History of Roman Catholicism

Until the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, the Catholic Church had an almost unchallenged monopoly on public education in French Canada. Generations of French Canadian children were taught at the primary and secondary levels by various male and female religious orders according to a curriculum that infused almost every element of education with the fundaments of the Catholic Faith. But there is something of an apparent paradox at work when we consider this curriculum: how can an educational system that is so fundamentally Catholic give such prominence to pre-Christian Greek and Latin authors, and why did ‘pagan’ mythology and religious traditions figure so prominently in studies of all levels? Why did a Catholic system spend so much time teaching non-Catholic literature and religious material? This chapter addresses this question by examining in detail the place of mythology in a variety of primary pedagogical materials used in French Canadian schools from the foundation of the colony until the publication of the Commission Parent’s report in 1964. The evolving place of classical mythology in French Canadian education is tracked from the establishment of the colony in the 17th century through to the vociferous debates among the clergy over the place of pre-Christian authors in Catholic education which erupted in France in the mid-19th century and then spilled into French Canadian in the 1860s. The perceived benefits and threats posed by such a mythological education are analysed through the assertions of a variety of contemporary commentators. By means of conclusion, the prominence of Classical mythology and ancient authors in the curriculum is viewed in relation to the evolving national mythology of French Canada itself, according to which the French Canadian Catholic establishment becomes the direct successor to the Classical past.

Full volume is available open-access at this link:
https://www.wuw.pl/product-pol-14887-Our-Mythical-Education-The-Reception-of-Classical-Myth-Worldwide-in-Formal-Education-1900-2020-PDF.html

A második világháború lezárultának hetvenedik évfordulója alkalmából megrendezett Háborús évek. A veszprémi egyházmegye a második világháborúban című konferencián elhangzott előadások szerkesztett változatát tartja kezében az olvasó. Mivel  1939 és 1945 között nem kevesebb, mint öt főpásztor állt a püspökség élén, ezért a felkért előadók hagyományos püspökéletrajzok helyett az egyházmegye életének minél szélesebb metszetét vizsgálták meg referátumaikban.  Így nem csupán az egyes püspökök tevékenységének speciális területei kerültek fókuszba, hanem az egyházkormányzat számos – gazdasági vagy hivatali szereplőjének életútja, a székeskáptalan és a püspökség működésének eleddig feltáratlan gazdasági alapjai, továbbá a korszaknak a különböző vidékein élt hívek életére gyakorolt hatása is a vizsgálatok homlokterébe került. A kötet szinte valamennyi tanulmánya épített arra a forráskiadványra, amely a Mindszenty József felhívására beérkezett „háborús kárjelentéseket” tartalmazza. Bízunk abban, hogy a „nehéz időben született döntések” a szereplők megfontoltságáról tanúskodnak, mégha nyilvánvaló is, hogy a háború után a romokon meginduló újjáépítést már a munkák megkezdésekor akadályozták a kibontakozó új rendszer egyházellenes törekvései.

This study examines the stand taken by Spanish bishops towards Francoist repression during the Spanish Civil War. The aim is to establish the extent of the bishops’ collaboration with Francoist repression and the reasons behind their words or silences. Its main sources are ecclesiastical bulletins, and secondarily some collected letters from the Spanish bishops. Thirty of these bulletins were issued in the summer of 1936 and forty-nine in March 1939, just before the end of the war. Twenty three bishops took a stance over the war period on three aspects of their priests’ activities arising from the repression practiced by the insurgents: the provision of good religious conduct certificates to leftists by parish priests, the clergy’s obligation to report on their parishioners to the authorities and their participation in capital cases. The study emphasizes the Spanish bishops’ division into two groups and offers some hypotheses about the silence of half of them. It also shows the connection between the Spanish bishops’ ideological identity with the rebels and a long-lasting anticlericalism that was intensified several months before the war started. Likewise, it exposes for areas a wide variety of differences both for the episcopal statements and the behavior of the clergy.

This was a research paper for a course entitled Feminist and Multicultural Theologies. I unpack what gender complementarianism is, examine its history, and compare it to how Scripture and earlier Christian Tradition understood gender. This allows me to establish that gender complementarianism is a recent innovation in secular and Christian thinking about gender, and that it can be described as a "trajectory" from Scripture and Tradition on gender, influenced by social, ideological, and intellectual developments in secular societies. I then pursue a critique of gender complementarianism, arguing that it is an "unsatisfactory trajectory" because it has troubling implications for orthodox theology, is not borne out by empirical experience and observation, and has harmful effects on human beings and societies and on ethical development.

Hornig Károly veszprémi püspök 1907 – 1910 között kora historizáló szemléletének megfelelően barokkból neoromán stílusúvá építtette át a veszprémi székesegyházát. A rekonstrukció eredményeképpen a 18. század elején épült barokk templomot értékes freskóival együtt elbontották, s helyette ideálisnak és történetileg hitelesnek gondolt romanizáló jegyekben építették újjá. A bontás – építkezés, és az erről fennmaradt képi és szöveges dokumentációkapcsán számos megállapítás megfogalmazására került sor már a munkálatokkal egy időben, illetve a későbbiek során is. 2010. október 4-én, az átépített székesegyház felszentelésének centenáriumán tudományos konferencia keretében foglaltuk össze a legújabb régészeti, művészet- és építéstörténeti kutatási eredményeket, az építkezésre vonatkozó levéltári forrásokat, valamint további érdekes adalékokat dolgoztak föl a szerzők az építkezésben közreműködő személyek életrajzaihoz. Tanulmánykötetünk e szimpózium előadásainak szerkesztett változatát tartalmazza.

Despite their numerous similarities, Marranos in inquisitorial Spain and Recusants (and the so-called ‘Church Papists’), English Crypto-Catholics, in the wake of the English religious reforms, have rarely been studied concurrently. In this paper I will argue that secrecy was a central feature of the daily lives of both these minorities, and it helped them function as groups despite their internal diversity, experiencing a wide array of expressions of belonging. The elasticity of the groups’ religious practices clearly contributed to the rise of new forms of worship and to the creation of new ritual objects which could be validated by diasporic belief systems. As a consequence, beyond criticisms, these communities functioned as significant vectors of change in how their entire religious groups practiced their faiths. Ultimately, it appears that both Crypto-Jews and Crypto-Catholics existed as cohesive groups as much because their members shared religious practices as due to the diasporic culture of martyrdom.

Written for the centenary year of the presence of the Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB) in South Asia, this article looks back at their methods of communication during the pioneering years, describes  the many communication initiatives undertaken across the century, takes stock of the situation in the year of its publication, and proposes possibilities for the flourishing of SDB communication in South Asia beyond 2006.

"The main objective of the first crusade was to wrest the Holy Land from the Muslims, and subject it to Christian rule." (The Making of the West, Pg. 355) What this quote does more than anything, it breaks down the objectives meant to be accomplished by the Church during the first crusade. A bold statement, with a lot of information leading up to the inception of the actual first crusade. What, however, gave the Pope the authority to wage war on Islam? Was the purpose of the Church at the time not to spread peace and goodwill? In this essay, I will explain how the events of the first crusade could be understood as a consequence of the Gregorian Reform. Pope Gregory VII came to power in the year 1073 CE, during his slow ascent in the Hierarchy of the Church he had always been an advocate for the idea of papal primacy. (The Making of the West, Page 342) During the time of Pope Gregory VII's rule, his belief in the freedom of the Church caused conflict initially with Emperor Henry VII, who, like his predecessors, wanted to keep the ability of the Emperor to choose his church hierarchy, namely bishops. It was common practice during this time for the small parishes and churches scattered throughout the empire to be seen as the property of whatever manor they were located within. Under this idea, the lord of the manor was the lord of the Church, choosing priests from local villages with little more training then being able to speak adequate Latin. When the priest of a manor church passed, someone else was selected in much of the same fashion; this idea gave the lords of the manor significant control over the local churches. (Lecture: Religion and Politics, Pg. 3) Much like this localized system, bishops and higher-level church officials were chosen and controlled by princes and kings. While under lay control, lords, princes and kings tended to offer bishop appointments for political gain. It was not uncommon for a king to appoint the son

The course is a journey through 250 years of Italian history, from the French revolution to the current pontificate of Pope Francis. The aim is to capture fundamental moments and issues in the religious life of the Italian people. While focusing mainly on Italy, the course will also take into account questions and events that relate to the broader history of Western societies. The primary type of documents that will be examined are the papal encyclicals (official letters authored by the popes). The course will study the theological and political content of the encyclicals, as well as their linguistic and stylistic strategies. While focusing primarily on pontificates and their intellectual production, the course will pay attention also to the religious life of the people and the documents that reveal their devotion and beliefs. In this regard, the class will shed light on the historic tensions and conflicts in Catholic history between the religious canon (that is the set of laws and norms produced by the Holy See across the centuries), and the actual practices and beliefs of the people.
The course will be delivered in a seminar mode and host contributions from notable external scholars. Students will be invited to give presentations, comment on the readings, and be actively engaged all the time. Attention will be paid to the original Italian documents or their translation. Students with no knowledge of the Italian language are welcome to join.

The article discusses the definition of inculturation of Christianity in the missionary activity of the Roman Catholic Church. With respect to the research methodology of the study of this definition, the author refers directly to the analysis of official documents of the Vatican, namely the declarations and constitutions of The Second Vatican Council and the encyclicals and Apostolic Exhortations of pontiffs of the Catholic Church. Ethno-religious expeditions committed by the author during the period from 2009 to 2015 also became the basis for this article.
В статье рассматривается понятие инкультурации христианства в миссионер- ской деятельности Римско-католической церкви. В отношении методологии исследования понятия инкультурации христианства автор обращается непосредственно к анализу официальных документов Ватикана, а именно к декларациям и конституциям II Ватиканского собора, к энцикликам и апостольским обращениям понтификов католической церкви. Также основой данной статьи стали этнорелигиоведческие экспедиции автора, совершённые в период с 2009 по 2015 гг.

The twenty-first century has seen a renewal of scholarly interest in religion that might seem surprising, especially given how many scholars have for so long steadfastly behaved as though religion was in progressive decline since sometime in the eighteenth century, and that this decline was inevitable (Berger). Precisely because religion has thwarted this and other assumptions, there is today a pervasive uncertainty about just how to understand religion. What is especially perplexing, as José Casanova observes, is “the assumption of public roles by precisely those religious traditions which both theories of secularization and cyclical theories of religious revival had assumed were becoming ever more marginal and irrelevant in the modern world” (5). Rather than abandon politics for the safety of private life, in other words, religion has found new and creative ways to adapt and reinvigorate itself in the public sphere. In response to this state of affairs, some have proposed that political theology is the rubric best suited to reconsidering the relationship between religion and politics. Political theology, in this context, refers to the “stories we tell ourselves about our nature as humans, our aspirations for order and justice in light of the sacred, and what, thereby, constitutes and limits legitimate rule over our collective lives” (Kessler 1). But it also refers “to the impossibility of both to completely separate and to completely conflate politics and religion” (Vardoulakis 125). To understand why interest in political theology has emerged at this particular moment, when there seems to be pervasive uncertainty about the fate of religion in the modern world, it is important to recognize that its appeal is not so much its analytic bite but the synthetic possibilities it offers; political theology offers new possibilities for charting relationships that cross otherwise hard and fast barriers. It is clearly this desire to capitalize on new possibilities for thinking about religion and politics that motivates Hent de Vries to argue, in his introduction to Political Theologies: Public Religions in a Post-Secular World, that political theology “reach[es] further . . . upon the central questions of political philosophy and political theory” than other approaches to religion, and offers, Nineteenth-Century Contexts, 2014 Vol. 36, No. 3, 269–285, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08905495.2014.919991

Nowadays the Roman Catholic Church is one of the leading in the confes- sional structure and missionary activity of Christianity, not only in Europe, but also in a number of countries in Asia, Africa and South America. In many re- gions the programs for the Evangelization of the local population are develop and implement. Doing the missionary work among the various peoples, the Catholic Church meets with a variety of cultures and is involved in the so-called process of inculturation. Inculturation is one of the basic principles of modern missionary activity of the Roman Catholic Church.

The Actio Catholica, an activity of the lay for the Catholic Church, was a movement of high priority during the papacy of Pius XI and XII, namely between the First World War and the 2nd Synod of Vatican. The Catholic Action became an influential organisation of multiple roles, influencing the life of the Hungarian Catholic Church in the 1930s and 1940s.
The essay introduces how the Actio Catholica functioned in the Veszprém diocese between 1945 and 1948, during the church administration of László Bánáss. By doing so, the author examines what initiations and activities were present by the diocesan AC, and how the circular letters of the ordinary and
the correspondence of József Mindszenty and László Bánáss reflect the conception of the national AC-centre. The paper hence provides an insight into the work of the AC on a nationwide level, its local responses and the disintegration of the organisation.
The author also seeks answer for the question whether proscription of Catholic associations in 1946 brought such significant changes for the AC as the Hungarian Catholic Lexicon claims. The essay reflects the efforts how Catholic Church struggled to maintain the frameworks for its public work in a radically changing political, social and economical situation, suffering increasingly from the pressure of the Communist regime.

Anand Amaladass SJ, "Mission der Kirche definiert von der Kultur eines Missionslandes: Am Beispiel eines missverstandenen Genies in der Missionsgeschichte Indiens: Roberto de Nobili (1577-1656)" in Glaube in der Welt von Heute: Theologie und Kirche nach dem Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil: Festschrift für Elmer Klinger, edited by Thomas Franz and Hanjo Sauer (Würzburg: Echter Verlag, 2006): vol. 2 Diskursfelder: 306-318.

In "Was the Reformation a Mistake?" Matthew Levering examines the Protestant Reformation from an epistemological perspective, that is, whether the reformers correctly challenged the truth claims of the Roman Catholic Church. The subtitle summarizes the thesis of the book: Why Catholic Doctrine is not Unbiblical. The Bible tells Christians to seek truth together with the church as a whole, which Levering suggests will lead to an openness to the teachings of the Catholic Church. In the afterward, “A Mere Protestant Response,” Kevin Vanhoozer, Research Professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, provides a lively and incisive rebuttal from an evangelical perspective.

SPECIALE UMANESIMO – VI Centenario Bartolomeo Platina (1421-1481)
- -
https://bibliotecadiviasenato.it/wp-content/uploads/BVS_N11_NEW_NOVEMBRE_2021_web.pdf
- -
Pope Joan and the Persistence of Myths:
Pietro Ratto’s book "Le pagine strappate" (Torn-Out Pages, 2020) argues that the Catholic Church destroyed evidence which shed light on the existence of Pope Joan, a woman who many believe ascended the papal throne in the ninth century, duping the Roman establishment by dressing as a man, and who then tragically died in childbirth during a procession. This article reviews the arguments of humanist critics, notably Bartolomeo Platina, who discussed the myth of Joan during the Renaissance period. In addition, the article looks at Platina’s sixteenth-century successor Onofrio Panvinio and the authors of the Protestant Church history known as the Magdeburg Centuries. I conclude that Ratto does not consider the important lessons of humanist source criticism; instead, he revives the medieval traditions of myth-making.

As Maynooth College celebrates its 225th anniversary, this beautifully-presented volume captures an institution that has held a singular place in modern Irish church history. Delve into the stories, the reminiscences, the history of this alma mater to thousands, as it evolved and re-imagined itself across the four centuries spanning its existence. With contributions by current and former faculty and alumni, including Enda McDonagh, Eamon Martin, Mary O'Rourke, Susan McKenna-Lawlor, Frank McGuinness, Evelyn Conlon, Liam Lawton, Gerard Gillen, and many more.

La crise de l'Église catholique de France est devenue un lieu commun sociologique : 56 % des Français se disent encore catholiques mais seulement 4,5 % assistent à la messe chaque semaine. En Europe, la France est aujourd'hui l'un des pays de culture catholique où l'observance religieuse est la plus faible : déclin des baptêmes, des ordinations, du nombre de pratiquants… Bien des interprétations de ce déclin ont déjà été faites, mais quel est le point de vue des catholiques sur ce qui leur arrive ? Comment se représentent-ils et pensent-ils les évolutions de leur Église ? Pour le savoir, une enquête de grande ampleur a été réalisée à l'initiative de Confrontations. Le catholicisme français apparaît ainsi sous un jour nouveau : la « crise » de l'Église dépend moins des évolutions que les statistiques donnent à voir, que des diagnostics qui sont établis à partir d'elles. Elle se traduit donc avant tout par un conflit d'interprétation sur la qualification de ce qui est en crise et sur les remèdes à adopter. Cet ouvrage présente un panorama de la manière dont les catholiques vivent et analysent ce contexte de crise et les propositions qu'ils formulent pour en sortir. In fine, c'est à une véritable exploration des multiples sensibilités de l'archipel catholique que le lecteur est invité.

During the years in which France succumbed to nazi ideology and was occupied by German forces, Henri de Lubac, a French cardinal and one of the great contemporary thinkers the Catholic Church can boast of, played a decisive role in the French resistance to anti-Semitism. Active as a priest, de Lubac collaborated in the composition of ''official'' proclamations such as the famous 1941 ''Chaine Declaration" and also arranged conferences, wrote books, and participated in various resistance activities. One of de Lubac’s most intimate friends, Yves de Montcheuil α student companion among others, was shot to death in July 1944 by the Gestapo. De Lubac made clear his commitment to oppose what he termed Europe's "collective apostasy" under Nazism in α confidential letter to his religious superiors in April 1941. The commitment is amply demonstrated in a 260-page book of de Lubac's memoirs published in France, entitled Résistance Chrétienne et l'Antisémitisme: Souvenirs 1940-1944.

On Wednesday, Dec. 21, nations in the Northern Hemisphere will mark the winter solstice – the shortest day and longest night of the year. For thousands of years people have marked this event with rituals and celebrations to signal the rebirth of the sun and its victory over darkness.

At hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of missions stretching from northern California to Peru, the winter solstice sun triggers an extraordinarily rare and fascinating event – something that I discovered by accident and first documented in one California church nearly 20 years ago.  See article at On Wednesday, Dec. 21, nations in the Northern Hemisphere will mark the winter solstice – the shortest day and longest night of the year. For thousands of years people have marked this event with rituals and celebrations to signal the rebirth of the sun and its victory over darkness. See link to online magazine at https://theconversation.com/a-sacred-light-in-the-darkness-winter-solstice-illuminations-at-spanish-missions-70250

The arrival of brethren of the Capuchin order in Fulnek at the close of the 1660s brought a number of new phenomena into the life
of inhabitants of this servile town. Parallel to the implementation of popular reforms of piousness bound especially to liturgical
run in the newly built Loreto, the Capuchins got into more and more frequent and fierce clashes with monks of the local Black
Friar canonry. The Black Friars, running the Fulnek parish office from the late Middle Ages, observed the bloom of the Capuchin
convent and the neighbouring pilgrims’ place with deep displeasure. The situation was even more dangerous for the local
provosts of the Black Friar order because the foundation and functioning of the Capuchin order in Fulnek was an integral part
of the nobility’s project of after-war renovation of this servile town and social disciplination of its inhabitants. The relationship
between the Fulnek nobility and the Black Friar canonry owning a number of monastic villages had been full of conflict since
the end of the 16th century, and these controversies were not changed by the arrival of Catholic owners in the after-Bílá-Hora
period. The dominion owner and founder of the new convent Johann Franz Bruntálský of Vrbno did not withhold his attitudes
at all. The arrival of the Capuchins, supported by several burghers’ testimonies of miraculous events related to the brethren in
brown habits, was to offer an alternative to the Black Friars’ pastoral activities. The mutual competition of the religious orders
significantly dynamized the religious culture of this servile town in the last decades of the 17th century that was expressed not
only by the architectural change of the surrounding landscape but also a rich church service materialized in a number of liturgical
and paraliturgical activities. Both the religious orders’ pastoral strategies offered a great number of services considerably
exceeding the frame of common parish liturgy at the end of the 17th century and in the first half of the 18th century.