Catholic Theological Faculty Research Articles

Wydziały teologiczne na Uniwersytecie Warszawskim 1918–1939

There were two theological faculties at the University of Warsaw: the Faculty of Catholic Theology and the Faculty of Evangelical Theology. There was also the Seminary of Orthodox Theology. Such a solution was not present at other Polish interwar state universities, where only faculties of Catholic theology were established (apart from the University of Poznań, where such a faculty did not come into existence). The Faculty of Catholic Theology at the University of Warsaw was intended only for graduates from theological seminaries, while at the other state universities, the laity of both sexes was also eligible to apply. Compared to the entire University of Warsaw, its theological faculties were the smallest structures regarding the number of students and researchers. The involvement of the staff in scientific work varied considerably, but the approach to lecturing was usually very competent. The student’s diligence was not at a high level. A vast majority of students did not graduate from the university on time, though this was true for most disciplines at all universities. The relations between the two theological faculties at the University of Warsaw were not painless. Also, the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Education leaned towards combining all three theological structures of the University of Warsaw into one, which eventually did not materialize, and the faculties remained separate entities until the outbreak of World War II.

Conference Report on Vienna Postgraduate Symposium “War in Ukraine: Ethical, Theological and Historical Reflections”

Abstract This report takes a detailed and thorough look at the symposium regarding the ongoing war in Ukraine, held at the Faculty of Catholic Theology of the University of Vienna on 13-17 February 2023. Its main focus lies on the presenting views and responses of the religious leaders in Ukraine to the ethical dilemmas and challenges caused by Russia’s war of aggression (2014-present), and attempts at reconciliation and peacebuilding. Besides discussing the statements of the leaders of Christian Churches the report also raises an issue of the involvement of representatives of Muslim communities in the war actions, which underlines the interreligious aspect of the symposium.

Australian Objects in the Religious Studies Collection at the University of Münster: The “Pater Worms Collection” as a Case of Inter-Religious Contact

The paper discusses the Australian artefacts in the collection of the Institute for the Study of Religion at the University of Münster. The collection was established in the 1950s with the intention to exemplify, for students of Catholic theology, the wide variety of material expressions developed by different religious traditions in the world. The collection also highlights zones of missionary contact and their inclusion in theological thinking about non-Christian traditions. The Australian objects were given to the collection in the second half of the 1950s by the Pallottine missionary Ernest Worms. It is not the goal of this paper to attempt a thorough ethnological analysis of the objects; instead, we discuss how these objects from indigenous Australian cultures were included in a collection of religious artefacts owned by the Faculty of Catholic Theology of the University of Münster and to what extent the founder of the collection, Anton Antweiler, considered these objects expressions of the religions and religious history of Australia. To this end, the correspondence between Worms and Antweiler has been analysed, particularly where Worms discusses these objects extensively from both a missionary perspective and from his point of view as a scholar researching Australian cultures. In addition, his German treatise on the religions of Australia (*Die Religionen der Südsee und Australiens*) was consulted. Based on these sources, Worms’ perception of the religions and cultures of Australia and how it informed his collecting activities can be reconstructed at least partially. At the same time, the paper attempts to direct the focus at the objects themselves as bearers of information. The material artefacts that were collected, described and finally sent to Münster to be exhibited tell their own stories about cultural and religious contact, in Australia as well as in Germany, where they were shown to students of Catholic Theology and are accessible for students and staff members until today.

A Conference Report: ‘Symposium on Language and Style in Bible Versions: A West Slavic View’ (1 July 2022, Catholic Theological Faculty, Charles University, Prague)

A Conference Report

A Conference Report: ‘Symposium on Language in West Slavic Bible Versions: Shapes and Shifts’ (2 July 2021, Catholic Theological Faculty, Charles University, Prague)

A Conference Report

A Review-Reflection

A Review-Reflection Leonard Swidler Rebecca Moore, A Blessing to Each Other: A New Account of Jewish and Christian Relations. Pearl River, NY: Crossroad Publishing Co., 2021. Pp. 293. $32.95, paper. Rebecca Moore, A Blessing to Each Other: A New Account of Jewish and Christian Relations. Pearl River, NY: Crossroad Publishing Co., 2021. Pp. 293. $32.95, paper. This book is the work of a Christian scholar about the relationship between Christianity and Judaism. First a word—or several—of self-disclosure. I was born of an Irish-American Catholic mother, Josephine Marie Reed, and a Jewish Ukrainian father, Samuel Swidler. I had twenty-two years of formal Catholic education, with a B.A., M.A., and S.T.L. from Catholic institutions of higher learning—including the fifteenth-century Roman-established Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Tübingen—and a Ph.D. in "Intellectual History" from the then reputedly "godless" University of Wisconsin, at Madison. My father became an active baptized Catholic at age forty-five. My mother was one of fifteen children raised Catholic. I grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Despite being the home of the world-famous professional football team, Green Bay Packers, it had only a population of 35,000 then. Moreover, it could not muster the needed ten adult male Jews to form a formal Jewish religious community. Being born on January 6, 1929, I grew up as a Catholic "Great Depression Baby" until my mid-twenties, when I lived, studied, and taught for several years in 1950's Germany. Starting then, I became increasingly deeply aware of Judaism, the Holocaust, and interreligious dialogue. That led me—and the rest of Western Civilization, as well as the rest of the world—through the over three-quarters of a century since Adolf Hitler became the "Herr Kanzler, Sieg Heil!" of Germany in January, 1933. The world took a decade and a half to begin to recover from the blood lust of the 1930's and early 1940's. It redirected itself through the turmoil of the 1960's to a new consciousness and new vision. Vatican Council II (1962–65) [End Page 455] dramatically dragged the Catholic Church out of the seventeenth century into the twentieth. Deep in the heart of that Vatican II renewal—both Catholic and catholic—was the revisioning of the largest and most structurally organized religious body in the world. Hence, Catholicism—with its current 1,350,000,000 members of the world's 7,500,000,000—has an effect far in excess of its being eighteen percent of the world's population. Vatican II Catholicism has reoriented itself from a closed-fortress mentality to an open, dialogically directed one. At the foundation of that structural redirection has been a structural reunderstanding of itself. That meant rethinking itself and its relation to the rest of the world from its very beginning coming out of first-century Judea and the 6,000,000 monotheists then living in the Roman Empire (at that time within a total population of 100,000,000). The Vatican II dialogic self-understanding significantly affects the way Catholicism understands itself and the world—that is, in dialogue—and acts accordingly. Dialogue becomes a fulcrum to "lift the world" benignly. I long ago decided to use that fulcrum to my maximum ability. Now, to the book at hand! Moore does the contemporary world a great service. She carefully and with sensitive surety of current scholarship and research outlines for the reader whence came currently designated "Christianity" and "Judaism." She clearly describes the broad outline of their respective developments and interrelationships up to the present. Today, it is a much more benign relationship than in the prior grim centuries. The relatively positive relationship of the two monotheistic bodies in the Roman Empire of the fourth century deteriorated subsequently, so that, by the High Middle Ages (1200–1600), it deteriorated badly. However, in the wake of Vatican II, the relationship has dramatically improved so that it now has significantly surpassed in positivity even that of those earlier relatively benign centuries. Moore carefully lays out the positive developments in research and rethought and provides an excellent roadmap for...

Conference Report: ‘A Symposium on West Slavic Bible: Language and Style’ (3 July 2020, Catholic Theological Faculty, Charles University, Prague)

Conference Report: ‘A Symposium on West Slavic Bible: Language and Style’ (3 July 2020, Catholic Theological Faculty, Charles University, Prague)

Conference Report: ‘John Henry Newman – a Theologian and Saint’ (31 October 2019, Catholic Theological Faculty, Charles University, Prague)

Conference Report: ‘John Henry Newman – a Theologian and Saint’ (31 October 2019, Catholic Theological Faculty, Charles University, Prague)

Bioetička edukacija na teološkim fakultetima Univerziteta u Sarajevu

U okviru Univerziteta u Sarajevu egzistiraju dva teološka fakulteta, Fakultet islamskih nauka i Katolički bogoslovni fakultet. Obje visokoobrazovne institucije dugo vremena nisu bile u sastavu navedenog sveučilišta, budući da su obitavale isključivo pod okriljem religijskih institucija. Na navedenim fakultetima izučavaju se, pored teoloških, i svjetovni moduli, te je primjetno da se polju bioetike daje posebno mjesto kao jednome od neophodnih suvremenih segmenata odgojno-obrazovnog procesa. Analogno rečenome, u tekstu je načinjena razdioba studijskih programa, tj. istaknuto je gradiranje znanstvenih i stručnih ciklusa u obrazovnome procesu, kako na Fakultetu islamskih nauka, gdje se nastava izvodi na dodiplomskom, diplomskom te doktorskom studiju, tako i na Katoličkom bogoslovnom fakultetu, gdje je ustaljen integrirani studij teologije, pored kojega je već nekoliko godina još zastupljen diplomski studij Međureligijski studij i izgradnja mira, koji se provodi u suradnji s Fakultetom islamskih nauka i Pravoslavnim bogoslovskim fakultetom Sv. Vasilija Ostroškog iz Foče. Pravoslavni bogoslovski fakultet je zapravo sastavnica Univerziteta u Istočnome Sarajevu, stoga nije uzet u razmatranje u ovome radu. Autori rada razmatranju bioetičkih problema pristupali su iz pozicije praktičke filozofije, tj. njene grane etike, koristeći pri tome interdisciplinarni i pluriperspektivni pristup. Na osnovi silabusa načinjena je analiza bioetičkih problema primarno iz filozofskog (etičkog) motrišta, analizirani su predmetni udžbenici i literatura. Naravno, vodilo se računa o radovima nastavnika s ovih institucija, koji su pisani iz polja bioetike. Bez obzira na različito religijsko fundiranje bioetičkih problema na ova dva fakulteta,u smislu različitih epistemičkih polazišta islama i kršćanstva, u zaključcima rada ukazano je na točke zajedničkog ,,bioetičkog“ interesa, ali i razilaženja među njima.

Juden und Christen—das eine Volk Gottes by Walter Kasper

Reviewed by: Juden und Christen—das eine Volk Gottes by Walter Kasper Leonard Swidler Walter Kasper Juden und Christen—das eine Volk Gottes, Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder Verlag, 2020. Pp. 160. This is an important book. But first some pertinent—and perhaps some may also think, "impertinent"—background information. Reviewing this "must read" contribution to Jewish-Christian relations by Cardinal Professor Walter Kasper brings me back to when I was fortunate enough to be a fellow Professor with three of the most influential Catholic theologians of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, when I was Guest Professor of the Pontifical Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Tübingen, Germany, in the early 1970's. Those hyper-influential Catholic theologians are Josef Ratzinger (a.k.a. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI), Professor Hans Küng, and Cardinal Walter Kasper. I beg the readers' permission to say a word about my contact with each of them. I became a close personal friend of Küng already in 1959 when I was finishing my Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.) degree in Catholic Theology at Tübingen (perhaps the first Catholic layperson to receive a degree in Catholic theology ever!), and he was the successor there to my "Doktor Vater," Professor Heinrich Fries (who had just moved to the University of Munich). In those early years, Kasper was an assistant to Küng and subsequently became Professor there. During Vatican II, Küng was hired as the successor to Fries. A short few years later, Küng was the Dean of the Catholic Theology Faculty and hired Josef Ratzinger, with whom he earlier had been a fellow Assistant in the Catholic Theology faculty of the University of Münster and also a colleague at Vatican II. Thus, the Catholic Theology Faculty of the University of Tübingen housed at the same time three theological world-shapers—and I was privileged to know them all. [End Page 453] Walter Kasper was made Cardinal in 2001 and the Head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity during 2001–10. In many ways, this book is the fruit of his experience then, as well as his continued very active involvement in Jewish-Christian matters. The reader is the beneficiary of his manifold decades working in, and helping to shape, the ever-developing relationship between Catholics and Jews. The fact that he is a German theologian also cannot help but be important, given the Holocaust, during which all four of us were alive. This volume will be an eye-opener for those Christians and Jews, and intelligent outside observers, such as Muslims and "Nones," how these two sibling religions—Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism—came into existence and developed alongside each other. It is worth the price of the book just to learn of the family-intertwined relationship of these two religions. To begin, "Jesus" is an English spelling of the Latin Iesus, which is a translation of the New Testament Greek, Iesous, which is a translation of the Hebrew/Aramaic Yeshua. The latter was how he in life was named by his friends and enemies. Also telling, in this regard, was that he was addressed as "Rabbi," which means "Teacher." The New Testament was written Greek (the generally known language in the Roman Empire of the first century of the Common Era), and, consequently, almost always in its pages Jesus/Yeshua was addressed as Didascalos, Teacher, which is a translation of the term actually used, Rabbi ("Teacher") in Hebrew. So, when we read in English that he is addressed as Master or Lord, he in fact was addressed as Rabbi. What difference in Christian-Jewish relations might it have made over the centuries if the masses of illiterate Christians had constantly heard Yeshua addressed as Rabbi! There were at least a half dozen Jewish groups contending during Yeshua's time about what was the correct way to live as a Jew: Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, Qumranites, Hellenists, and "Yeshuites." The latter, initially, according to Luke's Acts of the Apostles, called themselves "Followers of the Way"—Hodos in Greek—of Rabbi Yeshua. It was only many decades after the death of their Rabbi that they were...

Studium Teologii Prawosławnej Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego i jego „teologiczni spadkobiercy”

In 1918, after the 120 years of occupation by three neighbouring powers, Austria, Prussia and Russia, Poland obtained its desired independence and returned on the map of Europe. Warsaw became the capital of the Republic once again. One of the authorities’ first moves was to resume the activities of the University of Warsaw that were disrupted by the war. We needed qualified staff who would rebuild the country. This concerned politics, administration, culture…, and the religious life of our homeland. For this purpose, the Faculty of Catholic Theology was established (1918), Faculty of Lutheran Theology (1922), and in 1925, the Faculty of Orthodox Studies was also opened. Throughout the 14 years of its existence up to the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the Faculty of Orthodox Studies faithfully fulfilled its mission of serving the Church, education and the homeland. It educated priests and theologians dedicated to the church and citizens committed to their homeland. Unfortunately, the process of building today’s well organized and extensive structure of higher (and secondary) Orthodox theological schooling in Poland was neither simple nor short lived. After the war, when the University of Warsaw refused the Faculty of Orthodox Studies the right to further operate, it turned into the Faculty of Orthodox Theology at the Christian Theological Academy to continue serving God, the Church and education. The Orthodox Theological Seminary in Warsaw experienced many changes and processes after the war in order to obtain its current shape and level. The Department of Orthodox Theology at the University of Bialystok was established in 1999. It is a continuation and expansion of the theological education at the University of Warsaw. The Faculty of Orthodox Studies at the University of Warsaw, the Christian Theological Academy, the Orthodox Theological Seminary and the Department of Orthodox Theology at the University of Bialystok, along with post-secondary studies in iconography and hymnography, as related academic and didactic units, have performed and still performs their tasks in serving education and the Orthodox Church. By mutually taking advantage of this experience (it should rather be said that taking advantage of the Faculty of Orthodox Studies at the University of Warsaw after the war), they fulfilled their expectations despite difficult times and unfavourable politics. They form a constantly developing spiritual and cultural common heritage of the Republic.

Hitting the Road to Shorten Distances

Survey of the 33 years of, the project Theologie interkulturell located at the Faculty of Catholic Theology at Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main.

The Change in the Macro Setting of the Church

The anti-ecumenical document Dominus Iesus, issued by the Doctrinal Congregation under the direction of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in July, 2000, claiming that the Roman Catholic Church is the sole true Church, outraged not only Protestants but also many Catholics. It is an armistice document lacking in perspective and vision. It was widely anticipated in the December 18, 1979, decree against me by the same Congregation. Already condemned at that time were three central ecumenical desiderata: * An ecumenical working through of the infallibility and primacy problematic * The recognition of Protestant and Anglican offices and eucharistic celebrations * The possibility of an overall ecumenical understanding of eucharist. It is with a yearning sadness that, in the face of the new restorationist politics of the Polish pope, I recall the 1960's: * * Then there was an Italian pope who spoke less about the Oikumene than he acted for the Oikumene, and who called to Rome those theologians who had been dismissed, banned, or otherwise restricted by his predecessor: John XXIII. * Then I participated in an ecumenical council, which, different from the later Roman Synods, did not simply repeat the constantly recalled, well-known Roman doctrines but put into action the demands of the Reformation and Enlightenment and awakened hopes of overcoming the more than 450-year church split and the twice-as-long West-East one: Vatican II. * Then there came to the University of Tubingen, in response to my invitation, the Roman Curial Cardinal Augustin Bea, President of the new Roman Secretariat for Christian Unity, who in the Festival Hall expressed his appreciation for the ecumenical service of the Tubingen theological school and held a discussion with Catholic and Protestant professors. * There the professors of the Protestant Theological Faculty opened up their working community to the colleagues of the Catholic Theological Faculty. * There we began to hold joint seminars, to mutually recognize seminar credits, to celebrate ecumenical religious services, and to plan the integration of the two large libraries. All in all, an ecumenical climate that manifested itself in the historically Protestant Tubingen. However, in the 1980's the broad weather pattern changed again: A stationary ecumenical low spread from Rome over the Alps, indeed over wide areas of Christendom. Under Pope Paul VI the ecumenical barometer long stood at changeable. Strong curial counter-streams had in fact since Vatican II attempted to put the brakes on the ecumenical renewal efforts and, in the church's upper reaches, brought them to a standstill. Curial cardinals, indeed of other nationalities, but not of another mentality, rather strengthened Romanism instead of ecumenism. The Sanctum Officium Inquisitionum (Holy Office of the Inquisition) once again changed its name--and its methods slightly--but hardly its spirit or goal. In the beginning there were critical voices in the episcopacy, such as those of Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens (Brussels), Cardinal Giacomo Lecaro (Bologna), and the Canadian and Dutch bishops, but they soon went silent because they found no support from the rest of the episcopacy, especially from the German and French. The Curia used particular conciliar texts--because of their forced compromise character--concerning collegiality/papal primacy and birth control/ethical decisions in order to interpret them in former ways. …

From the Faculty of Theology of the Kraków Academy to the John Paul II Pontifical University in Kraków 1397–2009

In 1397 Pope Boniface IX, at the request of King Władysław Jagiełło and his wife Saint Jadwiga (Hedvig), Queen of Poland, called into being a Faculty of Theology in Studium Generale in Kraków. Scientific talents and hard work together with universal support of the state and Church authorities set the young faculty on its feet immediately. The period of the first hundred years was a golden age in the development of the Faculty. It rapidly won fame not only in Poland but also in all Europe, mainly because of the speeches of its theologians at the Councils of Constance and Basle. The fame of Kraków theologians spread throughout Europe during the period of the Council of Basle. During the period of the Reformation, professors of the university, then called the Kraków Academy, were involved in defence of the Catholic Church. During the Council of Trent (1545–1563) in the university circles there appeared splendid works impugning the Protestant and neo-Arian views. The codification of dogmas at the Council of Trent facilitated the teaching methods and acceptance of Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas as the best interpretation of the Christian outlook.In 1795, Poland was completely erased from the map of Europe, torn and divided between Prussia, Russia and Austria. Kraków came under the sway of the Austrians, beginning a difficult period for the Faculty of Theology and the whole University. The Austrian system concerning politics and the Church, called Josephinism, was damaging to the theological studies there. The re-organisation of the Faculty in 1880 was very crucial. It restored full academic rights, and the increasing number of chairs initiated a period of intense re-building of the University’s role in Polish culture, which it had enjoyed in the 15th–16th centuries. In 1880–1939, the Faculty experienced something similar to a second spring, comparable with its golden 15th century. The successful development of the Faculty was dramatically interrupted by the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 and the following gehenna of the Nazi occupation.After the war, the struggle with the Church, atheistic policy and laicisation planned by the communist government prevented a normal development of the Faculty outright. The faculty’s existence was in jeopardy. The threat of liquidation appeared unavoidable and then it became fact. The Council of Ministers of the Polish People’s Republic by its unilateral decision of 1954, without any agreement with the Church, connected the Faculty of Theology of the Jagiellonian University to the Faculty of Catholic Theology of Warsaw University to form the Academy of Catholic Theology in Warsaw, which had just been created by the government. The Faculty of Theology in Kraków survived as an independent faculty due to the uncompromising attitude of the Apostolic See and the Kraków bishops. In 1974 the Faculty, functioning within the Metropolitan Seminary, was bestowed the title ‘pontifical.’ A turning point in the history of the Faculty was its re-structuring as an academy with three faculties. In 1981, Pope John Paul II established the Pontifical Academy of Theology. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI elevated it to the John Paul II Pontifical University.

Meletius von Antiochien: Studien zur Geschichte des trinitätstheologischen Streits in den Jahren 360-364 n. Chr. (review)

Reviewed by: Meletius von Antiochien: Studien zur Geschichte des trinitätstheologischen Streits in den Jahren 360-364 n. Chr. Kelley Spoerl Thomas R. Karmann Meletius von Antiochien: Studien zur Geschichte des trinitätstheologischen Streits in den Jahren 360-364 n. Chr. Regensburger Studien zur Theologie 68 Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2009 Pp. ix + 541. This study is a slightly revised version of a dissertation accepted at the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Regensburg in 2006. Its subject is Meletius of Antioch, who, prior to his death during the council, presided over the resolution of the fourth-century Trinitarian controversies at the Council of Constantinople in 381. Scholarship has seen Meletius as an important exponent of the neo-Nicene Trinitarian position, though his literary record is much slimmer than that of other representatives of this tradition, notably, the Cappadocian Fathers. Because of the dominance of the Cappadocians in studies of Greek theology in the second half of the fourth century, this study is all the more valuable. Karmann seeks to look at Meletius not only to illuminate the career and thought of a prominent churchman of the period, but to shed light on the origins of neo-Nicenism in general. He focuses on what the historical sources reveal about Meletius and his theological views between the critical years of 360 and 364. Karmann starts by examining the church political situation in Antioch prior to Meletius's election to the see sometime in the winter of 360-361. He considers Meletius's origins and his earlier episcopal appointments. Karmann establishes convincingly that Meletius came to Antioch under homoian auspices, probably having had an earlier relationship with Acacius of Caesarea, a leading figure in the homoian movement. Karmann, correctly in my opinion, notes that Acacius's theology was likely more shaped by the mainstream tradition stemming from Eusebius of Caesarea than by what later became identified as heteroousian theology, the proponents of which were in some instances protected by homoian bishops. Karmann then proceeds to examine in detail four documents that reveal Meletius's theological developments in the initial years after his episcopal appointment at Antioch. These include a sermon on Prov 8.22 Meletius is reported to have delivered in the presence of the emperor Constantius shortly after his election, Athanasius's Tomus ad Antiochenos from 362, a letter from a synod Meletius held in Antioch in 363 directed to the emperor Jovian, and a pseudo-Athanasian [End Page 141] document critical of the aforementioned synodical letter (also written probably in 363), the Refutatio hypocriseos Meletii et Eusebii Samosatenses. According to Karmann, the sermon on Prov 8.22 indicates that Meletius began his career at Antioch formally as a Homoian, since the sermon adheres to the homoian line, while nevertheless suggesting some sympathies with theological ideas congenial to the Homoiousians (purged at Constantinople 360) and even to supporters of the Nicene homoousion. Even so, Karmann says (contrary to much of the historiographical and hagiographical tradition about him), Meletius was unlikely to have been deposed shortly after his installation for explicitly Nicene views, but more likely for personnel decisions he made early in his time in Antioch. These may have included readmitting to communion Homoiousians and Nicenes who had been banned under the previous homoian bishop Eudoxius. However, Meletius cannot be seen as neo-Nicene at this stage in his career. The first glimmers of that position appear in the Tomus ad Antiochenos, where the Meletians in Antioch, with reference to whom the council fathers write, are invited to accept the Nicene creed as the only orthodox statement of faith, combining it with two key statements central to neo-Nicene theology: acceptance of three hypostases in the Christian godhead and denial of the creaturely status of the Holy Spirit. While Karmann cautiously notes that there is no clear distinction between ousia and hypostasis in the Tomus, he suggests that the outlines of one are indicated insofar as the Tomus suggests that hypostasis and ousia can be deployed differently in equally orthodox accounts of the faith. More direct evidence for Meletius's developing theology is provided by the synodal letter to Jovian, wherein Meletius and his associates endorse the Nicene homoousion...

Historical context of the restored Faculty of Catholic Theology at Vytautas Magnus University

Historical context of the restored Faculty of Catholic Theology at Vytautas Magnus University

The Local Bishop and Lay Pastoral Workers a Newly Created Function in the Church and its Impact on Episcopal Collegiality

* Faculty of Catholic Theology, Tilburg University, Netherlands 1 For France and the Netherlands, see Ad van der Helm, Un Clergé Parallèle? Étude socio-juridique de l’activité des laïcs dans l’église catholique en France et Pays-Bas (Strasbourg: Cerdic, 1993) 115–154, 155–188. For Germany and Switzerland, see Adrian Loretan, Laien im pastoralen Dienst: Ein Amt in der kirchlichen Gesetzgebung: Pastoralassistent /-assistentin Pastoralreferent/-referentin (Praktische Theologie im Dialog Bd. 1) (Freiburg, Switzerland: Universitätsverlag, 1994) 19–50, 135–150. Loretan describes how lay involvement in pastoral work in Germany originated at the beginning of the twentieth century in an urban context (where priests needed help and unmarried women started to assist them) and in an academic context (as a professional follow-up in the career of theologically educated lay persons, who were admitted to study theology, which was allowed in Münster after the First World War and also elsewhere after the Second World War). In both cases Vatican II stimulated lay commitment (cf. AA 24 on entrusting ‘to the laity certain functions which are more closely connected with pastoral duties , such as the teaching of Christian doctrine, certain liturgical actions, and the care of souls’ and GS 62, which argues that some of the laity should be able to dedicate themselves professionally to the sacred sciences). 2 Ruud G.W. Huysmans, Het recht van de leek in de rooms-katholieke kerk van Nederland (Hilversum: Gooi & Sticht, 1986) 10–19; Peter Neuner, “Ekklesiologie: Die Lehre von der Kirche,” in Glaubenszugänge: Lehrbuch der Katholischen Dogmatik, ed. Wolfgang Beinert (Paderborn-Munich-Vienna-Zürich: Schöning, 1995) 533–535. 84 The Jurist 69 (2009) 84–115 THE LOCAL BISHOP AND LAY PASTORAL WORKERS A NEWLY CREATED FUNCTION IN THE CHURCH AND ITS IMPACT ON EPISCOPAL COLLEGIALITY Henk Witte* 1. A New Function in the Church The newly created function of lay pastoral workers emerged in ecclesiastical circles in the period briefly before and shortly after Vatican II. In Europe this occurred in German, Swiss, Dutch, and French dioceses.1 The emergence of this function should be seen as an expression and a consequence of the changed theological and canonical position of the laity in the Church. During the nineteenth and twentieth century the position of lay faithful slowly changed from being a subject of clerical authority with no voice in clerical matters to being a respected participant in the mission of the Church.2 IntheNetherlandstheintroductionofthefunctionoflaypastoralworkers was largely an initiative at the level of parishes or deaneries. It was made possible by an earlier reorganization of theological education (major seminaries were reorganized into theological faculties), which 3 Nederlandse Bisschoppenconferentie, “Meewerken in het pastoraat: Beleidsnota bij de ‘Instructie over enige vragen betreffende de medewerking van lekengelovigen aan het dienstwerk van de priesters,’” Kerkelijke documentatie 27 (1999) 339–373. the local bishop and lay pastoral workers 85 created new study opportunities for lay persons, including women. Some local bishops welcomed and supported the lay pastoral workers; others didnot.Questionsonhowtogaugethetheologicalstatusofthisnewfunction , how to determine its relationship with the community of believers and with ordained ministers (bishop, priests, deacons), and how to determine and describe its tasks were answered in different ways. Even within a diocese, a continuity of policy was not guaranteed.Anew bishop could easily change the hitherto open policy of his predecessor. Different policies on the function of the lay pastoral workers created tensions and disagreements between local bishops, which hampered and even immobilized cooperation in the episcopal conference for years at a time.Also, the Holy See became involved in the question. It intervened—sometimes more in perception than in fact—thereby affecting decision-making at the diocesan level and at the episcopal conference level as well. The appearance of the lay pastoral workers on the ecclesial scene became a test case for episcopal leadership and inter-episcopal cooperation and collegiality. This essay deals with two questions. The first concerns the contributions of local bishops in clarifying the theological status of the lay pastoral workers in the post-Vatican II period. How did they define the function? How did they determine its position and tasks in relation to the position and tasks of sacred ministers in the pastoral mission...

Introduction

1 Faculty of Theology and Religious Sciences, University of Laval, Quebec. 2 Catholic Theological Faculty, University of Erfurt. 3 The first cycle of research, initiated in 1998 and closed in 2001, addressed questions relative to primacy and infaillibility, episcopal conférences, the selection of bishops, and Eucharistic hospitality in the case of mixed marriages. The texts of this first cycle of research have been published in The Jurist 59/2 (1999). A second cycle of dialogue was initiated in 2002 focusing on the theme “Collegiality in the Church” and was pursued up to 2004. It culminated in two days of discussion by the Seminar participants at Georgetown University on April 15–16, 2004. The Seminar itself was followed by a public session at the Woodstock Theological Center on April 17, 2004. The texts of the communications presented at this meeting have been published in The Jurist 64 (2004) 1–383. 323 The Jurist 68 (2008) 323–327 INTRODUCTION Gilles Routhier1 and Myriam Wijlens2 At the initiative of Ladislas Örsy, the Peter and Paul Seminar saw the light of day in Ottawa in 1998.At the beginning, the Seminar intended to contribute in a positive way to the reform of the Church or, in other words, to fill a gap between the ideas developed at the Second Vatican Council and their implementation in the life of the Church and its law as it is expressed in the Code of Canon Law. In short its purpose was to improve the functioning of the Church by connecting more closely the conciliar vision of the Church and the provisions of the law. For this purpose the Seminar gathered theologians, canonists, and historians from different universities in North America and Europe to examine in depth questions of serious importance for the life of the Church as well as to foster the unity of the Christian churches. In short, just as was the case at Vatican II, what was pursued was the renewal of the Catholic Church and the unity of Christians. The participants tried first to identify what, in the doctrine ofVatican II, still needed to be appropriated by today’s community; and, second, find a modality for the appropriation of that doctrine which was identified as being in need of implementation. Thus until now the Seminar has undertaken three cycles of research, each relating to a specific question.3 Each cycle of research lasted between two and three years. During this period the members of the traveling Seminar met once or twice a year for an in-depth discussion of preliminary texts drafted by the members and circulated among them. Every two years they presented the results of their research at a colloquium, and subsequently that research was published in The Jurist. After a meeting held at Georgetown University in April 2004, the group decided to launch a new cycle of research centered this time on the question of the local church and synodality. This was because the discussions held during the meeting inWashington clearly indicated the need to transcend an approach to collégiality which was not integrated within a study of the ministry of the bishop in the local church which was entrusted to him. The discussions had concluded that an approach to collégiality which was limited to a consideration of relations among bishops and between bishops and the pope was theologically deficient. This was because it did not take into account certain significant theological values which were necessary to view the bishop’s ministry of presidency in a balanced way by situating him at the intersection of relationships within the communion of churches and the internal communion of the church over which he presided. Indeed any discussion of collégiality which does not take into account the bishop’s relationship to the local diocesan church which he pastors and the internal synodality of that local church will lead to an impasse. It is necessary then to assume the reality of the local church and, in a balanced discussion of collegiality, envision the communion among the churches and not simply the relationships among the bishops. Besides this approach is suggested by the different parts of Christus Dominus. It was then on...

The Doctrine of the People of God and Hierarchical Authority as Service in Latin Church Legislation on the Local Church

* Catholic Theological Faculty, University of Erfurt, Germany. 1 Pope Benedict XVI prefers to speak of a “hermeneutic of reform” and not of “a hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture.” See his address to the Roman Curia as Christmas greetings on December 22, 2005: published as Ansprache von Papst Benedikt XVI. an das Kardinalskollegium und die Mitglieder der Römischen Kurie beim Weihnachtsempfang am 22. Dezember 2005, Verlautbarungen des Apostolischen Stuhls, Nr. 172 (Bonn: Sekretariat der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, 2006) 10ff. 328 The Jurist 68 (2008) 328–349 THE DOCTRINE OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD AND HIERARCHICAL AUTHORITY AS SERVICE IN LATIN CHURCH LEGISLATION ON THE LOCAL CHURCH Myriam Wijlens* More than forty years after the council and almost twenty five years after the promulgation of the Code of Canon Law it seems rather appropriate to investigate the contribution that post conciliar juridical structures have made to the reception of the teaching of Vatican II in the Latin Church. Or to phrase this in the form of a question: what contribution did the legislation of the Church make so that the council could shape the lives of people and the life of the Church? To investigate such a question implies working on the basis of three presumptions: first, that legal structures can make a contribution to the reception of the council or by the same token could also hamper it; second, that there is an intended connection between the council and the post conciliar juridical life of the Church; and third, that a modality can be found allowing for a secure way to judge the reception of Vatican II. It will be necessary to attend to these presumptions before we can address the central question of this contribution. That central question finds its origin in the great reform1 in the ecclesiology of Vatican II vis-à-vis the pre-Vatican II ecclesiology, namely to see the Church not so much as a perfect society with a strong focus on the hierarchical structure, but more as the people of God and hierarchical authority as service. When this doctrine is taken as a hermeneutical criterion , two questions may be raised: first, how well was the doctrine received in the legislation of the Church? And second, what role does and should it play today not only in the interpretation but also, and in particular , in the application of the legislation, that is, when law and life meet? Whereas the former question can be answered by attending to the promulgated legislation and thus might produce a reliable and verifiable answer , the latter one will be more speculative in nature, because it is more 2 For a reflection on the application of the law see Myriam Wijlens, “Das zweite Vatikanum als Fundament für die Anwendung des Rechtes: Hermeneutische Reflexionen und praktische Konsequenzen,” Theologie der Gegenwart 50 (2007) 2–14. 3 The papers reflecting the first results of the investigation conducted by the members of the Peter and Paul Seminar are published in The Jurist 64 (2004) 1–360. 4 In the previous research project this author focused on the cooperation of bishops in supra national or continental structures. See Myriam Wijlens, “Exercising Collegiality in a Supra-national or Continental Institution such as the FABC, CCEE and ComECE,” The Jurist 64 (2004) 168–204. This study revealed that the different juridical responses to the nature of the power exercised by these institutions depend very much on one’s ecclesiological point of departure. If one starts from membership in the college of bishops without too much attention being paid to the connection of the bishop to the local church, this will imply that such cooperation is considered to involve only a few members of the college and thus cannot be given too much weight, since the few cannot speak for the whole college . If, on the other hand, one starts from the perspective that membership in the college and responsibility for a local church are concurrent, this implies that the bishop is to be a pontifex between the local church and the universal Church and vice versa. Both these perspectives reflect the weakness of the fact that they still start from the perspective of bishops and not from the local...

About This Issue

] About This Issue P ublishing issues on the anniversaries of significant historical events is integral to our journal’s interpretive thematic framework. The most recent issue dedicated to such an event was our winter 2006 issue on the fortieth anniversary of Dignitatis Humanae, The Declaration on Religious Liberty. This issue on “Pascendi dominici gregis, 1907-2007: Centennial Essays on Responses to the Encyclical on Modernism” features recent scholarship on the American, English, French, and Italian responses to this historical event. Relying upon the wide-ranging expertise of Professor C.J.T. Talar for advice on this issue, I asked him to explore the historical meanings of the encyclical in order to set the stage for the articles analyzing those who were affected by the condemnation of Modernism. Talar’s two articles in this issue underscore his command of the topic and related ideas in French religious thought which are featured in his articles and books published over the past twenty-five years. These essays represent the continuous development of historical theology in the post-Vatican II period. We are very grateful to the contributors for making this such a stimulating issue. Lawrence Barmann is professor emeritus of both Theological Studies and American Studies at St. Louis University. Michael Kerlin is a professor of Philosophy at LaSalle University in Philadelphia. Giacomo Losito is scientific collaborator at the Faculty of Catholic Theology of the J.W. Goethe University (Frankfurt-on-Main). William L. Portier is the Mary Ann Spearin Professor of Catholic Theology at the University of Dayton. C.J.T Talar is professor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas School of Theology in Houston, Texas. Christopher J. Kauffman ...