In discussions with the Irish Prime Minister or Taoiseach, Michael Martin on Wednesday evening, Archbishops Eamon Martin, Diarmuid Martin, Michael Neary, Kieran O’Reilly SMA and Bishop Dermot Farrell emphasized their support for the current health measures in place.
However, they highlighted that “the coming together in prayer and worship, especially for Mass and the Sacraments, is fundamental to Christian tradition and a source of nourishment for the life and well-being of whole communities.” They also stressed the importance of gathering for worship “as a source of consolation and hope at Christmas time.”
The Church and safety measures
In a statement issued following the meeting, the Archbishops underlined “the mammoth effort that has been made by priests and volunteers at parish level to ensure that gatherings in Church are as safe as possible and the consistent messaging from the Church about the protection of health and life for all in the community, particularly the vulnerable.”
Ireland is currently in lockdown, and pastoral work continues at parish level even as the celebration of Mass is moved on-line.
The statement noted that during the meeting, “The challenges of those suffering bereavement at this time were acknowledged, particularly as we enter the traditional time of remembrance in the month of November.”
The Archbishops also emphasized the need to protect the most vulnerable in society at this time,and “the positive value” of keeping schools open.
Solidarity and engagement
The statement concluded by saying that all parties recognized “the need for a shared understanding of the effects of the pandemic as it evolves and to align our response accordingly. All agreed on the importance of ongoing constructive engagement and solidarity in facing and overcoming the challenges of Covid-19 together.”
Having learned “with sadness” of the death of Cardinal Anthony Soter Fernandez, Pope Francis expresses his “heartfelt condolences” in a letter to Archbishop Julian Leow Beng Kim, the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, and to the “clergy, religious and laity of the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur.”
In his letter, the Pope prays for the Cardinal’s “eternal rest”, expressing his gratitude for his “faithful witness to the Gospel, his generous service to the Church in Malaysia and his longstanding commitment to the promotion of ecumenism and interreligious dialogue.”
Finally, the Pope writes that “to all who mourn the late Cardinal’s passing in the sure hope of the Resurrection I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of consolation and peace in Jesus Christ our Saviour.”
Pope Francis’ General Audiences will once again be broadcast live from the Library of the Apostolic Palace, beginning next Wednesday, 4 November, .
The news came in a statement released on Thursday by the Holy See Press Office. In the statement, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, explains that the decision was made after receiving reports of a positive case of Covid-19 during the General Audience on Wednesday 21 October, as well as “in order to avoid any possible future risk to the health of the participants.”
Pope Francis resumed his live audiences on 2 September, after having broadcast them live from the Library of the Apostolic Palace for 189 days, since 26 February. Before his first catechesis in the courtyard of San Damaso, he said “After so many months we resume our meeting face to face and not screen to screen. Face to face. This is beautiful!”
Live streaming of the Pope’s Audiences will be available, with English commentary, through the Vatican News Youtube channel, as well as on the Vatican News homepage.
The 19 commissioners of the Pan-European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development convened virtually on 27 October 2020 to agree on the major themes and roadmap that will guide their work under the chairmanship of Professor Mario Monti.
The Commission, comprising leaders from the political, financial, economic, social, policy and medical spheres across the WHO European Region, was established to deliver recommendations on investments and reforms to improve the resilience of health- and social-care systems. Its mandate is to rethink policy priorities in the light of pandemics so that societies will be better able to cope with future health threats and other crises.
Opening the second meeting of the Commission, Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, referred to the strong support expressed by Member States for its establishment. He underlined that the Commission’s work will contribute to delivering the European Programme of Work (2020–2025), which was endorsed at the 70th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe last month.
Scientific Coordinator Professor Elias Mossialos briefed commissioners on the setting up of the Scientific Advisory Board. The Board will bring together scientific experts from the Region to establish the evidence base and to present priorities and policy options within the health- and social-care fields for the Commission’s consideration. It will also synthesize material produced regarding other cross-sectoral issues and lead on report writing. The Board will meet for the first time on 6 November 2020.
Harnessing interdisciplinary experience
The commissioners considered the framework within which they will provide their recommendations, and discussed a roadmap to deliver their work in the coming months. They noted that the Commission’s unique value is in bringing together comprehensive, interdisciplinary and intersectoral experience and expertise.
They agreed on collaborating in working groups covering the following thematic areas:
international governance for health
governments, state capacity and societal resilience
economic outlook and financial instruments for sustainability
environment, animal and human activities (One Health)
political infrastructure and the role of science in policy-making
innovation and digital transformation.
During the rich debate on next steps, commissioners recognized that the current situation offers a unique open door for politicians to reform the health- and social-care sectors. For the Commission to make use of this opportunity, its recommendations must be timely, concrete and actionable, but must also have a broad, thorough scope. These proposals will be targeted at the highest levels of political decision-makers, landing on the desks of prime ministers and heads of state.
The Commission also noted the importance of finding ways to engage the public, civil society and relevant stakeholders to further resource sustainable solutions.
Common themes emerging in the subsequent discussions included the importance of harnessing new technologies; gathering best practices from across the globe; acknowledging the current socioeconomic strains and politicized climate that health authorities and governments are navigating; taking account of environmental pressures; and considering the unequal impact of the pandemic on vulnerable groups.
In conclusion, Professor Monti expressed his appreciation for the commissioners’ invaluable insights and commitment. The working groups will be established in the coming days, and the Scientific Advisory Board will meet in early November. The next meeting of the Commission is scheduled for December 2020.
Over the past few weeks, PlayStation head Jim Ryan has received more than his usual share of emails.
From the moment PS5 sold out (within minutes), there’s been people clamouring to get hold of one for launch day, and who better to help them get one than the guy in charge? That bit is not surprising. Ryan has been around for the launch of every PlayStation there has ever been — he’s used to this.
But what has taken PlayStation’s CEO by surprise are the types of people who are sending the emails.
“Since the pre-orders went live, every day I open my inbox to some very emotional and heart-wrenching emails from lots of people,” Ryan says. “But so many of them are from people in the mid-50s, who say they’ve been a PlayStation gamer since 1995, and they’re asking us to help them get hold of a PS5.
“With PS4, we were coming out of a very lacklustre PS3 platform… Now we are starting with 100 million gamers”
“I am astonished at the number of people who are like that and writing to me. It’s really taken me back. It’s indicating that demographically the age profile is expanding rapidly with each generation. And at the same time, I get emails from really young gamers, frequently beautifully written… better written often than the 53 year-old gamers. They’re just as passionate, just as interested and just as excited by PlayStation as somebody who is old enough to be their father, maybe even their grandfather.”
This isn’t Ryan gloating about the sheer popularity of the PlayStation brand; it’s actually part of a conversation about how PlayStation 5 might be able outsell PlayStation 4, which has now shipped almost 114 million consoles worldwide. Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki said during the company’s second quarter earnings call that the company is “committed” to surpassing what PS4 has achieved. That’s not going to be an easy feat.
Ryan’s anecdote about his inbox highlights the opportunity he sees of different age groups playing on PlayStation. Yet I countered his story with one of my own. I’m in my mid-30s, and all of my friends who spent their youth playing Metal Gear Solid and Crash Bandicoot are now busy with careers and kids. Very few of them are even considering a PlayStation 5 as a result.
PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan
The phenomena of people ‘ageing out’ of games consoles is a very real one in my world right now, and that’s perhaps one reason why there hasn’t been a huge amount of audience growth for the console industry over the past 20 years.
“First of all, I think — and this is hypothesis — but maybe some of the 50 year-olds [who emailed me] did tune out for a few years while they were having their kids and growing up, and then came back to us when they had more time and money,” Ryan suggests. “A lot of this comes down to the stickiness and tribal nature of the community that we create. That sense of community probably didn’t exist to the same extent. It certainly existed, but it was more two mates sitting on a couch playing FIFA together, which by its very definition required a physical proximity, and was therefore harder to organise.
PS5 launches next month
“We have the data to support this — the networked nature of entertainment these days allows for communities to be massively more sticky, and kind-of homogeneous. The concept of stickiness is that once you’re stuck it’s hard to unstick. That probably gives us an opportunity to retain those people, where in the past maybe they’ve gone.”
We have been speaking about how PS5 might outsell PS4, but install base is actually quite an outdated way of judging the performance of a console. If we measure success by install base alone, then PlayStation peaked over a decade ago with its PS2.
“It’s become a lot more nuanced,” Ryan agrees. “For example, one reference point, we sold a lot of PS2s, but many of them were at $99, on a format that was very, very heavily pirated. Right now the metric is engagement, and that obviously can be judged across two axis: the number of people who engage with you, and the amount of time that each of those people spend engaging with you.
“We are increasingly bullish in terms of the number of people that we think may engage with PS5. Firstly, because we don’t begin from a standing start like we did with PS4, when we were coming out of a very lacklustre PS3 platform, with a low level of networking across the community. Now we are starting with 100 million gamers, who we hope to transition very, very rapidly onto PS5. And it’s an engaged, tribal, networked community, who will be deeply and profoundly engaged with their PlayStation 5, we hope, from a very early moment.
“The work we’ve done with female protagonists, we see that resulting in increased presence of the female demographic within the PlayStation community”
“The second is that the PS5 has been built as a networked device, with features and functionality coming out of the experience from the last six or seven years, designed to give networked gamers a better, richer, deeper, faster, more seamless network gaming experience. I’m sure you’ve seen the [PS5] UX unveil — which is very difficult to do remotely, but I think the guys did a pretty good job… All of those adjectives that I used just earlier, they were in mind when we designed that UX.”
Install base isn’t the only measure of success for PlayStation 5, but it is clearly an important one. There is still that goal for PS5 to outsell PS4, and it’s going to be a challenge. PS4 may have arrived on the back of a disappointing PS3, but it also launched while its direct competitors at Microsoft and Nintendo were floundering.
Ryan says the expanding demographics and “stickiness” of the PlayStation experience is one way in which it’ll bring in more customers. But there are other opportunities.
“A lot of the work that we’ve done with female protagonists in gaming, we definitely see that resonating and resulting in increased presence of the female demographic within the PlayStation community,” he says. “And then there’s obviously geography. The PS4 generation saw us make huge strides in Germany and the Middle East, and I think there is further progress to be made in both of those areas. But equally, I think Asia — outside of Japan — has huge potential for us. And Latin America has huge potential for us.”
The geographical reach of PlayStation is already very strong. The brand has a significant presence in markets where its competitors barely touch, including parts of Eastern Europe. And it’s an advantage the business plans to make the most of.
“When I was in charge of Europe, we had a pretty clear template for the way that we would open up markets,” Ryan continues. “Some markets opened up faster than others. Germany took some time, but we got there. Middle East, some parts of that were very difficult, but we got there. Having very competent, on-the-ground teams with simple but focused distribution, and proper investment in the brand and proper marketing, can quite quickly yield significant dividends.
Sony announced it would acquire Insomniac last year
“Latin America in particular can be very difficult. Currencies, import tariffs… very complicated geopolitical situations in a lot of countries. I won’t pretend that it will be easy, but when you look at the statistics, the maths of it, there are definitely opportunities that we should seek to exploit.”
With the launch of PS5 just a few weeks away, much of the conversation has focused on the future of that platform. It’s going to be a big launch. Ryan reiterates the fact that there will be more PS5s at launch than PS4s — “Considering everything we’ve had to contend with, that’s a considerable achievement,” he says, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But PS4 will remain an important platform for a while yet. There are over 100 million customers on that device, and recent hits like The Last of Us: Part 2 show how engaged that audience remains. In fact, with the coronavirus pandemic, the PS4 install base is as engaged as it’s ever been. It’s no wonder that Sony is planning to make several of its upcoming titles playable across both PS4 and PS5.
“Obviously, our eyes and our horizons have lifted with regards to what’s possible with that PS4 community, based on what we’ve observed over the last six months,” Ryan says, referring to an increase in players as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns. “That can be quite powerful, because in 2021, 2022… that PS4 community that we’ve spoken about, they will be the vast majority of people on PlayStations during that time. It is crucial that we keep them engaged and happy. And the last six months have demonstrated that we could do that to an extent that we didn’t think possible when we were setting our minds pre-COVID.”
“I invite anybody to look at the launch window line-up of PS4, or PS3, and compare it to what we are going to bring on PS5. There’s no comparison”
If launching a new console during a pandemic wasn’t tough enough, the other challenge for PlayStation is the competition. Nintendo is in a strong position right now, whereas Xbox has been rapidly buying new studios to ensure it can capture more customers for its Game Pass subscription service.
Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda for $7.5 billion raised a few eyebrows, but it’s really just a headline moment for an industry that’s been consolidating for some time. More games companies have been going public and using those funds to go and acquire, while giants like Microsoft and Tencent have been actively seeking teams to buy. Sony, too, has been getting involved with its $229 million acquisition of Spider-Man developer Insomniac.
Ryan says that more acquisitions are possible, but he was eager to remind us that Sony’s existing studios have grown considerably over the last generation.
“It’s probably not widely appreciated or understood, to what extent that we have grown our own game development capability organically over the course of this generation,” he says. “Obviously, it’s been helped by the acquisition of Insomniac, and it’s wonderful to have them as part of the family. I would just invite anybody to look at the launch window line-up of the PS4 generation, or PS3 generation, and compare it to what we are going to bring in the equivalent phase of PS5. There’s just no comparison.
“That is the fruit of not massive spending sprees, but of very, very steadily, carefully planned organic growth. Probably the best example I give… I could obviously talk about Naughty Dog, but they’ve always been making great games. But let’s talk about Ghost of Tsushima, which has been a critical delight and certainly a commercial delight to an extent that we didn’t think it would be. That speaks volumes to the work that Sucker Punch has done to build on their previous canon of work.
“We are lucky enough to have five or six studios who fall into that category… But it isn’t luck, because we’ve been working on this for years and years. Very quietly, in a very PlayStation way, we’ve been building something quite special with these studios. You can do it with frenzied acquisition, or measured acquisition, or you can do it organically.”
With changes across the industry, reinvigorated competitors, a global pandemic, and a troubling economic situation, PS5 arrives at a strange moment for the world and the video games business. But with a promising line-up for the next 12 months, and an engaged group of PS4 players to pull in, Ryan remains positive over what Sony’s new machine will deliver.
“It’s really exciting now,” he concludes. “We are right on the brink. Everybody is four or five years into this, and it’s really great to be so close to the big moment. You know, I’ve done them all, and this has easily been the most extraordinary of any of them.”
Eleven NGOs and academic research centers specialized in human rights and religious liberty, two of them with special consultative status at the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) wrote on October 28, 2020, to Disney CEO Bob Chapek, protesting an episode on A&E’s History Channel, part of its program “America’s Book of Secrets,” entitled “Cults, Hate Groups, and Secret Societies.” Disney is the co-owner of the A&E Networks, which in turn owns the History Channel.
The episode, now being aired in different countries, supports weird conspiracy theories, suggesting that Freemasons may operate a secret base hidden under Denver International Airport, where babies may be killed; that the Illuminati try to dictate how many children each family may have and conspire with the likes of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett; and that “cults” are proliferating like never before and are guilty of all conceivable wrongdoings.
One special target of the episode is the Church of Scientology, which is attacked by lumping it together with the Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazis, and religious movements that committed mass homicides and suicides. While Scientology is discussed, images not related to this religion are shown.
The show promotes conspiracy theories and anti-cult stereotypes and is not, the eleven NGOs said, inoffensive. When hate speech is promoted against minority groups, be they the Freemasons or the Scientologist, violence is never far off.
The eleven NGOs called on Disney and the A&E Network to avoid spreading fake news, conspiracy theories, and hate speech, which, they argued, in times of world pandemic are more dangerous than ever.
Why Is A&E’s History Channel Spreading Conspiracy Theories and Attacking Religious Liberty? An Open Letter to Bob Chapek
Dear Mr. Chapek:
We write to you as you are the CEO of The Walt Disney Company, co-owner of the A&E Networks, which in turn owns the History Channel. We live in challenging times. The COVID-19 pandemic has been compounded by what is dubbed an “infodemic,” in which weird conspiracy theories are irresponsibly spread. In a few short months, this infodemic has escalated from a curiosity to a major cause of concern to governments, international organizations, and human rights advocates. Just like the pandemic, the infodemic can kill; when certain minorities are targeted through lies and hate speech, the prospect or reality of violence is never far off.
As organizations specializing in the defense of religious freedom, we are concerned with an episode on A&E’s History Channel, part of its program “America’s Book of Secrets,” entitled “Cults, Hate Groups, and Secret Societies.” The episode aired originally on August 18, 2020 and is now being broadcast in several countries.
The episode is a typical compilation of conspiracy theories, some so clearly preposterous they would not normally be granted any attention.
For example, it is argued that under Denver International Airport there may be “an underground military base that’s supposed to be a launching point for the New World Order.” Those who intend to launch a sinister New World Order from the secret base hidden under the airport are identified with the Freemasons. Their program is announced, the episode says, in murals at the same airport allegedly depicting “war, corpses of babies, people fleeing underground, a plague, death, Nazism, dictatorship, the coming of a New World Order.” “You have a mural,” the episode says, “that shows this soldier in a gas mask with a scimitar stabbing a dove and this endless chain of dying women and babies going out from under it. It’s just horrific.”
Anti-Masonism has long been a plague in America and beyond, and has led to harassment and discrimination of law-abiding citizens whose only sin is being members of Freemasonry—a brotherhood that espouses ideas with which some may disagree but which is certainly not illegal, and which has undeniably and powerfully contributed to charitable and benevolent activities. It is even more alarming when the myth of the Illuminati as a secret group controlling the world is propagated in what purports to be a serious documentary format—with names named and shamed as connected with a vast Illuminati conspiracy aimed, inter alia, at “telling other people whether they should or should not have children.” The Koch brothers, Jeff Bezos, Henry Kissinger, Warren Buffett, and the unavoidable Bill Gates are all connected in the episode with these Masonic-Illuminati conspiracies.
This would only be one among many paranoid conspiracy theories if not framed in the broader category of “cults, hate groups and secret societies,” lumping together Freemasonry, the Illuminati, the Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazi Party, the Osho Rajneesh movement, the Branch Davidians, Heaven’s Gate, Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple, and the Church of Scientology.
It is a well-known hate speech technique to lump together disrelated groups that have no connection, then claim they are all similar, and all bad. It is unfortunate that what purports to be factual, legitimate content on the History Channel only presents superficial platitudes on Waco, Jonestown, Rajneeshpuram, or Heaven’s Gate—all subjects on which serious scholarly literature exists, including in-depth investigations of the reasons behind the events depicted. Instead, only the “anti-cult” version is presented, and we hear from former deprogrammers like Rick Ross, who have embarrassing criminal records and who make claims about all “cults,” state that a cult is “a group of people attached to a disturbed personality,” and that “these people are, by nature, unstable.” We also hear from anti-cult scholar Janja Lalich that “today, there are more cults than ever before,” without any evidence offered for this general assertion.
To create a false impression of objectivity, we hear two brief balanced comments on the Scientology religion from a leading scholar of new religious movements, Professor J. Gordon Melton, but these are overwhelmed by a flood of anti-Scientology commentary by individuals like Tony Ortega whose main activity is attacking the Scientology religion.
The visual construction of the episode can only be characterized as fake news; Scientology courses are discussed while images are displayed that do not depict the activities of this Church; lectures by other groups are depicted while discussing Scientology lectures; and drawings showing the human brain are put on screen to explain the reactive mind and the state of clear, which, in Scientology, have no connection whatsoever with the brain.
This biased misrepresentation is offensive to Scientologists. The episode’s hate speech against the Scientology religion is mostly built by innuendo, presenting Scientology in the same context as the Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, mass suicides, or folk tales about the Illuminati and the Freemasons killing babies under the Denver airport.
Is this merely laughable? History, including recent events, prove that hate speech harms. Scientologists themselves have been physically attacked by unstable individuals whom irresponsible TV programs like this one had convinced that the Scientology religion was an intolerable form of evil. In 2019, a Taiwanese Scientologist, Yeh Chih-Jen (1994–2019), was stabbed to death in Sydney, Australia, by a teenager who had been persuaded his mother was in danger because she was participating in Scientology activities there.
The History Channel cannot hide behind “free speech” arguments. Hate speech and fake news are not free speech. Denouncing Scientologists, Freemasons, or prominent businesspersons as evil enemies of humanity may lead some who watch these shows to take the law into their own hands, and to try to violently stop what they have been made to believe are malevolent individuals and groups.
Particularly in these times, bizarre conspiracy theories casting religious minorities and entire categories of people as public enemies are extremely dangerous. We call on Disney to immediately stop this bigotry, cease broadcasting this show, remove it from the History Channel website, and repudiate such wild conspiracy theories and disinformation. It is time to put an end to the promotion of inflammatory hate speech that will only generate further violence.
Sincerely,
CAP-LC – Coordination des Associations et des Particuliers pour la Liberté de Conscience* CESNUR – Center for Studies on New Religions EIFRF – European Inter-Religious Forum for Religious Freedom Fedinsieme [Faiths Together] FOB – European Federation for Freedom of Belief FOREF – Forum for Religious Freedom Europe Fundación para la Mejora de la Vida la Cultura y la Sociedad* HRWF – Human Rights Without Frontiers LIREC – Center for Studies on Freedom of Belief, Religion and Conscience ORLIR – International Observatory of Religious Liberty of Refugees Soteria International — *UN ECOSOC Special Consultative Status
