Catholic Practice Research Articles

Sensorial and Sonic Aspects in the Writings of the “English-American” Thomas Gage (c. 1603–1656) on Mexico and Guatemala

Objective/Context: This article examines dimensions of sensoriality within the writings of Thomas Gage (c. 1603–1656) regarding his experiences as a Dominican friar in Mexico and Guatemala between 1625 and 1637. His 1648 travelogue, The English-American His Travail by Sea and Land, is the first detailed eyewitness report of daily life in the Spanish colonies by an English writer. Yet this work and his other writings were published after he converted to Protestantism and formed an explicit part of anti-Catholic discourse in England. Methodology: Written from a historical-musicological perspective, this study is informed by the approaches of sensory history to identify and critique the sonic episodes and metaphors in Gage’s texts. It critically analyzes his travelogue and investigates how his accounts of musical, gastronomic, and religious experiences underpinned and influenced his political and theological views. To draw out his unique perspectives on music, it also considers soundscapes and the material and cultural dimensions in his descriptions. Originality: Recent scholarship has shown how Gage’s transnational and transconfessional identities did not fit traditional frameworks of analysis and limited scholarly attention to him. Lately, however, researchers have highlighted his mention of the senses. This article focuses specifically on hearing to show that his writings contain unique viewpoints and data on music and sound. Conclusions: Assessment of Thomas Gage within the frameworks of musicology and sensory history demonstrates that he invoked the senses in seemingly unique ways, especially by conflating their physical and metaphysical dimensions when critiquing Catholic practices in colonial contexts.

Pesaguan Dayak Kanjan Serayong Custom: The Relationship between Catholic Faith and Culture

Integrating Catholicism and Kanjan Serayong culture within the Pesaguan Dayak community exemplifies the dynamic interplay between religious and cultural rituals, particularly in funeral ceremonies, fostering communal solidarity and cultural resilience through a seamless blend of traditional and Catholic practices. This research aims to elucidate how these cultural and religious elements coexist and reinforce each other within the community. Employing qualitative methods, the study includes interviews with three Pesaguan Dayak Indigenous Leaders and informants, participant observations, and literature analysis guided by Victor Turner's theory of ritual structure. The findings highlight that both Catholicism and Kanjan Serayong culture places a strong emphasis on rituals, particularly funeral ceremonies, which are central to honoring the deceased and fostering communal solidarity. The study reveals a profound respect for sacred traditions and cultural heritage, showing that rituals reflect a seamless blend of Catholic and indigenous practices, indicative of cultural adaptation and resilience. This research underscores the need for further studies on cultural inculturation within Indigenous communities, comparative analyses across different cultural contexts, and interdisciplinary collaborations to enhance the understanding of Indigenous spirituality and cultural heritage preservation. Additionally, this study recommends involving local communities in the research process to promote mutual learning and effective cultural preservation strategies.

The intersection of religion and society: Inconsistencies in the practice of Catholicism among Filipinos

Religion, as an inherent part of individuals' identity, is intricately interwoven into the fabric of their lives, shaping their values, beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, and practices, and influencing their interactions within the broader societal context. With this, the study guided by a descriptive research design and a quantitative research approach aimed to investigate people’s perspectives towards selected practices that go against Catholicism in the Philippines being the only catholic country in Asia and the third largest in the world. A survey was conducted among Catholic Filipinos, and the results revealed that the majority do not adhere to all the teachings and beliefs of Catholicism. Despite being the dominant religion in the country, the practice has become selective. Most do not see cohabitation, extramarital sex, the punishment of death penalty for heinous crimes, and premarital sex as unfavorable, despite being sins in Catholicism. However, they had a negative perspective towards prostitution. The study also found that younger, male, and single individuals tend to be more accepting of cohabitation, premarital sex, and extramarital affairs. The study suggests that there is a need for the Catholic Church to reassess its teachings and find ways to better connect with the younger generation, while addressing the issue of selective adherence to its principles.

Constructing Mary through Pilgrimages: Lived Catholic Mariology in Poland

This article presents selected aspects of Marian pilgrimages in the context of lived Catholicism in Poland. Lived Catholic Mariology is a concept introduced in this paper and discussed in terms of the intimate as well as communal relationships people establish with Mary through and in various rituals (e.g., pilgrimages), sites (e.g., shrines) and objects (e.g., images). Links between materializing Mary through images; affective, sensual and corporeal religious experiences; and community bonding are presented. They are discussed by drawing on approaches that refer to material religion, religion as mediation, concepts of sensational forms, and aesthetic formations. When examining the centrality of Marian images in Polish pilgrimage practices, this paper focuses on earlier developments, especially (1) those connected with the growth of Marian shrines during the Counter Reformation period and (2) the role played by traditional and innovative Marian pilgrimages during the Communist period in Poland (1945–1989). The final part of the paper refers to the recent changes connected with political polarization of Polish society, the process of radicalization through right-wing discourses that embrace Marian imagery and pilgrimages, the decline of Roman Catholicism and Catholic practices among Poles, and emerging alternative currents relating to Mary and pilgrimages in religious and secular contexts. Referring to various historical and current examples, this paper proposes seeing pilgrimages through the lived religion approach with a focus on materiality and mediatory dimension of religion.

Confucian Response to the Challenge Posed by Catholicism: Wang Fuzhi’s Views of Catholicism

Despite his significant influence, Wang Fuzhi’s perspective on Catholicism and its actual impact on his philosophical outlook have yet to be thoroughly examined. This essay aims to delve into this topic and elucidate Wang’s attitude toward Catholicism, highlighting its evolution over time. In his earlier ideological developments, Wang Fuzhi adopted a staunchly critical approach to Catholicism, primarily from an ethical standpoint and through the lens of the Hua-Yi differentiation (hua yi zhi bian 华夷之辨). He perceived Catholicism as a doctrine of Yi 夷, lacking an understanding of the proper human place within relationships. Moreover, he pointed out that Catholicism was characterized by dogmatic adherence, in contrast to the Confucian emphasis on embodying the “mean” (Zhong 中) in practical terms. However, in his old age, Wang Fuzhi’s perspective underwent a subtle shift, spurred by the astronomical observations conducted by missionaries like Matteo Ricci. This shift prompted him to re-evaluate the Confucian concept of heaven and led him to assert that certain Catholic practices were essentially endeavors of “investigating things” (gewu 格物). This reinterpretation encouraged individuals to explore the significance of engaging with the external world—a facet often overlooked in the context of Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism. Wang Fuzhi embarked on an endeavor to integrate Catholicism into the Confucian framework. He identified select Catholic ideas that aligned with his own viewpoint and incorporated them into the doctrine of qi. Despite his lifelong dedication to Confucianism, the challenges posed by Catholicism and the activities of missionaries compelled him to reassess and, in some instances, embrace new ideas that deviated from his predecessors’ stance.

The Feast of the Nazarene of Caguach: Religious Identity, Geography, and Community in the Archipelago of Chiloé

Abstract Every 30 August in the archipelago of Chiloé, the small island of Caguach welcomes hundreds of pilgrim seafarers who participate in the feast of Jesus Christ the Nazarene. The life-size figure of Christ carrying the cross is the most important cult image of Chiloé, and its worship can be seen as a transcultural product of the contact between Europeans and the Indigenous population since colonial times. In order to understand the emergence and dynamics of the feast as well as its significance for Chiloé’s religious identity, this article makes use of an ethnohistorical approach that connects Indigenous cultural practices with the structural characteristics and material culture of the Jesuit circular mission and the narrative roots of the feast. In this regard, two aspects are highlighted as particularly significant: first, the social structures based on the principles of collectivity and reciprocity that both shaped Indigenous and Catholic practices, especially concerning the intimate relationship between the local population and the images involved in the cult; and second, the importance of the natural space and its elements, such as water, mountains, or rain, which in Indigenous mythology and religion represented powerful entities with which people interacted continuously. These transcultural practices came into conflict with the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Catholic reform policies that aimed to “civilize” the local veneration of saints.

Neither Zarathushtra nor Pope: Zoroastrianism as a Front for the Anglican Church’s Attacks on Catholicism

This paper scrutinizes how three seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century authors associated with the Anglican Church – Henry Lord, Thomas Hyde, and Humphrey Prideaux – inserted their understanding of the teachings of Zoroaster and the religion of the Parsis into the argumentative arsenal they regularly employed against what they perceived as the rigidity, excessive ritualization, and incomprehensible language found in contemporary Roman Catholic practices. These authors are tied to and reflect the consolidation of the Anglican Church and British colonial expansion. The two processes not only overlapped for a considerable period, but were also entangled, indirectly leading to an increase in scholarly knowledge about different cultures and religious communities, while in the long term also providing discursive ammunition against the Catholic Church and the Pope. This enquiry seeks to contribute towards a better understanding of an often-neglected middle ground between inter- and intra-religious debates, on one hand, and missionary activity, on the other.

Bodily-Material Culture Techniques in the Spaces of the Devotional Revolution

Abstract This essay addresses how new procedural knowledge was promoted during the devotional revolution in nineteenth-century Ireland, particularly in relation to bodily-material culture techniques. It argues that a more orthopraxic physical disposition was a significant aspect of the experience and practice of Catholicism, and suggests ways of thinking about that in relation to religious imagination and space. In this, it sees bodies as connected to artefacts through material practices. The bodily-material culture techniques under discussion include gesture, ways of interacting with objects and spaces, and in general the embedding of new forms of material knowledge and body schema. In this, this essay re-examines the relationship between religious and secular space during this period. On the one hand, at this time the intense construction and prominent siting of thousands of religious buildings including churches, denominational institutions and entire urban quarters suggest that sacred and secular spaces were highly defined and circumscribed. However, a focus on bodies and objects also suggests the idea of immanence, and a more fluid inter-relationship between sacred and profane space than might be generally considered. The contribution draws largely on regulatory and instructive literature including catechisms and popular devotional tracts, personal testimony and specific liturgical and devotional objects and spaces.

Spiritualizing Politics Without Politicizing Religion: The Example of Sargent Shriver by James R. Price and Kenneth R. Melchin

Reviewed by: Spiritualizing Politics Without Politicizing Religion: The Example of Sargent Shriver by James R. Price and Kenneth R. Melchin David O’Brien Spiritualizing Politics Without Politicizing Religion: The Example of Sargent Shriver. By James R. Price and Kenneth R. Melchin. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2022. 200 pp. $45.00. This is an important book. James R. Price and Kenneth R. Melchin have a fresh address to the very old question of “religion and politics” as it once again explodes across the world and even upsets long settled arrangements here in the United States. The authors want to help clarify the situation which they think has been made difficult by the “fog of the culture wars,” the “proliferation of doctrinaire religious convictions,” and the “growing secularism the academy and the public square.” Price and Melchin are determined not to contribute to these endless debates but instead to “think responsibly about politics and religion” and offer constructive proposals designed to enable communities of faith to help their members carry out their shared responsibilities for public life. Their goal is contained in the title: to “spiritualize politics without politicizing religion.” To do this they intend to “affirm the religion-politics distinction that guards freedom of conscience and diversity of belief” while, with equal conviction, “affirming the religion–politics relations that ensure religious involvement in nurturing values essential for public life.” They understand that balancing religious [End Page 95] integrity and shared responsibility will always be a challenge, perhaps requiring in some cases conscientious objection to agreed-upon policies. The authors believe that religion and politics need to be distinguished from each other, but that politics needs religion to achieve its objectives while Christians need politics to carry out Gospel-based obligations. Faced with religious diversity, religion must avoid the twin temptations of disengagement and withdrawal at one end and theocratic power at the other. Politics on the other hand—and here they usually mean liberal democratic politics—requires the spiritual and moral energy of religion if its citizens are to bear their shared responsibility for self-government. Rather than lament divisions, Price and Melchin look for ways to address these challenges with full respect for religious claims and civic responsibilities. They begin with an extended analysis of the speeches of Sargent Shriver, founding leader of the Peace Corps. Shriver’s life and work illustrates how this worked out with one “exemplary figure.” They find him first as a Catholic layman familiar with church teaching, influenced by the scholastic philosophy of natural law updated by Jacques Maritain, and engaged with lively movements of Catholic Action inspiring women and men of his generation to take on new responsibilities at the centers of American life now open to them. Shriver found leadership roles in public education, race relations, and civic dialogue, first in Chicago, then in Washington in the administration of his brother-in-law John F. Kennedy and his successor Lyndon B. Johnson. Like so many of his generation, Shriver was formed in the remarkable families, parishes, schools, and ideas of the American Catholic community, then took full advantage of new opportunities opened by family aspirations and post-World War II prosperity. Making that move into centers of shared public responsibility while remaining faithful to Christianity and his American Catholic subculture required aspiring middle class Catholics like Shriver to adopt a bilingualism, speaking among themselves of Christian faith, Catholic practice, and the shared values found in church teaching, then using broader terms to embrace others in shared work for common purposes. When, in their professional and public work, they needed to find common ground with non-Catholics, Shriver and others continued to speak of service, respect for the other, and democratic aspirations for liberty and justice, all informed by what Shriver thought of as Christian charity. Some thought this move watered down the claims of faith, but the authors argue that, in the case of Shriver, he in fact expanded and deepened Christian ideals of justice and charity. At one point in his inter-racial work Shriver stated the goal that informed all his work: “to direct the [End Page 96] immense power of religion to shaping the conduct and thoughts of men...

Дискуссия о подлинности сакрального пространства Лорето в записках Василия Григоровича-Барского

The article analyzes three fragments from the travel notes of Vasily Grigorovich- Barsky about pilgrimage sites identified as the house of the Virgin Mary in Mariazell, Loreto and Nazareth. This traveler, who lived in the 18th century, was an Orthodox Christian and his education was very close to European University tradition, was interested not only in the appearance and history of these complexes, but also in the authenticity of the objects of wor-ship. The texts about Mariazell and Loreto are non-critical descriptions, although about the shrine in Nazareth in his description Barsky is doubting about the authenticity of what he had seen earlier. Bringing scientific arguments, he is convinced of the falsity of the Catholic shrine in Loreto and the falsity of the legend about moving the house to another location. His rea-soning, at first glance, is a natural part of interfaith polemics, but when referring to the tradi-tion of Loretan criticism, it turns out that the author is included in the polemic that began in European religious and scientific circles long before him. His arguments are of interest from the point of view of the history of the Church, since he refutes Catholic practice, relying on arguments of a scientific nature, and not on theology.

Seeing Clearly: A Buddhist Guide to Life by Nicolas Bommarito

Reviewed by: Seeing Clearly: A Buddhist Guide to Life by Nicolas Bommarito Jake H. Davis (bio) Seeing Clearly: A Buddhist Guide to Life. By Nicolas Bommarito. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. xviii + 298. Hardcover $19.95, ISBN 978-0-190887-50-6. In Seeing Clearly, Nicolas Bommarito brings together Buddhist theory and practice with a deceptively simple sophistication that few have managed in the contemporary era. Meditation teachers have contributed to the self-help section an abundance of guides to Buddhism and meditation, many of them elegantly worded and sometimes simple and practical. Yet many of these works also stumble unwittingly into philosophical problems discussed with great care and complexity in footnoted academic volumes read mostly by a small circle of scholars. Bommarito's accomplishment as a philosopher is evident not only in the clarity of his exposition, but also in what he doesn't say, in the many philosophical blunders he does not fall into. Yet the reasons for not saying what he doesn't say are, for the most part, left for elsewhere. This allows his exposition to remain straightforward and accessible, aimed unwaveringly at the practical goal of facing up to the troubling aspects of life and living from that truth. Seeing Clearly offers us an outstanding example of work that is philosophically sophisticated, thoroughly Buddhist, and refreshingly contemporary. The first portion of the book is devoted to Philosophy, the second to Practice. Bommarito is adept at explaining both the distinction and also the connection between the two. Both theoretical understanding and practical transformation aim at solving a single problem, that "our visceral ways of experiencing things misrepresent how the world is" (p. 17). To change this, you need to know some facts about how the world is, and you need to know some facts about what to do in light of how the world is. But knowing these facts is not enough. We can understand and evaluate Buddhist claims as abstract ideas, but seeing the truths that Buddhist teachings are pointing to "isn't just a matter of changing what you think or believe, but also how you perceive, feel, and experience life" (p. 5). In line with this emphasis on experience, Bommarito offers one delightfully apt analogy after another, helping to bring into focus things that might otherwise be too foreign or too familiar to see clearly. The analogies he [End Page 1] offers for relic veneration and Buddhist pilgrimage, for example, opened up for me a new--and more charitable--way of understanding those practices. An Elvis fan might get more excited about listening to Elvis's music after a pilgrimage to Graceland, and you might call your friend more often after visiting a place where you spent time together when you were young. In the same way, making a pilgrimage to a special place or handling a special relic can make you more motivated to actually make changes to how you live your life and to actually do other Buddhist practices. (p. 149) Bommarito also offers a pointed analogy for the modern appropriation of Buddhist mindfulness practices. He asks us to imagine an Asian country where people have started using rosaries to relieve stress and anxiety. They start selling their own brands of rosaries and having conferences where they invite Catholic priests to speak, though they ask them to downplay the role of God and faith in the rosary practice. This is because, they say, they've actually discovered the true essence of Catholicism and it doesn't involve any of the other Catholic practices or beliefs at all. Turns out, Catholics have just been mistaken about what their own religion is really about for thousands of years. (p. 198) Bommarito's point here is that for Buddhists, awareness practices are done with a particular purpose: "if you're trying to solve a fundamental problem in life by retraining your mental habits, it's important to develop a focused awareness of what's really going on in and around you" (p. 198). Using mindfulness meditation for sleep or productivity may well work, "but like using a rosary for relaxation, it's pretty different from how it works in its original context" (p...

Bad Christians, New Spains: Muslims, Catholics, and Native Americans in a Mediterratlantic World

In Bad Christians, New Spains, Byron Ellsworth Hamann has attempted an ambitious goal—comparing the experiences of Indigenous Mesoamericans and Spanish moriscos (descendants of Muslim converts to Christianity)—through a tightly focused monograph on two sets of Inquisition trials, one on each side of the Atlantic. Hamann analyzes these trials in dialogue to provide evidence of the interconnections across the Spanish empire in the sixteenth century. His focus on a “Mediterratlantic world” provides concrete examples of the global vision of early modern Spaniards, thus carrying forward the work of scholars such as Francisco Bethencourt and Kimberly Lynn on the Inquisition, Henry Kamen on Spain’s empire, and Sabine MacCormack on the legacy of antiquity in the early modern Spanish world. Hamann’s monograph contributes to the ongoing project of destabilizing the assumption that ideas, knowledge, and power flowed exclusively from the center to the periphery. He also highlights the ways in which relations between local authorities and minority populations were more complex than commonly imagined, building on the work of scholars such as James Tueller and Patrick O’Banion.His two microstudies are both focused in the 1540s. One set of trials took place in Oaxaca, located today in Mexico; while the other set of trials occurred in Valencia, Spain. Comparing these trials is productive, although at times Hamann underestimates the differences between the episcopal trials in Oaxaca (under the authority of the bishop and ultimately the Pope) and the Spanish Inquisition trials in Valencia (a state office under the authority of the inquisitor general and ultimately the king). Hamann rightly notes that the Spanish Inquisition was not established in New Spain until 1571, and in any event did not have the authority to try Indigenous people in the Americas—but the implications of this key difference between the experiences of Indigenous Americans and moriscos could have been considered in more detail throughout the monograph.Hamann begins his book with a brief introduction and a first chapter introducing his case studies, together with a broad overview of historiographical comparisons of Spanish interactions with Muslims and Native Americans. His second chapter maps out these two communities, introduces a summary of inquisitorial procedures, and establishes his analytical approach. From there, Hamann moves to the heart of his analysis, namely, a series of thematic chapters addressing the diversity of Catholic practices (chapter 3); material culture, particularly mosques and sculptures of Indigenous deities (chapter 4); iconoclastic violence (chapter 5); practices regarding the dead (chapter 6); and a discussion of various linguistic means of discussing time and the relationship between past, present, and future as a mechanism of exerting authority over subject populations (chapter 7). Chapter 5, “Ruination,” with its discussion of the destruction of mosques, “idols,” temples, and even clothing, emphasizes the experience of sacred violence and the relative importance of public practices rather than interior beliefs. Hamann also points out that by destroying these items and consigning them to the past, the destroyers also created something new, namely, the ruin, which continued to have an impact on surrounding communities. This is his most compelling chapter.Comparative transatlantic scholarship is complex and involves mastering multiple historiographies. Hamann is relatively new to inquisitorial research and inquisitorial historiography, and as a result he is cautious in how he reads, transcribes, and analyzes the documents. But despite that occasional hesitance he has provided an interesting window into the exercise of authority and resistance to that authority across a religiously and ethnically diverse mid-sixteenth-century Spanish Atlantic world.

Anointing with the Holy Oil of St. Sharbel — a New Phenomenon in Catholic Practice

In recent years, especially in eastern Slovakia, a new phenomenon has emerged in Catholic practice — anointing with the Holy Oil of St. Sharbel. Although the rite of such anointing is not found in any liturgical book, some Catholic priests of the Latin rite, especially in this part of the country, confer it to the Catholics of their rite. Catholics from various parts of Slovakia, western Poland, Ukraine, Moravia and others also take part in it. The author of the article mainly uses the comparative method, comparing this practice with the documents of the Magisterium and the bishop guidelines. He tries to find out if it is a sacramental in the Maronite church. If so, he states that the priests of the Latin rite cannot confer sacramental of the Maronite church without permission. The aim of the article is to find an answer to the question of whether it is a sacramental within the Catholic Church of the Latin rite or a rite that belongs to the field of human faith, such as immersion in the Lourdes water, during which several miraculous healings have taken place, but which is not accompanied by any assistance by a priest or deacon.

Segmented Secrecy as Catholic Ecclesial Practice: The Case of Gay Priests

Abstract While social scientists have long studied secrecy as a cultural practice, theologians have neglected it as an ecclesial practice. This article examines “segmented secrecy” as an ecclesial practice, that is, secrets kept or divulged in different social networks in a segmented manner. That secrecy is examined in the lives of gay priests in Roman Catholic ecclesial settings in the United States. After a brief sociological analysis of secrecy, the theological analysis reckons first with the ethics of segmented secrecy, arguing for segmented secrecy as a “burdened” form of the virtue of honesty. Next it turns to segmented secrecy as an ecclesial practice, a provisional way of securing protection for marginal persons amidst the larger eschatological protect of the church in the world, despite some moral hazards involved.

Transformations of Religiosity during the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic—On the Example of Catholic Religious Practices of Polish Students

This paper attempts to identify the changes in religiosity among Catholic practitioners in Poland that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, based on the changes in the realization of religious practices by students (N = 354). A questionnaire prepared by the authors was used for the study. We sought to answer the question of the extent to which the socio-demographic characteristics of the subjects, a history of COVID-19, and the death of a family member due to SARS-CoV-2 infection differentiated the subjects’ opinions about religiosity and their undertaking of religious practices. The paper also addresses the issue of media-facilitated religious practices. The study showed that the frequency of religious practices was influenced by the perceived religiosity of the family, the religiosity of the respondent, and the declaration concerning the belief in God. The same factors most often significantly differentiated respondents’ opinions on COVID-19. No relationship was confirmed between having COVID-19 and subjects’ beliefs about the pandemic or frequency of religious practice. Among the respondents, the pandemic did not intensify the practice of religion. In the face of danger, respondents did not turn to God; there was no revitalization of religion. The situation of limiting the physical experience communion of the Church was treated not as an acute undersupply but as an opportunity or a pretext to abandon the practice of religion.

외교총장 陸徵祥의 베네딕도 수도회 수행과 구국 활동 – 陸徵祥 회고록(回憶與隨想)을 중심으로

Lu Zhengxiang (陸徵祥, 1871-1949) is the only person in Chinese history to make a life vow at the Benedictine Abbey Saint-Andrew''s in Bruges, Belgium, after serving as foreign minister and prime minister of the Republic of China as a diplomat in the late Qing Dynasty. He is a former prime minister and a priest. During his tenure as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China, he established a system for cultivating diplomatic talents and laid the foundation for the modernization of Chinese diplomacy. Under the coercion of President Yuan Shikai, Lu signed the Treaty of 21 Treaties with Japan which the people criticized, but his decision to refuse to sign the Treaty of Versailles at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 restored honor for his mistake in signing the 21 Treaties. The reasoning behind Lu Zhengxiang leaving the office was not just to leave the world; he did other rescue activities in the monastery. He entered the Monastery of St. Andreas, Belgium, on the 5th of July 1927 and performed the asceticism of poverty. Lu’s motivation for choosing the Benedictine Monastery was to realize the revival of the Chinese nation by absorbing the Catholic spirit, the spiritual power of Europe. He helped the Catholic Church in China while paying attention to China''s political, social, and ecclesiastical developments at the monastery. During the Sino-Japanese War, he gave a lecture in Belgium to criticize the war of aggression of Japan and the Nazis. He informed China''s efforts to resist the war and the situation of the Catholic Church. He was in charge of the < 益世報 Overseas Correspondence >, and carried out rescue activities to promote and help China''s anti-Japanese war internationally by mobilizing all his contacts as a diplomat and linking with Catholic organizations. Lu’s rescue activities were a Catholic practice of love and loyalty to the country as a priest. His theory of reforming and supplementing Chinese culture as a part of Catholic religious culture overestimates moral competence. Further, the idea is criticized for its'' limitation on national salvation through cultural convergence without a realistic basis. However, his salvation ideology and practice are included in the large flow of rescue activities attempted by Chinese intellectuals in the first half of the 20th century. It is meaningful in that it enhances China''s international status by acting as a bridge between the Chinese government, the Vatican, the Chinese Catholic Church, and attempts to converge East and West cultures.

Cultivating the spirit: Catholic educators, primary education and pedagogy in Early Third Republic France

ABSTRACTIn the Early Third Republic (c. 1880–1914), the role of Catholic educators was called into question by the convergence of two different calls for change within French society. As the government of the Third Republic sought to reform primary-school instruction, there were renewed debates in French society about the role of Catholic institutions. Cast as untrained and partisan teachers by advocates of Republican educational reform, Catholic teachers and pedagogues sought to assert their place among modern educators. A close reading of late nineteenth-century Catholic pedagogical materials reveals, however, that objections to Republican education came from its content and not its form. The education of the senses, the progression from known to unknown, and the introduction of children to abstract concepts were all pedagogical techniques that could be reconciled with Catholic educational practice. In response, advocates for the role of Catholicism in primary education stressed their role in shaping future citizens and sought to establish their credentials as educators. This case study, which focuses on French primary education, speaks to the growth in international pedagogical norms in the late nineteenth century and the dynamism of French Catholicism’s attempts to reconcile tradition and modernity.

A Study On Catholic Religious Practices In The Seminary As Stress Coping Mechanisms And Its Effects On The Well-Being Of Grade 11 Seminarians

A Study On Catholic Religious Practices In The Seminary As Stress Coping Mechanisms And Its Effects On The Well-Being Of Grade 11 Seminarians

Estebanillo González - A New Perspective on the Last Pícaro

ABSTRACT Estebanillo González is the last Spanish picaresque novel, but its eponymous protagonist rarely features in the discussions on the genre in the way other male characters, Lazarillo, Guzmán or Pablos do. In this article, drawing on earlier literary criticism and historical research concerning religious diasporas in Early Modern Europe, I offer a new analysis of the protagonist’s possible converso origins. The protagonist’s attitude towards his alleged hidalguía questions the relevance of social status. In the second part of the article, I argue that behind the protagonist’s jokes and puns hides religious scepticism aimed in particular at Counter-Reformation techniques of casuistry. Both hidalguía and Catholic practices, fundamental aspects of Spanish society, are therefore undermined. Estebanillo, as the last picaro, offers his own original vision of the self in the world and as such should join the picaresque trio.

Eucharistic celebration and spiritual capital: the experience of students in a Spanish Catholic school – A research report inspired by the work of Dr Ann Casson, UK (2013)

There is clear evidence of increasing secularisation across Europe; nevertheless, the authority of the Christian tradition persists. This study focuses on the case of Spain, a well-founded Catholic origin country, which, in just a few decades has become from being one of the most religious to one of the least among Catholics. This investigation presents the experience of the spiritual capital generated by the Eucharistic celebration, viewed from the perspective of young students, and expressed in their own words. The Eucharistic celebration is still considered to be a spiritual ‘nutrition’ for most Catholic people; however, is it for the young generation? Our results indicate that the experience of ‘being Catholic’ is understood outside of the traditional forms of Catholic practices. The essential Catholic practice, the Mass, is no longer recognised as a ‘fingerprint’ of Catholicity. Nevertheless, when a sample of students were asked about the Mass, they understood the Eucharistic celebration in terms of the spiritual capital, as a source of values of solidarity, well-being, recognition of social injustices, experiences of joy, strength, feelings of gratitude, etc. However, only 8% of the students declare to participate regularly in the Mass; and, more than 50% of young people do not benefit from this resource of spiritual capital deposited in the Eucharist. Therefore, its connection with regular practice has become tenuous. One of the possible reasons for such a situation is the lack of understanding of the Mass and its spiritual, social and symbolic importance, and also by the lack of youth participation in active roles in the celebration of the Mass.