What’s it take to be Santa? New research shows that even atypical candidates can be successful in the role

Oregon State University

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CORVALLIS, Ore. – A naturally fluffy white beard, a round belly and a jolly laugh might seem like the keys to being a successful Santa Claus, but new research suggests that a calling to play the man with the bag full of toys is enough to help candidates overcome a lack of typical attributes for the role.

“There are pretty strong societal expectations around what Santa looks like, but we found that most anybody can be Santa if their heart desires it,” said Oregon State University’s Borbala Csillag, a co-author of a new study of professional Santas.

“When we looked at the people behind the suit, we found that the folks playing Santa are really more diverse than would be expected.”

The findings, based on interviews and surveys of professional Santas in the United States, were recently published in the Academy of Management Journal. The study’s lead author is Christina Hymer of the University of Tennessee and Bethany Cockburn of Northern Illinois University is a co-author of the paper.

Csillag and her colleagues were brainstorming themes they might research together in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic when Hymer, who had been watching a lot of holiday movies while home with her child, suggested there might be something to learn about how Santas narrated their work experiences.

After more than 50 interviews with Santas and nearly 850 responses to a Santa survey, the researchers discovered that professional Santas fall into three groups: prototypical Santas, who bear most of the physical and internal attributes one might associate with Santa; semi-prototypical Santas, who bear some but not all of the key attributes; and non-prototypical Santas, who may not bear much resemblance at all to the man in the red suit but have found ways to surmount the odds and become the man anyway.

Each group of Santas has shared experience based on how typically they fit the role. Prototypical Santas, who tend to be older white men with beards and round bellies, shared a strong sense of unity with the calling and live out their Santa identity year-round.

Semi-prototypical Santas find ways to resolve the dissonance between their attributes and the Santa role. A skinny Santa, for example, wove an explanation of his lack of belly into his Santa identity, claiming that Santa was getting healthy. A Santa who uses cochlear implants tells children it’s a microphone to the head elf at the North Pole.

The non-prototypical Santas, such as a woman, an Orthodox Jew or a person of color, tend to strongly see themselves as Santaa on a year-round basis, still living out their feelings of being called to the Santa role despite their non-prototypical attributes.

Those interviewed told researchers they experienced rejection along their path. An African American Santa was told a store wasn’t ready for a Santa of color, but he persisted. A physically disabled Santa reinterpreted characteristics of Santa to address his needs, such as using a motorized scooter to participate in a parade.

“These atypical Santas are trailblazers,” said Csillag, the Stirek assistant professor of management in OSU’s College of Business. “The expectations for playing the role may seem exclusive, but they are surmountable.”

Csillag noted that the researchers only interviewed people who had successfully become Santa; there may still be people with the desire to become Santa who have not been able to achieve that goal.

The study’s findings have broader implications for employers and potential employees as well, Csillag said. 

For example, people who feel called to a role because of a personal, moral or social significance, such as teaching, nursing or faith-based jobs, may be able to succeed in that role even if they don’t meet typical societal requirements, Csillag said.

“You don’t have to possess the ‘must-haves,’ such as looking a certain way or having a certain trait, to live out your calling,” she said. “Think about your attributes in a comprehensive way so you can identify the dimensions of the role that are well-fitting. You will likely find attributes that map to that calling, even if they are not obvious at first.”

Another takeaway from the research is that leaders who govern membership in professional organizations have strong influence on role expectations, Csillag said. Such leaders can help make occupations to which people feel called more welcoming to diverse candidates by relaxing exclusionary expectations that don’t ultimately limit success in the role. 

“If we want to be open to a diverse set of people living out their calling, leaders might need to be a bit more flexible about what it means to fulfill the role,” she said.

---

Journal

Academy of Management Journal

DOI

10.5465/amj.2023.1161 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Who’s Behind the Red Suit? Exploring Role Prototypicality within Calling Enactment among Professional Santas

Why Pope Leo’s Visit To Turkey Is Important – Analysis

Pope Leo XIV addresses bishops, priests, religious, pastoral workers, and laypeople at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Istanbul, Turkey, on Nov. 28, 2025. | Credit: Vatican Media

November 29, 2025 
Arab News
By Dr. Sinem Cengiz


Pope Leo XIV’s much-anticipated visit to Turkiye — his first official foreign trip as pontiff — has both diplomatic and religio-historic importance.

Paul VI became the first pope to visit Turkey in 1967, following the establishment of relations between the Holy See and Ankara seven years earlier. This is the fifth papal visit since that landmark trip.

Leo arrived in Turkiye on Thursday and will stay until Sunday, with a busy itinerary. Traditionally, papal visits to Turkiye have had two main stops: Ankara and Istanbul. In Ankara, meetings with officials are held, in which discussions mainly focus on regional and international humanitarian issues. While in Istanbul, meetings are held with religious figures and community members.

In this visit, Ankara was the pope’s first stop. There, he visited Anitkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkiye, and was then welcomed with an official ceremony at the Presidential Complex by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Leo’s visit serves several purposes. While Turkiye is a Muslim-majority country, it is also home to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, who is considered the spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church. His headquarters are in Istanbul. The first purpose of the visit is to send a unification message regarding Catholic-Orthodox relations.



In addition, Turkiye is considered by the Vatican as a significant geopolitical actor that plays a key role in regional crises. Thus, the second purpose of the visit focuses on Turkiye-Vatican relations, which have seen improvement of late, particularly in the context of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Gaza war.

The Vatican has expressed appreciation for Turkiye’s efforts to mediate between Russia and Ukraine. Although the Holy See has also attempted to broker a ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow, those initiatives have so far failed. In addition, the war in Gaza has intensified diplomatic traffic between the Holy See and Ankara. Erdogan and the late Pope Francis held several phone calls on the Gaza war. The Holy See has particularly drawn international attention with its stance on the plight of the Palestinians, an issue also of deep sensitivity to Turkiye.

The last papal visit to Turkiye took place in 2014, continuing the tradition of popes visiting the country in the early years of their tenures. During his 2014 visit, Francis visited the Hagia Sophia, then a museum before it was converted to a mosque in 2020, and the Sultanahmet Mosque, known as the Blue Mosque, where his prayer was widely seen as a gesture of interfaith dialogue and a symbol of strengthening Catholic-Muslim relations. Leo’s itinerary includes only the Blue Mosque. In 2014, Francis was warmly welcomed by the Turkish public and a similar atmosphere surrounds this visit. Souvenirs and posters featuring a portrait of Leo alongside the Turkish flag have been prepared.

Overseas trips are considered an important part of the Holy See’s soft power, giving the pope the opportunity to meet leaders, engage with Christian communities and draw global media attention to regional issues. During his visit to Turkiye, Leo is expected to focus on continued efforts toward Catholic-Orthodox reconciliation, strengthen dialogue between Christians and Muslims, raise concerns over regional issues, and support local Christian communities.

There have been reports that the pope is likely to raise the possible reopening of a Greek Orthodox religious seminary in Turkiye, known as Heybeliada school, which was closed in 1971 following a Constitutional Court ruling that private higher education institutions must be affiliated with state universities. The seminary, founded in 1844, is a symbol of Orthodox heritage and it trained generations of Greek Orthodox patriarchs, including Bartholomew.

Turkiye has long faced pressure from the US and EU to reopen it. Optimism grew after US President Donald Trump discussed the issue with Erdogan at the White House in September. Erdogan reportedly told Trump at their meeting that “we are ready to do whatever is incumbent upon us regarding the Heybeliada school.”

However, the central purpose of Leo’s Turkiye trip is to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, Christianity’s first ecumenical council, which was held in 325 A.D. in today’s Iznik, in the northwestern Turkish province of Bursa. The pope will pray with Bartholomew toward the ruins of the Basilica of St. Neophytos and sign a joint declaration as a symbolic gesture of Christian unity. According to reports, 15,000 Christians are expected to attend the ceremony in Iznik.

Data from the Catholic Church states that about 33,000 Catholics currently live in Turkiye. The meeting between Leo and Bartholomew is considered an important step for the convergence of the Catholic and Orthodox churches. The pope is also scheduled to perform a prayer service to an estimated 4,000 people at the Volkswagen Arena in Istanbul. Leo has also met the head of Turkiye’s Presidency of Religious Affairs and the country’s chief rabbi.

Within this context, the pope’s first overseas visit being to Turkiye comes as no surprise. It is both a papal tradition and a deliberate choice. Turkiye is a mosaic of faiths, home to Muslims, Christians, Jews and other religious minorities. It also hosts religious archaeological sites, making the country particularly important in the eyes of other communities. The timing of the visit is also important, as it comes when greater reconciliation is needed. Leo hopes to foster stronger Turkiye-Vatican relations, while also encouraging a united moral stance toward crises from Gaza to Ukraine.

Dr. Sinem Cengiz is a Turkish political analyst who specializes in Turkiye’s relations with the Middle East. X: @SinemCngz


Arab News

Arab News is Saudi Arabia's first English-language newspaper. It was founded in 1975 by Hisham and Mohammed Ali Hafiz. Today, it is one of 29 publications produced by Saudi Research & Publishing Company (SRPC), a subsidiary of Saudi Research & Marketing Group (SRMG).

Pope Leo calls for Christian unity at Turkish site where Nicaean Creed originated

On the second day of his visit to Turkey, Pope Leo XIV joined Orthodox patriarchs on Friday in a commemoration ceremony at the site of the origin of the Nicaean Creed, a central Christian statement of belief that was adopted 1,700 years ago.


Issued on: 28/11/2025 
By: FRANCE 24



Pope Leo XIV joined Eastern and Western patriarchs and priests Friday in commemorating an important anniversary in Christian history, gathering at the site in Turkey of an unprecedented A.D. 325 meeting of bishops to pray that Christians might once again be united.

Leo, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I and other Christian leaders met on the shores of Lake Iznik, the site of the Council of Nicaea that produced a creed, or statement of faith, that is still recited by millions of Christians today.

Standing over the ruins of the site, the men recited the creed, which Leo said was “of fundamental importance in the journey that Christians are making toward full communion.”

“In this way, we are all invited to overcome the scandal of the divisions that unfortunately still exist and to nurture the desire for unity for which the Lord Jesus prayed and gave his life,” he said.

Pope Leo meets Turkey's Erdogan and Orthodox leaders on first overseas trip

The 70-year-old pontiff spent Friday morning with Catholic leaders before going to Iznik to celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, a gathering of bishops who drew up a foundational statement of faith still central to Christianity today.

The prayer marked the highlight of Leo's visit to Turkey and the main reason for his trip, the first of his pontificate.

The Nicaea gathering took place at a time when the Eastern and Western churches were still united. They split in the Great Schism of 1054, a divide precipitated largely by disagreements over the primacy of the pope. But even today, Catholic, Orthodox and most historic Protestant groups accept the Nicaean Creed, making it a point of agreement and the most widely accepted creed in Christendom.

As a result, celebrating its origins at the site of its creation with the spiritual leaders of the Catholic and Orthodox churches and other Christian representatives marked a historic moment in the centuries-old quest to reunite all Christians.

“The Nicene Creed acts like a seed for the whole of our Christian existence. It is a symbol not of a bare minimum; it is a symbol of the whole,” said Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians.

At the start of the prayer service, he told the men they were gathering not just to remember the past.

© France 24
01:34

“We are here to bear living witness to the same faith expressed by the fathers of Nicaea. We return to this wellspring of the Christian faith in order to move forward,” he said.

Roman Emperor Constantine had convened the gathering of bishops from around the Roman Empire after he had consolidated control following years of civil war and political intrigues.

Constantine wouldn’t formally convert to Christianity until the end of his life, in 337. But by 325, he had already been showing tolerance and favor toward a Christian sect that had emerged from the last great spasm of Roman persecution.

The version of the creed that emerged from the council, and recited today by Catholics, begins: “I believe in one God, the Father almighty … ”

Catholic and Orthodox hymns

The service commemoration, which featured alternating Catholic and Orthodox hymns, took place at the lakeside archaeological excavations of the ancient Basilica of Saint Neophytos. The stone foundations of the basilica, which were recently uncovered by the lake's receding waters, are believed to be on the site of an earlier church that hosted the council 1,700 years ago.

In addition to Leo and Bartholomew, the participants of the commemorative service included priests, patriarchs and bishops from Orthodox Greek, Syrian, Coptic, Malankarese, Armenian, Protestant and Anglican churches.

In his remarks to the men, Leo said all Christians must strongly reject the use of religion to justify war, violence “or any form of fundamentalism or fanaticism.”

“Instead, the paths to follow are those of fraternal encounter, dialogue and cooperation,” he said.

Small protest

Christians are a minority in predominantly Sunni Muslim Turkey, and ahead of the prayer in Iznik, around 20 members of a small Turkish Islamic party staged a brief protest. They said the encounter posed a threat to Turkey’s sovereignty and national identity.

Under a heavy police presence, Mehmet Kaygusuz, a member of the New Welfare Party, read a statement denouncing what he said were efforts to establish a “Vatican-like Greek Orthodox state” in Turkey. The group dispersed peacefully shortly after.

Iznik resident Suleyman Bulut, 35, acknowledged his town’s deep historical and spiritual significance for Christians and said he had no issue with them coming to honor their heritage.

“Muslims (too) should go and visit places that belong to us in the rest of the world, in Europe,” he said.

But Hasan Maral, a 41-year-old shopkeeper said he felt uncomfortable with visit. “The pope coming here feels contradictory to my faith,” he said.

'Viva il Papa'

Leo began his first full day in Istanbul by encouraging Turkey’s tiny Catholic community to find strength in their small numbers. According to Vatican statistics, Catholics number around 33,000 in a nation of 85 million, most of whom are Sunni Muslims.

He received a raucous welcome at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, where he was greeted with shouts of “Papa Leo” and “Viva il Papa” (Long Live the pope).

“The logic of littleness is the church’s true strength,” Leo told them in English. “The significant presence of migrants and refugees in this country presents the church with the challenge of welcoming and serving some of the most vulnerable.”

Leo later visited with a group of nuns, the Little Sisters of the Poor, who run a nursing home in Istanbul.

“He was so simple. We just felt he was at home. He felt very much at ease. Everybody got what they expected: a blessing, a kind word. It’s just enormous,” said Sister Margret of the Little Sisters of the Poor Nursing Home.

On Saturday, Leo continues with his ecumenical focus, meeting with Bartholomew and other Christian leaders. But he’ll also visit the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, commonly known as the Blue Mosque, and will celebrate a late afternoon Mass in Istanbul’s Volkswagen Arena.

Leo heads to Lebanon on Sunday for the second and final leg of his trip.

(FRANCE 24 with AP)

Pope to visit Istanbul's Blue Mosque

Istanbul (AFP) – Pope Leo XIV will visit Istanbul's famed Blue Mosque early on Saturday on the third day of his trip to Turkey.

Issued on: 29/11/2025 - RFI

Pope Leo XIV is on a four-day visit to Turkey, the first overseas trip since he was elected as head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics © Andreas SOLARO / AFP

It will be the first time the American pope, who was elected in May as leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, visits a Muslim place of worship since taking over from his late predecessor Francis, who championed dialogue with Islam.

With such a highly symbolic gesture, Leo follows in the footsteps of Pope Benedict XVI, who visited the site in 2006, and Francis who did the same in 2014 accompanied by the Grand Mufti of Istanbul.

But unlike them, he will not be visiting the nearby Hagia Sophia, the legendary sixth-century basilica, which was built during the Byzantine Empire and converted into a mosque following the conquest of Constantinople in 1453.

In a key reform by post-Ottoman Turkish authorities led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the Hagia Sophia became a museum in 1935. And 50 years later, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site.

But in 2020, it was converted back into a mosque in a move that drew international condemnation, including from the late Pope Francis who said he was "very saddened" by the decision of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Critics have accused Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AKP party of chipping away at the Muslim-majority country's secular pillars.

The Blue Mosque -- which gets its name from the vibrant blue Iznik tiles that line its interior -- is one of Istanbul's main tourist attractions.

With its six towering minarets, the mosque was built in the early 17th century during the reign of Sultan Ahmed I, on part of the former Hippodrome, a huge chariot-racing stadium that was a central feature of Constantinople when it was the Byzantine capital.

On Saturday afternoon, Leo will meet local church leaders and attend a brief service at the Patriarchal Church of St. George before joining Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I at his palace on the banks of the Golden Horn estuary.

There, the two spiritual leaders will sign a joint declaration, the content of which has not yet been made public.

Later that same day, Leo will hold a mass at the city's Volkswagen Arena, where some 4,000 worshippers are expected to join him.

The pontiff flew to Iznik on Friday for an ecumenical prayer service to mark 1,700 years since one of the early Church's most important gatherings.

On Sunday morning, after a prayer service at the Armenian cathedral and leading a divine liturgy, the Orthodox equivalent of a mass, at St George's, he will head to Lebanon for the second leg of his trip -- his first overseas tour since being elected to the position.

© 2025 AFP

Belarus: Will Regime Allow Freed Catholic Priests To Return To Ministry? – Analysis


Archbishop Ignazio Ceffalia, Fr Henryk Okolotovich, Fr Andrei Yukhnevich, Archbishop Iosif Stanevsky, Apostolic Nunciature, Minsk, 20 November. 2025 

November 25, 2025 

F18News
By Felix Corley

Belarus’ authoritarian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko pardoned two jailed Catholic priests, Fr Henryk Okolotovich and Fr Andrei Yukhnevich. The two priests, who were handed long sentences at closed trials, were freed from labour camp early on 20 November and taken to the nunciature in the capital Minsk. They were taken to the airport the same day and are now in Rome. The state news agency Belta claimed that both had committed “serious crimes against the state”. Both rejected all the accusations against them.

“Both priests pleaded not guilty to the crimes they were accused of,” independent Catholic news outlet Katolik.life noted. “Believers also considered the sentences unjust and prayed for the prisoners’ speedy release.”

Fr Okolotovich was arrested in November 2023 and jailed in December 2024 for 11 years on treason charges. Fr Yukhnevich was arrested in May 2024 and jailed in April 2025 for 13 years on accusations of sexual abuse of a minor or minors, accusations his supporters say were fabricated (see below).

Church spokesperson Fr Yuri Yasevich – and, separately, Natallia Vasilevich of Christian Vision – pointed to Belta’s wording that the two priests had committed “serious crimes against the state”.

“The fabrication of the case is indirectly confirmed by the wording used to release the priests,” Vasilevich told Radio Free Europe’s Belarusian Service. “This seems to confirm that the nature of Fr Yukhnevich’s persecution was not because he allegedly committed some crimes against minors, but that he was persecuted for his civic and political stance” (see below).

The head of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, indicated in a Vatican Radio interview in Rome on 21 November that he had raised the issue of the two jailed priests when he met Lukashenko in Minsk on 27 October (see below).

Cardinal Gugerotti indicated that he had also raised with Lukashenko the issue of the iconic Catholic Church of Saints Simon and Helena (known locally due to its brickwork as the Red Church) in central Minsk. The regime closed the church after a suspicious minor fire in a side room in September 2022. Minsk Heritage, the building agency that has control of the Church, later began repair works.

It remains unclear if the regime will allow the 65-year-old Fr Okolotovich and 42-year-old Fr Yukhnevich to return to Belarus and to resume parish ministry. Deputy Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic Affairs Sergei Gerasimenya refused to answer any questions about Fr Okolotovich and Fr Yukhnevich or anything else. “I won’t give any comments,” he told Forum 18 and put the phone down (see below).

Vitebsk Diocese still lists Fr Yukhnevich on its website as priest of Our Lady of Fatima parish in Shumilino. In November 2024, a year after his arrest, the Minsk-Mogilev Archdiocese removed Fr Okolotovich from its list of parish priests on its website (see below).

Lukashenko has pardoned a number of prisoners in recent months, including political prisoners. Almost all of them – including Belarusian citizens – were deported from Belarus. As of 24 November, Viasna (Spring) human rights group recognised 1,247 political prisoners in Belarus.
Prisoners’ freedom of religion or belief often violated

Four of the political prisoners the regime suddenly freed on 21 June and deported to Lithuania spoke after their release on restrictions on prisoners’ exercise of freedom of religion or belief.

“As a rule, political prisoners are never allowed to go to services,” Natallia Dulina told Forum 18. Ihar Karnei notes that only Orthodox prison chapels exist and prison officials approve or reject applications to attend. “God may be calling you to church, but prison officials decide,” he told Forum 18. Orthodox Christian Sergei Tikhanovsky was denied access to a priest for more than 5 years.

Inmates the prison authorities have deemed “low status” are refused access to the limited religious services held by the Orthodox and Catholic Churches in prisons, a former political prisoner and Orthodox Christian Vadim Yermashuk told Forum 18 in January.

Denials of access to meetings for worship, religious literature and clergy visits violate the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (known as the Mandela Rules, A/C.3/70/L.3). Officials of four of the prisons refused to discuss the restrictions with Forum 18.
Fr Okolotovich: Jailed on multiple charges

From 2005, Catholic priest Fr Henryk (Gennady) Okolotovich (born 8 April 1960) was the parish priest of St Joseph’s Church in Volozhin in Minsk Region, 75 kms northwest of the city of Minsk.

On 16 November 2023, officials arrested Fr Okolotovich and detained him in the KGB secret police Investigation Prison in Minsk. During the investigation, Fr Okolotovich faced pressure to implicate the country’s Catholic bishops. He refused to do so.

On 30 December 2024, Minsk Regional Court handed him an 11-year jail term on treason charges at a closed trial. Among other things he was accused of sending abroad information about military aircraft at a base near his parish. He was also ordered to pay a massive financial penalty. Fr Okolotovich vigorously rejected the accusations.

On 1 April 2025, a week before his 65th birthday, the Supreme Court in Minsk rejected Fr Okolotovich’s appeal. Hearings were again closed. He was then sent to a Labour Camp in Bobruisk to begin serving his sentence.
Fr Okolotovich: KGB secret police try to recruit as a spy

In summer 2025, the KGB secret police came to Fr Henryk Okolotovich in prison in Bobruisk, “most likely to force him to slander parishioners or other clergy of the Catholic Church”, released political prisoner Andrey Krylov told the Christian Vision group in September. Krylov had been imprisoned in Bobruisk with Fr Okolotovich, as well as another jailed Catholic priest Fr Andrei Yukhnevich.

The prison authorities transferred Fr Okolotovich for several weeks to the KGB pre-trial detention centre in Minsk. There, they gave him some papers to read, and apparently made him sign them. “There was some paper missing, and they said it couldn’t be delivered by mail or special courier because it was a highly sensitive, classified document, so they took him there themselves,” Krylov recalled.

The prison authorities then returned Fr Okolotovich to Correctional Colony No. 2 in Bobruisk.

“Then they summoned him and said the KGB would come and talk to him,” Krylov recounted about Fr Okolotovich. “They told him he owed a million Euros, and you understand that you have as much to do with these planes and this million Euros as I do with ballet. That’s not true, you know that, but you sign these documents. And then we’ll release you, Okolotovich, and you’ll be free. We won’t do anything else to you.”

Fr Okolotovich told Krylov that the KGB was requesting that, after being freed and sent back to serve in his parish in Volozhin, he invite the Vatican nuncio to visit the parish. “And secretly, as if by accident, hand over a flash drive to the Vatican ambassador. That is, to create incriminating evidence against the ambassador. But Okolotovich refused.”

Fr Okolotovich said he told the KGB that “what you demand of me, is a crime, and I cannot betray God, any more than I can carry out this action”. KGB officers said they would visit him again in prison “many more times, so that perhaps you will change your mind”, Krylov recalled.
Fr Yukhnevich: Jailed at closed trial

At the time of his arrest, Catholic priest Fr Andrei Marianovich Yukhnevich (born 1982), a member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, was serving in Our Lady of Fatima parish in Shumilino in the northern Vitebsk Region. He had previously served as the Superior of the Oblates in the country and President of the Conference of Major Superiors of Religious Institutes.

Police arrested Fr Yukhnevich on 8 May 2024. He was first given short-term jail terms, including under Administrative Code Article 24.23 for an “unapproved demonstration” for posting a Ukrainian flag on his Facebook page.

However, officials did not free Fr Yukhnevich after 45 days. Instead they transferred him to a pre-trial Investigation Prison. Prosecutors brought charges against him of sexual abuse of minors.

At a closed hearing on 30 April 2025, Judge Inna Grabovskaya of Shumilino District Court convicted Fr Yukhnevich on three counts and jailed him for 13 years. Fr Yukhnevich’s bishop, Oleg Butkevich, came to the court for each hearing but was not allowed in, Katolik.life said. He then went to pray in the chapel opposite the court building.

On 29 July, Vitebsk Regional Court rejected Fr Yukhnevich’s appeal. The hearing “proceeded in the same way as in Shumilino: all arguments were unreasonably rejected and all the decisions of the district court were simply upheld”, Katolik.life noted on 30 July.

(In July 2024, the Information Ministry listed Katolik.life as “extremist”. In August 2024, a court in Minsk Region declared Katolik.life’s Telegram channel “extremist”. One month later, the Inspectorate for Supervision of Telecommunications blocked access in Belarus to the Telegram channel on the basis of the Information Ministry’s decision. In August 2025, by decision of Grodno’s Lenin District Court, the Information Ministry added all Katolik.life and Gomel Catholic’s social media pages to the list of “extremist materials”.)

The prison authorities transferred Fr Yukhnevich in August to Correctional Colony No. 2 in Bobruisk to serve his sentence.

“As believers learned from reliable sources, Vatican diplomat Archbishop Ignazio Ceffaglia and Bishop Oleg Butkevich visited the prison colony in Bobruisk, but were denied access to the imprisoned priests,” Katolik.life news website noted on 30 September. “Believers do not know the reason for this or whether there was a prior agreement to allow the meeting.”
Fr Yukhnevich: Charges fabricated?

The Church has continued to support Fr Andrei Yukhnevich. His bishop tried to attend his trial hearings (see above). After his release Fr Yukhnevich was shown in clerical dress in a photo taken at the Apostolic Nunciature in Minsk.

Katolik.life said the Vitebsk Diocese had received no complaints related to Fr Yukhnevich’s conduct.

“As far as believers know, the charges were based on the testimony of one or more ‘victims’,” Katolik.life noted after Fr Yukhnevich’s trial. “It’s possible they were pressured. According to information reaching believers, the priest’s case concerns events that occurred approximately 10 years ago, so the charges could only have been based on dubious testimony.”

Church spokesperson Fr Yuri Yasevich told Forum 18 on 24 November that he is not aware of any material in the Church’s possession about any abuse Fr Yukhnevich might have committed. “If there were such materials, the Church also should take internal action,” he told Forum 18. “In this case it would be a matter for the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Vitebsk Diocese.”

In announcing the pardoning and release on 20 November, Belta claimed the two priests had committed “serious crimes against the state”.

By contrast, Lukashenko’s spokesperson Natalya Eismont claimed to Belarus TV’s First Channel on 22 November that the two priests had been “convicted of serious and especially serious crimes against the state, as well as other crimes”. She did not specify any “other crimes”.

Church spokesperson Fr Yasevich pointed to Belta’s wording that the two priests had committed “serious crimes against the state”.

Natallia Vasilevich of the group Christian Vision – which documents violations of freedom of religion or belief and other human rights – similarly pointed to Belta’s report describing the two priests’ alleged “serious crimes against the state”.

“The fabrication of the case is indirectly confirmed by the wording used to release the priests,” Vasilevich told Radio Free Europe’s Belarusian Service on 20 November. “This seems to confirm that the nature of Fr Yukhnevich’s persecution was not because he allegedly committed some crimes against minors, but that he was persecuted for his civic and political stance.”

(Between August 2023 and March 2024, several courts declared Christian Vision’s Telegram channel (twice), Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, VKontakte and Odnoklassniki pages, and logo “extremist”. In April 2025, the KGB secret police ruled that Christian Vision, its website and social media channels are “extremist” and are banned. Also identified were three people linked to the group, including Vasilevich.)
Pardoned, freed

Almost simultaneously on the morning of 20 November, the state news agency Belta and the Conference of Catholic Bishops announced the pardon and release from prison of the two jailed Catholic priests, Fr Henryk Okolotovich and Fr Andrei Yukhnevich.

“Fr Henryk and Fr Andrei were freed from the labour camp in Bobruisk on the morning of 20 November, taken to the nunciature in Minsk where their photos were taken, and then straight to the airport,” Church spokesperson Fr Yuri Yasevich told Forum 18 from Minsk on 24 November. He said they are now in Rome.

Archbishop Iosif Stanevsky accompanied the two priests to Rome, Katolik.life noted.

“Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti’s visit gave a positive impetus to further contacts, an important result of which was the decision of the President of the Republic of Belarus, as a sign of mercy and respect for the Pope, to pardon and release Catholic priests serving sentences of imprisonment,” the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Belarus wrote.

The Conference of Catholic Bishops stressed that “Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches; Ignazio Ceffalia, Apostolic Nuncio to the Republic of Belarus; and Archbishop Iosif Stanevsky, Chairman of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Belarus, took a direct and significant part in the process.”

In its announcement, Belta said Aleksandr Lukashenko had pardoned the two priests “taking into account the intensification of contacts with the Vatican, as well as the principles of goodwill, mercy and the Jubilee Year of Christianity declared by the Roman Catholic Church”.

Lukashenko’s spokesperson Natalya Eismont told Belarus TV’s First Channel on 22 November that the decision to pardon and release the two priests came “at the request of Pope Leo XIV with the participation of Metropolitan Iosif Stanevsky as a gesture of goodwill, guided by principles of mercy and humanism, taking into account the health of the convicted persons, and in order to develop relations between the Republic of Belarus and the Holy See”.
Will freed priests be allowed to return to ministry?

It remains unclear if the regime will allow Fr Okolotovich and Fr Yukhnevich to return to Belarus and to resume parish ministry. Deputy Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic Affairs Sergei Gerasimenya refused to answer any of Forum 18’s questions, including on Fr Okolotovich and Fr Yukhnevich. “I won’t give any comments,” he told Forum 18 from Minsk on 24 November and put the phone down.

Vitebsk Diocese still lists Fr Yukhnevich on its website as priest of Our Lady of Fatima parish in Shumilino. In November 2024, a year after his arrest, the Minsk-Mogilev Archdiocese removed Fr Okolotovich from its list of parish priests on its website.

“No one is banned from returning,” Church spokesperson Fr Yuri Yasevich insisted to Forum 18. “Once Fr Henryk and Fr Andrei have acclimatised and dealt with health issues, the question will come of where they will serve.” He noted that the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate will decide where Fr Yukhnevich will be assigned to serve.

F18News

Forum 18 believes that religious freedom is a fundamental human right, which is essential for the dignity of humanity and for true freedom.

WOMEN UNDER PATRIARCHY

As US debates gender roles, some women in male-led faiths dig in on social and political issues

(AP) — Outspoken women from the Catholic Church and the ranks of conservative evangelicals are engaging with gusto in ongoing political and social debates even as their faiths maintain longstanding rules against women serving as priests or senior pastors.

David Crary and Holly Meyer
November 21, 2025

The U.S. feminist movement’s perpetual quest for gender equality has suffered notable setbacks during President Donald Trump’s second term — including the dismantling of various nondiscrimination programs and the ouster of several high-ranking women in the military.

Yet strikingly, outspoken women from the Catholic Church and the ranks of conservative evangelicals are engaging with gusto in ongoing political and social debates even as their faiths maintain longstanding rules against women serving as priests or senior pastors. Many of these women see these ministry barriers as a nonissue.

In a Dallas suburb, more than 6,500 conservative Christian women attended an Oct. 11 conference organized by commentator Allie Beth Stuckey. “Welcome to the fight,” was her greeting.

Ahead of the conference, Stuckey evoked the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, saying she had been inundated with messages from Christian women saying, “We’re done sitting on the sidelines of politics and culture.’’

“We’re not backing down; we’re doubling down,” Stuckey declared. “We’re unapologetically saying no to the lies of feminism and progressivism and yes to God’s Word.”

Some Catholic nuns are on the front lines

Among Catholic women, there is a different kind of passion exhibited by sisters from religious orders who are on the front lines of social-justice advocacy.

A striking example came in September after Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, praised Kirk as “a modern-day St. Paul” who was a worthy role model for young people.

Leaders of the Sisters of Charity of New York, an order founded in 1809, issued a public rebuke.

“What Cardinal Dolan may not have known is that many of Mr. Kirk’s words were marked by racist, homophobic, transphobic, and anti-immigrant rhetoric, by violent pro-gun advocacy, and by the promotion of Christian nationalism,” the nuns said. “These prejudicial words do not reflect the qualities of a saint.”

“In this moment,” the nuns added, “we reaffirm our mission: to walk with all people who are poor and marginalized, to welcome immigrants and refugees, to defend the dignity of LGBTQ+ persons, and to labor for peace in a world saturated with violence.”

Another religious sister, Norma Pimentel of the Missionaries of Jesus, is a leading migrant-rights activist along the U.S.-Mexico border. She runs Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, including a respite center for beleaguered migrants in McAllen, Texas.

At a recent forum in Washington, she recalled visiting immigrant families at a detention center in a “terrible condition,” and being moved to tears.

“I saw Border Patrol agents looking at us, and they, too, were moved and were crying,” she said. “When I walked out of there, the officer turned to me and said, ‘Thank you, sister, for helping us realize they’re human beings.’”

Natalia Imperatori-Lee, a professor in the theology department at Fordham University, praised Pimentel’s advocacy and the Sisters of Charity leadership’s statement as “the model of the way women show up in the public square.”

“Women religious are the face of the church,” she said.

Overall, Imperatori-Lee said she was disheartened by “this moment of very serious backlash to the gains that women and other minorities have made.” Yet she finds reasons to be encouraged.

“A lot of undergrads are passionate about women’s equality in the church,” she said of Fordham, a Jesuit school now with a woman as its president for the first time.

“Even if the headlines about our cultural backsliding are true, the on-the-ground activism that you’re seeing among young people shows they’re are up to the task,” she said.

Conservative evangelical women navigate a patriarchal doctrine

After the Catholic Church, the second largest denomination in the U.S. is the Southern Baptist Convention, whose evangelical doctrine espouses traditional gender roles at home and in the church. That includes barring women from being pastors, a belief that has put the SBC in the spotlight in recent years following high-profile ousting of churches that disobeyed the prohibition.

But this doesn’t mean Southern Baptist men are domineering nor that the women are doormats, said Susie Hawkins, a Bible teacher in Texas and wife of a former denominational leader.

“That’s not what complementarianism is,” said Hawkins, referring to the doctrine that men and women have distinct God-given roles. “The women I know have the freedom to speak their mind to their husbands, and to work through problems in situations with them, within certain boundaries.”

Many embrace being wives, mothers and women in the church, said Hawkins, who has watched Erika Kirk, the wife of the late Charlie Kirk, publicly demonstrate that same satisfaction and joy.

“I think this is really, really important for Christian women,” said Hawkins. “She exemplifies a Christian wife and mom who is not ashamed of her love for her husband and her desire to serve him and love him and their kids.”

Hawkins predicts Erika Kirk, now head of her husband’s Turning Point USA, will be influential: “I think her voice — it will be heard from this point on.”

Stuckey, who grew up Southern Baptist, recently addressed women’s roles in church and society on her “Relatable” podcast, following online blowback from men on the right for giving a speech at a Turning Point college event. Stuckey reiterated her belief that women should not be pastors nor preach from the pulpit on Sundays, and said she has turned down opportunities because of it.

“A gentle and quiet spirit is something that women are told that we should have in Scripture, and we should. But that does not mean silence,” she said. “Women are also called to raise a voice and to be a bastion and refuge of clarity and courage.”

Most Southern Baptist women embrace accepted callings in the church, including in women’s and children’s ministry, said Hawkins, noting a special commissioning service at First Baptist Church of Dallas celebrating these roles.

“I just don’t think you see a lot of malcontent women complaining about not being able to be a pastor,” she said.

The Texas megachurch, which upholds that only men can serve as senior pastor, honored 13 women, said senior pastor, the Rev. Robert Jeffress.

“Instead of focusing on the one ministry women are prohibited from doing (senior pastor) we wanted to recognize and celebrate all the things that women can do in the church,” Jeffress said via email.

Hawkins has encountered a few women who felt called to off-limits roles in Southern Baptist churches. She was straightforward with them.

“Go do what God’s called you to do, but we’re not the denomination for you. You’re just going to get frustrated here. These boundaries were established a long time ago, so go where you can be happy,” said Hawkins.

Advocates of women’s ordination vow to persist

Long-established boundaries remain in the Catholic Church as well.

As Pope Leo XIV — the first American Pope — settles into his papacy, he has made clear he has no immediate interest in advocating for women to be able to serve as deacons, let alone to be ordained as priests.

Yet women continue to serve in high-level administrative jobs at the Vatican and at Catholic institutions in the U.S., such as Catholic Charities and the Catholic Health Association.

“Within the Catholic Church when we look only at priesthood, we fail to look at the primary mission of the church — it’s education, health care, social service agencies,” said Susan Timoney, a professor of pastoral studies at The Catholic University of America.

“We need to tell that part of the story better,” Timoney said.

The largest U.S. organization working to open the priesthood to women is the Women’s Ordination Conference, which will mark its 50th anniversary in late November.

Its executive director, Kate McElwee, said she is alarmed by “anti-women rhetoric and policies being pushed out all over the globe” including in the U.S. She wants her group to function as a “Ministry of Irritation, making our cause as bold and loud and creative as possible.”

“As things get more polarized, we’re seeing more people find their courage in this moment,” she said, citing the Sisters of Charity as an example. “As feminism is under attack more broadly, our movement will become a more important symbol of resistance.”

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Opinion

In new memoirs, women rabbis wrestle with Judaism's male-centered tradition

(RNS) — Female rabbis have staked a claim to a Judaism that is fully inclusive and respectful of the values of all its adherents.

Recent memoirs by women rabbis. (Courtesy images)

Beth Kissileff
November 19, 2025
RNS

(RNS) — From the days of Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, Jewish women have been leaders-without-portfolio. In the Book of Exodus, Miriam, a “prophetess,” leads the Israelite women in song, but unlike Moses, the main recipient of teaching from God, and Aaron, the chief priest, she has no named role.

Today, women in many denominations of Judaism are able to attend institutions of higher learning to become equipped with the necessary skills to gain credentials to be called rabbi or cantor. What will they do with their newfound titles? A crop of new books and TV shows out this fall gives some answers.
RELATED: Jewish identity doesn’t need a disclaimer

Rabbi Léa Schmoll, the fictional subject of HBO’s new series “Reformed” (which is based on a book by Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur), is filled with doubts as she takes her first pulpit in her hometown of Strasbourg, France. The local Orthodox rabbi, Lea’s teacher and inspiration when she attended his classes as a child, visits at the behest of his congregants, but instead of discouraging her as they wish, he ends up telling her that she will be more valuable as a rabbi who has doubts than one with certainties: What she thinks of as a vulnerability, he says, can be a form of strength.

“We didn’t want the show to sound like Judaism has all the answers,” the producers of “Reformed” said in a recent interview.

Women rarely feel as if they have sufficient answers, social scientists say, an attribute that may keep them from seeking leadership roles. In her new memoir, “Heart of a Stranger,” Rabbi Angela Buchdahl shows how this works. Born in Korea, where her parents met, she eventually becomes the fourth generation of her family to attend the Reform congregation that was founded by her father’s ancestors. After college at Yale University, then cantorial school and rabbinical school, Buchdahl finds her way to her first congregation, in New York’s northern suburbs, before being invited to the staff at Manhattan’s august Central Synagogue, where she began in 2006.

As in “Reformed,” the most affecting parts of Buchdahl’s book have to do with her doubts about her lack of qualifications, starting with her Jewishness. A summer spent in Israel with roommates who are more strictly observant “pegged me in my own mind as a counterfeit Jew,” she writes. Buchdahl calls her Buddhist mother from Jerusalem “using up five expensive long distance minutes in unintelligible heaves of crying” to say: “I’m not sure I want to be a Jew anymore. I don’t have a Jewish name; I don’t have a Jewish face. No one would even notice or care; I could just stop being Jewish right now.” Her mother responds, “Is that really possible, Angela?”

Today she leads a synagogue with 7,000 members, a $30 million endowment and 100 employees, and as the book makes evident, she is a skilled interpreter of sacred texts. Her early discouragement, and her ability to be honest about it, speaks volumes about what it means to be inside (or outside) a community. It also says a lot about how porous Judaism’s borders have become since Buchdahl was young, even as there are still some who don’t consider her a rabbi. Buchdahl writes, “Feeling like a stranger might be the most Jewish thing about me.”

Doubts aren’t the only obstacle for women looking to lead. The day Buchdahl had to decide whether to apply for Central Synagogue’s senior rabbi position, which she has held since 2014, she was also slated to appear on a panel with Anne-Marie Slaughter, on work-life balance, when her daughter ended up in the emergency room. With the help of a nanny, Buchdahl was able to be in the hospital and speak at the event, but she writes about the tension involved. The lessons the rabbi recounts, such as the value of a sparring partner who is willing to argue “in service of something bigger than themselves: getting closer to the truth,” are ones worth learning. That they are taught from a personal stance with a full measure of humility and honesty makes the book so much more accessible.

Not all female rabbis come from the same mold. In her new book, “The Jewish Way to a Good Life: Find Happiness, Build Community, and Embrace Lovingkindness,” Rabbi Shira Stutman, a co-host of the podcast “Chutzpod!,” has many answers, most of them rooted in Jewish sources and traditions. But this guide for the Jewish-curious often suffers from advice that’s obvious (“community doesn’t happen to you, community is something that you build and tend to, or it stagnates, withers, and sometimes dies”) or downright unhelpful: “The best way to think about queerness and Judaism in interaction is not as a problem at all, but as a thrilling opportunity.” Tell that to the queer Yeshiva University students who have fought for years to have their club approved and even won a lawsuit, yet are still blocked by the administration.

What’s most useful is Stutman’s point that Judaism’s answers don’t come just from rules and observances but embedded practices that result in community to share Shabbat dinner with or to help one another mourn. “The best we have to offer when sitting with a mourning friend or family member is not platitudes but presence,” she writes.

One promise of female rabbis is that they can add to the male-centric tradition by reflecting women’s unique perspectives. Rabbi Wendy Zierler, in her new memoir, “Going Out With Knots: My Two Kaddish Years with Hebrew Poetry,” isn’t shy about this point. “The feminist scholarly enterprise to which I had devoted my career,” she writes, “thus entailed three crucial parts: critical readings of male-authored canonical texts to expose this bias; the recovery of alternative feminine literary ‘herstories’ or traditions; and, if extant traditions didn’t suffice, the creation of something new.”

Zierler analyzes the contributions of poets Lea Goldberg, Rachel Morpurgo, Ruhama Weiss and Rachel Bluwstein, examining how these creative voices find their voices to remake a tradition given to them and also withheld. Only a trained literary scholar — Zierler has a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Princeton — and possessor of a rabbi’s knowledge of the Bible, Talmud and later Jewish texts and the prayerbook could explicate these writers’ allusions and wordplay and apply it to her own life, which has been difficult in recent years: She lost her father in a tragic accident, then her mother to illness, and cared for her mother-in-law, a Holocaust survivor, through her dementia.

Zierler uses poetry, in the words of Hebrew poet Yehuda Amichai, like a serum that courses through the veins to effect a cure for the dark times. She also relies on her love for the Jewish tradition, and Jewish community. Friends ask why she continues to attend an Orthodox synagogue, despite being excluded from the quorum of 10 Jews required for certain prayers. “Though I wasn’t counted in the minyan in a ritual or halakhic/legal sense,” she writes, “if I didn’t make it to shul on a given morning, I would get texts and emails from regulars, both men and women, asking me if everything was okay. If that isn’t ‘counting’ what is?”

Zierler is heartened by Ruhama Weiss’ “Chapters of the Mothers,” a poem playing against the Jewish text called the “Chapters of the Fathers” which opens with Moses handing down the Torah to Joshua and continues by relating the line of authority of patriarchs and male sages. Weiss summons a line of Biblical heroines: “from Hagar I learned to submit and/ afterward, to see/ And to find strength to save the boy,” referring to Ishmael, the son of Abraham.

The poem ends with a reference to the “Book of the Upright,” also known as the Book of Jasher, an alternative telling of the Bible that, Zierler writes, questions “the identity and comprehensiveness of this masculine tradition and pointing to its need for correction and amplification.” Zierler adds that “it was incumbent upon us to compose alternative texts and interpretations to supplement, affirm, and liberate.”

This confidence — to compose alternative texts and interpretations and incorporate them into the masculine tradition — is a culmination of the years of leadership-without-portfolio. It is nice to have TV shows about female rabbis, but books like Buchdahl’s and Zierler’s comfort us that there is substance and teaching from female rabbis as leaders beyond the flimsy image on a screen, and challenge us to transform the Jewish tradition into one that is fully inclusive and respectful of the lived vision and values of half its adherents.

(Beth Kissileff is author of the novel “Questioning Return” and co-editor of “Bound in the Bond of Life: Pittsburgh Writers Reflect on the Tree of Life Tragedy.” The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of RNS.)

Global Anglican ties are under stress. It's unclear if they're at the breaking point

(AP) — After decades of fierce controversies over sexuality and theology in the Anglican Communion, some leaders of a conservative coalition say it's time to make a final break from what has long been one of the world's largest Protestant church families.

Rodney Muhumuza and Peter Smith
November 19, 2025

After decades of fierce controversies over sexuality and theology in the Anglican Communion, some leaders of a conservative coalition say it’s time to make a final break from what has long been one of the world’s largest Protestant church families.

That would make a slow-growing Anglican schism complete — if it happens.

But how many church provinces go along with the rupture remains to be seen. Some of the communion’s largest and fastest-growing churches in Africa belong to the conservative group that announced the break — known as the Global Anglican Future Conference, or Gafcon. But several member churches have been silent on the plan, weeks after it was announced.

Gafcon’s announcement came shortly after the October appointment of Bishop Sarah Mullally as the first woman to be archbishop of Canterbury, the Anglican Communion’s symbolic spiritual leader. Many in England and other Western countries hailed this as a historic breaking of a stained-glass ceiling.

But leaders of Gafcon criticized the appointment, as did some other bishops. Some said only men should be bishops, but their bigger criticism was her support for some LGBTQ+-inclusive policies — the key fault line in the communion.

Within days of Mullally’s appointment, Gafcon issued another declaration. It completely rejected the Anglican Communion as it has been structured historically. That structure has included a set of governing and advisory bodies and recognition of the archbishop of Canterbury as a symbolic “first among equals” among leaders of self-governing national churches, known as provinces. Since provinces are self-governing, the archbishop’s authority is highly limited.

The ”future has arrived,” said Gafcon’s chairman, Archbishop Laurent Mbanda of Rwanda, in its October statement. “We declare that the Anglican Communion will be reordered.” His statement decried churches it said had violated a 1998 statement by the communion’s bishops, opposing same-sex unions and describing “homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture.”

Gafcon proclaimed what it calls a restructured “Global Anglican Communion.” It would be overseen by a new council of top national bishops, or primates. Whoever is elected chairman would be “first among equals.”

Uncertainty as to how large a breakaway could be

The question remains is: How many Gafcon members are actually going along with this plan, and how many want to remain in the existing Anglican Communion as a loyal opposition?

Primates of Africa’s two largest national provinces, Nigeria and Uganda, have joined their Rwandan counterpart in endorsing the measure, according to Bishop Paul Donison, Gafcon’s general secretary. So have smaller churches ranging from Myanmar to the Americas.

Nigeria Archbishop Henry Ndukuba confirmed his church’s endorsement of Gafcon’s plan. He called Mullally’s stances on same-sex issues “devastating.”

“This election is a further confirmation that the global Anglican world could no longer accept the leadership of the Church of England and that of the Archbishop of Canterbury,” he said in a statement.

Donison said Gafcon’s statement was drafted at a meeting in Australia, which included several church leaders on Zoom, though several others did not participate. Gafcon’s statement said its bishops would “confer and celebrate” restructuring at their next major meeting, scheduled this March in Nigeria.

Among those signing on to the Gafcon statement is the conservative Anglican Church in North America, formed in a break from the more liberal U.S. and Canadian churches.

The Gafcon move will “mark a decisive moment in the life of the Anglican family,” said ACNA Archbishop Stephen Wood, in a statement issued shortly before he took a leave of absence amid allegations of sexual and other misconduct, which he denies.

The Anglican primate of Congo is committed to maintaining Anglican ties.

In a statement, Archbishop Georges Titre Ande decried liberal trends in some churches but added: “The Anglican Church of Congo has no intention to leave the Anglican Communion, rather to keep working … to reform, heal and revitalise the Anglican Communion without leaving it.”


Tensions have been worsening for many years

The communion consists of churches descended from the Church of England. Anglicanism, with its unique mix of Protestant theology and Catholic-like ritual and sacraments, spread worldwide via colonial and missionary activity. It is especially vibrant in Africa. The London-based communion estimates it has about 85 million members across 165 countries.

Simmering tensions in Anglicanism exploded after 2003, when the U.S. Episcopal Church ordained its first of several openly gay bishops. Conservatives formed Gafcon and other structures. Large provinces such as Uganda’s and Nigeria’s have largely stopped participating in traditional Anglican structures.

The Anglican Communion itself is weighing a proposed new structuring that would de-emphasize Canterbury and share leadership roles more widely.

The proposals “won’t solve all the differences in the Anglican Communion, but they do seek to provide a structure within which people of deeply different convictions can remain in good conscience within that Communion,” said Bishop Graham Tomlin, chair of the committee that drafted the proposals. The plan will be aired before an advisory council next year.

Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe of the Episcopal Church said the latest Gafcon statement was “more of the same” from a subgroup that has largely disengaged from the Anglican Communion.

“There’s a pretty clear agenda here, which I don’t think has very much to do with the church,” he said. “I’m really interested in being in relationship with people who want to continue our relationships across the communion.”

Vocal unhappiness over a female leader

Even if the communion remains intact, its profound divisions surfaced with Mullally’s appointment.

Mullally has affirmed the Church of England’s current definition of church marriage as between a man and a woman, but she supported a plan for blessings of same-sex couples and has acknowledged “the harm that we have done” as a church to LGBTQ+ people.

Homosexuality remains taboo in many African countries, in some cases criminalized under colonial-era laws or newer legislation. Uganda enacted legislation in 2023 prescribing the death penalty for some homosexual offenses.

Stephen Kaziimba, Uganda’s archbishop, lamented Mullally’s “support and advocacy for unbiblical positions on sexuality.”

Her appointment widened “the tear in the fabric of the Anglican Communion,” Kaziimba added in a letter to Anglicans.

Bishop Lukas Katenda, leader of the conservative Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of Namibia, a Gafcon-aligned faction independent of the Church of England, dismissed Mullally’s appointment as “a joke.”

“She is not a person to look up to for evangelism, for mission, for proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for winning souls or to call people for repentance,” Katenda told The Namibian newspaper.

When the Anglican Diocese of Upper Shire in Malawi shared the Gafcon statement criticizing the appointment of Mullally on its Facebook page, it attracted approving comments from followers who said “Amen.” However, the diocese also reposted a statement from the general secretary of the Anglican Communion, urging it to stay together.

In Accra, Ghana, Patrick Okaijah-Bortier, parish priest of St. Andrew Anglican Church, said many clergy in his country were unhappy about Mullally, notably because of her support for same-sex blessings.

“It is worrying,” he said. “If she pushes this agenda, she may end up losing almost all of us.”

Another cleric in Accra, Georgina Naa Anyema Collison of the St. Joseph the Worker Anglican Church, said she supported Mullally’s appointment because “I’m a female” yet opposed her position on same-sex unions.

But in South Africa, where same-sex marriages are legal, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town, primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, offered “warm congratulations” to Mullally. In another statement, Makgoba’s office said he is focused on interfaith peacemaking efforts and “has neither the time nor any interest in engaging with these internal Anglican differences.”

___

Contributors include Farai Mutsaka in Harare, Zimbabwe; Dyepkazah Shibayan in Abuja, Nigeria; and Edward Acquah in Accra, Ghana.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Pope tweaks a law allowing a woman to head the Vatican City State, months after a nun was appointed

ROME (AP) — Leo amended the 2023 law to remove a reference that had said the president of the Vatican City State administration must be a cardinal.

Nicole Winfield
November 24, 2025

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV fixed a technical glitch on Friday in a Vatican law that became problematic after Pope Francis named the first-ever woman to head the Vatican City State administration.

Leo amended the 2023 law to remove a reference that had said the president of the Vatican City State administration must be a cardinal.

Francis in February appointed Sister Raffaella Petrini, a 56-year-old Italian nun, as president of the city state. The appointment was one of many Francis made during his 12-year papacy to elevate women to top decision-making jobs in the Vatican, and it marked the first time a woman had been named governor of the 44-hectare (110-acre) territory in the heart of Rome.

But the appointment immediately created technical and legal problems that hadn’t existed before because Petrini’s predecessors had all been priestly cardinals.

For example, Petrini wasn’t invited to deliver the economic status report of the Vatican City State to the closed-door meetings of cardinals in spring that preceded the May conclave that elected Leo.

Normally, the cardinal-president of the Vatican City State would have delivered the briefing. But those pre-conclave meetings, known as general congregations, are for cardinals only.

In changing the law Friday to allow a non-cardinal to be president of the Vatican administration, Leo suggested that Petrini’s appointment was not a one-off. He wrote that the governance of the territory was a form of service and responsibility that must characterize communion within the church hierarchy.

“This form of shared responsibility makes it appropriate to consolidate certain solutions that have been developed so far in response to governance needs that are proving increasingly complex and pressing,” Leo wrote.

Petrini’s office is responsible for the main revenue sources funding the Holy See coffers, including the Vatican Museums, but it also handles the infrastructure, telecommunications and healthcare for the city state. The Vatican City State commission she heads is responsible for approving laws governing the territory, and approving the annual budgets and accounts.


The Catholic Church reserves the priesthood for men. While women made strides in reaching top management jobs in the Vatican during Francis’ pontificate, there was no movement or indication that the all-male hierarchy would change rules barring women from ministerial ordination.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Flunking Sainthood

‘Secret Lives’ shows Mormon women working out the damage of purity culture in real time

(RNS) — 'Secret Lives' offers an absurdly one-sided picture of Mormonism. But it's also not fully wrong.

Promotional poster for "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives." 

(Image courtesy of Hulu)

Jana Riess
November 14, 2025

RNS

(RNS) — Season Three of Hulu’s hit series “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” dropped on Thursday (Nov. 13). Ten new episodes promise to update us on the latest scandals, catfights and shifting alliances among Utah’s notorious MomTok frenemies.

Let me say up front that I’m not a fan of “reality” TV, or what one of my friends aptly calls “fake-ality” TV. There’s a tedious and engineered sameness to these shows. “Secret Lives,” like similar shows, revolves around some type of manufactured conflict, usually low-stakes played as high stakes — for example, adults saying “OMG, she said that?! I am so not inviting her to my birthday party.” Then everyone rehashes the low-stakes conflict endlessly, in cloistered small-group gossip and in solo interviews in front of the camera, telling us again and again how they feel about it.

And yet, I can’t dismiss the show as entirely vacuous, and I can’t dismiss these women as not being real Mormons.

Yes, there’s a lot that is fake about the show and about them. For women who seem bent on asserting their individual uniqueness, they sure went all in on identical “Utah hair” styles. There’s surgical augmentation of certain body parts and the synthetic “sisterhood” they keep claiming to enjoy. They constantly speak about friendship even as they only appear to hug so they can stab one another in the back from closer proximity. Their relationships through MomTok, the nickname for their TikTok community, seem almost wholly transactional. The women use one another for clout, although they also worry aloud that other people are only interested in befriending or dating them to get more clout.

RELATED: Why are Mormon lifestyle influencers so popular?

But that doesn’t mean these characters aren’t raising vital questions about what constitutes a Mormon identity.

The first two seasons of “Secret Lives” showed some of the women working out their relationship to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in real time. The main characters fall on a spectrum where some are “all out” of the church and are very critical of it, a few are at the other extreme and still regularly attending church, and most are somewhere in the middle.

An important aspect of this identity negotiation has to do with sex. Beyond all the revealing clothing and made-for-media drama about who cheated on whom, there’s a good deal of hurt around sexuality.

I admit that the first time Mayci used the word “trauma” to refer to her picture-perfect life, I rolled my eyes. But I gave her the benefit of the doubt by reading some of her new memoir “Told You So,” which came out last month. It details a painful history of adolescent grooming and sexual assault, and the humiliation of having to confess what was mostly nonconsensual sexual activity to her bishop. It’s an important story.

Then, there’s Mikayla, who says in Season Two that she survived childhood sexual abuse that was dismissed or downplayed by her LDS mother. Mikayla left home at 15, became a teenage mom at 17 and now has four kids, despite only being in her mid-20s.

And let’s not forget Layla, who says she has never had an orgasm. Or at least, not until MomTok hired a sex educator to teach them all more about the female body and how it’s not only designed to give men pleasure.

Layla didn’t grow up LDS; she converted as a teenager, attracted to the religion’s seeming ability to deliver a happy nuclear family. She got married super young since early marriage seemed to be emphasized in her new Mormon world. But the church’s ideal of the happy family didn’t work out, and by her early 20s, she was a divorced and destitute single mom.

Some orthodox LDS church members will doubtless respond that these women made their own choices, citing agency and accountability and all that. But the common theme running through these stories is a feeling of powerlessness around their sexuality, and I do think some of that can be blamed on the church.

Promotional image for “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.” (Image courtesy of Hulu)

The church taught women their sexual “purity” was the most important thing about them, the single-most prized virtue they possessed. The church also taught them that sex outside of marriage was a sin second only to murder (cue Spencer W. Kimball here). And the church wasn’t always careful to distinguish between consensual, chosen sex and being the victim of rape or abuse. If virginity was the commodity that gave a young woman value, then she was damaged goods when it was gone, even if it was forcibly taken from her.

For the last five years, I’ve been part of a research project about who leaves Mormonism and why. In my interviews with women who have left — particularly younger women in their 20s, 30s and 40s — it’s become very clear to me that the damage inflicted by purity culture is real.

In a broader way, the church taught women that their primary role in life was to be a wife and mother. This creates conflict for some of the women in the show. Their generation of LDS women was told to get an education, but also that any career they might prepare for was strictly a “plan B” in case they couldn’t fulfill the ideal of being a stay-at-home mother.

RELATED: Mormon women are finally allowed to wear sleeveless tops. Here’s why some are grieving.

In the series, we see this tension play out in the story of Jen, who begins as the token, quiet young Mormon wife. Jen married very young, and her husband is portrayed as controlling. The show depicts him as attempting to isolate her from her female friends when they exert damaging peer pressure on Jen by frog-marching her against her will to the den of iniquity that is Chippendales. (Did I mention these women are not real friends to each other?)

Jen’s fellow MomTokers don’t think much of her husband. Jen, meanwhile, begins to assert her own opinions and make demands of him, something she feels empowered to do, in part because she has become the unexpected breadwinner in their marriage.

Jen could well be LDS church leaders’ worst nightmare. She’s the cautionary tale of what can happen when women don’t completely buy into the church’s preferred SAHM identity and the chronic financial dependence that goes with it. Lured by the validation and the paycheck they can receive in the working world, they stop playing the role of the deferential wife who just feels lucky to have a husband — any husband, even a crappy one. (And I’m not saying Jen’s man-child of a husband is crappy. Who really knows with fake-ality TV?)

But Jen is living a deeply familiar Mormon story. I know many women like her who postponed or derailed their careers in order to follow the church’s one true approved path for them. Some are happy they did, and others are not. All of them are wrestling with the messages about work and motherhood they absorbed growing up in the church.

Yet, the church claims it can’t see itself in any way in this series. A couple weeks before the first episode of “Secret Lives” debuted in September 2024, the church released an official statement that didn’t name the show but decried “stereotypes or gross misrepresentations that are in poor taste.” The statement further noted the church’s “regret that portrayals often rely on sensationalism and inaccuracies that do not fairly and fully reflect the lives of Church members or the sacred beliefs that they hold dear.”

I agree with some of that: “Secret Lives” offers an absurdly one-sided picture of Mormonism. These women are so materialistic and obsessed with parties and clothes that they don’t resemble any of the Mormon women I know. If the MomTok divas care about the wider world beyond their influencer bubble, we don’t see it onscreen. They mine human relationships for dramatic effect and size up other people based on what those people can do for them.

That self-centered worldview is very much not Mormon. The church has consistently preached a gospel of helping others and serving God.

But in terms of sexuality and gender roles, there’s a clear connective thread to what the church taught these women about their life purpose and their bodies. And it impacts what they are grappling with today.

Their struggles are often painful to watch. But I hold a grudging respect for several of these Mormon-ish women, and I wish them the best. Mostly, I think they would be better off if they stayed away from each other and found at least one actual, tried-and-true friend. Failing that, each could use a loyal Golden Retriever.