The study, conducted by University of Michigan researchers, analysed responses from 19,775 people who shared about their purpose in life, level of loneliness, quality of friendships and religious beliefs.
 
Researchers found that lonely religious people tend to see God as a friend, which eases the negative effects of a lack of human relationships.

 
Todd Chan, lead author of the study, said: “For the socially disconnected, God may serve as a substitutive relationship that compensates for some of the purpose that human relationships would normally provide.

“In other words, people mostly benefit from leveraging religion and turning to God as a friend only when they lack supportive social connections.”
 
The report, which appeared in the Journal of Personality, associates belonging with a sense of purpose. It asserts that the less someone feels like they belong, the less sense of purpose the person will have.
 
However, the report found that that for people who are not lonely, feeling connected to God as a friend doesn’t impact levels of purpose.
 
Co-author of the study Oscar Ybarra said: “These results certainly do not suggest that people can or should rely on God over people for purpose.
“Quality human connections still remain a primary and enduring source of purpose in life.”

Stay up to date with the latest news stories from a Christian perspective. 

Owner, Andrea Radrizzani posted the news and a photograph of the moment on Twitter.

Mr Radrizzani, who is Italian, said it was an “emotional and unique moment”.

The Leeds’ chairman met the Pope briefly at one of the regular Papal Audiences in St Peter’s Square on Wednesday.

He presented Pope Francis with one of the clubs 2018/19 shirts printed with the number one and the name Francesco.

Online the shirts cost £50, but it’s an extra £12.50 to add your name.

It’s not known whether the front of the shirt carries the logo for Leeds’ sponsors, the internet casino 32Red.

Fans are hoping the gift will encourage the Pope to become a Leeds United supporter, and took to social media to comment on the significance of the gift.

Emotional and unique moment to meet his holiness @pontifex and donate an @lufc jersey… ⚽ we have one special supporter pic.twitter.com/Z4hpbEXiGD

— Andrea Radrizzani (@andrearadri) September 5, 2018

Radrizzani’s tweet simply said “we have one special supporter”.

The Pope is known to be a football enthusiast.

But the chances that he will switch his allegiance from the Argentine national team and his hometown club San Lorenzo appear slim.

Despite San Lorenzo failing to win a match so far in the new season, the Pope has the reputation for being loyal to the things he believes in.

Stay up to date with the latest news stories from a…

A magistrate last month ordered former Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson to be detained at his sister’s house in New South Wales state for at least six months of a one-year sentence before he is eligible for parole.

The 67-year-old cleric was convicted in May of failing to report to police the repeated abuse of two altar boys by a paedophile priest in the Hunter Valley region north of Sydney during the 1970s.

The Australian director of public prosecutions’ office said prosecutors are appealing the “inadequacy” of the sentence in the New South Wales District Court.

Wilson had faced a possible sentence of up to two years in prison.

He will appeal his conviction in the District Court in a hearing in November, Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.

Wilson denied the accusations and had refused to resign pending an appeal. However, Pope Francis accepted Wilson’s resignation in July after pressure mounted, including from Australia’s prime minister, for him to be fired.

He had failed four times to have courts throw out the charge since he was first indicted in 2015.

Wilson temporarily stepped down as Adelaide archbishop after he was convicted in May. Adelaide is the capital of South Australia state, which will bring in laws in October obliging priests to report evidence of abuse heard during a confession.

The Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania state are planning…

MP Frank Field has written to Justin Welby, asking him to put together a consortium of “good people” to buy the collapsed payday lender’s loan book.

In a letter to the cleric, the Work and Pensions Committee chair said: “The Wonga loan book will be sold and, if past record is any guide for the future, they will be sold at knockdown rates. Within these loan books will be some I assume devoted exclusively to their exploitation of the poor.

“Is there a possibility please of you asking the Church Commissioners quickly to assemble a consortium of good people with money who will attempt to buy those poor people’s loan books at a knockdown price?”

This, Mr Field said, would prevent money lenders and bailiffs “terrorising” the poor and would be an “example of the jubilee in setting slaves free of their debts”.

According to the Book of Leviticus, a jubilee year occurs every 50th year, during which slaves and prisoners are freed and debts forgiven.

Existing borrowers are thought to total around 220,000 and administrator Grant Thornton is running Wonga’s circa £400 million loan book while it looks for a buyer.

The MP said that a sale through his proposed method could also mark the beginnings of a “people’s bank”.

He told the Press Association: “Wonga targeted people who are beyond the abyss.

“This is an ambulance rescue operation,…