Pope Research Articles

МАРИОЛОГИЧЕСКИЙ ЦИКЛ ПЬЕТРО КАВАЛЛИНИ В САНТА-МАРИЯ ИН ТРАСТЕВЕРЕ: К ВОПРОСУ ВИЗАНТИЙСКИХ И ЗАПАДНЫХ ВЛИЯНИЙ В РИМСКИХ ПАМЯТНИКАХ КОНЦА XIII В.

The Rome artistic profile formation at the end of the 13th century took place in the conditions of organic coexistence and intensive interpenetration of elements of ancient, early Christian, Romanesque, Gothic and Byzantine art. The powerful impetus for the figurative and conceptual city renewal was the lead of prominent Roman pontiffs, as well as bishops and cardinals who wished to write their name in history. The discussion about the role of the patron, which began in the circle of Aby Warburg at the beginning of the 20th century, half a century later led to the emergence of one of the most actual approaches to the study of the Proto-Renaissance art. Another important direction of scientific research of these monuments was the reflections about much broader culture processes, figuratively brought into opposition “East – West”. Within this approach, various elements of iconography, which originated in the “Eastern” or “Western” paradigm, are studied, and the factors that influenced master’s choice when referring to one or another artistic tradition are evaluated. The article examines the iconography of the mosaics of the Mariological cycle by Pietro Cavallini in Santa Maria in Trastevere in the focus of the mentioned aspects of the study

L’attaccamento spirituale al Santo Padre nella Chiesa Greco-Cattolica di Romania

"Spiritual Attachment to the Holy Father Pope in Greek-Catholic Church in Romania. The present study captures the attitude of Romanian Greek Catholic believers towards the person of the Pope. This attitude is reflected in the relations that have existed over time between the Roman Pontiffs and the Greek Catholic Church on the territory of present-day Romania. On the one hand, there are various pontifical actions in favor of the Romanians united with the Church of Rome, and on the other hand the Greek Catholic Romanians will be able to give their lives for the biblical truth of the Petrine primate. Keywords: Devotion, Pope in Rome, Petrine primate, Greek Catholic Church in Romania "

A Catholic Pope and a Rawlsian Statesman: War and Peace through the Lens of Non-Public and Public Reason

A Catholic pope and a Rawlsian statesman respectively represent religious and political leaders who confront the reality of war and face the challenge of responding to it. A political decision during conflict based exclusively on religious or secular justifications will be unconvincing in a contemporary plural public space. John Rawls’s solution to this dilemma was to offer justifications based on public reason grounded on political values and not on religious or secular values that support non-public reason. However, restraining religious arguments can ignite passionate religious objections when the decisions of government contradict the demands of their religious values. Hence, this paper argues against an exclusive position and highlights the importance of a nuanced approach that engages religious and political perspectives. The arguments are presented by engaging both Catholic and Rawlsian responses to war by focusing on just war theory and the role of a statesman.

Catholicity and the Catholic Church: Protestant Concerns and (Roman) Catholic Perspectives

This essay takes up recent Protestant concerns about Catholic theology's understanding of the Church's mark of catholicity. Wesleyan and Reformed authors have argued that the (Roman) Catholic Church is “Roman” but not “catholic.” In their view, the problem is that the Catholic theological conception of catholicity focuses on union with the pope (or bishop of Rome). In a nutshell, Rome has decreed that to possess the mark of universality means to be in communion with Rome. Recent Protestant authors have made the point that not only is this arrogant and narrow, but also it is implausible given that the majority of Christians in the world are not (Roman) Catholic. My essay's first section lays out these concerns, which of course are not new. In my second section, I examine recent Catholic theological perspectives on catholicity. I conclude by suggesting a threefold path forward.

THE STATUS OF THE SEE OF ROME IN THE FIRST MILLENIUM OF THE EASTERN CHRISTIANITY

In the first millennium of the Christendom, the primacy of the Roman Pope in jurisdictional terms was not acknowledged by all. Although Eastern churches regarded the Roman pope as primus inter pares (first among the equals). Clement's epistle to the Church of Corinth is considered to be the first case from which the responsibility of the Roman See for other churches can be seen. The epistle urges the members of the Corinthian church to peace and order. In this epistle sent from Rome, a strong, authoritative and caring voice is clearly felt. It is also necessary to analyze the letters sent in the opposite direction (from the East to Rome). For example, Ignatius of Antioch's letter to the Romans, unlike the rest of his letters, does not contain an exhortation or recommendation to guard against heresies, but only praise of the Roman Church who is "teaching others". In the words of Irenaeus Lyon, "due to the supreme authority of the Roman Church, it is necessary that all churches, or Christians everywhere, agree (convenire) with it, because here the apostolic tradition has always been preserved by all". It is also known that there was a difference of opinion between Polycarp of Smyrna and Pope Aniketus on the issue of celebration of the Easter. An agreement was not reached, but they have immediately reconciled, because they did not want to argue with each other about this issue. Both sides peacefully continued to follow their own different traditions. Later on a conflict with Rome also arose over the issue of the baptism of heretics. In the Church of Rome, heretics were not rebaptized. But in the North African church, during the time of Cyprian of Carthage, the rebaptism of heretics was necessary. During the controversy, Cyprian says that no bishop had more power than another one. However, Cyprian is "obviously in a defensive position" when confronting Rome. The Holy Father noted that he does not intend to impose his opinion on others, nor does he want to sever ties with Pope Stephen. According to researchers, in general, "Cyprian was imbued with deep respect for the Roman Church". For Cyprian, the Roman Cathedral is the basis and guarantee of the unity of the Church. That is why, when he faced certain destructive forces in his own church, he was always ready to turn to Rome, which he considered "the source of episcopal unity (principalem unde unitas sacerdotalis)". Thus, such historical cases assist us to understand that in the early centuries the Roman pope did not have final and comprehensive power (as a monarch) over the rest of the churches. However, it is undeniable that the Roman See had exceptional authority, prestige and influence on the whole Christendom.

Pragmatic Necessity over Scriptural Guidelines: Basil of Seleucia and the Swearing of Oaths at Later Roman Church Councils

This article considers the late antique episcopal prioritization of pragmatism over strict adherence to the rules of Christianity. The need to choose between following the scriptures and bending to more immediate concerns often arose in relation to the practice of oath-swearing, which had been forbidden by Jesus (Matt 5.33–37) but was nonetheless a regular feature of ecclesiastical affairs. To explore this dilemma, this paper focuses on the proceedings of several fifth-century church councils and the actions of Basil, bishop of Seleucia, Isauria. At an ecclesiastical meeting in 449, Basil refused to swear an oath and cited Jesus's proscription in explanation. Not only was this objection highly irregular in the context of church councils, however, but Basil himself later demanded that his episcopal colleagues take oaths at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. A closer examination of Basil's apparent vacillation on the acceptability of oath-swearing suggests that the bishop's initial objection to the practice was motivated by episcopal politics, rather than his religious principles. Even though later Roman bishops were often held up as obedient followers of God's commands, these senior clergymen regularly bowed to the necessity of oath-taking, thereby prioritizing the practical ahead of the scriptural.

Rus Kaynaklarına Göre Dünya Tarihi Açısından Haçlı Seferlerine Genel Bir Bakış

At the request and promises of the European Catholic Christians of the Pope, VII. The marches they organized to establish military, political and religious authority over the lands of the Middle East, which had been in the hands of Muslims since the 19th century, take place in history as "crusades" or "crusaders". Since Jesus was born in Jerusalem, they called the region and the surrounding lands "holy lands" and declared these marches as holy wars in their way. In addition, Christian soldiers participating in the expedition put the Red Cross on their chests and shields, so they were called "Crusaders". The first and third of the eight crusades left their mark as the heaviest campaign in history. Except for the first and fourth of these campaigns, the kings who dominated all other campaigns also participated. On the other hand, the Crusades were a religious, political, and military operation that started not only against Muslims but also from Western Europe between the XI.- XV. centuries. It started as an effort to save Jerusalem, which they accepted as the Holy city of Christianity in Palestine between 1096-1272. The terms "Crusaders" and "Crusades" in a broader sense are used by the Popes of Rome as a religious-military operation, first against the Seljuk Turks and later against the Ottoman Empire to implement the policy of Christianizing the people of the Baltic states and suppress heretical and anti-religious tendencies in Europe and left its mark on history. The Seljuks, who conquered the Muslim regions of the Middle East, conquered the Byzantine lands, and the Byzantine Emperor IV. The Romans tried to stop the Muslims, but the Byzantine army was crushed in the battle of Manzikert in 1071. After that, the Byzantines no longer had the strength to resist. Slowly advancing westward, the Seljuks continued the Crusades, taking almost all of Asia Minor from Byzantium. In this study, the views and approaches about the crusades in terms of world history were evaluated by examining Russian sources.

A Look at Socialism in the Official Acts of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Russian Church at the Turn of the 19th — 20th Centuries: Comparative Analysis

The article compares the assessments of socialist ideology in the official documents of the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches in the late 19th — early 20th centuries. As a reflection of the Catholic position, the encyclicals of the Roman popes are considered, first, the encyclical “Rerum Novarum”, published by Leo XIII in 1891. The author considers the program of the course “denunciation of socialism” approved by the Holy Synod in seminaries. A comparison of these documents shows that both churches condemned socialism as an atheistic doctrine and considered it a dangerous utopia. Leo XIII, in “Rerum Novarum”, denounced basic socialist doctrines such as the socialization of private property and class struggle, but at the same time acknowledged the seriousness of the problems of capitalist society and the plight of the workers. The pope opposed the socialist utopias with the Catholic social doctrine, which provided for the active participation of the church in social life, state regulation of relations between labor and capital, and the development of a peaceful labor movement. The Russian Orthodox Church during the period under review was unable to develop its own social doctrine as an alternative to socialism. In the program of the anti-socialist course for Orthodox seminaries, the materialistic and anti-Christian nature of socialism was proved, and Marxism was subjected to detailed analysis and criticism. At the same time, there was no such harsh criticism of the flaws of capitalism on the part of the Russian hierarchy. Such one-sidedness made the position of the Russian Orthodox Church in the fight against socialism much weaker than the position of the Roman Catholic Church.

Qannūbīn Monastery and the Religious Soundscape of the Maronites in the 16th and 17th Century

Abstract This article discusses the religious soundscape of the Maronites in the 16th and the 17th century as reflected in Western travel accounts that report the use of church bells at Qannūbīn Monastery in Lebanon, the residence of the Maronite patriarch. Bell ringing for religious purposes was actually forbidden in the Ottoman Empire. The Christian communities of the Levant employed a wooden instrument, the semantron, to call the faithful to service. Qannūbīn was an exception. Information provided by pilgrims and travelers sheds light on some of the reasons behind the use of bell ringing in this remote religious foundation. Moreover, I argue that the use of bells at Qannūbīn was related to the close contacts between the Maronite clergy and the Pope of Rome. The former wanted to be in communion with the Roman Church. The use of bell ringing at the patriarchal residence assisted to project a Catholic image by means of sound.

Ursinus, Luciferians, and The Bishops of Rome

Abstract Two texts in the Collectio Avellana, a sixth-century collection of documents concerning the relationship between bishops of Rome and emperors, provide us with a unique window into the Christian landscape of Rome in late antiquity. The first is the Quae gesta sunt, a narrative of the contested episcopal election at Rome in 366 between Ursinus and Damasus, written by a supporter of Ursinus. The second is the Libellus precum, a petition from a group of Nicene rigorists called ‘Luciferians’ which details the long persecution they have suffered at the hands of other Nicene Christians in Rome and elsewhere. The relationship between these two documents, and between these two communities, has long been a point of confusion in modern scholarship, but has only rarely been addressed as a question in its own right. This study examines these two documents in their mid-fourth-century context and concludes that they reflect the interests and experiences of separate communities. It concludes with a brief note about how the historical events of the 350s, which compelled these two separate Nicene communities to remain opposed to Damasus in the 360s, caused intractable social ruptures in Rome that Damasus was unable to overcome.

Three Popes: Lessons in Leadership—The Powerful Learnings of Predecessors in Developing One’s Leadership Style and Approach

As educators, we seek engaging ways to demonstrate how crucial leadership is to advancing organizational success. This exercise uniquely emphasizes how much leaders may learn from their predecessors in the same role. Participants explore leadership by researching two former Bishops of Rome—John Paul II and Benedict XVI—and the incumbent pontiff, Francis. Participants investigate the personal traits, biographies, and accomplishments of each pope to understand each leader’s style and effectiveness and make recommendations to Pope Francis using this situational data of his predecessors. In doing so, the exercise creates a perspective for how participants might enhance their own leadership skills within their own professional organizations. Variations for other organizational contexts where leadership is essential are included as well as variations for online delivery modes.

Boniface I and the Apiarius Affair

An otherwise unremarkable letter of the fifth-century Roman bishop Boniface I (418-422) (Dilectionis uestrae), preserved in the two manuscripts of the Collectio Frisingensis prima but omitted from Coustant’s 1721 edition of early papal letters, acknowledging a report he had received from Bishop Faustinus and two presbyters, when seen in the context in which the manuscript compiler of Clm. 6243 inserted it, actually extends our knowledge of the Apiarius affair. This ultimately concerned the rights of the church of Rome to hear judicial appeals from African lower clergy, which is part of the broader question of the primacy of the Roman church. While it is well known to scholarship that the African churches sometimes had issues with what they considered to be Zosimus’ (417-418) Roman overreach into African ecclesiastical affairs, this letter is evidence that Rome under Boniface held to the same position and that the Africans objections were not personal but in response to Rome’s mistaken conflation of canons from the synod of Serdica with those from Nicaea. This was a matter the Africans believed they had every right to settle within Africa, as much as the Roman bishops believed they themselves were acting in good faith. The importance of the letter lies in it offering something of Rome’s own perspective on the Apiarius affair apart from the information filtered through the African synodal canons.

L’aborto nel magistero pontificio contemporaneo, da Pio XI a Francesco

Abortion has been an important subject for pontifical teaching since the early days of the Church, and has always been condemned, while the right to life of every person, including those in the womb, has been stressed from the moment of conception. In this article, interventions on abortion and the right to life by contemporary Roman pontiffs, from Pius XI to Pope Francis, are presented.

TWO LETTERS OF THE USURPER MAGNUS MAXIMUS (COLLECTIO AVELLANA39 AND 40)

AbstractThis article presents, for the first time in English, a translation of the two letters of the usurping emperor Magnus Maximus that are to be found within theCollectio Avellana(letters 39 and 40). The letters—from Maximus to the Emperor Valentinian II and from Maximus to Siricius, bishop of Rome—are each introduced with an extensive discussion of their subject matter, the circumstances of their composition, and their probable date. The article then considers possible reasons for these letters’ unusual survival; as letters of a usurping emperor, one would have expected them to be destroyed, and the article explores how we may understand their inclusion in theCollectio Avellana. Finally, the translations are given, with extensive commentary in their notes.

Una escucha sociológica para la sinodalidad El caso práctico de La Tablada

«The road of synodality is the path that God expects of the Church of the third millennium. What the Lord asks of us, in a sense, is already all contained in the word "Synod." Walking together - laity, pastors, Bishop of Rome - is an easy concept to express in words, but it is not so easy to put into practice». The words of Pope Francis function as a key to reading this article that proposes "a sociological listening for synodality" from a specific case. For this, a rigorous use is made of various tools that allow measuring the different "decibels" of religious beliefs and practices, punctually, in a city of the Conurbano, because it is necessary to put the focus on a certain place. Perhaps, we wonder what is the point of reading such a specific text of La Tablada if one does not live in that city. The answer is that, beyond the data surveyed and quantitatively notify certain indicators of a thesis research, it is interesting to know what variables were handled, what indicators were measured, with which authors there was a dialogue, what was the methodology used; for, abstracting us from absolute values, the whole range of information produced for this research is extremely significant for the pastoral praxis of the Church, for urban theology, for the sociology of religion.

Alberto Ferreiro, “Epistolae Plenae”: The Correspondence of the Bishops of Hispania with the Bishops of Rome (Third through Seventh Centuries). (The Medieval and Early Modern Iberian World 74.) Leiden: Brill, 2020. Pp. ix, 336. $198. ISBN: 978-9-0044-1776-2.

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviewsAlberto Ferreiro, “Epistolae Plenae”: The Correspondence of the Bishops of Hispania with the Bishops of Rome (Third through Seventh Centuries). (The Medieval and Early Modern Iberian World 74.) Leiden: Brill, 2020. Pp. ix, 336. $198. ISBN: 978-9-0044-1776-2.Kenneth Baxter WolfKenneth Baxter WolfPomona College Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Speculum Volume 97, Number 2April 2022 The journal of the Medieval Academy of America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/718842 Views: 19Total views on this site For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Unintended Ultramontanism

The reception of Vatican I has changed unexpectedly in the fifty years between the centennial and the sesquicentennial. The ultramontane papacy created by Vatican I, seen as blocking renewal after Vatican II, has developed over fifty years into the condition making a global church possible. This historiographical sketch of Vatican I’s reception organizes these surprising developments around three pivotal works: Hans Küng’s Infallible? An Inquiry, Jean-Marie Roger Tillard’s The Bishop of Rome, and Émile Perreau-Saussine’s Catholicism and Democracy.

Interpreting the Functions of the Roman Clergy in the Early Fifth Century

Examining the information we have about deacons and presbyters in Rome during the first two decades of the fifth century contributes to the larger picture of their role and function and is instructive for several reasons. While there has been scholarly attention drawn to the prescriptive decrees of the Roman bishops regulating the life of their clergy, particularly regarding the clerical cursus honorum and lifestyle (marriage and sexual continence), less has been given to descriptive information about how deacons and presbyters operated. Although far from complete, this information is valuable. From the letters of Innocent I (402–417) we discover much about the liturgical functions of such clerics (through the invaluable letter to Decentius of Gubbio) as well as the role they played in being episcopal letter-bearers and negotiators. From Boniface I (418–422) we are reminded of another role of deacons and presbyters, that of electors and candidates for episcopal office. This information is filtered through the imperial correspondence concerning the electoral dispute between Boniface and Eulalius. We only gain insight into this process of episcopal election in practice when something went wrong. In this case, the undercurrent of tension between deacons and presbyters in Rome overflowed into open rivalry that required imperial intervention. This dispute is linked with the tensions that characterized the last months of Zosimus’s episcopacy of 417–418, where complaints about the bishop reached the imperial court in Ravenna and seem to have flowed from reactions to Zosimus’s changing responses to the Pelagian controversy. Such tension between deacons and presbyters existed in the time of Damasus (366–384), as revealed through Ambrosiaster and Jerome. It would be reasonable to conclude that such tension was present throughout this fifty-year period, ignited by different issues and most visible at the time of the election of a new bishop. Why then do we not find evidence of this tension under Innocent I? Perhaps he was a successful enough manager of his personnel that there were no significant outbreaks, or whatever problems there were did not require him to write about them to anyone else, thereby eliminating any trace of them from recorded memory. Most of our information comes filtered through the bishop’s perspective, and it is only with a letter sent from the presbyters of Rome to Ravenna in 419 in support of Boniface that we hear anything from the clergy themselves during this period. The evidence for the liturgical function of presbyters in the letter to Decentius perhaps unwittingly helps us understand the tension. Presbyters were closely tied to the populace, while, as we know from elsewhere, deacons were more closely tied to the bishop. It was the priestly or sacramental function of presbyters in controlling the boundaries of church membership that contributed to the collision course between them and the financially and administratively powerful deacons.

Eutychianorum furor! Heresiological Comparison and the Invention of Eutychians in Leo I’s Christological Polemic


 This essay examines the use of heresiological rhetoric in the letters and tractates of Leo I (bishop of Rome, 440–461) written in defense of the Council of Chalcedon (451). In these texts, Leo claimed the Constantinopolitan monk Eutyches and his supporters, the Eutychians, were an existential threat to the faith. However, Leo’s Eutychians were a heresiological confabulation. Heresiology employs polemical comparison and hostile classification to demarcate the boundaries of authentic Christianity. Because heresiology understands heresy genealogically, contemporary error could be described and condemned thanks to its affiliation with previous heretical sects. This was largely a taxonomic exercise; naming heresies allowed their supposed errors to be categorized and compared, especially with its (imagined) antecedents. Leo employed precisely this kind of comparison to associate Eutyches with earlier heresiarchs. He then reduced all opposition to Chalcedon to ‘Eutychianism,’ the error named for Eutyches, or else to its opposite and equally incorrect counterpart ‘Nestorianism’—both of which were, according to Leo, part of the same diabolically inspired misunderstanding of Christ. In short, Leo transformed Eutyches, the man, into a ‘hermeneutical Eutychian,’ a discursive construct intended to advance Leo’s own theological agenda, especially the creation of an orthodox identity coterminous with adherence to Chalcedon.

A morphometric analysis of thoracolumbar vertebrae in goat by computed tomography.

The goat spine is widely used as an animal model for preclinical research in human medicine to test new spinal implants and surgical procedures. Therefore, precise morphometric data are needed. This study aims to provide morphometric data of the goat thoracolumbar vertebrae and to define the parameters/characteristics of the optimum implantation corridors for pedicle screws in the thoracolumbar spine in goat. Eleven 36-month-old adult alpine goats were included in this study, and a sample of 198 vertebrae was measured. Subsequently, transverse and sagittal images were obtained using a multi-detector-row helical computed tomography (CT) scanner. Measurements of the vertebral bodies (ventral body width VBW, ventral body depth VBD, ventral body height ventral VBHv, ventral body high dorsal VBHd, spinal canal depth SCD, spinal canal width SCW), pedicles (pedicle length PDL, pedicle width PDW, pedicle angle PA and pedicle axis length PAL), intervertebral disc (DT) and transverse process length (TPL) were performed with dedicated software. The vertebral bodies and the spinal canal were wider than deep, mostly evident in the lumbar region. The intervertebral discs were as much as 65.7% thicker in the lumbar spine than in the thoracic spine. The pedicles were longer than wide over the thoracic and lumbar spines. The insertion angles in pedicle were approximately 30° for the T2-T4 segment, 25° for the T5-T6 segment, 23° for the T6 to T11 segment, 20° for T11 to L3, 25° for L4 and 30° for L5 and L6. In conclusion, the generated data can serve as a CT reference for the caprine thoracolumbar spine and may be helpful in using the goat spine as an animal model for human spinal research.