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E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · 4d

The Church of England designates Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury, the first woman to lead the church in its 500 years. NYT is the only UK/USA newspaper to recognize the historicity of this event by placing her on A1.
Articles are from NYT, Guardian, The Times, WaPo, FT UK (not USA), WSJ.

E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · 9d

Local U.S. TV stations take on last week’s rapture.
🤔 Beyond the humor: it's an interesting look at the End of the World thru local color in North America. Religious demography can show how diverse forms of Christianity gets lived, narrated, broadcast, even dismissed.

John Oliver, HBO Sept 28 2025

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E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · 10d

Judaism has adapted tech (writing, printing, computing) for millennia.
🤔 I wonder if AI reshapes religions w/ written texts. As AI can search, summarize, remix texts better, who becomes the interpreter?

AI Isn't Replacing Rabbis - it's Saving Them
@washingtonpost.com, Sept 25 2025 wapo.st/42FPBQb

E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · 10d

Islam was the world’s fastest growing religion from 2010 to 2020.
@conradhackett.bsky.social at @pewresearch.org

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 11d

Islam was the world’s fastest growing religion from 2010 to 2020
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/06/10/islam-was-the-worlds-fastest-growing-religion-from-2010-to-2020/

Islam was the world’s fastest-growing religion from 2010 to 2020

From 2010 to 2020, the number of Muslims increased by 347 million people to 2.0 billion people.

www.pewresearch.org

E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · 13d

Here are my reactions in Spanish.

E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · 13d

The aforementioned Thomas Gaunt (Georgetown University) offers nuanced reports on Catholic seminarians through the ever informative CARA reports.

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E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · 13d

Similar / different patterns in the literature from the 1940s - in particular by John J. Considine.

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E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · 13d

Length of posts.

E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · 13d

While global Catholic pop ⏫ 2x since 1970 # of priests has declined (WSJ on A1). Focus is on seminaries shrinking even in LA. But it's more than a staffing issue: how do individuals weigh identities in modernity; Catholics may add a twist but it seems like a general crisis in religious vocations.

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E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · 14d

Pope Leo's first interview was w/ Crux this weekend & covered an array of topics incl: United Nations, World Cup, his own identity (1st Q: are you American or Latin American?). The Times placed him on the cover and focused on his comments economics and pay scales.

The Times (London), Sept 15 2025

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E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · 15d

The census bureau in Peru (INEI) decided against including a question on religion in the 2025 census. Peru has included this question in all national censuses going back to 1862 (save for the 2005 one, retaken in 2007). This is my plea to get the question re-inserted next time. (Univ. del Pacífico)

E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · 19d

📊El Salvador Survey > Cath, Evang tied @ 39%; 19% None; 3% Other (a pattern w/ Indigenous pops - categories don't capture the local). By educ: primary / secondary mirrors society. In Higher ed, Cath rises noticeably wrt Evang. LA Religion shifts not only across generations, but also social spaces.

E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · Sep 4

#ExMo ExMormons Go Viral, says WSJ on A1 this a.m. LDS "is facing a 21st c. reckoning, driven by social-media". Cites from John Dehlin, Justin Turman and (of course) Ryan Burge who says "Mormonism has a retention problem". # in US who identify as Mormon has almost halved since 2012.

WSJ Sept 4 2025

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E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · Aug 28

Aquí la versión impresa del 25 agosto 2025

E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · Aug 27

Another column about the omission of religion in this years' census in Peru. This one is rather polemical, accuses the Catholic hierarchy of keeping silent about an "irrelevant statistic", suggests that Pope Leo (who spent time in Peru) will speak up on this.

The Heresy of Silence
Uno, Aug 25 2025

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E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · Aug 27

Fantastic news about David Voas’ new website.🥂 He and @conradhackett.bsky.social are among those who consistently challenge how I think about religious identity change here in Latin America.

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · Aug 24

Good news--David Voas' seminal essay on the secular transition is now freely available on his new website: www.seculartransition.org

David wrote, "A transition is a permanent large-scale change. It is not cyclical or recurring; once out, the toothpaste will not go back into the tube."

The Continuing Secular Transition
David Voas
Introduction

The theory of secularization rests on a simple idea: social change tends to follow particular routes. Certain major transformations– such as the industrial revolution, the decline in mortality, or equalization in the status of women– occur exactly once in each society. These transitions are a species of social change, but a rather peculiar one: they are very difficult to undo. Back-tracking is exceptional and temporary.

A transition, then, is a permanent large-scale change. It is not cyclical or recurring; once out, the toothpaste will not go back into the tube. Social dynamics, transnational markets and global communications being what they are, most transitions are likely to occur everywhere eventually. Any claim to historical inevitability would be dubious, but a case can be made for this kind of universality. Where common causes operate in more or less every society, outcomes may be inescapable.

We can use knowledge gained about one transition to illuminate the course and causes of another, even one that seems very different at first sight. Specifically, there are various parallels between the fertility transition– the global decline in birth rates– and what might be called the secular transition, the move away from institutional religion. At first glance the only link that is apparent between the shift from large families to small ones and from general to minority religious participation is that we have had great difficulty in understanding both transformations. By treating them as instances of a specific type of social change, however, it may be possible to apply what we know about one to explanations of the other.

Secularization versus the ma

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E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · Aug 27

🇵🇪 Otra columna re: la falta de medición de religión en el censo. El autor mezcla una supuesta culpabilidad a la jerarquía de la iglesia católica por omisión, que es "estadística irrelevante", que el Papa va a dirigirse al tema.

La Herejía del Silencio
Luis Balazar García
Diario Uno, 25 agosto 2025

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E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · Aug 25

And in October a conference on evangelicals in France.

E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · Aug 25

Online article starts with photo of pastor Manu Renard (Une Famille qui Grandit); the article is written by Sarah Belouezzane et Benoît Vitkine with several photographs by Lucas Barioulet.

www.lemonde.fr/societe/arti...

Evangélisme en France : un essor continu à la faveur de nombreuses conversions

Le nombre de fidèles des divers cultes se rattachant à l’évangélisme, une branche du protestantisme, ne cesse d’augmenter. Ses pratiquants se disent séduits par une liturgie plus informelle et par l’i...

www.lemonde.fr

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E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · Aug 25

La Monde's cover article on the growth of French evangelicals incl profile of Une Famille qui Grandit, a Baptist church in Pontault-Combault with pastors Manuel Renard & Cédric Pallud; Valérie Duval-Poujol (Fédération Protestante); Sébastien Fath, sociologist / historian @ CNRS
Le Monde, 25 aug 2025

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Reposted by E. Eduardo Romero P.

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · Aug 24

I'm flabbergasted how many people blast audio from phones in public. Shouldn't everyone know better?

Take this Pew Research quiz to see whether your views about acceptable public behavior are in sync with others: https://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/which-public-behaviors-do-you-find-rude/

Cursing Out Loud. Pets in Stores. Which Public Behaviors Do You Find Rude?

Cursing in public. Bringing pets into stores. Blasting music. Smoking near others. Find out if your etiquette views are typical for your age.

www.pewresearch.org

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E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · Aug 16

🇵🇪 Congressman Alejandro Muñante questions why Peru's 2025 census doesn't include a question on religion, in an op-ed today in the Expreso newspaper. However, he seems to be as focused on polemics as on social measures.

I offer a few reactions on Facebook: bit.ly/AM-response

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E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · Aug 11

Protestantism expands in the Amazon, acc. to data from Brazil's 2024 census, highlighted by Samantha Pearson in the WSJ over the weekend. Evangelicals = 25% of Brazilians, 1/3 indigenous pop; are larger than the Cath pop in the states of Acre & Rondonia.

WSJ Aug 9 2025
www.wsj.com/world/americ...

E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · Aug 4

A 6-page profile of Vatican Astronomer Guy Consolmagno.
Of Francis: “When you would walk into a room, his face would light up in a smile ... I’ll miss his good humor, his gentle support.”
Also: Leo XIII, the 19th c. Pope, was the founder of the modern Vatican Observatory.
The New Yorker Aug 4 2025

E. Eduardo Romero P. @eromero.bsky.social · Aug 1

🇵🇪 My op-ed in Peru's La República this morning addressing the removal of the religion question from Peru’s 2025 national census. To understand and debate the role of religious transformation in our country, we need data that only a census can provide. Peru has included religion since 1862 census.