While Pope Leo uses his Middle East trip to tackle global conflicts, in the country of his birth, the Church is increasingly at odds with the Trump administration. 

Leo grew up on the streets of Chicago, where politics and religion went hand in hand. 

GUEST:

• Heidi Schlumpf is senior correspondent for Commonweal Magazine and a former editor of The National Catholic Reporter, based for many years in Chicago.

Australia’s Catholic priests are deeply involved in their local communities and have a strong sense of purpose. 

But many are also lonely, at times ashamed of their church, and sometimes turn to alcohol to handle stress. 

They’re the findings of a major study into the lives of Catholic clergy, conducted by the church’s National Centre for Pastoral Research.

GUEST:

• Dr Trudy Dantis, Director of the National Centre for Pastoral Research

Pope Leo is wrapping up his first overseas trip as pontiff. 

He’s been in Turkiye and Lebanon and he’s used the trip to drive home a message about the major conflicts currently wracking the world. 

Claire Giangrave of the Religion News Service is travelling with the Pope and is in Beirut.

Australia’s Catholic priests are deeply involved in their local communities and have a strong sense of purpose. But many are also lonely, at times ashamed of their church, and sometimes turn to alcohol to handle stress. They’re the findings of a major study into the lives of Catholic clergy, conducted by the church’s National Centre for Pastoral Research. One of the authors is Dr Trudi Dantis.

Pope Leo is wrapping up his first overseas trip as pontiff. He’s been in Turkiye and Lebanon and he’s used the trip to drive home a message about the major conflicts currently wracking the world. Claire Giangrave of the Religion News Service is travelling with the Pope and is in Beirut.

While Pope Leo uses his Middle East trip to tackle global conflicts, in the country of his birth, the Church is increasingly at odds with the Trump administration. Leo grew up on the streets of Chicago, where politics and religion went hand in hand. Heidi Schlumpf is senior correspondent for Commonweal magazine and a former editor of The National Catholic Reporter, based for many years in Chicago.

GUESTS:

• Claire Giangrave Rome-based reporter for RNS, covering the Catholic Church and the Vatican.
• Dr Trudy Dantis, Director of the National Centre for Pastoral Research
• Heidi Schlumpf is senior correspondent for Commonweal Magazine

Australia’s landmark ban on people under 16 using social media begins next month. 

It’s the first time any government in the world has used a ban to shield children from social media, particularly online predators who use the platforms. 

But is the new law comprehensive? 

GUEST:

• Melinda Tankard-Reist is a member of the government’s Stakeholder Advisory Panel and heads the advocacy group Collective Shout.

You can find resources for parents here to help manage the new laws

One of the Trump administration’s most divisive policies is the mass raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, or ICE. 

About 65,000 people, not all undocumented migrants, are now in detention. 

Some of the most dramatic confrontations have occurred in Chicago, where religious leaders have been protesting. 

One of them is Baptist minister MICHAEL WOOLF of the Lake Street Church in Evanston.

GUEST:

• The Reverend Dr Michael Woolf is Pastor at Lake Street Church in Illinois.

Indian Americans are one of the fastest growing immigrant communities in the US. 

But a fracture has opened in the community over the role of Hindu faith and identity. 

Some Indian Americans are pushing back against Hindutva, a form of religious nationalism and the campus of Rutgers University has become a flashpoint. 

GUEST:

• Richa Karmarkar is senior writer at the Religion New Service based in New York and has written on Rutgers

Australia’s landmark ban on people under 16 using social media begins next month. It’s the first time any government in the world has used a ban to shield children from social media, particularly online predators who use the platforms. But is the new law comprehensive? MELINDA TANKARD-REIST is a member of the government’s Stakeholder Advisory Panel.

One of the Trump administration’s most divisive policies is the mass raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, or ICE. About 65,000 people, not all undocumented migrants, are now in detention. Some of the most dramatic confrontations have occurred in Chicago, where religious leaders have been protesting. One of them is Baptist minister MICHAEL WOOLF of the Lake Street Church in Evanston.

Indian Americans are one of the fastest growing immigrant communities in the US. But a fracture has opened in the community over the role of Hindu faith and identity. Some Indian Americans are pushing back against Hindutva, a form of religious nationalism and the campus of Rutgers University has become a flashpoint. RICHA KARMARKAR of the Religion New Service has been covering the story.

GUESTS:

• Melinda Tankard-Reist heads the advocacy group Collective Shout.
• The Reverend Dr Michael Woolf is Pastor at Lake Street Church in Illinois.
• Richa Karmarkar is a journalist and senior writer for the Religious News Service based in New York

Pope Leo flies east next week on his first overseas visit as pontiff. He goes first to Türkiye, a country where the Christian population has dwindled to less than one per-cent. 

He’ll meet the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholemew, who leads most of the world’s Orthodox Christians, and with the controversial president of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

Erdogan’s been styling himself as a new sultan of the broader Islamic world. 

But it will be the second leg of Leo’s trip to Lebanon that’s potentially more challenging. 

Christians are around a third of the population but there are real fears that external actors, including Iran and Israel, could destabilise the fragile religious settlement that has survived for more than 30 years. 

GUEST:

• Dr Roula Talhouk, director of the Institute for Muslim-Christian Studies at St Joseph’s University in Beirut.

Related story - Taybeh is the last predominantly Christian village left in the West Bank 

For Donald Trump’s administration, there are a few more inviting targets than America’s universities. 

Ivy League institutions, including Harvard, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania, have lost federal funds and been subject to more direct government control. 

The administration claims it is trying to combat campus domination by the ideological left. 

Philosophy professor YUVAL AVNUR of Scripps College, and two colleagues, Stephanie Muravchik and Jon Shields, were especially worried about these attacks and began to investigate the allegations of bias in university and college courses. 

They published part of their results in the online journal, Persuasion.