is possible that such may not go through before mid-June, when parliament dissolves for elections.  Meanwhile, some cities are already imposing a ban on the burka through their local councils.  In the capital city Brussels, 29 women were fined for wearing the burka.

Warsaw (ENI). Almost two-thirds of Europeans think Christian values are still relevant to contemporary life and are ready to acknowledge the Church’s efforts to promote them, a recent survey carried out for La Croix daily newspaper has found.

“Whether rooted in Christianity or not, Europeans recognise a privileged place for this religion in its Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox forms,” France’s Roman Catholic-linked newspaper commented on 1 April.

“Yet while two-thirds think Christianity’s message is still up-to-date, this isn’t the case for the other third. So, Christianity remains an element marking the religious culture of the Old Continent, but no longer claims exclusivity,” the newspaper noted.

In the survey, conducted during March by France’s Institut Francais d’Opinion Publique (IFOP) in Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, 57 percent of respondents said they believe Christians are “sufficiently visible” in society. That was compared to 28 percent who thought they were “not visible enough” and 15 percent who considered them “too visible”.

Although 61 percent of Europeans said the “message and values” of Christianity remain topical, only Italians believe churches are doing a good job in communicating and reaching out to young people, compared to between 74 and 80 percent of British, French, German and Spanish respondents who thought the opposite.

Forty-eight percent of Europeans assigned a key role to Christian values in promoting “dialogue with different cultures and religions” and “solidarity with the poor,” compared to between three and 13 percent believing these values are important in bioethics and respect for life, in “moralising capitalism” or on issues such as immigration and environmental protection.

At the same time, slightly more than 80 percent of respondents said church priorities for the 21st century should include action for world peace and combating poverty at home, while a third believe churches should be “available at life’s key moments” and one in five think their priorities should include “making Christ’s message known”.

In its commentary, La Croix said the “Christian anchorage” of Europeans appears “too deep to be shifted by the waves stirred by current events”, and has been little affected by current abuse scandals in the churches. However, it also notes strong national differences in attitudes to Christianity, with French citizens voicing stronger criticisms than their Italian neighbours.

In Britain and Germany, where religious pluralism and coexistence are a “well anchored historical reality”, according to La Croix, more citizens regret the failure of traditional churches to hold their ground against new minority faiths.

“For the English above all, religion is a private affair. The Church should be there at life’s important moments, rather than to support world peace, whereas in Germany the churches have a recognised social role as a sort of State institution,” the newspaper noted.
“By contrast, if the majority of French are strongly detached from religion, French Catholics display a more marked religious outlook than Italian or Spanish Catholics. They are also proportionately more numerous in voicing an attachment to Christian values,” it stated.

The survey by IFOP, which was founded in the 1930s, follows other poll results suggesting interest in religion remains extensive in Europe, despite what many see as the continent’s outwardly secular character.

Expressions of shock, disgust and even some “OMG’s” greeted the release of a photo appearing to  show President Barack Obama staring at the posterior of a Brazilian teenager at the recently convened G8 conference.

The image shows Obama and French President Nicholas Sarkozy looking at the back-end of a young lady as she situates herself on the steps for a photo op Thursday.

“Very funny, laughed till I cried,” said one user about the image on a popular Internet forum. “I know a check out when I see one.”

Another user expressed empathy with the president.

“I would sure hate it if our president was human,” he said. “Even if he was checking out a butt, he is a man.”

Even though opinions are mixed on whether or not Sarkozy was looking at the teen, Obama was definitely watching his footing, as the video footage clearly shows.

From Thomas Jefferson to JFK to Clinton, it seems as if American presidents have had a hard time turning the other way when temptation called their names.

Obama’s ability to avert his gaze even in the face of temptation shows that he’s different.

Though Obama is arguably the most powerful man in the world, and he could probably have any woman he wants, it’s good to have a president who loves his family dearly.

It’s also good that like Job, Obama knows that all eyes are always on him, so he watches himself:

“I made a covenant with my eyes, how then should I look lustfully at a young woman?” (Job 31:1 World English Bible Translation)

It gives me a modicum of hope in this age of rampant infidelity and lies.

–Tiffany Orr, the Underground managing editor