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Sunday, June 21, 2026

Faith is integral to a country’s fortunes, says research review

(RNS) — Religion is playing a far greater role in economic growth and prosperity than many people realize, affecting key economic behavior including education, family size and savings, according to the Berlin-based think tank the Rockwool Foundation.

Protesters are reflected in a puddle as they wave European flags to demonstrate against Brexit in front of the Parliament in London on Dec. 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Catherine Pepinster
June 16, 2026

RNS

(RNS) — Religion is continuing to be a major influence in an increasingly secular Europe — not so much through church attendance and worship but because it is embedded in its values, especially those to do with the economy, according to a Berlin-based think tank, the Rockwool Foundation.

According to the foundation’s research review, religion is playing a far greater role in economic growth and prosperity than many people realize, affecting key economic behavior, including education, family size and savings.

“Anyone who regards religion as a marginal factor overlooks a part of the deep structure of our societies,” lead author and economics professor at the U.K.’s Warwick University Sascha Becker told Religion News Service. “Religion still matters because it has shaped, and in many places still shapes, the social norms and institutions through which policy operates.”

The paper, “Religion and Economic Growth: What We Know and Why It Matters,” surveys a wide range of economic literature. Its authors, including Becker, Jared Rubin of Chapman University and Ludger Woessmann of the University of Munich, looked at evidence through the centuries and across the globe.

Becker cites education as a key area where policymakers need to understand the continuing role of religion in Europe. While most people would understand that religion played a key role in developing literacy because people were taught to read so that they could access the Bible, its influence is still evident today. Many European countries still have faith-based schools, religiously rooted educational traditions and minority communities for whom religious institutions are important.

“If policymakers want to improve skills, integration or female labor-force participation, they need to understand whether religious schooling complements secular skills, literacy, numeracy, science, or substitutes for them,” Becker said. He warned that a secular policy on education may look neutral in theory “but can trigger resistance if communities experience it as an attack on identity.”

The role of religion in schooling is particularly evident in England, where around a third of state schools have a faith designation, the majority linked to the Church of England, a substantial number to the Roman Catholic Church and a very small minority to Jewish and Muslim institutions.

“Even quite secular parents may value faith schools because they associate them with a clear ethos, discipline, good behavior and aspiration,” Becker said. “The point is not that religion automatically produces better schools: The evidence is complicated by selection and peer effects, but that religiously rooted institutions can still shape parental choices and the production of human capital in today’s Europe.”

According to the report’s authors, policymakers do not need to endorse religious doctrine, but they need to understand how the moral worlds in which people live affect choices they make about their lifestyles, such as family size and schooling.

Another example of how religion impacts Europe today is in attitudes to migration and social cohesion. Protests against migration have popped up across many European nations, often pushing for Christianity in rows about national identity. In the U.K., a movement called Unite the Kingdom has focused on the significance of Christianity in the heritage of Britain – something that many clergy have been wary of endorsing as it does not reflect the Christian ethos of welcoming the stranger.

Many religious organizations, such as the Jesuit Refugee Service, have been instrumental in helping migrants settle, learn a new language and understand local services and whether they can access them. While some migrants are Christian, others are not, and networks of Muslim institutions, for example, can also help people on their arrival in Europe.

“Understanding religion helps policymakers design integration policies that are neither naïvely multicultural nor simply assimilationist,” Becker said.

But Becker warns that religion is not the entire explanation for a nation’s strategy. In Spain there has been a more welcoming attitude to migrants than in other European countries, and Catholic charities and the Catholic Church have played a significant role in supporting migrants. According to Becker, there is a pragmatic reason for doing so, rather than a theological reason. “It reflects labor shortages,” he said.

Last week in Spain and the Canary Islands, Pope Leo XIV met migrants and the organizations that rescue, welcome and accompany them as they often arrive by boat across dangerous seas between Africa and Spain.

The gospel, said Pope Leo, “asks us if we have recognized Christ in those who disembark, marked by fear, hunger and violence, after enduring the desert, the night and the sea.” He went on to urge governments across the world to share responsibility for what happens to migrants, to protect them from criminal traffickers and help their countries of origin to improve their economic development.

Religion can also have a negative impact on society, the researchers warn, citing women’s absence from the Afghan labor force because of Taliban thinking on the role of women, which is contributing to a stunted Afghan economy.

Today, some Christian denominations are focusing increasing attention on the environment and the future of the planet, with believers encouraged to live more simply, encourage more sustainable development and limit consumption. “This could well impact economic growth,” Becker said, and he urged them to consider if it is possible to not hinder growth but encourage a different, greener kind of economic growth.

Still, Becker is not convinced that churches have significant ethical influence today on those in power, especially when it comes to some denominations’ thinking on capitalism and its adverse effects, such as the Catholic Church. “The U.S. has a large church attendance, yet it is the most capitalist society,” he said. “There is significant tension there.”

Back in Europe, ideas from Catholic social teaching, such as solidarity and subsidiarity, were adopted by the founders of the European Union but now function as secular constitutional principles.

Subsidiarity is a good example of a religiously rooted idea that has become secularized, Becker said. “In Catholic social teaching, it meant that higher authorities should support, not replace, families, communities and local associations.”

Today in the EU, subsidiarity has become a foundational legal principle, where decisions should be made locally under certain conditions.

“So, the religious roots are part of the genealogy, but the principles now have a broader, pluralist meaning,” Becker said.

'They have already suffered enough': Central African clergy respond to US deportation

(RNS) — Faith leaders say they would welcome migrants deported from the United States but question the decision to send vulnerable people without ties to a nation still healing from years of sectarian violence.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detain a man during an operation in Escondido, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Tonny Onyulo
June 17, 2026

RNS

NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — Religious leaders in the Central African Republic say they were stunned by the arrival Friday (June 12) of migrants deported from the United States to their country without cultural or familial ties, questioning why people who fled religious and political persecution were sent to a nation still grappling with its own history of sectarian violence and instability.

The U.S. government flew at least two dozen migrants from countries including Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, Armenia and Georgia to Bangui, the Central African Republic’s capital, as part of the Trump administration’s third-country deportation agreements with several African and Latin American countries.

Human rights groups and immigration lawyers say several of those deported had established credible fears of persecution in their home countries, including torture, imprisonment and death. Among them were Christian converts at risk and at least one Iranian pro-democracy activist who could face severe punishment if returned to Iran for her political activity and religious beliefs.

“I was surprised to hear that migrants who fled persecution in their own countries had been deported to ours,” Jean Ngaba, an evangelical pastor in southern Central African Republic, told Religion News Service.

Some of the deportees had been granted withholding of removal, a legal protection preventing their deportation to their countries of origin because of the risk of persecution. Rather than being returned home, they were transferred to the Central African Republic under a bilateral agreement between Washington and Bangui. Advocacy groups have expressed concern that the migrants could face onward refoulement, meaning they could eventually be sent back to the countries they originally fled.

In particular, the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund has warned that deporting Iranians to the Central African Republic is potentially fatal, pointing to close ties between the African country and Moscow, a key ally of Iran.

“The Central African Republic is poor and still trying to heal after years of conflict between Christians and Muslims,” said Ngaba, who works on local grassroots peace and reconciliation initiatives. “It is inhumane for any government to do this to people who have already suffered because of their beliefs or political views.”

So far, no church, mosque or faith-based charity has been formally tasked with receiving the deportees, although religious leaders interviewed by RNS said they would be willing to help if asked.

“As religious leaders, we are ready to assist them if we are called upon or if we meet them,” said Ngaba.

Central African Republic, red, in central Africa. Image courtesy of Creative Commons

According to immigration advocates and officials familiar with the operation, the deportees are being temporarily housed in apartments in Bangui while authorities determine their next steps. Their long-term future remains uncertain, and the Central African government has not publicly clarified whether they will remain in the country or eventually seek asylum elsewhere. The International Organization for Migration is providing post-arrival humanitarian assistance at the request of the Central African government but has stressed that it is not involved in the U.S. deportation process itself.

Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga, the Catholic archbishop of Bangui and an internationally recognized advocate for interfaith peace, said he was aware of the arrivals but was still gathering information about the situation. The cardinal said the Catholic Church would be willing to assist the migrants if called upon, reflecting the church’s commitment to helping people in need.

Muslim leaders have also voiced concern over the deportations.

Cleric Moussa Ibrahim, a Bangui-based Muslim leader who has worked to promote peace and reconciliation, said many of the deportees had escaped religious persecution only to arrive in a country with its own complex history of sectarian tensions.

“Most of these people escaped persecution because of their beliefs,” Ibrahim said. “But here in the Central African Republic, we have a long history of religious violence because of conflict and weak state authority. Muslims have fought Christians and Christians have fought Muslims.”

For more than a decade, the country has experienced repeated cycles of violence involving the predominantly Muslim Séléka coalition and the largely Christian and animist Anti-Balaka militias. Although a ceasefire reached in late 2025 reduced large-scale fighting, insecurity remains a challenge in parts of the country where armed groups continue to operate. According to the Open Doors World Watch List 2026, the Central African Republic remains among countries where Christians face significant persecution, particularly in areas where government control is weak.

Ibrahim questioned how the migrants would rebuild their lives in a country facing enormous economic and social challenges.

“How are they going to survive here?” he asked. “Will they stay temporarily or eventually move somewhere else? These are the questions we are asking as religious leaders because opportunities are limited, and the environment can be difficult for both Christians and Muslims, especially for people who have converted from one faith to another.”

The arrival of the deportees has also raised broader humanitarian questions in the Central African Republic, where many communities continue to struggle with poverty, displacement and the lingering effects of conflict.

While the long-term future of the deportees remains uncertain, Ngaba said people of faith have a responsibility to welcome those who have lost their homes and communities.

“They have already suffered enough,” Ngaba said. “If they come to us, we will welcome them because that is what our faith teaches us. Before they are migrants or deportees, they are human beings, and every human being deserves compassion and dignity.”