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Meatless meat is going mainstream. Now Big Food wants in.

Companies are pledging to sell you more plant-based meat and dairy to fight climate change (and cash in on a growing trend).

By Brian Kateman 

on December 29, 2020 11:30 am

Packages of “Impossible Foods” burgers and Beyond Meat made from plant-based substitutes for meat products sit on a shelf for sale in New York City.
Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

In a year of splashy news for plant-based meat — skyrocketing sales! the new McPlant! —one of the biggest developments in the field went oddly underreported.


In the last three months of 2020, some of the biggest companies in the world announced major moves into the plant-based meat space.

In September, Tesco — the UK’s largest supermarket chain — announced plans to increase sales of plant-based products 300 percent by 2025. Last month, Unilever — the world’s 19th largest food and beverage manufacturer — set a new annual global sales target of $1.2 billion from plant-based meat and dairy within the next five to seven years, about five times what it forecasts it will make from plant-based sales in 2020. And a few days later, Ikea announced that half its restaurant meals and 80 percent of its packaged food offerings would be plant-based by 2025.

Those announcements were just the latest notable steps some major restaurant chains and food companies took in the last year or so toward plant-based products. This isn’t Big Food’s first foray into plant-based meat and dairy, though. Over the last few years, some food companies have acquired plant-based startups or launched their own meatless meat products. But these latest announcements — pledging to significantly increase plant-based sales by 2025 — represent a much bigger investment in the future of animal-free protein than we’ve seen in the past.

These moves have largely been made in response to growing consumer demand. The last few years have seen the new wave of meatless meat achieve something of mainstream status, and the pandemic has only added to the momentum. Concerns about the spread of the coronavirus at meatpacking facilities and supply-chain troubles at grocery stores early in the pandemic seemed to contribute to greater demand for meatless meat.

Some of these companies are touting their pledges as initiatives to help them meet their broader sustainability goals, which is a good bet. Meat, milk, and egg production accounts for 14.5 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, and in numerous reports scientists have called on world leaders to use dietary change as a tool to curb emissions. Despite animal agriculture’s outsized impact on the environment, governments have been slow to enact policies to reduce animal product consumption, so these corporate pledges are meaningful steps in the fight against climate change and our hyper-industrialized farming system.

To be sure, these recent pledges are voluntary, and progress on corporate sustainability has been mixed. A recent Bloomberg analysis found that out of 187 companies that set climate pledges to be achieved by 2020 or earlier, three quarters of the companies met their goals — but some goals were quite modest, and a tenth of companies didn’t even report their progress.

So time will tell if companies make good on their word to significantly increase their plant-based offerings. For now, these moves are worth cautiously celebrating. Plant-based meats account for a tiny portion of US meat sales, but the upside seems obvious to the industry. Big Food isn’t composed of nonprofit organizations, and the largest among them have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders to maximize returns. A move to invest more in plant-based food suggests they think there’s a real market here.

Plant-based food enters the mainstream

Once a niche sector reserved for vegetarians, plant-based food has crept into the mainstream over the past few years. The percentage of vegetarians and vegans has remained low — about 5 percent and 3 percent respectively — but the number of “flexitarians,” people who often turn to plant-based foods instead of animal products, seems to be rising. (There is no standard measure of how much or how little meat is included in such diets, however.)

In 2018, more than one in three Brits said in a consumer survey that they had recently reduced their meat consumption, up from 28 percent in 2017. Similar trends have been reported in US consumer research, as 36 percent now say that they follow a part-time carnivorous lifestyle. During those years, the market for plant-based foods in the US grew to $3 billion, and today it’s at $5 billion.

So what happened? How did plant-based food go from niche to mainstream?

According to insiders, health and sustainability are the driving forces.

“We see several trends in plant-based food and beverage driving people to enter and explore the category,” says Domenic Borrelli, who oversees plant-based products for yogurt maker Danone, which in 2018 pledged to triple its worldwide plant-based sales to around $6 billion by 2025. “Some are following the latest wellness trends, incorporating plant-based alternatives into their diets as a step toward their personal health. … Some choose plant-based for dietary reasons, such as lactose intolerance. Consumers also opt for dairy alternatives to be mindful of our planet.”

Earlier this year, Panera Bread announced that it plans to make half of its menu items vegetarian or vegan by 2021, citing sustainability goals and its growing base of flexitarian customers, and Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, announced plans to open its first plant-based food production facility in China.

Sodexo, the third-largest foodservice company in the US, which provides food at hospital and university cafeterias, is also backing plant-based food. Last year, it committed to reduce carbon emissions by 34 percent by 2025, and anticipates that half of its carbon reduction target globally will be achieved through changes in its supply chain, including increasing plant-based purchases.

“In order to achieve this target,” says Lara Seng, who manages sustainability initiatives for Sodexo, “we must address the emissions related to our supply chain, of which 70 percent result from animal-based food purchases in the United States.”

Indeed, industrial animal agriculture is wreaking havoc on our planet. The rearing of livestock is not only a major driver of climate change; it’s also a leading cause of other environmental problems like soil degradation, water and nutrient pollution, and biodiversity loss. Raising animals for food is a resource intensive practice: One-third of the planet’s arable land is used to grow crops as farm animal feed, and those crops are responsible for nearly one-third of all the water used in agriculture.

“Of note, a half-gallon of Silk [the soy milk brand] takes significantly less water to produce than traditional dairy milk,” Borrelli says.

You might think that consumer awareness around the health and sustainability benefits of plant-based foods especially among millennials and Gen Z is the main driver of the trend. But that’s only a small part of the story.

Research suggests that people primarily choose food based on three factors — taste, price, and convenience. And for a long time, vegan food was — to put it kindly — gross, expensive, and hard to find. But that began to change when leveled-up versions of plant-based meat became available.

Startups like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods poured many years and many millions of dollars into research and development, innovating plant-based products that rivaled the taste, texture, and even the smell of their animal-based counterparts. Rather than market them to vegetarians, these startups appealed to flexitarians and meat-eaters, partnering with athletes like Kyrie Irving and Shaquille O’Neal and celebrities like Snoop Dogg, Kevin Hart, and Octavia Spencer to appear in their advertising.

At the same time, according to Julie Emmett of the Plant Based Foods Association, “new data-driven initiatives like placing plant-based meat in the meat department” drove sales even higher. And finally, plant-based burgers on Burger King and White Castle menus turned the plant-based trend into a food industry mainstay.

Then the pandemic hit.
Pandemic boosts plant-based sales

In the early months of the coronavirus crisis, a wave of meatpacking plants shuttered, as workers — who toil shoulder to shoulder — got sick. These closures created temporary meat shortages, which caused Wendy’s to run out of hamburgers and supermarkets like Kroger and Costco to place restrictions on the amount of meat that customers could buy. Where it was available, prices went up.

Amid slaughterhouse closures, plant-based food sales — including everything from vegan cheese to tofu — enjoyed a boost, increasing 90 percent in mid-March compared to sales during the same time last year. In the following month, plant-based food sales grew 27 percent faster than in 2019 and 35 percent faster than the food category in general.

Plant-based meat in particular boomed. Grocery store sales of meatless meat increased 264 percent during the first nine weeks of the pandemic.

“The pandemic disrupted consumer food purchase behavior, as out-of-home consumption in restaurants and non-commercial foodservice plummeted and consumers shifted to more in-home consumption sourced from retail and direct-to-consumer channels,” says Kyle Gaan, a researcher at the Good Food Institute (GFI), a nonprofit that promotes meat alternatives. (Disclosure: I worked at GFI for a year, beginning in 2015.)

“This shift in consumption seems to have led to new consumers trying plant-based meat and integrating it as a regular part of their diet,” Gaan notes.

Gaan cited research that found in the US, 18 percent of alternative protein buyers purchased their first plant-based protein during the pandemic. And in Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands, 80 percent of consumers said they were likely to continue eating plant-based meat alternatives beyond the pandemic.

This tracks with what some Vox readers are saying. Over the summer, Vox staff writer Sigal Samuel surveyed readers about what pandemic habits they want to continue once the pandemic is over, and eating less meat was one of them:
Specifically, people want to cook more vegetarian meals and lean away from meat-eating. The impulse seems to be coming not only from the fact that there are meat shortages in some US grocery stores, but also from the knowledge that a live-animal market in China may have given rise to the coronavirus and that the giant factory farms that supply 99 percent of America’s meat are a pandemic risk, too.

But advocates of flexitarianism should temper their excitement. Even as plant-based meat has surged, the appetite for animal-based meat has proven resilient. Some experts predicted the coronavirus could cause a record drop in meat consumption; now, the USDA predicts Americans will eat just one less pound of meat in 2021 than they did in 2020. US meat production bounced back in the fall.

How Big Food could get plant-based wrong

There is another reason for skepticism about the emergence of the new wave of meatless meat — and specifically the decision by Big Food companies to enter the market.

Despite major food companies betting big on plant-based, the vast majority of their sales will still come from foods they themselves admit are unsustainable. For example, last month Greenpeace and the Bureau for Investigative Journalism documented Tesco and other companies selling meat from chickens that had been fed soy that was grown on deforested land in the Amazon rainforest.

Kari Hamerschlag, deputy director of food and agriculture at Friends of the Earth, an environmental nonprofit, made a similar argument for Vice in September: “I actually think that these large company investments will do very little to cut the massive impact of the world’s largest meat companies,” she said, commenting on the rise of animal-based meat companies like Tyson and Perdue that had developed their own versions of familiar plant-based foods like burgers and chicken nuggets. “Unless these companies actually slash their emissions, then they are not doing what they need to do to address the climate crisis.”

Certainly the early entrants in the space have some mixed feelings. “Because our mission is so urgent we welcome any and all companies to this work,” says Jessica Appelgren, a spokesperson at Impossible Foods. “Issues arise, however, when market entrants create sub-par products that negatively influence a consumer’s experience of meat made from plants. ‘Plant-based anxiety’ is a real barrier to long-term adoption and we can only control the taste of our own products.”

The evidence backs up Appelgren’s concern. Despite enthusiasm for plant-based meat, not everyone has given it a try yet. A survey suggests that among those who have tried it, 18 percent of people associated plant-based meat with poor taste, though whether they didn’t like what they had in the distant past or what is available today is unclear. Mouthfeel — how well faux meat producers can imitate the texture and chewiness of meat — in particular may be lagging behind, as 31 percent of respondents in a separate survey said they found the texture of plant-based meat was not similar to animal-based meat. If the plant-based market is going to continue to grow, it’ll need to win over more customers, and have them come back again and again.

So there is much to be wary about. But there is also much here to be hopeful for. Unlike the young, smaller vegan startups, these titans of industry are swimming in capital and therefore are capable of not just meeting the demand for these plant-based options, but also increasing it. They have huge distribution channels that date back decades, as well as the resources to innovate on these existing products, manufacture large quantities of them at a cost-competitive price, and pay fancy PR and advertising firms to market them.

The reality is that we’re not on the verge of plant-based meat dominating the $1 trillion global meat market. Plant-based meat still makes up less than 1 percent of meat sales in the US — where the market is most developed — and even less globally. In fact, animal-based meat consumption is rapidly rising in much more populous countries like China and India, as people tend to eat more meat as they climb out of poverty. But the fact that big food companies are bullish on plant-based meat is, on the whole, good news in the fight for a more sustainable world.

“Meat is the largest segment of the food category globally, and we’ve just begun to scratch the surface,” a Beyond Meat spokesperson said, echoing an upbeat take on the matter. “It is really exciting to be in such an emerging space where there is a lot of energy and enthusiasm for the category we’ve created.”

If you can’t beat them, why not welcome them when they join you?

Brian Kateman is the co-founder of the Reducetarian Foundation, an organization advocating for the reduction of animal product consumption.

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Stimulus payments will begin to arrive 'tonight...

Stimulus payments will begin to arrive 'tonight': When the IRS will send your second check

The IRS and US Treasury is ready to send out the second stimulus checks starting tonight. When is your date, and why Jan. 15 matters.


Clifford Colby, Jessica Dolcourt

Dec. 29, 2020 4:16 p.m. PT




Timing is critical in delivering a second stimulus check to as many as 160 million Americans.Sarah Tew/CNET

Starting tonight, those who have direct deposit set up with the IRS can start looking for their second stimulus payments, said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. "These payments may begin to arrive in some accounts by direct deposit as early as tonight and will continue into next week," Mnuchin tweeted Tuesday afternoon.

Mnuchin said checks going out through the mail will start to go out on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump signed the new COVID-19 relief bill that includes a second stimulus check for up to $600 per person on Sunday, and the IRS is on a tight schedule to send out this new round of direct payments, following rules that may result in some people having to wait weeks or even months to get paid.

The IRS and US Treasury planned to begin sending the second stimulus payments to those who qualify within a week after the bill was signed -- first through direct deposit, followed by paper checks and EIP cards, according to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. (We created a calculator to generate a personalized estimate for your stimulus payment, and here's what could happen with a third stimulus check in 2021.)

Here's when to start looking for second stimulus check, and what you can do to check on the status of your payment. This story was recently updated.


Direct deposit payments begin arriving Tuesday night

On Tuesday, the IRS said, "The initial direct deposit payments may begin arriving as early as tonight for some and will continue into next week." The IRS said eligible individuals do not need to take any action to receive this second payment, and the IRS will use the direct deposit information it has on file to make the payment.

The IRS cautioned that some "may see the direct deposit payments as pending or as provisional payments in their accounts before the official payment date of January 4, 2021."

Stimulus checks in the mail starting Wednesday

The IRS said for those without current direct deposit information on file with the government, the IRS will send the payment as a check or EIP debit card in the mail. Those payments will begin to be mailed starting Wednesday, Dec. 30, the IRS said.

How to check the status of your stimulus payment

The IRS said it is updating its Get My Payment tool for the second round of payments and anticipates those receiving checks will be able to check the status of both the first and second payments in a few days. The Get My Payment portal is available in English and Spanish.

What about prepaid debit cards?

The IRS said that to speed delivery of the payments, it will send a limited number of payments out by Economic Impact Payment prepaid debit card and notes that some people who received a paper check last time might receive a debit card this time, and some people who received a debit card last time may receive a paper check.

The IRS cautions that those who are eligible but don't receive a direct deposit should watch their mail for a check or EIP debit card. The cards will arrive in a white envelope that displays the US Department of the Treasury seal, the IRS said.

Why is Jan. 15, 2021, an important date to know?

Jan. 15 is the cutoff date in the $900 billion stimulus bill by which time the IRS and US Treasury must stop sending checks as part of this round of delivery. If you don't receive your full second stimulus check money by Jan. 15, you will need to claim all or part of the missing amount when you file your federal tax returns in 2021 through the Recovery Rebate Credit. You'll also be able to claim any money the IRS still owes you from the first round of payments.

People who receive their stimulus payment through direct deposit are unlikely to be affected. But there is potentially a distinct disadvantage for people who don't have direct deposit set up with the IRS.

Tying the delivery of a second stimulus check to the 2020 tax return will almost certainly delay delivery for many people, since a wide variance in circumstances will cause some people to file taxes as early as January and others as late as April 15, or even later if they need to request an extension. It also isn't clear how quickly the IRS would process the payments.

How quickly could the IRS deliver my second direct payment?


Now that Trump has relented and signed the new stimulus bill into law, the IRS and Treasury are ready to send the first batch of payments via direct deposit this week, compared with the 19 days it took to set up the online tools and schedule distribution of the first stimulus check.

"Most of these will be direct deposits. We call them 'checks in the mail,' but most will be direct deposits," Mnuchin said Dec. 21. "It will be within three weeks. We are determined to get money in people's pockets immediately. So that will be within three weeks."

As of last summer, 75% of the first round of stimulus payments were sent straight to people's bank accounts using direct deposit, the Treasury said, which brings hope for the majority of people to receive their second payment before Jan. 15.

In the chart below, we map out the payment schedule for the second round of checks, plus a projection if Congress approves a third stimulus check next year, after Biden is sworn in on Jan. 20.

Possible dates a second and third stimulus check could go out

	Dates for second check	Dates for possible third check?
House passes final bill	Dec. 21	April 5
Senate passes final bill	Dec. 21	April 6
President signs	Dec. 27	April 7
First direct deposits issued	Dec. 29	Week of April 12
First paper checks sent	Dec. 30	Week of April 12
First EIP cards sent	Dec. 30	Week of April 12
Recovery Rebate Credit	After filing 2020 tax returns	Unknown

How long could it take to get your second stimulus check through the mail?

Since the new stimulus bill sets a Jan. 15 deadline for the IRS to send out payments, people who will receive their second stimulus check in the mail -- either as a paper check or a prepaid debit card -- should look for a payment in the first three weeks of January, Mnuchin said on Dec. 21. According to the Treasury, 22% of the payments as of last summer were made by paper checks and another 3% by prepaid debit cards.

However, after Jan. 15, you will have to claim any money the IRS owes you with your tax filing in 2021. That could further delay your stimulus check, since the timing would hinge on:

When you file your 2020 taxes -- the deadline could be April 15, unless you file for an extension.

How long it takes the IRS to process your tax return, which may also include your second stimulus check.

If there are any complications that arise in your specific scenario that could further delay your check.

We'll keep our eye on the situation, which is constantly evolving. Here are the latest second stimulus check updates and here's how you can calculate your estimated total now for a $600 per person maximum.

Source

You May Need A COVID Vaccine Passport To Travel In 2021

By CBSMiami.com Team

December 29, 2020 at 5:30 am

MIAMI (CBSMiami/CNN) – In order for people to travel in 2021, they may eventually need a COVID vaccine passport.

Several companies and technology groups have begun developing smartphone apps or systems for individuals to upload details of their COVID-19 tests and vaccinations, creating digital credentials that could be shown in order to enter concert venues, stadiums, movie theaters, offices, or even countries.

The Common Trust Network, an initiative by Geneva-based nonprofit The Commons Project and the World Economic Forum, has partnered with several airlines including Cathay Pacific, JetBlue, Lufthansa, Swiss Airlines, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic, as well as hundreds of health systems across the United States and the government of Aruba.

The CommonPass app created by the group allows users to upload medical data such as a COVID-19 test result or, eventually, a proof of vaccination by a hospital or medical professional, generating a health certificate or pass in the form of a QR code that can be shown to authorities without revealing sensitive information. For travel, the app lists health pass requirements at the points of departure and arrival based on your itinerary.

“You can be tested every time you cross a border. You cannot be vaccinated every time you cross a border,” Thomas Crampton, chief marketing and communications officer for The Commons Project, told CNN Business. He stressed the need for a simple and easily transferable set of credentials, or a “digital yellow card,” referring to the paper document generally issued as proof of vaccination.

The CommonPass app allows users to upload medical data such as a Covid-19 test result or, eventually, a proof of vaccination by a hospital or medical professional, generating a health certificate or pass in the form of a QR code that can be shown to authorities without revealing sensitive information. (Credit: CommonPass)

Large tech firms are also getting in on the act. IBM developed its own app, called Digital Health Pass, which allows companies and venues to customize indicators they would require for entry including coronavirus tests, temperature checks and vaccination records. Credentials corresponding to those indicators are then stored in a mobile wallet.

In an effort to address one challenge around returning to normalcy after vaccines are distributed widely, developers may now have to confront other challenges, ranging from privacy issues to representing the varied effectiveness of different vaccines. But the most pressing challenge may simply be avoiding the disjointed implementation and mixed success of tech’s previous attempt to address the public health crisis: contact tracing apps.

Early on in the pandemic, Apple and Google set aside their smartphone rivalry to jointly develop a Bluetooth-based system to notify users if they’d been exposed to someone with COVID-19. Many countries and state governments around the world also developed and used their own apps.

“I think where exposure notification ran into some challenges was more of the piecemeal implementation choices, lack of federal leadership … where each state had to go it alone and so each state had to figure it out independently,” said Jenny Wanger, who leads the exposure notification initiatives for Linux Foundation Public Health, a tech-focused organization helping public health authorities around the world combat COVID-19.

To encourage better coordination this time, The Linux Foundation has partnered with the COVID-19 Credentials Initiative, a collective of more than 300 people representing dozens of organizations across five continents and is also working with IBM and CommonPass to help develop a set of universal standards for vaccine credential apps.

“If we’re successful, you should be able to say: I’ve got a vaccine certificate on my phone that I got when I was vaccinated in one country, with a whole set of its own kind of health management practices… that I use to get on a plane to an entirely different country and then I presented in that new country a vaccination credential so I could go to that concert that was happening indoors for which attendance was limited to those who have demonstrated that they’ve had the vaccine,” said Brian Behlendorf, executive director of Linux Foundation.

“It should be interoperable in the same way that email is interoperable, the same way that the web is interoperable,” he said. “Right now, we’re in a situation where there’s some moving parts that get us closer to that, but I think there’s a sincere commitment from everybody in the industry.”

Part of ensuring wide usage for vaccine passports is accounting for the large subset of the global population that still doesn’t use or have access to smartphones. A few companies within the COVID-19 Credentials Initiative are also developing a smart card that strikes a middle ground between the traditional paper vaccine certificates and an online version that’s easier to store and reproduce.

“For us it’s [about] how that digital credential can be stored, can be presented, not only through smartphones but also in other ways for those people who don’t have access to stable internet and also who don’t own smartphones,” said Lucy Yang, co-lead of the COVID-19 Credentials Initiative. “We’re looking into it, and there are companies who are doing really promising work.

Once they build a vaccine passport, companies will need to make sure people are comfortable using it. That means confronting concerns about the handling of private medical information.

CommonPass, IBM and the Linux Foundation have all stressed privacy as central to their initiatives. IBM says it allows users to control and consent to the use of their health data and allows them to choose the level of detail they want to provide to authorities.

“Trust and transparency remain paramount when developing a platform like a digital health passport, or any solution that handles sensitive personal information,” the company said in a blog post. “Putting privacy first is an important priority for managing and analyzing data in response to these complex times.”

IBM’s Digital Health Pass app creates an online vaccine credential that can be stored in a mobile wallet. (Credit: IBM)

With vaccines manufactured by multiple companies across several countries in varying stages of development, there are a lot of variables that passport makers will need to account for.

“A point of entry — whether that’s a border, whether that’s a venue — is going to want to know, did you get the Pfizer vaccine, did you get the Russian vaccine, did you get the Chinese vaccine, so they can make a decision accordingly,” said Crampton. The variance can be wide: the vaccine developed by Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm, for example, has an efficacy of 86% against COVID-19, while the vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna each have an efficacy of around 95%.

It’s also unclear how effective the vaccines are in stopping the transmission of the virus, says Dr. Julie Parsonnet, an infectious disease specialist at Stanford University. So while a vaccine passport app will show that you’ve received the shot, it may not be a guarantee that you safely attend an event or get on a flight.

“We still don’t know if vaccinated people can transmit infection or not,” she told CNN Business. “Until that is clarified, we won’t know whether ‘passports’ will be effective.”

Still, Behlendorf anticipates that the rollout and adoption of vaccine passports will happen rather quickly once everything falls into place and expects a variety of apps that can work with each other to be “widely available” within the first half of 2021.

“Rest assured, the nerds are on it,” he said.

(©2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company, contributed to this report.)


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Pope formally strips Vatican secretariat of state of assets

Pope Francis has formally stripped the Vatican secretariat of state of its financial assets and real estate holdings following its bungled management of hundreds of millions of euros in donations and investments

By
NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press
December 28, 2020, 7:41 AM ET

Pope Francis, new cardinals visit former Pope Benedict Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has been living in a house in the Vatican Gardens since retiring in 2013.The Associated Press

ROME -- Pope Francis has formally stripped the Vatican secretariat of state of its financial assets and real estate holdings following its bungled management of hundreds of millions of euros in donations and investments that are now the subject of a corruption investigation.

Francis signed a new law over the weekend ordering the secretariat of state to complete the transfer of all its holdings to another Vatican office by Feb. 4. The law also calls for all donations to the pope — the Peter’s Pence collections from the faithful as well as other donations that had been managed by the secretariat of state — to be held and managed by the Vatican’s treasury office as separate funds that are accounted for in the Holy See’s consolidated budget.

The changes are a response to a spiraling Vatican criminal investigation into years-long allegations of mismanagement of donations and investments by the Vatican’s secretariat of state which has resulted in losses of tens of millions of euros at a time of financial crisis for the Holy See.


Francis had already ordered the transfers in August and followed up in November by appointing a commission to put the changes into effect. The new law makes the changes permanent and sets a firm date for their execution.

Francis said he was making the changes to improve the administration, control and vigilance over the Holy See's assets and ensure a more “transparent and efficient management."

Francis moved against his own secretariat of state amid an 18-month investigation by Vatican prosecutors into the office’s 350-million-euro investment into a luxury residential building in London’s Chelsea neighborhood and other speculative funds.

Prosecutors have accused several officials in the department of abusing their authority for their involvement in the deal, as well several Italian middlemen of allegedly fleecing the Vatican of tens of millions of euros in fees.

The scandal has exposed the incompetence of the Vatican’s monsignors in managing money, since they signed away voting shares in the deal and agreed to pay exorbitant fees to Italians who were known in business circles for their shady dealings.

Francis’ decision has been an embarrassing blow to the secretariat of state’s standing as the most powerful Holy See office, reducing it to essentially any other department that must propose a budget and have it approved and monitored by others.

The outcome is essentially what was sought years ago by Cardinal George Pell, Francis’ first economy minister who clashed with the secretariat of state over his financial reforms and efforts to wrest control of the department’s off-the-books funds.

Pell had to abandon those reform efforts in 2017 to face trial for sexual abuse in his native Australia, but he was acquitted and recently told The Associated Press he felt vindicated that the wrongdoing he tried to uncover was being exposed.

The Holy See is facing a major cash crunch as its main source of revenue, ticket sales from the Vatican Museums, evaporated this year due to coronavirus closures. The Holy See last year narrowed its budget deficit from 75 million euros to 11 million euros.

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Pope's Christmas Day plea to world leaders: 'vaccines for all,' not just wealthy

Dec 25, 2020

by Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
Vatican



Pope Francis walks past Rome police officers during his Christmas message and blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world) delivered from the Hall of Blessings at the Vatican Dec. 25, 2020. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)


VATICAN CITY — On a Christmas like no other, Pope Francis prayed for people who could not be with their families because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but he urged everyone to recognize and help those who are suffering even more.

From inside the Hall of Blessings -- a long, gold-hued room above the atrium of St. Peter's Basilica lined on the east with enormous windows and balconies facing St. Peter's Square -- Pope Francis delivered his Christmas message and his blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world).

As announced by Cardinal Angelo Comastri, archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica, the solemn blessing included a plenary indulgence for everyone watching on television, listening by radio or following by computer.

Because of Italy's renewed lockdown to slow the spread of the virus, the pope read his message in the presence of a representative group of about 50 people. The tens of thousands of people who usually would throng the square for the midday appointment Dec. 25 were all ordered to be at home, and St. Peter's Square was closed to the public.

"My thoughts at this moment turn to families: to those who cannot come together today and to those forced to remain at home," the pope said. "May Christmas be an opportunity for all of us to rediscover the family as a cradle of life and faith, a place of acceptance and love, dialogue, forgiveness, fraternal solidarity and shared joy, a source of peace for all humanity."

In a last-minute addition to his text, Pope Francis called for "vaccines for all," especially the world's most vulnerable people.

"At Christmas, we celebrate the light of Christ that comes into the world, and he comes for all, not just for some," the pope said. "Today, at this time of darkness and uncertainty because of the pandemic, there appear different lights of hope, such as the discovery of vaccines."

"But so these lights may illuminate and bring light to the whole world, they must be available to all," he said. "I cannot put myself before others, placing the laws of the market and of patents above the law of love and the health of humanity."

Pope Francis pleaded with the leaders of governments, pharmaceutical companies and international agencies "to promote cooperation and not competition" in ensuring the widespread availability of the vaccines.

Peace and family -- in the sense that all people are brothers and sisters -- were the central themes of the pope's message, echoing the teaching in his encyclical "Fratelli Tutti, on Fraternity and Social Friendship."

"A birth is always a source of hope; it is life that blossoms, a promise of the future," he said. But Jesus' birth is even more powerful since he was born "'to us' -- an 'us' without any borders, privileges or exclusions. The child born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem was born for everyone: he is the 'son' that God has given to the entire human family."

"Thanks to this child, we can all call one another brothers and sisters, for so we truly are," the pope said. "We come from every continent, from every language and culture, with our own identities and differences, yet we are all brothers and sisters."

Recognizing that connection, he said, is even more important "at this moment in history, marked by the ecological crisis and grave economic and social imbalances only worsened by the coronavirus pandemic."

As children of God and brothers and sisters to one another, the pope said, the kinship existing between everyone is not sentimental, but is "grounded in genuine love, making it possible for me to encounter others different from myself, feeling compassion for their sufferings, drawing near to them and caring for them even though they do not belong to my family, my ethnic group or my religion."

"For all their differences, they are still my brothers and sisters," he said "The same thing is true of relationships between peoples and nations."

Pope Francis prayed that the newborn Jesus would help everyone "be generous, supportive and helpful, especially toward those who are vulnerable -- the sick, those unemployed or experiencing hardship due to the economic effects of the pandemic, and women who have suffered domestic violence during these months of lockdown."

Migrants, refugees and the innocent victims of wars around the world were also on the pope's mind as he celebrated the birth of the Prince of Peace.

The faces of the suffering children in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, he said, should touch people's consciences and make them pray and work for peace.

"May the Babe of Bethlehem grant the gift of fraternity to the land that witnessed his birth," the pope said. "May Israelis and Palestinians regain mutual trust and seek a just and lasting peace through a direct dialogue capable of ending violence and overcoming endemic grievances, and thus bear witness before the world to the beauty of fraternity."

Pope Francis also made specific pleas for reconciliation and an end to conflicts in eastern Ukraine, Nagorno-Karabakh, Ethiopia, northern Mozambique, South Sudan, Nigeria and Cameroon.

"May the Eternal Word of the Father be a source of hope for the American continent, particularly affected by the coronavirus, which has intensified its many sufferings, frequently aggravated by the effects of corruption and drug trafficking," he prayed. "May he help to ease the recent social tensions in Chile and end the sufferings of the people of Venezuela."

Praising those who "work to bring hope, comfort and help to those who suffer and those who are alone," the pope insisted that Jesus' birth "tells us that pain and evil are not the final word. To become resigned to violence and injustice would be to reject the joy and hope of Christmas."


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Dec 25, 2020 Top Ten: 2021:" The Year of Sorrow"

Massive “intentional” explosion in downtown Nashville leaves 3 wounded

Trump wants special counsel 'immediately'; Lawmakers on both sides block...

Massive downtown Nashville explosion an 'intentional act', police say

View | 25 Photos
Photos: Explosion rocks downtown Nashville Christmas morning

YIHYUN JEONG AND BRINLEY HINEMAN | NASHVILLE TENNESSEAN | 6 minutes ago


Nashville authorities believe an explosion that occurred in downtown Nashville early Christmas morning was an "intentional act" and sparked by a vehicle.

Police were responding to reports of shots fired near Second Avenue and Commerce Street before 6 a.m., when they saw a suspicious vehicle outside a nearby AT&T building.

Officers alerted the department's bomb squad, which was en route, when a "significant explosion" happened about thirty minutes later, said Metro police spokesperson Don Aaron. The force of the explosion knocked an officer to the ground.

Three people were hospitalized with injuries, police said.

The fire department confirmed a bomb squad was on the scene with an active investigation by Metro police and federal agencies.

NASHVILLE EXPLOSION: Residents capture confusion, chaos in moments after downtown explosion

NASHVILLE EXPLOSION: Downtown streets closed to traffic as investigation continues



The sound of the explosion Friday morning could be heard miles away, as people reported windows shaking from South and East Nashville.

Gov. Bill Lee in a statement said the state will provide needed resources to determine what happened and who was responsible.

Mayor John Cooper said he toured the damage, describing broken glass and water mains with insulation "blown up" into the trees. He estimated about 20 buildings had been impacted.

"It looks like a bomb went off," he said. He said it was too soon for any conclusions but said updates will be given throughout the morning.

The downtown area will be "sealed off" for further investigation and to make sure everything is "completely safe," according to Cooper.

"One more event in Nashville's 2020," he said.

Images and videos taken in the area showed flames and smoke. Alarms inside several buildings were heard going off with water pouring into some buildings with structural damage and broken windows.

Trees lining Second Avenue were blackened from the incident.

Andrew Carr, who is staying at the Viridian apartments on Fourth Avenue and Church Street, told The Tennessean he jumped out of bed when he heard what sounded like a "giant thunderclap."

He looked out the window and said he saw a "huge fireball" rising up behind an AT&T building on Second Avenue and Commerce Street — describing it almost as "wide as the building itself."

Carr said for the next hour he and his family watched the black smoke plumes rise into the sky and could later see debris on top of the AT&T building.

Residents in the apartment building, he said, have been put in lockdown.

The owner of the nearby Nashville Downtown Hostel told The Tennessean guests were evacuated to Nissan Stadium for shelter. He said he got a call early Friday from his staff reporting hearing a "loud boom" and the fire alarm going off.


He said the hostel is damaged but did not go into details.


This is a developing story.

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Red Pill Your Friends: Hollywood

The Future of Vaccines

Why Americans will be demanding proof of vaccination

Felix Salmon, author of Capital




Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios


You've received a coronavirus vaccination — but can you prove it? The answer to that question will help determine how the global economy functions for the next few years.

Why it matters: The federal government will probably neither mandate nor encourage digital immunity passports or other proofs of vaccination. But privately-operated digital certificates are already being developed — and U.S. law means that anybody who gets vaccinated here should be able to obtain the proof they need.

The big picture: Your employer has a clear interest in knowing whether you've been vaccinated, as do the immigration staff in any foreign country you want to visit. Many workers, from nursing-home aides to opera singers, have a clear desire and even need to be vaccinated before doing their jobs. Which means they'll need some kind of proof of vaccination.

• What they're saying: "Those who get vaccinated deserve more freedom," wrote the FT's John Gapper last month. Private companies "should be allowed, even encouraged, to protect customers and employees from harm."
• There's also an "urgent need to restore confidence in travel and mobility," says Paul Meyer, CEO of the Commons Project, a group attempting to build a global platform for proof-of-vaccination apps.
• The other side: The federal government "should discourage the use of vaccination cards or apps for virtually any purpose other than guiding individual medical care," argued Duke University professor Nita Farahany in the Washington Post. "Vaccine cards (and immunization apps) could turn into powerful weapons of exclusion and discrimination," she wrote.

The catch: The official documentation that Americans receive upon being vaccinated is little more than a flimsy, easily-forged paper card. As Gavi, the global vaccination alliance, notes, that in turn creates "concerns that documentation could be fraudulently reproduced".

• It's a real concern: A recent flight from Russia to China was canceled after more than 190 of the passengers attempted to board with “completely identical” serology tests.

Between the lines: Trustworthy and reliable digital proof of vaccination is not only possible, Meyer tells Axios, it's also quite easy and will almost certainly happen.

• That's because the government doesn't need to be involved.
• Individual Americans have the right, under HIPAA, to access digital copies of their health information. Once they've done that, they can upload that information to any app or service that requests it.
• "People shouldn’t be happy walking out of getting their jab with just a piece of paper," says Meyer — they should be sure to demand digital access to their vaccination records as well. Rather than relying on the government to centralize vaccination records, he says, "the human being is the only central organizing point in the healthcare system."

The bottom line: Paper "yellow cards" were generally accepted as proof of vaccination against yellow fever. Proof of COVID-19 vaccination, by contrast, is going to be digital — and it's going to be on individual Americans to get it.

Go deeper: Axios' Joann Muller describes how an immunity-passport system is likely to work; Sam Baker explores the fraught question of vaccine mandates; and Ina Fried runs down the list of U.S. technology companies supporting the vaccination effort.

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The Dalai Lama and Greta Thunberg Unite Against the Climate Cri

Ross Nervig
20 hours ago

Two of the earth’s most ardent climate advocates, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Greta Thunberg, are joining their voices together to discuss what we can do collectively to correct the impact of destructive climate feedback loops.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama (left) and Greta Thunberg (right). Photo (left) by Christopher Michel. Photo (right) by Anthony Quintano.


His Holiness the Dalai Lama, climate activist Greta Thunberg and leading scientists will gather to address the question: “What can be done to slow down this threat before it’s too late?” on January 9, 2021. The free livestream event will be hosted by the Mind & Life Institute. See registration details here.

From the devastation of forests to the major melting of polar ice caps, the effects of climate change have created feedback loops that are accelerating global warming. This human-induced climate crisis has weighed heavily on His Holiness’s mind — he is the first Nobel Laureate to be recognized for his concern for global environmental problems. In the latest issue of Lion’s Roar, he calls on us to make this a century of compassion for the planet and all its inhabitants. “Simply meditating or praying for change is not enough,” the Dalai Lama asserts in his powerful statement on the climate crisis, “We Need a Revolution of Compassion,” “There has to be action.”
‘Simply meditating or praying for change is not enough,’ the Dalai Lama asserts in his powerful statement on the climate crisis, ‘There has to be action.’

In our most recent cover story by journalist and activist Franz Alt, His Holiness discusses developing a sense of universal responsibility, saying “This blue planet of ours is a beautiful habitat. Its life is our life; its future our future. Indeed, the earth acts like a mother to us all. Like children, we are dependent on her. Our world is deeply interdependent, both in terms of our economies and the problems like climate change that challenge us all.”

His Holiness is far from the only Buddhist figure advocating for change. Thich Nhat Hanh has penned a love letter to earth, writing: “The earth is not just the environment we live in. We are the earth and we are always carrying her within us.” Lama Willa Miller has offered five meditations to help bring the truth of climate change into your awareness and lay the ground for a skillful response. In 2019, the Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi delivered a UN speech on climate change emergency — you can watch it here. And in a deep-read for the Spring 2019 issue of Buddhadharma, “ecosattva” David Loy makes clear what Buddhism offers in the face of climate change, writing:


The insight and equanimity cultivated by eco-bodhisattvas support what is most distinctive about Buddhist activism: acting without attachment to the results of action, something that is easily misunderstood to imply a casual attitude. Instead, our task is to do the very best we can, not knowing what the consequences will be—in fact, not knowing if our efforts will make any difference whatsoever. We don’t know if what we do is important, but we do know that it’s important for us to do it. Have we already passed ecological tipping points and civilization as we know it is doomed? We don’t know, and that’s okay. Of course we hope our efforts will bear fruit, but ultimately they are our openhearted gift to the earth.

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How the 2nd COVID Stimulus Bill Affects Churches and Individuals

The FAQs: How the 2nd COVID Stimulus Bill Affects Churches and Individuals

DECEMBER 22, 2020 | JOE CARTER


What just happened?

On Monday, Congress released the details of the COVID-related Tax Relief Act of 2020. The Act expands and extends many parts of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act that passed last March in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

How does this legislation affect individuals?

As with the last stimulus bill, the most noticeable effect for most Americans will be a rebate on their taxes that will come in the form of a direct payment.

Individuals who earn $75,000 in adjusted gross income or less would get direct payments of $600 each, with married couples earning up to $150,000 receiving $1,200, and an additional $600 per each child younger than 17. The payment would scale down by income, phasing out entirely at $75,000 for singles and $150,000 for couples without children.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC on Monday those who qualify for direct payments could see that money deposited into their bank accounts in a matter of days.

Individual workers who have been fired or furloughed (i.e., put on temporary leave due to special needs of a company or employer), would qualify for an enhancement of benefits of $300 per week, on top of what state unemployment programs pay, from the end of December through March 14.

State unemployment programs pay, on average, $385 weekly to unemployed workers. With the added benefits the average unemployed worker would receive about $685 per week for 11 weeks.

The bill also extends this benefit to qualifying freelancers and gig workers, such as Lyft or Uber drivers, as well people seeking part-time work who have been furloughed. People who quit their job as a “direct result of COVID-19” would also qualify (states typically do not allow workers who quit to receive unemployment benefits).

Both programs would close to new applicants on March 14. Existing claimants who have not yet reached the maximum of 50 weeks will continue to receive the benefit through April 5.

The bill also extends the eviction protection set to expire at the end of the year to January 31. Funding of $25 billion in rental assistance will also be made available for people who lost their sources of income during the pandemic.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits (i.e., food stamps) will also increase by 15% for six months. On average, SNAP households received about $246 a month in fiscal year 2020. With the increase, they will receive, on average, $283 per month. Eligibility for the program has not been expanded.

The Pandemic-EBT program to families with children under age 6 who receive food stamps will be expanded. This program provides eligible school children temporary emergency nutrition benefits loaded on EBT cards that are used to purchase food. Children who would have received free or reduced price meals under the National School Lunch Act if their schools were not closed or operating with reduced hours or attendance for at least 5 consecutive days are eligible to receive P-EBT benefits.

How does this legislation affect churches and small nonprofits?

The bill revives the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which provides forgivable loans to qualified businesses and nonprofits, including churches.

Churches, nonprofits, and Christian schools that are 501c3 (as well as most small businesses) with fewer than 300 employees that have seen drops of at least 25 percent of their revenue during the first, second or third quarter of 2020 will be eligible for a second loan from the Small Business Administration (SBA) loan guarantees program. The maximum amount of the loan is capped at $2 million. (The original PPP had a 500-employee threshold and $10 million maximum loan.)

The allowable uses for such loans still includes employee salaries, insurance premiums, mortgage payments, payroll support (including paid sick or medical leave), and other debt obligations, but also includes a broader range of pandemic-related expenses, such as for cloud computing software and protective equipment for employees.

For almost all churches, the loan amount they can receive will be equal to their total average monthly payroll costs for the preceding 12 months prior to the pandemic (March 2019 to February 2020) multiplied by 2.5. For example, a church that has an average monthly payroll cost of $50,000 would be eligible for a loan of $125,000.

The loan requires a “good faith” certification that the funds will be used to support ongoing operations, retain workers, and/or maintain payroll or make mortgage, lease, and utility payments. The loan is forgivable (i.e., doesn’t require repayment) if the church employed the same number of people (or more) during the loan period as they did in 2019. Funds that are not forgiven have a loan maturity of 2 years, and loan payments under this program are not due for six months No fees are included for the loan, and no collateral or personal guarantees will be required.

The bill allows for a simplified forgiveness application for loans of $150,000 or less. The new requirement only requires borrowers to state the number of employees retained and the amount of PPP funds spent on payroll.

Since the loan comes from the SBA, most churches will want to contact the bank they currently use for information on how to apply for this program.

The bill also includes $400 million for the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which may be available to churches who operate food banks and food pantries.

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Lost empire syndrome: parallels between Pope Francis and Joe Biden

December 9, 2020

The president-elect, like the current pope, faces the daunting task of healing and reuniting the community that chose him

By Massimo Faggioli | United States


There are many parallels between the Roman Catholic papacy and the United States presidency. In both cases, there are political responsibilities with moral and religious dimensions, though in inversed ratios.

Joe Biden's election as only the second Catholic to win the presidency has been seen as an American political moment reminiscent of John XXIII's election to the papacy in 1958.

Biden, who calls himself "a John XXIII guy", takes up his office at age 78. Pope John was installed just days before turning 77.

The parallel between the president-elect and the late Italian pope certainly offers hope from a historical point of view.

But there is parallel with another pope that is less optimistic: it's that of the upcoming presidency of Biden and the current pontificate of Pope Francis.
A return to normalcy?

There are reasons that Americans, and people all over the world, can expect the next four years under Biden to be a return to normalcy, similar to the expectations many Catholics had after the resignation of Benedict XVI.

Francis and Biden were elected to their respective offices at an advanced age (the Argentine...


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Vatican says use of Covid vaccines made from aborted fetal tissue is ethical

by Reuters
Monday, 21 December 2020 12:40 GMT


VATICAN CITY, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The Vatican told Roman Catholics on Monday that it was morally acceptable for them to use COVID-19 vaccines, even if their production employed cell lines drawn from tissues of aborted fetuses.

A note from the Vatican's doctrinal congregation, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the use of such vaccines was permitted as long as there were no alternatives. (Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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Biden laces Electoral College victory speech with Scripture and Prayer of St. Francis

‘For where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith, where there is darkness, light,’ President-elect Joe Biden said, invoking the Prayer of St. Francis.

President-elect Joe Biden speaks after the Electoral College formally elected him as president, Monday, Dec. 14, 2020, at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

December 15, 2020
By Jack Jenkins


WASHINGTON (RNS) — President-elect Joe Biden marked his Electoral College win with a religious flair, citing Scripture and the Prayer of St. Francis during his victory speech.

Members of the Electoral College voted in all 50 states and the District of Columbia on Monday (Dec. 15), formalizing Biden’s 306-232 win over incumbent Donald Trump.

The president-elect marked the moment with a speech in Delaware, where he declared “the rule of law, our Constitution and the will of the people prevailed” over multiple efforts by Trump and his allies to challenge the results of the election.

Biden’s rhetoric took a turn for the spiritual near the close of his speech, when he made reference to the biblical passage of Matthew 16:18.

“As we start the hard work to be done, may this moment give us the strength to rebuild this house of ours upon a rock that can never be washed away,” he said.

Biden, a Catholic, then invoked the Prayer of St. Francis by name, saying, “for where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith, where there is darkness, light.”

It was one of several religious references Biden has made in major speeches since media outlets first declared him the victor in the presidential election on Nov. 7.

In his first victory speech, Biden quoted the Book of Ecclesiastes and recited lines from the hymn “On Eagle’s Wings.” He also made at least two references to Scripture in his Thanksgiving address later that month, when he recited part of Psalm 28 and implored Americans to remain safe during the pandemic, saying “to love our neighbors as ourselves is a radical act, but it’s what we’re called to do.”

Religious themes have been a constant this year for Biden, whose campaign slogan was the “Battle for the soul of the nation.” Speakers at the Democratic National Convention repeatedly highlighted his faith, Biden’s campaign produced multiple ads targeted at faith voters, and Biden himself kicked off Election Day by visiting his church.

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Note: 

1. The anonymous text that is usually called the Prayer of Saint Francis (or Peace Prayer, or Simple Prayer for Peace, or Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace) is a widely known Christian prayer for peace. Often associated with the Italian Saint Francis of Assisi (c. 1182 – 1226), but entirely absent from his writings, the prayer in its present form has not been traced back further than 1912.[1]

2. "On Eagle's Wings" is a devotional Hymn composed by Michael Joncas. Its words are based on Psalm 91,[1] Book of Exodus 19, and Gospel of Matthew 13.[2] Joncas wrote the piece in either 1976[3] or 1979,[1][4] after he and his friend, Douglas Hall, returned from a meal to learn that Hall’s father had died of a heart attack.[5] It was recorded in 1979, with Douglas Hall as producer, published by North American Liturgy Resources and later purchased by New Dawn Music, a subsidiary of Oregon Catholic Press. It has become popular as a contemplative hymn at Catholic masses as well as at Protestant services of worship.

It is now sung during services of many Christian denominations, including Pentecostal churches, and was performed at many of the funerals of victims of September 11, 2001 attacks.[citation needed] It is often performed either at the beginning or the ending of a Roman Catholic funeral Mass. It has been performed at many internationally broadcast papal Masses, was selected as part of the 2007 funeral Mass for Luciano Pavarotti in Modena, Italy, also broadcast internationally.[citation needed]

President-elect Joe Biden referenced and recited the hymn in his victory speech on November 7, 2020. He said the song was important to his family and his deceased son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015.[6] Composer Michael Joncas was "honored and humbled." [7]

(Wikipedia)

Mississippi governor declares Sunday a statewide ‘day of prayer, humility and fasting’

Mississippi governor declares Sunday a statewide ‘day of prayer, humility and fasting’

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter 

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Gov. Tate Reeves, R-Miss., announces a day of prayer, humility, and fasting during a Facebook Live video, Dec. 16, 2020. | Facebook/Tate Reeves


As 2020 comes to a close and the United States continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic fallout, the governor of Mississippi has called for a statewide day of prayer, humility and fasting.

During a press conference aired on Facebook Live Wednesday, Gov. Tate Reeves, R-Miss., reflected on the challenges Mississippians faced throughout the year, including the coronavirus pandemic, unemployment, economic uncertainty and natural disasters.

“This has been a challenging, dare I say a very, very hard year for so many of our fellow Mississippians,” he said. “There has been so much suffering and for many of our fellow Mississippians, we continue to suffer.”

“As we close out this year, I felt the need to go to God in prayer for our state. Ever since the beginning of this pandemic, we’ve tried to hold opportunities for our fellow Mississippians to pray, to pray together so we can be together,” he asserted. “We know that there is power in prayer. In fact, it is what God commands us to do.”

“Today, I will sign a proclamation to declare a day of prayer, humility and fasting on this upcoming Sunday, Dec. 20,” Reeves announced. “As we have done throughout the history of this country, we will go to the Lord and ask for His protective hand over us as we conclude the year 2020 and as we enter the year 2021.”

The Rev. David Tipton read aloud the proclamation which said, in part: We seek that our country may be protected from all the dangers which threaten it, that our civil and religious privileges may be preserved inviolate and perpetuated to the latest generations, that our public counsels and magistrates may especially enlighten and direct it at this critical period.

“I ask that our people devote themselves in continuous prayer as we rise to each new day and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips invoking thy help to our efforts,” Tipton continued. Tipton stressed that participation in the day of prayer, humility and fasting was “voluntary.”

After signing the proclamation, Reeves remarked that “2020, as challenging as it has been for all of us, has truly shown the true spirit of Mississippi and the true, loving, kind type of people that we are.” Reeves thanked the people of his state for “building up an even better Mississippi” before inviting the Rev. Danny Powell to lead a closing prayer.

In response to the event, the atheist group Freedom From Religion Foundation called on Reeves to revoke his prayer proclamation.

“By issuing a proclamation calling on Mississippi citizens to pray, you abridge your duty to remain neutral and to respect the freedom of conscience of all your citizens,” FFRF co-presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor wrote to Reeves.

“Whether to pray, and whether to believe in a god who answers prayer, is an intensely personal decision protected under our First Amendment as a matter of conscience,” they added.

Throughout the pandemic, Reeves has maintained that the church has a very important role to play in the lives of Mississippians. As many governors have restricted worship services in an attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Reeves declined to issue such restrictions in his state.

“Throughout this pandemic, Mississippi has never restricted religious gathering and worship,” Reeves wrote in a Facebook post last month. “God is bigger than government. The right to freely practice your faith must never be infringed.”

Mississippi is frequently listed as one of the most religious states in the Union. A 2015 Gallup survey found that the Magnolia State had the second-highest rate of weekly church attendance in the country, with 47% of residents attending religious services at least once a week. Mississippi was ranked the most religious state by Gallup 11 years in a row, as it repeatedly had the highest share of residents who identified as “very religious.”

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