New Study: Suicide Among Non-Believers Higher Than Among Believers -- Lower Among Catholics

by Roberto Reggi, translated by Tancred

Suicide is negatively regarded in the religious and moral view.  In addition it is yet a significant and statistically easy scale for well being. Already, since the clasical study of Emile Durkheim (1897), which is generally considered the first scientific sociological study, it is known that among believing people in comparison to non-believing, there is less suicide.  In detail, there are fewer suicides among Catholics than Protestants.

The interpretation for this phenomenon, which the father of Sociology poses, is founded in the concept of anomie. [A sociological term describing the disturbance of in social relations.]   The decline or loss of religious norms and values (a-nomos, without laws) leads to disturbances in the social order and the loss of social integration.  The results of anomie are for people the feeling of a sense of loss, growing dissatisfaction and fear, which could lead to suicide.  Believing people have however ideals to which they can hold and adjust to every situation.  They have the patience and hope.  Catholics are more tied to a community and social relationships than Protestants, which further reduces anomic manifestations.  The Catholic network is more widely and broadly extended than the Protestant, because the Protestant, lacks the this worldly pressure to perform and failure according to human standards is always circumscribed as a possibility in the Catholic.

More than a century after the ground breaking study by Durkheim there was a University study published in the Summer of 2012. In that the number of suicides in Switzerland was researched between 1981 and 2001,  a country therefore, in which the Catholic Church and Protestant belief systems have historically lived side by side.  The Study Suicide and Religion:  New Evidence on the Differences Between Protestantism and Catholicism was written by Benno Torgler (EBS University for Research and Law, Oestrich-Winkel) and Christoph Schaltegger (University of Luzern).

The study offers valuable information between the homogeneity of the researched cases, which all come from the same political and social back grounds, which marks the Swiss national situation.  The study affirms Durkheim's assertions from the last 19th century: Protestants are more frequently inclined to suicide than Catholics.  In practice:  the same social and economic conditions (income, family relationships, etc...)  show a decline in suicide, the higher the Catholic section is.

*Robert Reggi, Jahrgang 1974, Promotion in Philosophie (1998), Diplomstudium der Theologie (2007), Diplomstudium der Bildungswissenschaften (2007), Lizentiat in Biblischer Theologie (2007), Psychologie (2009), Anthropologie (2011), Mitarbeiter von Radio Maria, UCCR, Mitglied im wissenschaftlichen Komitee von Cathopedia.

Link to Katholisches...

Many Catholic Youth in Europe Tend to Abstinence

Genf (kathnews/CF)  Youth from the ages of 15 in Israel are far less sexually active than those of the same age in Europe.  The Jewish State showed in a comparable study on this subject that included 35 countries, was among the last places, namely 32.  The international questionnaire was commissioned in connection with the World Health Organization.  From the study, which was led in Israel by Doctor Yossi Harel Fisch and Dr. Iron Buneil of Bar-Ilan University, it says that compared to the youth of 1998, today's youth have become more conservative:  Of the 874 Jewish boys and girls 18,5% said that they had had sexual intercourse.  14 years ago they were still 27%.  The highest early age to have sexual intercourse -- according to this international Report -- were the youth of Greenland:  there it showed that 59.8% had already experienced sexual intercourse at 15.  In addition the 2nd place and 3rd places were also northern European countries:  Denmark (37.7%, Sweden (31.6%), even including Austria (31.6%) -- with England in 5th place with 31 %.

The Highest Abstinence Rate in Years: in two Catholic Countries

After the lower "Sex-numbers" come after Israel, the Ukraine (18%), Poland (15.7%) and Slovakia (12.7%).   With that indicates two Catholic countries (Poland, Slovakia) have the highest abstinence levels among their boys and girls -- or to put it another way:  the lowest sex quotas.  -- Not to forget the religiously stamped Ukraine.  Already, in the past two years the results of this international report was similar:  even then Slovakia and Poland showed the highest levels of abstinence.  The youth in Germany belonged according to a report in 2010 among the most "abstinent" countries (it sits in the lowest area, respectively the 11th from the last place: directly after Portugal).

Back to Israel and the most recent study.   The director of the Department for the Prevention of Psychosocial Damage in the Education Ministry, Hilla Segal, explained to the site "Ynet":  "We have become attentive that parents and teachers in Israel are increasingly showing a more conservative mind."  The expert continued:  "Sex in early ages leaves emotional and psychic damage.  It is increasingly clear that youth in these ages are often under pressure to engage in sexual relationships and  this harms them later."

From kath.new....

Hollywood is a Nest of Vipers

"It was a running joke in Hollywood for years that the Coreys were being passed around."

Edit: It's the tip of the iceberg, a Hollywood talent manager has been accused of molesting numerous children.

This is as good as any a time to renew calls for a return to moral objectivity and who else can provide that but the Catholic Church? It would be nice to see a return to the Church's influence on what is and isn't presentable. The entertainment media complex has sexualized children with impunity for years.

A few months ago, a famous child actor, Corey Feldman, pointed an accusing finger at the media complex. Now the former actor who played Molly Olson on television's Little House on the Prairie has added her voice to his, according to Lifesite.

What's been revealed lately is only the tip of the iceberg. Hollywood is a ship of vermin spreading moral contagion far and wide.

Incidentally, where are the usual victim's advocates? It may be supposed that sex-abuse attorney and change agent, Jeff "ACLU" Anderson had to speak out about the Sandusky accusations at Penn State, but he hasn't to our knowledge represented a single child actor or former child actor. It's interesting that with his access to the New York Times and the media that he's been silent about sexual predators in Hollywood. Is there a reason that Jeff Anderson, a nationally known attorney who's built his livelihood on sexual abuse claims against the Catholic Church, doesn't represent any child stars against predator Producers and the others like them that predominate in the entertainment industry?

Lifesite News....

The Pope Talks About Duty and the Good, Everyone Else is Fixated Upon Condoms

 Men are not allowed to think freely about chemistry and biology: why should they be allowed to think freely about political philosophy?
Auguste Comte

Augustus Comte Founder of Sociology

The past few days have reinforced our notion, oft repeated, that the world envisioned by Augustus Comte has come to pass, and that information has been compressed and distorted by the various media, which transmit the findings of the new priest-class to the masses, and they respond predictably.  Some people have even implicated the Holy Father in this game, much as they did at Regensburg when he was accused of causing world-wide riots after he quoted a Byzantine Emperor's statement about Islam being a religion of "violence".


One of the German blogs made the following citation, and it verily touches on the media contortion of past few days, and as with his Regesburg speech, it was twisted, misinterpreted and projected upon by various malcontents, ne'er-do-wells and perhaps a few decent people who were struck by the way the media handled this.  Many people, too many people, have more faith in the infallibility of the media than they do the Pope, but I should hope that we here at least would give His Holiness more than the benefit of the doubt:

Die bloße Fixierung auf das Kondom bedeutet eine Banalisierung der Sexualität [...]
Papst Benedikt XVI. in “Licht der Welt”

It translates into: The very fixation on the condom means a banalization of sexuality [...]
Pope Benedict XVI in "Licht der Welt"

Media stolen from, here.

Love-Parade in Duisberg Ends in Tears

Editor: So far, there hasn't been a lot of coverage of this event in the USA and little mention was made of the explicit and decadent nature of the event, except on some conservative German Catholic news blogs, but there are others who see it correctly, as Kathnet reports:

[Kath.net] "Welcome to the sexiest party in the world!" wrote "Bild" still on 23 July, the day before the Love-Parade in Duisburg. Instead of sexiness, journalists are coming to describe it in terms of biblical decine after the mass panic with 19 dead and hundreds of injured. "Hell at the Love-Parade", wrote the Wochenzeitung Die Zeit.

And Evan Herman, christian publicist and television moderator, felt herself reminded of "Sodom and Gomorrha." The Old Testament history (Genisis 19:28) went that God destroyed both cities because of the sinful deeds of their inhabitants; only Lot and his daughter were saved in the minute.

ABC reduces what is a moral issue into a mere question of public safety and proper crowd control. Nothing is mentioned of the deplorable intent of the event as being the "Sexiest Party in the World".

[ABC]German state authorities on Wednesday accused the organizer of last weekend's Love Parade techno festival of major security breaches which may have led to the crush that killed 21 people and injured more than 500.

The organizer's security officials failed to properly control the entrance area where the victims were crushed, according to North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister Ralf Jaeger and the state's chief police controller Dieter Wehe.

"Security did not fulfill its duty," Wehe said while presenting the key findings of a preliminary police investigation at a news conference.

Read further...

Correction: One of the injured has since died, so the death-toll is now 20.

Cheeky Pink Girl: Latin Mass Funeral - Part I (Or Why the SSPX [explitive])

Link to the original article, while it lasts.

We'd like to address a sociological reality which most people have experienced with their families and/or who love someone or is loved by someone who is what is commonly referred to as the "Traditional" Catholic. We noted a Catholic Blogger called, "Cheeky Pink Girl" who seems like the kind of girl who lives on the periphery of an SSPX Community and possibly even has a few relatives who belong to it. She herself is fairly conservative, probably fairly pious, goes to communion on Sundays, every Sunday, and regularly goes to confession. In short, she's the kind of person we tend to respect and look up to as an example, even if she "participates" at the Novus Ordo and doesn't wear a veil. She's one of us, right?

And yet, perhaps under the pernicious influence of folks (neo-cons) like Mark Shea, Michael Mazza or Scott Hahn, she thinks the SSPX is a cult and moreover, thinks it is somehow harmful, although she is at some pains to identify just what it is about the SSPX that is harmful. We think it is presumption on her part to make these kinds of rash judgements she's making about the SSPX and a woman who appeared at an approved Diocesan, Latin Mass, with a head covering, sat in the back row and didn't "participate" in her mother's funeral. Unfortunately, this blogger erroneously believes that the SSPX is in schism:

Instead, what I think is sad is that she believes she's bigger and more right that the Body of Christ, which is represented by the Holy Church. It's sad that at her own mother's funeral, she believes that schismatic rupture [Wow! How about love thy neighbor, or your relative?] provides a (loving?/prideful?/necessary?) [How about loving her in return instead of judging her motivations on the basis of a false principle?] testimony to the gospel of Christ, not to mention the Christian fruits of humility and obedience. Throw in patience, too.

Perhaps the blogger is unaware of the fact that we're allowed to attend SSPX chapels and even give them financial support according to Ecclesia Dei Commission and Cardinal Hoyos and that the SSPX is NOT in Schism?

As an anecdote to illuminate the story a bit, we hope, this author was once afrighted of the behaviors he saw in chapels and the kinds of people he met there. Unfortunately, some people are broken and shattered by life's woes and not everyone is "well-adjusted" or even wholesome or undivided in their loyalties. Many of us are not as single-minded as we'd like to be, and some Catholics are scoundrels, or mad as in crazy, but that is certainly NOT something we'd say about the Society of Saint Pius X or the majority of the people who attend their chapels. Most of them are sane, well adjusted, kindly people who are terribly devout and sincere. Perhaps those of you who are afrighted by the sartorial conservatism of the chapel-goers should get to know them better before hosting a bitter fire of angry and contempt inside for them?

We think this is a fairly common sort of occurance, even among "Traditional" Catholics, a sociological phenomenon related to being around human beings, especially those people who are part of a movement of dissent from an established ecclesial norm and it's really nothing to get too afeared of, unless you might, perhaps, fail in your Easter Duty and don't go to confession...

Having said that, this blogger, "Cheeky Pink", talks about a funeral where a woman sits in the back and doesn't "participate" and presumes to judge the person's state of mind and seems to say that she is herself "presuming" to judge the Church when she doesn't go up to communion at her sister's funeral Mass.

Funerals are emotional things and it might be hard to make a rational case to this individual blogger about the legitimate aspiration of the woman (presumeably a relative) who sits in the back and doesn't "participate".

Actually, if this blogger knew anything about participation, she'd know that to participating in Holy Mass does not necessarily equate to dancing, holding hands or going up to embarrass themselves by giving a eulogy.

It's not just that this blogger agrees with the "reforms" of Vatican II, or the various deviations from sound liturgical practice that took place in its wake, it's that she despises what Catholicism was before the council, and what it is today.

Now, we shouldn't be too hasty to participate in the same pharisaism as the blogger does when she criticizies the veiled woman (most likely a relative), quietly praying in the back of the church and grieving at her mother's funeral. But in many of these cases, what we feel is the issue is a kind of angry reaction based on not possessing something that another person has, whether that's integrity, piety, modesty or what not. Seeems that liberal women, the kind who don't wear veils at Mass out of a spirit of rebellion (we're not talking about women who do so either out of ignorance or for other reasons we don't understand), or people in general who aren't as observant a Catholic as another, might be "put out" by shows of piety and even the kind of shunning behavior we see here.

We think we detect the vice of jealousy. It's the kind of jealousy which Joseph suffered at the hands of his brothers when he was thrown into the bottom, of a well, and it's the kind of intolerance for diversity which breeds hate. Our response to all of this should simply be, "what are you doing next Sunday, want to come to an SSPX Mass?". We should renew the invitation too even when we're put off and make a firm resolution to get our relatives, conservative or liberal, to come to the Immemorial Mass of Ages and participate in the Sacrament of Penance.