British 14- and 15-year-olds are more socially conservative than any generation except the over-70s, researchers have claimed.
The study, whose findings were published in the Times, suggests that interviewees born since 2000 were less sympathetic towards gay marriage, transgender rights and the legalisation of cannabis than those aged 16 to 70.
The researchers interviewed more than 2,000 people – a smaller number than other large-scale comparisons of social groups. The exact figures have not been published.
The study uses the term “Generation Z” for those born since the Millennium. The older generations are referred to as Millennials (born 1980-1999), Generation X (1965-79, Baby Boomers (1946-64) and the Silent Generation (pre-1946).
The different groups were asked how “conservative” or “liberal” they were on same-sex marriage, transgender rights and marijuana legalisation. According to the Times, 59 per cent of Generation Z respondents said that they were on the conservative end of the spectrum. Some 83 per cent of Millennials and 85 per cent of Generation X respondents described themselves as “quite liberal” or “very liberal”.
Members of Generation Z were also more cautious about money, with one in four saying they would rather save up than spend money they didn’t have. By contrast, four in 10 Baby Boomers agreed that “Money is made to be spent.”
A report by Demos and Ipsos MORI in 2013 found that 18- to 24-year-olds were the age group least likely to admire the welfare state.
In 2014, the Radio 4 programme Generation Right argued young people were increasingly individualistic.
Cardinal says Fr Hamel’s last words point to inner struggle
Cardinal Vincent Nichols has reflected on the final moments of Fr Jacques Hamel’s life in an address to priests in the Diocese of Birmingham.
At a conference at Edgbaston stadium, Cardinal Nichols said he had visited the church where Fr Hamel was murdered.
He told priests: “We are told that Fr Hamel died with these words on his lips: ‘Go away Satan.’ It is not clear what he meant. Journalists said it was directed at those who came at his throat … Or did those words point to a deeper struggle?
“I have pondered these words as the utterance of a man of peace and a priest. His ‘Satan’ could have been the fear gripping his heart, or a despair that all was about to be lost. His ‘Satan’ may well have been anything that could have made him lose trust in Jesus at this hour of his death, the radical temptations urging him to abandon the foundation on which he had built his whole life.”
The cardinal said Fr Hamel had “built a life of daily peacefulness and his struggle may well have been in maintaining that stance”, adding: “Our struggles are different but we too have to fight, each day, to keep fresh the original call … We too want to bring that dedication to the moment of our death.”
Bishop celebrates seafarers’ Mass
A Stella Maris Mass has been held for the first time in the Diocese of East Anglia.
The Mass, celebrated by Bishop Alan Hopes, involves the commissioning of Apostleship of the Sea chaplains and volunteers to support the world’s seafarers by visiting ships that dock in Britain.
Other Masses celebrating the feast of Stella Maris, Our Lady of the Sea, are also to be held for the first time in the Dioceses of Dunkeld and Middlesbrough.
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