Catholic Organizations Research Articles

Changes in the funeral customs of Catholic people in Saigon - Ho Chi Minh city (1954 – 2024) – A view from "Cultural Relativity" Theory

Catholic is a global religion, so Catholic funerals organization expresses Catholic belief in the Resurrection and the cultural nuances of each nation. Over the past 70 years (from 1954 to 2024), the organization of Catholic funerals in Saigon (SG) - Ho Chi Minh city (HCMC) has undergone many changes because of urbanization influence and immigration waves as well as cultural diversity of local Catholic communities. This article will present some characteristics of Catholic funerals in SG-HCMC and important changes in dealing with the deceased's body.

Catholic Ecological Organizations in Poland and Italy: History, Actions, and Organizational Challenges

The paper characterizes four Polish and Italian Catholic organizations that operate within the ecological field. The study of these organizations zooms in on the process of “greening of Catholicism” in Poland and Italy taking place. Studied Catholic organizations in Poland and Italy operate within different social and religious contexts. They face challenges, including resistance from traditionalists who view ecology as a leftist notion. To overcome this, the organizations studied frame ecological issues as religious duties, drawing on diverse traditions within Catholicism and emphasizing figures like John Paul II. They use religious resources such as Catholic identities, values, and symbols to appeal to a broader audience beyond traditional activists. Yet, their emphasis on Catholicism hinders cooperation with secular environmental groups and limits engagement with left-wing environmental politics.

The prevalence of child sexual abuse perpetrated by leaders or other adults in religious organizations in Australia

BackgroundNumerous national public inquiries have highlighted the problem of child sexual abuse in religious organizations. Despite this, evidence of population-wide prevalence is scarce. ObjectiveTo provide the first nationally representative prevalence estimates of child sexual abuse perpetrated by adults in religious organizations in Australia. MethodsThe Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS) surveyed 8503 people aged 16 and over about their experiences of child maltreatment. Weighted prevalence estimates were calculated based on responses to the child sexual abuse questions from the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire-R2: Adapted Version (ACMS). ResultsOne in 250 people reported being sexually abused as a child by an adult in a religious organization (0.4 %, 95 % CI, 0.3–0.6 %). Men reported significantly higher rates of child sexual abuse by these perpetrators (0.8 %, 95 % CI, 0.5–1.2 %), compared to women (0.1 %, 95 % CI, 0–0.3 %). This type of sexual abuse was overwhelmingly perpetrated by men (0.4 %, 95 % CI, 0.3–0.6 %), compared to women (0 %, 95 % CI, 0–0.1 %), and was substantially more often experienced in Catholic organizations (71.9 %) than other Christian denominations or other religions. Prevalence of child sexual abuse in religious organizations has declined over time (2.2 % of men 65 years and older, compared with 0.2 % of 16–24-year-old men). ConclusionsChild sexual abuse has been widespread in religious organizations in Australia. A decline over time indicates progress has been made in preventing sexual abuse of children. Religious organizations must take all reasonable measures to prevent child sexual abuse, with a particular need for interventions targeting male leaders, and organizational cultures.

Religion on the island of Ireland during the Covid-19 pandemic: piety in the public sphere?

ABSTRACT This article examines how religious institutions and religious media on the island of Ireland framed religion’s place in the public sphere during Covid-19. Through qualitative analysis of Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, and Humanist organisations’ public documents and religious media, it finds religious institutions supported government restrictions and adopted secular reasoning to justify their actions. The major churches also avoided claiming special status or religious freedom protections. This reveals a constrained religious input to public debates, reflecting a realistic assessment by religious leaders that they lack policy influence due to long-term declines in church power. The pandemic provides evidence of a reformulation of the relationships between religion, state, and society on the island, albeit with religion retaining more influence in Northern Ireland. Religious media outlets largely reproduced institutional discourses, with the exception of a weekly newspaper, the Irish Catholic. The Irish Catholic argued that stringent restrictions in the Republic of Ireland violated religious freedom, and made a case for the value of piety in the public sphere. But while religious actors still seek to contribute to public debates, there is little consensus or vision about religions’ distinctive contributions, even around existential questions posed by the pandemic.

Breaking the Stained-Glass Ceiling: The Gendered Experiences of Women College Presidents of Catholic Institutions

This interpretive phenomenological study features the leadership experience of 16 current and former women college presidents of U.S. Roman Catholic colleges and universities. With Catholic organizations barring women from top leadership roles within the Church, the term “stained-glass ceiling” describes the unique leadership barriers that women face in Catholic higher education. Using Acker’s theory of gendered organizations as a framework, analysis revealed six findings that illustrate the exclusionary nature of the Catholic patriarchy, as well as women’s strategies for navigating these environments: waiting for the “right” presidency, emphasizing their difference, being “chief mission officer,” leading social justice initiatives, and supporting future leaders. Together, findings illustrate how participants shaped their presidencies in ways that aligned with their values and advanced women’s opportunity in the field. We offer implications for practice and future research.

Stressed young adults: an emerging issue in Catholic youth organisations

The aim of this study is to learn about the demographic profile, information and communication technologies (ICT) tools, and internet platforms used by Catholic young adults in youth organisations under San Antonio de Padua Parish in the Province of Laguna, Philippines, during the COVID-19 pandemic. It made use of both descriptive and exploratory research that employed online interviews through ICT tools and online media platforms. Twenty (20) young Catholic adults in youth organisations were interviewed from the church list of youth organisations. The results showed that most participants were working students and belonged to lower-income families. They experienced school and work stress, demanded work efficiency and time pressure on school requirements, internet connectivity issues, and limited support from peers and family members. As explored, the causes of stress made them feel mentally and physically exhausted, and they felt the burden of multi-tasking as students, workers, and church members. The research also suggests an innovative implication for stress management and mitigation schemes through ICT tools and proposes the creation of an online education website by any Catholic Organisation to monitor young church members for Online stress mitigation sessions and stress management satisfaction.

“Framing” the Opposition: The Limits of Mobilization against Duterte’s “War on Drugs” in the Philippines

ABSTRACT Why is there sometimes limited mobilization against autocratization, particularly when it involves major human rights violations? Some scholars emphasize the loss of political space through repression as the major cause while others emphasize strategic considerations such as divisions and abandonment of moderate tactics. A third view stresses popular support for strongman rule. Viewed in this light, the weakness of pushback against Rodrigo Duterte, Philippine president from 2016 to 2022, presents a challenge to existing theories. Despite the bloody “war on drugs” during his presidency, there was no violent government crackdown on peaceful demonstrators, and centrists eventually coalesced with left-wing activists around moderate strategies. But public backing for Duterte does not explain how he was able to defuse popular outrage over drug war killings, particularly after the high-profile police murders of several minors. This paper offers a relational explanation utilizing competing framing analysis. This better elucidates how, with Catholic bishops and community organizations politically weakened and international organizations denounced for interfering in domestic politics, Duterte was able to tactically outmaneuver his opponents and "frame" human rights advocates as coddling criminals while he protected law-abiding Filipinos.

¡Viva Cristo Rey!: Militant Catholic Devotion and the Creation of the National Votive Sanctuary of Christ the King in Revolutionary Guanajuato, 1914–1928

Abstract: This article examines the role of the Catholic ideology of Cristo Rey during the Cristero Conflict, which lasted from 1926 to 1929. This conflict was an armed rebellion led by militant Catholics who opposed the Mexican government's enforcement of anti-clerical provisions in the Mexican Constitution of 1917. This article argues that the creation of the Cristo Rey devotion in Guanajuato, Mexico as well as the statue dedicated to that devotion in 1923 demonstrate the early role the Mexican clergy played in escalating tensions between the Church and the Mexican State in the years before the armed phase of the Cristero rebellion. Additionally, this examination provides an important insight into the unification of lay Catholic organizations surrounding the expulsion of the Papal Nuncio, Eugenio Filippi in 1923. This article further demonstrates that the militant Catholic interpretation of Cristo Rey was impactful outside of Mexico, especially through the official Papal adoption of Christ the King as Catholic doctrine in 1925.

Chrześcijańskie Stowarzyszenie Społeczne w rzeczywistości politycznej PRL w latach 1957–1974

The Christian Social Association in the political reality of the Polish People’s Republic in 1957–1974 Formed in October 1957, the Christian Social Association was founded on the basis of a breakaway group in the ‘PAX’ Association, referred to as ‘secession’. In late September and early October 1957, its leader, Jan Frankowski, removed from the editorial board of the group’s weekly Za i Przeciw leading ‘secession’ activists, who styled themselves ‘non- affiliated democratic left’. He established a small Catholic organisation which had a loyalist programme, and which was intended not to cause trouble for the authorities, gaining some political and economic concessions in return. However, Frankowski did not want to come into open conflict with the Church, a stance that irritated the communists, who wanted to strengthen the association in order to use it to fight the Episcopate and other Catholic groups. In the 1960s an opposition to Frankowski emerged within the organisation’s leadership, seeking to activate the association. In 1968, the president of the association lost Zenon Kliszka’s patronage, which, in the atmosphere of the March political purge, facilitated his dismissal. Zygmunt Filipowicz, an MP, became the new head of the organisation, but he drew his support from several activists who were in conflict with each other. The course of events within the association and the struggle between volatile coalitions resulted in 1972 in a clash between the general secretary, Kazimierz Morawski, and Stanislaw Jan Rostworowski, MP, both seeking to become the organisation’s president. Both were Ministry of Internal Affairs agents and their conflict led to chaos throughout the organisation. In the end, with the support of the communists, Morawski became the president, while Rostworowski was marginalised. The Christian Social Association was unable to win political independence or genuinely increase its importance within the country’s political system, and Rostworowski’s attempts to change this state of affairs had a significant impact on his defeat.

I was a stranger and you welcomed me. Stella Maris: chaplaincy to seafarers

ABSTRACT An important form of chaplaincy is the mission for seafarers. Since the 19th century, various charitable organisations have provided physical and spiritual support for seafarers when their ships are berthed. This article examines the history and contemporary work of the Catholic organisation, Stella Maris, the largest ship visiting network in the world. The history begins in 1920 in Glasgow and the foundation of the Apostleship of the Sea which grew quickly into a major international organisation. Over the years the invaluable work of the chaplains and volunteers has been perceived to be integral to the mission of the Catholic Church to protect the dignity of the worker, and aid migrants and displaced and vulnerable people in need. A Stella Maris chaplain and a volunteer, based in Glasgow, recount some of their experiences in supporting seafarers and this provides insights into the scope of their duty of care.

Does Catholic Health Care Have a Responsibility to Those Harmed by Pollution?

Pollution results from humankind’s failure to be good stewards of creation. Guided by Catholic environmental bioethics, Catholic health care organizations have reduced their contribution to this pollution, but they also encounter its human cost. Catholic hospitals treat countless patients sickened by pollution, which most strongly impacts the poor and disenfranchised—those whom the Church expresses a preferential responsibility to care for, in part via the charity care that Catholic health care provides. The poor encounter another cost of pollution: the financial cost of seeking health care, particularly in the US. The authors argue that Catholic health care institutions should take the moral harm of pollution seriously by reducing the financial burden on those sickened by pollution. As an example, they highlight the situation of those sickened by lead exposure in the US and outline how Catholic health care institutions could consider lessening the financial burden of treating this sickness.

Youth Religious Socialization and Social Capital. A Case Study

This research focuses on the role played by youth religious organizations in the shaping of young people’s social capital in Romania. Based on a series of interviews and focus groups with young people engaged in religious organizations and the leaders of those organizations, we find that youth religious socialization is an important process in creating or reinforcing social and political values, and thus, it may be conducive to social capital. Although nuanced comparisons across denominations are difficult to make due to the unavailability of data, a distinction seems to appear between Orthodox and Catholic religiously active youth. For example, while young people in Catholic organizations are encouraged to forge relationships with people outside their organizations (bridging social capital), those belonging to Orthodox groups tend to keep to themselves, and, at times, even employ a strict access policy for newcomers wanting to join (bonding social capital). Conclusions suggest the need to approach the effects of youth religious socialization in a nuanced way.

Institutional Constraints of Church Lobbying In the USA

The article presents an analysis of the restrictions on legislative lobbying and the ban on participation in political campaigns for religious organizations covered by section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). The existing institutional framework for lobbying activities of such organizations is considered in the context of the recommendations of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for churches and religious organizations and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops guidelines for catholic organizations on acceptable forms of political and lobbying activity.

Characterizing Organizational Sustainability in Catholic Schools: A Cross-National Study Applying Text Mining

Previous studies have suggested the importance of sustainability in all organizations; however, their application to schools as an organization is limited. This study aims to characterize sustainability in primary and secondary catholic schools. The theoretical framework is based on the theories of resources, capabilities and stakeholders because they relate most directly to organizational sustainability. The method consists of three interrelated parts. First, a bibliometric analysis with four clusters was obtained in the first model of understanding (1.0). The second stage consisted of a content analysis, which elicited meanings by screening2,710 records and deepening 200 research studies with the model (2.0). Then, in the third stage, an exploratory analysis was carried out through interviews with a group of Latin American education experts who manage almost 300,000 students in Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, and Chile; the data were analyzed using the text mining technique with discourse analysis. The results validated five categories: Management, Campus Operation, Well-being, Education for Sustainable Development, and Associativity. This study concluded that associativity in these Catholic organizations is fundamental to guaranteeing their sustainability over time and that the wellbeing category implies social and political transformation processes. Therefore, it is proposed for future research to measure these categories and systematize them as a model of sustainability management in the school as a whole and as a strategy for managing sustainability processes in the whole school.

The Catholic Emancipation in the 1920s in Ireland

During the period 1825-1829, the New Catholic Association was a major event in the Catholic Emancipation of Ireland. Unlike other Irish Catholic organizations in the past, the New Catholic Association was an organization led by Catholic farmers under the leadership of priests. They formed a powerful force through extensive social mobilization and finally forced the British Parliament to pass the Catholic Relief Bill, which took a big step forward in the liberation of Irish Catholics. Among them, the means by which Catholics mobilized Catholic farmers are worth studying. The article will analyze the situation of the classes before The Catholic Emancipation and try to explain why the clergy and farmers ultimately went towards cooperation.

Qualitative Assessment of Key Implementation Factors in a Faith-Based Response to Intimate Partner Violence.

Faith-based organizations (FBOs) have a scant history in the literature of implementing intimate partner violence (IPV) initiatives, though many members of faith communities consider it an important issue. Furthermore, the limited studies on this topic have not explored organizational factors that are important in the implementation of such efforts. To investigate factors that influence the implementation of IPV prevention and response by one Catholic organization at both diocesan and parish levels. We conducted sixteen semi-structured interviews with members of Archdiocese of Chicago Domestic Violence Outreach (ACDVO) leadership. Using deductive content analysis, we drew on all 14 constructs and sub-constructs from the inner setting domain of the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) for coding transcripts and characterizing factors influencing implementation success. Seven CFIR constructs were useful in identifying factors that influenced implementation success of ACDVO. At the diocesan level, the organization's leadership structure, their driven culture, and in-kind available resources propelled their work. At the level of parish ministries, successful implementation was facilitated by networking and communication among parishes. At the diocesan-level, access to knowledge and information through ACDVO's Parish Support Committee, compatibility with parish values, leadership engagement, and available resources from parishes supported implementation. We identified modifiable and reproducible inner setting factors that influence implementation of a Catholic IPV initiative at the diocesan-level and support parish ministries in their local activities. Future work should validate these findings in other dioceses and examine non-Catholic FBO settings.

Catholic Health Care and the Mission Leader: A Religious Exercise.

Inspired by the Divine Healer Jesus of Nazareth, Catholic healthcare has been a religious exercise since its inception. First practiced in the setting of the monastery in the earliest centuries AD and incarnated over two millennia by a variety of religious orders of consecrated men and women, Catholic healthcare today faces a crisis of identity. The role of the mission leader, envisioned by the religious brothers and sisters who founded various Catholic healthcare organizations, was a primary conduit to preserve the charisms of the founders and ensure the identity of Catholic healthcare as a religious exercise and ministry of the Church. With data from a recent survey of Catholic healthcare mission leaders, a number of critical challenges currently confront the role of mission leader and will potentially inhibit that role from fulfilling its original mandate. This article will present the findings of this survey, analyze the resulting challenges and present specific recommendations to strengthen the role of the mission leader and ensure Catholic healthcare will remain true to its ethos as a ministry of the Church and religious exercise.

FROM TRADITION TO INNOVATION: A STUDY OF RIGHT-WING CONSERVATIVE PARTIES IN CONTEMPORARY POLAND

The purpose of this article is to systematize and generalize information about the political right-conservative movement in modern Poland. In the course of the study, the potential for support for right-wing parties exists in every society. It can grow due to two groups of factors. The first concerns issues related to the difficult economic situation, the modernization of societies or cultural aspects, which are called demand-related in the literature. The second large group consists of supply factors: factors of possible political success (structure of political opportunities), electoral rules, inter-party competition, the role of the mass media, the structure of political divisions or the role of the winning ideology. Polish right-wing conservatism and nationalism is characterized, both in the past and in the present, by a powerful influence on the social and political life of the Republic of Poland, acting as a fundamental element of the unification of the Polish people. This movement retains its traditional features, which are reflected in the ideology of the Polish ruling party “Law and Justice”, which adheres to a national-conservative orientation with elements of clericalism, maintains close ties with the Catholic Church and organizations close to it. In the period after coming to power (2015), “PiS” slowly but steadily lost its Christian-democratic character and evolved into a conservative political force. This allowed “PiS” to win elections for a long time, and in 2023, it allows it to maintain leading positions in public opinion polls regarding support for political parties. In the field of international relations, supporters of “PiS” operated with judgments that expressed the ideas of nationalism, presenting the Poles as a strong nation that should occupy an important place among other countries. The process of creating right-wing conservative political parties and associations in Poland continues on an ongoing basis. The strengthening of nationalist movements in Poland takes place with the support of the state authorities of the Republic of Poland and is accompanied by a gradual shift of emphasis on controversial historical issues in the direction of nationalist ideology. Despite official Warsaw providing political support to Kyiv in the international arena in connection with the Russian military threat, the authorities of the Republic of Poland have no intention of blocking anti-Ukrainian activities carried out by Polish national-patriotic right-wing movements. This is due to the preparation of the ruling elite for the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the tragic events in Volyn in 2023, as well as the parliamentary election campaign. In the future, the activation of radical right-conservative formations on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth may lead to protest actions in Poland, the purpose of which will be the dissemination of information unfavorable to our state in the Polish information space, which will have a negative impact on the formation of the foreign policy vector of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Ukrainian direction.

Walking Towards Peace: Generating Synergies at a Regional Level

Walking Towards Peace is a regional community of practice made up of peace and justice organizations across Latin America and the Caribbean. Its goals are to build capacity for Catholic grassroots organizations with peacebuilding methodologies, to share peacebuilding experiences, and promote the role of the Catholic Church as an agent of peacebuilding. Through its cooperative regional focus and its focus on communities of practice, Walking Towards Peace exemplifies synodality in action, and it shows how synodality can be connected to peacebuilding praxis.

The Northern League (1991–2020)

Abstract This article aims to clarify the attitude of the Italian Northern League (Lega Nord) toward the Catholic Church and Catholic faith, since its creation in 1991. The article examines the evolution of the party from the merger of the northern regionalist parties under the leadership of Umberto Bossi (1991–2012) until its current form and its reengineering by its new leader, Matteo Salvini, as a national(ist) League (Lega) aiming to win votes and mandates all over Italy and to become the dominant party of the Italian right. Be it under Bossi or Salvini, the Lega Nord/Lega has always opposed both the humanist teaching of the Catholic Church and mainstream Catholic social organizations, while pretending to defend the “Catholic identity” of the “North,” before turning to the entire country. Under Salvini’s leadership, the Lega joined forces with some rightist Catholic groups prone to complain about Pope Francis’s deemed treason of the Catholic identity, and so reinforced its conservative orientation. As I will show in this article, in the medium term, the enduring success of the Lega Nord/Lega illustrates the decline of mainstream Catholicism in Italy.