Increased home working and fewer opportunities to socialise during the coronavirus pandemic is threatening to make society less tolerant of diversity, a report warns.

Reduced access to workplaces, leisure centres and other communal facilities is likely to make it much harder to form friendships that break down prejudices, the Woolf Institute said.

Without alternative opportunities for social mixing, its researchers believe this will lead directly to an increase in prejudice.

The research centre, based in Cambridge, is launching the results of a two-year study, which saw 11,701 adults surveyed about their attitudes towards diversity in England and Wales.

The report, How We Get Along, suggests that there is an emerging consensus that diversity is a positive thing, but that change has occurred too quickly.

More than half (53%) agree that ethnic diversity is good for society, 46% believe the same of migrants and 41% believe the same of religious diversity.

However, 60% of respondents said they feel the number of migrants in Britain has risen too quickly over the past decade, half believe ethnic diversity has increased too quickly and 43% believe the same of religious diversity.

The findings also suggests that negative beliefs about religions such as Islam continue to be widely held.

Religious prejudice, particularly towards Muslims, is the “final frontier” for diversity as people still appear willing to express negative attitudes.

The report authors are concerned that Covid-19 will make people become less tolerant, as it reduces their opportunities to make friends outside of their ethnic, religious or national groups.

Workplaces provide opportunities to create “shared goals, break down stereotypes and foster positive attitudes”, with the report finding that those without work are twice as likely to have no friends outside their own ethnicity, nationality and religion.

Dr Ed Kessler, founder director of the Woolf Institute, said: “As people are forced to work from home during Covid, there is a risk that they go back into isolated silos.

“Creating new opportunities for friendships should be a key ingredient of public policy.”

While overall trends are positive, attitudes towards religious diversity were markedly less so, suggesting religion is a “red line” for many people in England and Wales.

The polling found less than half (44%) of people would be comfortable with a close relative marrying a Muslim.

This compares to around seven in 10 respondents feeling comfortable with a loved one marrying an Asian or black person.

However, the data also suggest that a majority of Muslims had the same negative marriage attitudes towards Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish and Sikh people and those of no faith.

Dr Hargreaves said: “The good news is that there is a strong consensus in our findings that diversity is good for our country, whether we look at ethnicity, migration or religion. It is, however, also clear that, of these three forms of diversity, acceptance of religious diversity lags significantly behind.

“Being Muslim, in particular, appears to remain a “trigger” for prejudice, making religion a ‘final frontier’ for prejudice in England and Wales.”

Overall, women, younger people, Remain, Labour and Liberal Democrat voters appear to be more positive towards ethnic and religious diversity in Britain.

People living in more ethnically and religiously diverse communities were more likely to hold negative attitudes.

Remain, Labour and Liberal Democrat voters showed more positive attitudes towards migrants in Britain.

Attitudes towards migrants were more negative everywhere outside of London except for the south east, which the authors said may be a “regrettable bad news story from the provinces” for multicultural Londoners.

People in the North West were the least likely to have ethnically diverse friendships, and were 54% more likely than Londoners to only have friends from the same ethnic background.

Those in the North East were the least likely to have any non-British friends, and were two-and-a-half times as likely as Londoners to only be friends with British people.

Bishops have released hundreds of pages of resources to help guide the Church of England (CoE) towards making decisions on issues of identity, sexuality and marriage within two years.

Decisions on questions around same-sex relationships must be made “with some urgency”, according to a 480-page tome aimed at finding a way forward past deep divisions within the Church.

Churchgoers are being urged to “listen and learn together” by engaging with the Living In Love And Faith resources, which took three years to produce by around 40 people.

It is hoped discussions from now until late 2021 will help the CoE make “whatever decisions are needful for our common life regarding matters of identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage”.

Potential scenarios following the period of engagement will be laid out, with a view to the House of Bishops putting any proposals before the General Synod in 2022.

The book, which is accompanied by podcasts, videos, a course and library of online resources, reads: “Some of those differences of view relate to the ethics and lifestyle of opposite sex relationships and some relate to questions around gender and pastoral provisions for transgender people.

“Most pressing among our differences are questions around same-sex relationships, and we recognise that here decisions in several interconnected areas need to be made with some urgency.”

The suite of resources is thought to be the most extensive work in this area by any faith group in the world.

Bishop of Coventry Christopher Cocksworth, speaking at a briefing to launch the learning material, agreed that a question he wants people to discuss is whether the CoE could conduct same-sex marriages.

He said this is “only one question among many that we want people to engage with in a really serious way”.

During the briefing, bishops acknowledged the Church has not always been a safe place for LGBTI+ people.

In a foreword to the resources, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, recognised the “huge damage and hurt” that has been caused.

They write: “As soon as we begin to consider questions of sexual identity and behaviour, we need to acknowledge the huge damage and hurt that has been caused where talk of truth, holiness and discipleship has been wielded harshly and not ministered as a healing balm.

“Especially amongst LGBTI+ people, every word we use – quite possibly including these in this very foreword, despite all the care we exercise – may cause pain.”

The Church should be “deeply ashamed and repentant” for the hurt and “unnecessary suffering” caused, they add.

However, while many people may wish the church could “jump to a quick decision”, they write that discernment will require time.

Pope Francis has said he is willing to consider ordaining older married men as priests in isolated communities, but has ruled out making celibacy optional to tackle a shortage of clergy.

The shortage has prompted calls from some progressives to end the ancient tradition of celibacy for Roman Catholic priests.

Such a move would represent revolutionary change for the Catholic Church and would likely face massive resistance.

Reformers, however, have long suggested that the Vatican could ordain “viri probati” — Latin for men of proven character — who tend to be older, with grown-up families if married.

In an interview with Germany’s Die Zeit newspaper, the pope said this option could be considered.

“We have to give a thought to whether viri probati are a possibility. We then also need to determine which tasks they could take on, such as in isolated areas, for example,” he was quoted as saying.

He ruled out, however, opening the priesthood to all married men or watering down the Catholic Church’s commitment to celibacy, which is seen as a virtue that frees priests to devote their lives fully to serve God.

“Voluntary celibacy is often discussed in this context, especially in places where there are shortages of clerics. But voluntary celibacy is not a solution,” he said.

Prominent Catholics representing both the progressive and conservative wings of the U.S. church voiced support on Friday for the pope’s suggestion, with both camps seeing the move as a practical solution to the chronic shortage of priests.

A U.S. university report published in 2015 said the world’s Catholic population had increased by 57 percent, or 445 million people, between 1980 and 2012, while the number of priests over the same period had dropped by 17 percent, or 20,547.

In Brazil, the nation with more Catholics than any other, the faithful also expressed support for the viri probati idea.

“If he (a priest) had a wife and children, he may have a much fuller experience, which could help those around him,” said Paulo Franca, attending an afternoon Mass at the Santa Luzia Church in Rio de Janeiro.

The church has already sought to address a potential shortage of priests by promoting the use of deacons — male clerics who can be married and sit just behind priests in the church hierarchy. They can officiate at baptisms, funerals and weddings, but are not allowed to celebrate Mass, hear confessions or anoint the sick.

The growth in the number of deacons has made U.S. Catholics more comfortable with the idea of married men playing an important role in services, said Bill Donohue, chairman of the conservative-leaning Catholic League.

“My only concern is how this will impact on those priests who are single,” Donohue said in a phone interview.

“You have a lot of funerals on weekends, there are weddings and what not. I can see a situation where a married priest would say, ‘I have to go to my kids’ soccer game, I have responsibilities that you don’t have.’ They have to think this through a bit more.”

In Buenos Aires, where Pope Francis was formerly archbishop, some locals applauded his more progressive leanings.

“I think Francis is causing a great revolution in the church … if other religions have it (marriage) why not? Maybe priesthood could even be offered to women,” said Mirta Cortizo.

Pope Francis warned on Saturday of a “global war” against traditional marriage and the family, saying both were under attack from gender theory and divorce.

Francis made his comments in an impromptu response to a question at a meeting of the small Catholic community in the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia.

“You mentioned a great enemy of marriage: gender theory,” the pope said in response to a woman who had asked about it being taught in schools.

He did not elaborate.

Gender theory is broadly the concept that while a person may be biologically male or female, they have the right to identify themselves as male, female, both or neither.

“Today, there is a global war out to destroy marriage,” Francis said. “Not with weapons but with ideas … we have to defend ourselves from ideological colonisation.”

The pope has used the phrase “ideological colonisation” in the past to denounce what he says are attempts by rich countries to link development aid to the acceptance of social policies such as those allowing gay marriage and contraception.

Francis, who has been more accepting of homosexuals than his predecessors but opposes gay marriage, also appeared to be referring to it when he said “marriage is the most beautiful thing that God has created” adding that the Bible says God created man and woman to become one flesh.

In the same answer, he said the growing acceptance of divorce was another threat to the family.

Pope Francis issues one of the most eagerly awaited documents of his pontificate on Friday, a treatise on marriage and the family following  two gatherings of Catholic bishops that exposed divisions in the Church.

There is keen anticipation on what the 260-page document “Amoris Laetitia,” (The Joy of Love), will say about the full re-integration into the Church of Catholics who divorce and remarry in civil ceremonies.

Under current Church teaching they cannot receive communion unless they abstain from sex with their new partner, because their first marriage is still valid in the eyes of the Church and they are seen to be living in an adulterous state of sin.

The only way such Catholics can remarry is if they receive an annulment, a ruling that their first marriage never existed in the first place because of the lack of certain pre-requisites such as psychological maturity or free will.

Francis, who has made numerous calls for a more merciful Church, has changed procedures to make obtaining annulments less cumbersome and expensive.

Following an unprecedented poll of Catholics around the world, bishops held two summits, known as synods, at the Vatican in October 2014 and October 2015 to discuss family issues, such as why fewer Catholics are getting married and more are getting divorced.

The bishops’ final document at the second synod spoke of a so-called “internal forum” in which a priest or a bishop may work with a Catholic who has divorced and remarried to decide jointly, privately and on a case-by-case basis if he or she can be fully re-integrated and receive communion.

While progressives such as Cardinal Walter Kasper of Germany, who is one of Francis’ favourite theologians, favour this approach, it is opposed by conservatives, who say it would undermine the principle of the indissolubility of marriage that Jesus established.

At the end of the synod last year, Francis excoriated immovable Church leaders who he said “bury their heads in the sand” and hide behind rigid doctrine while families suffer.

The papal document, formally known as a Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, is also expected to call for better programmes for marriage preparation and echo the synod’s stand that homosexual unions cannot be equated with heterosexual marriage.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Andrew Hay) – Reuters

Pope Francis has made the annulment of marriage simpler and easier with a call for bishops to be more welcoming to divorced couples. It is one of the biggest changes around guidance regarding divorce in the Catholic church for over 250 years. Yet, all is not what it seems and the Catholic Church’s position is one where there are specific clauses to what may constitute a quicker annulment of the marriage.

Previously, couples looking for an annulment of their marriage would have to wait years and the frustration for some couples meant that they were unable to marry again and were left having to live in limbo until an annulment was granted some years down the line. With the new procedure highlighted in a document called Motu Proprio (meaning ‘by his own initiative’),  the Pope re-affirms the Church’s commitment to marriage though it will be easier for separated couples to receive an annulment within 45 days based on whether the Church decides that a marriage was not valid in the first place because of issues of psychological immaturity, co-ercion etc.

Previously annulments of marriages carried heavy fees, and delays due to a second tribunal which mandatorily reviewed the initial annulment decision. However, this ‘speeding up’ of the process may only be relevant for clear cut cases.