Dressed in Power: Sexuality, Race, and the Spirit of the Virgin Mary and/or the “Indian Lady”

The number of converts from Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism during WWII has been discussed for years. The earliest cumulative quantification of Orthodox-to-Catholic conversions in the NDH (Independent State of Croatia) may be found in a report by Pope Pius XII of 1943, which was written by Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac. Although there are still speculations about the total number of Orthodox converts to Roman Catholic faith in the period of WWII, most controversies today are mainly concerned with the nature and ethics of the doctrinal consistency and political opportunity of the conversion itself. During the period in between the wars, the Cazma Archdeaconry consisted of several districts: Cazma, Kutina, Ivanic Grad, Grubisno Polje and Garesnica. According to the census of 1931, less than 14% of the population were Orthodox Christians. The author of the paper researches the conversions form Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism in the mentioned area during the period between 1941 and 1945. The research is based on the records from archive holdings such as the Archbishop’s Clerical Board of the Archbishop’s Archive in Zagreb, the Ministry of Justice and the NDH Ministry of Justice and Worship at the Croatian State Archive. Based on the list of names of converted persons, i.e. those who filed an application to convert in the area of 23 parishes in the territory of the Cazma Archdeaconry, the author concludes that no fewer than 3,271 Orthodox Christians filed an application to convert to Roman Catholicism, mainly from April 1941 to April 1942. According to the preserved documents from the Archbishop’s Archive in Zagreb and from the Croatian State Archive, the actual number of conversions was even larger; however, no list of names of those who filed an application to convert or of those who underwent conversion is preserved. Such a problem arose in the parish of Mikleuska where people converted collectively, in large numbers. In this paper, the author discusses the types of individual conversions. The largest number of religious conversions were made in the area of Miklueska, where 751 individuals converted. Vicar Đuric from the parish of Kaniska Iva asked the Archbishop’s Clerical Board for missionaries to help him teach and convert the Orthodox. He demanded at least six more missionaries, two for the villages of Veliko Vukovje, Malo Vukovje, Gojilo and Rogoža, two for Stupovaca, Brinjani, Caire and Kutinica, and two for Velika Brsljanica, a part of Rogoža and Mala Brsljanica. The missionaries arrived in the winter of 1941/1942. Vicar Đuric compiled a list of converts, 1,372 of them being from the area of the former Orthodox parish of Veliko Vukovje. Due to a large number of converts, there was a plan to set up a new Roman Catholic parish in Narta, in the vicinity of Cazma. As a special aspect of this research, the author observes the conversions to Greek Catholicism (in the Veliki Zdenci and Cazma area) and the reasons why the state authorities did not want the Orthodox to convert to Greek Catholicism. According to a circular issued by the Ministry of Justice and Worship, the Main Ustasa Headquarters and the State Directorate for Economic Regeneration, dated 30 July 1941, it is apparent that the “wish of the Croatian government” was that “the Orthodox do not switch the Greek Catholic religion…” The Greek Catholic priests considered that they had the right of ownership over all Orthodox churches in the district of Garesnica because of the existence of their parish in Disnik. Bishop Janko Simrak requested that certain churches in Moslavina, among others, the church in Lipovcani, chapels in Marca, and churches in Narta and Veliko Vukovje become part of the Greek Catholic Church. However, most of these churches were provided for by the Roman Catholic Church. The author finally concludes, on the basis of reports from some parishioners, that in most cases, conversion to Roman Catholicism was not honest, that the Serbs were mostly forced to convert to Roman Catholic faith for the sake of preserving their existence and their lives. Following the foundation of the Croatian Orthodox Church in the first half of 1942, the Orthodox generally ceased to attend Roman Catholic masses. Kljucne rijeci: religious conversions; Serbs; Second World War; Moslavina; Archdeaconry of Cazma

This article investigates contemporary understandings of the ethics of care. While the ethics of care is predominantly known as showing empathy and support to others, analysing the complex relationship between institutional and personal values of clerical leaders and the congregation in the Roman Catholic Church in England reveals very different understandings. The sociological and psychological concepts of authority, pastoral care and identity are used to analyse the role of a female youth work leader in a Roman Catholic parish who is exposed to different (conservative and liberal) leadership approaches. She explains how her views on care, gender and participation differ from those of three clerical leaders and powerfully illustrates the resulting conflicts between the priests but also towards the congregation. This story shows that individual agency influences strong conservative institutional values and that leadership in faith-based organisations needs to embrace the complex interplay between institutional and personal dynamics.

The European migration crisis has had a transformative impact on many transit and destination localities in Europe, and in doing so it has mobilised many faith-based communities. This paper analyses the social action of Saint Bernard de La Chapelle, a Roman Catholic parish in northern Paris, which hosts a semi-formal association called Solidarités Saint Bernard (SSB) involved in support and relief activities for indigent migrants in the local area. Based on ethnographic research conducted within the parish and the association, I analyse how the topic of migration has become a point of exchange between the parish community and local civil society, how religious and secular discourses and motivations co-exist within SSB, and how these influences shape SSB’s social action. Through this micro-scale approach, and drawing on Luc Boltanski’s theoretical framework of regimes of action, my aim is to identify conceptual elements to better understand the broad convergence between religion, social action, and migration, and to better understand the relation between charity and justice within faith-based social action in the domain of migration advocacy more specifically.

The article presents the history of the Greek Catholic (Uniate) community living in the village of Tokary (located in the Turobin key of the Zamoyski family entail) in the years 1779–1875. The Uniates came from neighboring Otrocz and settled in Tokary together with the Roman Catholic population (coming from, i.a., Chrzanów). Both groups lived in harmony, which was expressed by numerous mixed marriages, concluded in Greek Catholic parishes in Otrocz and Tarnawa and Roman Catholic parishes in Turobin and Goraj. For a long time, the Uniates from Tokary maintained the Greek rite – only in the 1850s and 1860s some of them changed the rite to Latin. The liquidation of the Greek Catholic Church in the Kingdom of Poland (1875) meant the end of the Uniate community in Tokary. Local Greek Catholics were required to adopt Orthodoxy. However, many of them opposed this forced conversion and later converted to Roman Catholicism.

In the Roman Catholic Church a parish is the smallest legal unit and it is the milieu for religious, social, and cultural activities for a group of people joined together in a geographical area. The purpose of this article is a sociological study examining the Catholic parish in Poland as a local community. Today a parish along with its community is exposed to social change and to myriad forces characteristic of the postmodern culture. In Poland two opposite forces characterize the life of a parish community: on the one side, secularization and individualization, and on the other side, socialization and evangelization. The subjective dimension of a local community, which is related to identification of people with a local parish, along with social bonds with the parish as a local community, are discussed in the first two sections of the article. In subsequent sections some issues related to common activities, membership in movements, religious communities, and Catholic associations within the parish will be presented. While the agency of people in the parish community is theoretically acknowledged, it is still not fully implemented. The discussion is based on the data obtained from major public opinion institutes in Poland.

The newly coined term ‘synodality’ has for some years been receiving widespread and close attention, and its potential is difficult to delimit. Synodality is a composite concept, with a range of applications, abstracted from the traditions of the Eastern and Western Churches expressed in varied synodal institutions and events. Synodality might be defined as the process by which Christians gather to dialogue, discern and at times decide. This article examines one of synodality’s levels – the parish – in the Roman Catholic Church.1

Sacred Heart Cathedral, Roman Catholic Parish, Prince George British Columbia

The article discusses factors influencing language maintenance under changing social, cultural, economic and political conditions of Polish minority in Siberia. The village of Vershina was founded in 1910 by Polish voluntary settlers from Little Poland. During its first three decades Vershina preserved Polish language, traditions, farming methods and machines and also the Roman Catholic religion. The changes came to a village in taiga in the1930s. Vershina lost its ethnocultural homogeneity because of Russian and Buryat workers in the local kolkhoz. Nowadays the inhabitants of Vershina regained their minority rights: religious, educational and cultural. However, during the years of sovietization and ateization, their culture and customs became much more similar to other Siberian villages. Polish language in Vershina is under strong influence of Russian, which is the language of education, administration, and surrounding villages. Children from Polish-Russian families become monolingual and use Polish very rare, only as a school subject and in contacts with grandparents. The process of abandoning mother tongue in Vershina is growing rapidly. However, there are some factors which may hinder the actual changes:the activity of local Polish organisations and Roman Catholic parish as well as folk group “Jazhumbek”

This article considers in detail the choosing of a language for the liturgy and sermons in Roman Catholic parishes in Belarus. The choice of the Belarusian language is part of a deliberate nation-building policy by the Catholic Church. Moreover, a whole network of local peculiarities, historical stereotypes, and political attitudes is concealed beneath the unified cover of a preference for the use of the Belarusian language. Based on interviews with clergy and religious activists, the article shows that the Roman Catholic Church repeatedly works out compromise solutions that allow it to adapt to the pressures of the state and believers going through a process of contradictory and conflicting nation-building.

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ABSTRACT: Purpose: The purpose of this article is to present the problems of the religious minority of Protestantism in the Płock diocese in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was one of the largest religious groups that came to Poland in the 16th century. The above-mentioned diocese of Płock was also inhabited by Protestant communities which disappeared over time in the areas of some of its Roman Catholic parishes. However, they exist to this day in some other places. Methods: The following article utilizes the historical method and reconstruction of facts. The following article benefits from the materials from the Diocesan Archives in Płock, as well as resources from archival extracts regarding the inhabitants of the Protestant denomination living in the area of ​​the Płock diocese, included in the protocols of general and deanery visitations. Results: Using archival resources, this study presents the situation of Protestant families, their number in individual parishes of the Płock diocese, religiosity, i.e. the number of prayer houses, cemeteries and the number of schools founded and run by teachers, also of the Protestant denomination, for their children. Conclusion: The 18th and 19th centuries was the time when Protestant families lived in most Roman Catholic parishes in the Płock diocese. Religious tolerance resulted in the revival of the religious and intellectual life of Protestants, hence they could freely organize their own temples, houses of prayer, cemeteries and schools in individual parishes. Originality: despite many existing studies on the Reformation in Mazovia and the Płock diocese, this study is the first to present the number of Protestants in the areas of individual Roman Catholic parishes of the Płock diocese and the places where their temples or prayer houses, cemeteries and schools were located. Keywords: Martin Luther, Protestantism, religious tolerance, Płock diocese, parish.

A pastoral response to challenges faced by lay leaders in a Catholic parish that has experienced an allegation of sexual abuse and the subsequent removal of a priest is described. Organized around a theological reflection, the four-part program draws on the Book of Lamentations and a contemporary understanding of the grieving process mediated by Jewish mourning practices.

From the History of the Roman-Catholic Parish and Its Medieval Church in Stawiszyn from 1880 to 1940. An Introduction to Research The Roman Catholic parish in Stawiszyn was probably founded in the 13th century and due to the fact that these goods were royal property, its founder was the monarch at the time. Two centuries later, it was one of the most prosperous benefices in the Kalisz Archdeaconry. In 1360, at the initiative of King Casimir the Great, a brick church was built in place of the wooden temple, which was consecrated under the invocation of St. Bartholomew and St. Jadwiga. Over the centuries, the architecture of the church, originally gothic, has undergone numerous changes. The building was destroyed and rebuilt several times, and each renovation left traces blurring its original style. The most important changes were implemented in the years 1880-1940, i.e. in the period when the ministry was exercised by three parish priests: Teodor Meyer, Edmund Esman and Bronisław Kozankiewicz. Each of them played an important role in the history of the Catholic parish in Staviszyn. The purpose of this article is not to evaluate the reconstruction of the parish church in Stawiszyn during the times of the above-mentioned servants of God, but to present to the reader their most important merits in this aspect. At the same time, it should be emphasized that the activities of Father Edmund Esman can be considered the closest to the activities referred to today as “restoration”. This does not in any way detract from the achievements of the other two priests, thanks to whom the parishioners of Staviszyn can admire the monuments of sacred art that have survived to this day. This text is only a contribution to further research, which should be deepened by a thorough analysis of the archival materials stored in the Diocesan Archives in Włocławek.

Roman Catholic parish churches in the sacred space of Slupsk This paper presents the changes that took place after World War II in the sacred space of Slupsk on the example of the Roman Catholic parish churches. The origins of the Catholic Church in the Middle Pomerania region, including Slupsk, date back to the thousandth year. After a period of turbulent changes in the organization of the administrative structure of the church and the introduction of the Reformation, Catholicism in Pomerania again began to revive only in the 19 th and early 2 0th centuries. After World War II, as a result of an influx of Polish population to Pomerania, mostly Roman Catholics, the net of parish churches was revived. On the one hand, some churches were taken from the Germans, on the other new religious buildings were built. Settlement of Slupsk with immigrant population resulted, in the initial period, in some integration problems arising from different cultural, moral or social backgrounds, which led to the creation of a kind of a melting pot of different cultures and religions. The Roman Catholic Church mentioned in the article not only integrated the population, but also helped the communities arriving from the eastern borderlands to settle down. The study shows that in Slupsk in the late 50s there were three parishes, which focused a total of approximately 36.0 thousand followers. A significant event not only for the creation of new parishes in Slupsk, but for the whole Pomerania, was the establishment of new dioceses in 1973, including the Koszalin-Kolobrzeg Diocese. The normalization of relations between the State and the Church encouraged the establishment of new parishes. At the end of 1987, the sacred space of Slupsk included five parishes. Until 1989 in Slupsk operated five parishes, including one holding a new religious building. However, only in the years 1990 – 1995 four new parishes, including the military one, were erected. It should be emphasized that the sacred space of Slupsk, which is associated primarily with the development of the network of the parish, was determined by the increase in the number of residents. Church authorities paid particular attention to ensure that new churches are built in new housing estates.

The island of Rava (3,62 km2 and 120 inhabitants, 1991) is one of those small islandssituated in the Zadar archipelago, on the eastern coast of the Adriatic. From the geographical point of view it has not been much elaborated so far. The paper gives physicogeographic characteristics, which is connected with the project on small Croatia’s islands. The first part of the paper treats the position of the island, its size and extent. According to its area, this is the 53rd island in Croatia,and the 37th with regard to the number of inhabitants (1991). The highest point is Babićovac (98m). The sea cliff of Ravica appertains to it. The island makes part of the middle range of Zadar islands and, administratively, belongs to the city of Zadar. It is an autonomous cadastral commune and Roman Catholic parish. The settlement consists of two separated nuclei along SW coast: Vela Rava in the central part of the island and Mala Rava in its NW part. Its geological structure is relatively simple. There is a predominance of nonlayered greyish lower-upper cretaceous dolomites, to 600m thickness. These are the oldest sediments in the Zadar archipelago. Their form is anticlinal. There are two smaller unexamined speleological objects in the NW part of the island. The island is well carved. The coast is 15.45 km in length. The coastline index is 2,29. There are many more coves and promontories in the central and SE parts. Larger coves are Lokvina, Vićabok, Paladinjica, Marnjica, Tanko, Vališina, Ivanoševica, Pavajsko, Pestehovac, Dražice, Golubovac, Martinjica, Grbavač and Grbačina. Relief features show dry dolinas and torrents with well expressed slope drainage and weathering. Along the coastthere is a shallow zone (1,5 m deep, called singular) large several metres, followed by deeper waters. There is a small number of flat superficies, which are used as gardens, while slopes serve for olives and less often as vineyards. The island surfaces are divided into properties by horizontal stone walls (mocira) and vertical ones (trmezal). The authors emphasize a numerous and interesting toponimy connected with the terrain geomorphology. From pedological point of view there are not remarkable soil zones. It is a question of shallow and poor reddish-brown soils originated from degraded dolomites. There is plenty of rocky soil and broken stones. There is no superficial running water on the island. There are several wells with brackish water, and potable water is found in a 40 metres deep pit on the nearby islet of Mrtovnjak. There is also a Pool in Vela Rava. Because of water deficiency, the inhabitants have built public cisterns in both settlements and the owners of new houses have their own cisterns. The authors study in particular the sea water surrounding the island. Physical properties of the sea (depth, sea bottom, temperatures, density, transparency, colour, currents, tides, waves) are elaborated in accordance with accessible data. Chemical characteristics follow (salinity, oxygenconcentration, pH factor, the quantity of silicate, phosphate and nitrate, ammoniac) and biological data (organic world: plankton, nekton, benthos). Climatic indicators connected with insolation, global radiation and cloudness are elaborated. Temperature data follow (annual t. ca 15oC; ca 23,5oC in July and ca 6,8oC in January), precipitation (ca 880 mm per annum), winds. Mediterranean climate conditions adequate vegetation. The island of Rava belongs to the climazonal association of holm oak (Quercus ilex). Mediterranean sorts are numerous. The present day high and low maquis and garigues predomine and, here and there, even larger specimens of trees grow. It is significant that cupresses can be seen on certain locations. The paper ends with elaborating the significance of physicogeographical basis for the social and economic development of the island. Consideration is given to the population since the oldest times of Mediterranean polyculture. Cultivation of olives, figs and grape vine (the latter till not long time ago) has considerable importance as well as breeding small cattle. Restrictive factors of development (lack of water and fertile soils, isolation, depopulation) are analysed too. The influence of regional centre Zadar is also important, as well as the prospects of tourist and aquaculture objects.