BACKGROUND: Despite evidence suggesting a relationship between religiosity and health habits, there is a paucity of studies specifically examining this association in the context of Peruvian university students. This study compared body mass index (BMI), adherence to a healthy lifestyle, and breakfast consumption in Peruvian university students of four religious denominations: Seventh Day Adventists (SDA), Catholics, Baptists, and Evangelicals.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted online among 4557 students from a Peruvian university. The BMI and the frequency of breakfast consumption were evaluated, and the Diet and Healthy Lifestyle Scale (DEVS) was applied. The variables studied were associated using simple and multiple linear regression and Poisson models with robust variance.
RESULTS: Baptist (B = 0.44, 95% CI: 0.10-0.78; p = 0.011), Catholic (B = 0.3, 95% CI: 0.12-0.47; p = 0.001), and Evangelical (B = 0.32, 95% CI: 0.09 to 0.64; p = 0.014) students had a significantly higher BMI compared to SDA. Baptist (B = -0.2, 95% CI: -0.37--0.05; p = 0.017) and Evangelical (B = -0.13, 95% CI: -0.28--0.03; p = 0.012) students exhibited a lower mean score on the measure of healthy lifestyles compared to SDA students. Additionally, Baptist (PR = -0.32, 95% CI: -0.92--0.12; p = 0.035) and Catholic (PR = -0.3, 95% CI: -0.99--0.19; p = 0.016) students exhibited a lower probability of eating breakfast regularly compared to SDA students.
CONCLUSIONS: Health professionals should consider these findings when designing and implementing health promotion programs that are culturally sensitive and respectful of the beliefs and practices of all religious groups in university settings.

Catholic health care is often viewed as antithetical to secular conceptions of autonomy. This view can engender calls to protect \"choice\" in Catholic facilities. However, this view is built on a fundamental misunderstanding of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (ERDs). This commentary, which responds to \"Principled Conscientious Provision: Referral Symmetry and Its Implications for Protecting Secular Conscience,\" by Abram Brummett et al., seeks to demonstrate the nuance of the ERDs as well as to address some of the challenges various Catholic identities have when interpreting and living out the ERDs so that all patients receive high-quality, compassionate care. By highlighting the Church\'s desire to protect all people at every stage, I hope to dispel the caricatures that often result from misunderstandings by Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

\"Conscientious provision\" refers to situations in which clinicians wish to provide legal and professionally accepted treatments prohibited within their (usually Catholic) health care institutions. It mirrors \"conscientious objection,\" which refers to situations in which clinicians refuse to provide legal and professionally accepted treatments offered within their (usually secular) health care institutions. Conscientious provision is not protected by law, but conscientious objection is. In practice, this asymmetry privileges conservative religious or moral values (usually associated with objection) over secular moral values (usually associated with provision). In this article, we first argue for a legal right to one kind of conscientious provision: referral for procedures prohibited at Catholic hospitals. We then argue that a premise in that argument-the principle of comparably trivial institutional burdens-justifies legal protections for some additional forms of conscientious provision that include, for example, writing prescriptions for contraception or medical abortions. However, this principle cannot justify legal protections for other forms of conscientious provision, for instance, the right to perform surgical abortions or gender-affirming hysterectomies at Catholic hospitals.

BACKGROUND: Over the last two decades, several studies have examined the extent and expression of child sexual abuse (CSA) in religious institutions. In 2021, following new Vatican guidelines and under intense public pressure, the Portuguese Episcopal Conference commissioned a study on CSA in Portugal by members of the Portuguese Catholic Church (PCC) and others associated with it (from 1950 to 2022).
OBJECTIVE: The study draws on a web-based survey and a respondent driven sample. The questionnaire included categorical questions about victims, abusers, types of abuse, and open-ended questions. We characterized victims and abusers and developed a social cartography of abuse using Correspondence Analysis. Victims\' narratives are also part of the model of analysis.
RESULTS: We validated 512 of CSA by members of the PCC. Boys were more frequently abused (57.2 % vs. 42.2 %); male abusers predominate (96.7 %); most victims were abused more than once (57 %); the average age of victims when the first abuse occurred was 11.2 years. More invasive forms of abuse predominate (80 % manipulation of sexual organs or penetration; only 20 % had no body touching). There are patterns of abuse, and space plays a pivotal role in understanding the forms that CSA takes within Catholic environments. The richness of individual narratives was an unexpected outcome that enables us to better understand the organisational and symbolical power structures in which abuse takes place.
CONCLUSIONS: Given the characteristics of our sample, these cases are the tip of the iceberg, with CSA within the PCC likely involved thousands of children. Further research should strive to consider victims\' narratives.

While religion constituted one of the main topics of interest for early social scientists, faith traditions have silently slipped from this central role. When religion now appears in psychological research, it is usually relegated to the position of either the object of psychological investigation (which psychology purports to \"explain\") or a static piece in the empirical puzzle (as one variable among many when explaining clinical or social outcomes). In either case, religion is generally no longer seen as an equal partner to the social sciences in our attempts to better understand of the human condition. However, there are and have been voices within psychology that see this as unnecessarily myopic. James Jackson Putnam (1846-1918), an early supporter of the emerging field of psychoanalysis, advocated that psychology take seriously philosophy, metaphysics, and religion. Putnam\'s objections to the narrowing of our view of human life in the spirit of scientism fell largely on deaf ears, and his call for psychology to include that which lies beyond the walls of empirical naturalism and reductionism remains relevant today. In as far as theoretical innovation in psychology is more of a creative recognition than true scientific discovery, philosophy and religion constitute tremendously rich, and unfortunately underappreciated, fonts of inspiration. Putnam saw in religion the \"dim recognition\" of \"the creative spirit of the universe.\" We briefly reflect on the example of obsessive-compulsive disorder and the much older religious concept of scruples, including approaches to mindfulness. This example is suggestive of the richness of psychological insights to be found in religion.

UNASSIGNED: The right to live with dignity during the final stages of existence, enshrined in national and supranational Charters of Rights, represents a significant step towards humanizing medicine and is integral to the right to health. Palliative Care, rooted in health, dignity, and therapeutic self-determination, has emerged as a fundamental human right and a moral imperative within health systems. It seeks to alleviate suffering, emphasizing the holistic well-being of patients with life-limiting illnes-ses. This paper provides an analysis of the current situation of Palliative Care in Italy and examines its critical aspects, also in relation to the issues found in other European and non-European countries. In Italy, although laws have been enacted to ensure the provision of Palliative Care, its availability remains inconsistent across different regions. Financial constraints and insufficient support hinder the comprehensive dissemination of these services. Recognizing the significance of Palliative Care, the Catholic Church also endorses its implementation as a response to human suffering and an approach to end-of-life care. Efforts to strengthen Palliative Care are critical to meeting the rising demand and ensuring access to compassionate and dignified care for all individuals in need. Through legislative advancements and adequate resources, Italy can make significant strides in advancing the provision of Palliative Care.

Catholic hospitals and health systems have proliferated and succeeded in American healthcare; they now operate four of the largest health systems and serve nearly one in six hospital patients. Like other religious entities that Wuest and Last write about in this issue, in their article Church Against State, they have benefited by and supported the long reach of conservative efforts to undermine the administrative state.

The Catholic Church\'s reflection on and assessment of the Covid-19 pandemic has developed in several areas. Inspired by the tradition of its social teaching, specifically by the values of the dignity of the human person, justice, solidarity, and the common good, a strong sense of responsibility-on the part of all to prevent the spread of the pandemic and care for the affected sick-was called for. This resulted in a series of interventions and documents on the various medical and spiritual issues involved, particularly concerning the vaccines again Covid-19. In this short article, I draw out these insights from the official and universal reference point of the Catholic Church (i.e., Vatican sources in their various expressions and expertise). Interventions from other religions have also played a significant role during the Covid-19 pandemic as exemplified by the close relationship between certain religious actors and the World Health Organization. However, these alternative viewpoints, while important in and of themselves, do not find a suitable place within this work, which focuses on the Catholic Church\'s perspective.

BACKGROUND: In the wake of historical sexual abuse across the Catholic Church globally, the Church continues to develop policies and processes to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse, including supporting the skills, knowledge, and confidence of members of the Church.
OBJECTIVE: We investigated the safeguarding capabilities of a range of people with different roles within Catholic Church ministries in various countries.
METHODS: Our 184 participants included lay people, religious men and women, school staff, safeguarding officers and tertiary students associated with the Catholic Church. Data were collected across seven different countries.
METHODS: We measured the awareness, confidence, attitudes, and knowledge of participants and examined differences between participants in different roles within the Church and different countries through General Linear Models.
RESULTS: We found varying levels of awareness, confidence, attitudes, and knowledge regarding sexual abuse prevention and safeguarding. We pinpointed the significant differences in three of these domains (confidence, attitudes, and knowledge) both between people with different roles in the church worldwide, but also between the countries from which participants came from.
CONCLUSIONS: We found that people in various countries and roles within the Church are at different stages of their safeguarding journey. Some are still understanding their roles (attitudes), some are still learning about how it is operationalised (awareness), and others are acquiring skills that will prepare them for enacting safeguarding policies and practices (confidence).

The ethics in Catholic hospitals are guided by the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, which provide direction on many topics, including family planning. Previous research has demonstrated there is variability in the availability of prohibited family planning services at Catholic hospitals. This study aims to research a potential source of variability in interpretation and application of the directives through interviewing ethics committee members. Participants were recruited from two different hospitals on the east coast with a total sample size of eight. Ethics committee members were asked questions regarding their personal approach to ethics, their hospital\'s approach to ethics, and the permissibility of specific family planning methods at their hospital. Most ethics committee members stated that the Catholic faith and/or directives were important in their hospitals\' approach to ethics. Most participants stated that they had instances in which their personal approach to ethics conflicted with their hospital\'s approach, citing women\'s health and end-of-life care as common causes of conflict. All but one ethics committee member stated that hormonal contraception was forbidden under the directives; however, many members stated that this was either a gray area or permissible under certain circumstances. Reproductive health issues rarely came before the ethics committee at either site with one participant referring to them as \"black and white issues.\" This research suggests that ethics committee members did not see the directives governing family planning services to be ambiguous. However, given the low frequency in which these issues come to the attention of the ethics committee, it is difficult to determine whether the opinions expressed by our participants contribute to the variability between Catholic hospitals when it comes to reproductive healthcare provision. An interesting topic for future research would be interviewing executives at Catholic hospitals to determine where this variability arises.