Roman Catholic Parish Research Articles

‘For everything, the local priest is a helper in adversity’: Catholic clergy and the new order in post-Habsburg Tyrol

ABSTRACT Austrian North Tyrol – the northern part of the former Habsburg Crownland not occupied and annexed by Italy after the Great War – is often presented as a redoubt of tradition and religiosity, in which conservative powerbrokers and the Catholic Church easily wielded rural allegiances to their own ends. Such narratives, however, elide the substantial efforts necessary to maintain this system through periods of crisis. In this article, the author investigates how a key group of actors within the Catholic conservative elite – Roman Catholic parish priests – navigated one of these periods: the post-imperial transition. Identifying the Tyrolean clergy as a sub-elite that mediated between higher political elites and the wider population, the author uncovers how local resistance challenged the influence of the Church in the aftermath of the war. In response, priests led a Catholic offensive aimed at winning back their parishes and reaffirming the hierarchies that underlay conservative rule in Austrian Tyrol. Ultimately, through their multiple functions and role as mediators, Tyrolean parish clergy contributed in often-overlooked ways to shoring up Catholic conservative hegemony and extending it across the interwar period.

PROTESTANT FAMILIES IN THE PŁOCK DIOCESE IN THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES

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

Innovation in Christchurch Church Architecture

Several church buildings erected in Christchurch in the 1960s signalled significant departures in the city's established traditions of church architecture. They included three Roman Catholic parish churches – St Matthew's Bryndwr, Our Lady of Victories, Sockburn, and St Anne's, Woolston. This paper focuses on the most innovative and striking of these three churches, Our Lady of Victories, Sockburn. It sets the building in the broader context of post-war church architecture in Christchurch. Innovation in Christchurch church architecture had begun in the 1950s with a number of brick churches, but significant departures from established church building forms did not occur until the 1960s. Our Lady of Victories reflected with particular drama the impact on church architecture of the changes in Roman Catholic liturgy associated with the Second Vatican Council. The paper describes the process through which the radically new design emerged, paying particular attention to the interaction between the architect, C.R. Thomas, and the new Roman Catholic Bishop of Christchurch, Brian Ashby. The paper also sets the design of the church in the context of New Zealand, and international, architectural trends in the late 1950s and 1960s.

СМЕСЬ ПЛЕМЕН И НАРОДОВ ИМПЕРИЙ: О СПРАВОЧНИКЕ "ВОЕННОПЛЕННЫЕ ПЕРВОЙ МИРОВОЙ ВОЙНЫ: МЕЖФОНДОВЫЙ ИМЕННОЙ УКАЗАТЕЛЬ К МЕТРИЧЕСКИМ КНИГАМ ХРАМОВ ОМСКОГО РЕГИОНА (1914-1920 ГГ.)"

The article analyzes the scientific reference publication “Prisoners of war of the First World War. An inter-fund name index to the metric books of the temples of the Omsk region (1914–1920)”. The work was prepared as part of the book series “Open Archive”. Based on the study and analysis of the act records of the metric books kept in the Historical Archives of the Omsk region, biographical information was collected with the search data for the documents on the military personnel of the German and AustroHungarian armies who were prisoners of war in the Omsk region in 1914– 1920. The publication presents the data from the civil records of the metric books of the Omsk Ecclesiastical Consistory, the Omsk Roman Catholic Parish Church, the Omsk Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Synagogue of the Omsk Jewish Society. Turning of the authors’ team to the study of the church documents for understanding the social and political processes seems justified in connection with the special role of the religious factor in the military revolutionary period. The publication contains detailed biographical data, and a personal search record is compiled for each person. It is noted that the procedure described by the Omsk researchers can be adopted by other archival institutions. The analyzed church records open up new opportunities for studying the specific pages in the history of the First World War and expand the possibilities for biographical (genealogical) search.

The practice of faith in everyday life based on the metrical books of various denominations in the period of Galician autonomy (as illustrated by Rzeszów)

This article aims to highlight aspects of religious life based on metrical records. The research focuses on religious communities in Rzeszów: the Roman Catholic parish of Farna, the Jewish metrical district, and the Greek Catholic parish in Zalesie. In all of these communities, the choice of wedding dates was in accordance with the liturgical calendar, including holidays and fasting periods. Illegitimate births indicated that relationships typical of marriage were also established before the formal wedding ceremony. Illegitimate births were more common among Jews due to marriages concluded only according to their own ritual. Illegitimate births were also more prevalent in the urban-like Farna parish compared to the rural Greek Catholic parish, where their percentage was the lowest. Records of administering sacraments to the dying were also indicative of religiousness.

Dr. Gyárfás Elemér státusgyűlési tag beszámoló jelentése egyházi és iskolai ügyekben Bukarestben folytatott tárgyalásainak eredményéről

In communist Romania, building a church was an almost impossible undertaking, and building permits were rarely granted to anyone who wanted to build a church. The state law that stipulated that a new church could only be built if an existing one ceased to exist provided the opportunity taken by the Diocese of Timisoara to build the new church in Orsova. The state authorities allowed the new church to be constructed in Orsova because of the number of believers (there were Hungarian, German and Czech believers living in the town at the time) and because the construction costs were entirely financed from abroad. The construction of the new Roman Catholic parish church and the priest’s residence in Orsova was one of the greatest achievements of the administration of Konrád Kernweisz, Ordinary of the Diocese of Timisoara – and perhaps of Communist Romania. The speech published here for the first time in print is not a sermon but was certainly delivered at the end of the consecration mass of the church in Orsova. The interesting detail about this text is that it is the first time that the symbolism of the church in Orsova was mentioned.

(Proto)nazwiska polskich Ormian na podstawie rzymskokatolickich ksiąg metrykalnych z Kresów Południowo-Wschodnich (XVII-XIX wiek)

(PROTO)SURNAMES OF POLISH ARMENIANS BASED ON ROMAN CATHOLIC PARISH REGISTERS FROM SOUTHEASTERN BORDERLANDS (17TH-19TH CENTURIES): SELECTED ISSUESThe article is based on excerpts from Roman Catholic parish registers in Brzeżany, Kołomyja, Obertyn, and Żółkiew, serving as a significant source for anthroponymic studies of Polish Armenians. Criteria for including the collected anthroponyms in the study were defined: besides undisputed cases where the ethnicity of a person was indicated in the entry, other criteria of being Armenian were also taken into account – confessional (notes about the Armenian rite) and anthroponymic (the form of the name or surname used by Armenians). The dictionary includes 69 (proto)surnames covered in 63 entries.

The Roman Catholic Parish in the Face of the Ukrainian Refugee Crisis: A Case Study of St. Joseph Parish in Chorzów, Poland and Holy Spirit Parish in Kátlovce, Slovakia

Russia’s war against Ukraine as a result of the Kremlin’s aggressive policy has caused a number of catastrophic material consequences, but most dramatically, the suffering of the Ukrainian people. Millions of people at risk of death were forced to leave their previous places of residence. In a short space of time, they had to make the crucial decision to leave the war-stricken country without the prospect of an exact return date. They were accompanied not only by the uncertainty of finding a safe and friendly place to survive but also by the fear of whether they would have anything to return to in the future. From the first days of the war, huge migrations began inside and outside Ukraine. This dramatic situation of an unprecedented wave of refugees in 21st-century Europe has mobilized societies and governments in many countries to provide unprecedented assistance to the citizens of Ukraine. The largest number of refugees reached Poland. In addition, a significant number went to Slovakia. This article, the result of a collaboration between Polish and Slovakian researchers, attempts to illustrate the response of Catholic Church parishioners to the influx of refugees from Ukraine using the example of the St. Joseph parish in Chorzów and the Holy Spirit parish in Kátlovce, Slovakia. The parishioners communities undertook charitable activities, and an informal aid group was immediately organized in the Polish parish. The aim of the research process carried out was, on the one hand, to identify the forms of aid implemented, its scope, and the difficulties encountered, and, on the other hand, to try to grasp the motives for involvement in helping refugees. An important aspect of the research was to verify the reactions of the parishioners in the context of the guidelines of the social teaching of the Church, especially the teaching of Pope Francis on helping migrants and refugees.

In the Shadow of the Spanish Fantasy Heritage

This article presents an overlooked chapter in San Gabriel’s history as it examines the Mexican experience in the historic mission city during the early twentieth century. In the 1910s, enterprising Anglo-American commercial and civic leaders romanticized the city’s Spanish heritage, especially in the area around old Mission San Gabriel, hoping to draw tourists to the newly incorporated city. Simultaneously, the arrival of Mexican immigrants to San Gabriel sparked concern among local leaders who, ironically, viewed the growing Mexican population as a threat to the city’s Spanish fantasy heritage. This article reveals how San Gabriel’s Mexican community harnessed civic leaders’ merchandizing of the city’s history, subverting the Spanish fantasy narrative to celebrate their Mexican history and presence in a city seemingly determined to deny both. It uses Spanish-language accounts, church records, and contemporary local histories to reveal a Mexican community asserting pride in its culture and history. In the process, it illustrates the interplay between San Gabriel’s Mexican community and the Roman Catholic parish at Mission San Gabriel, and the ways in which Mexican radicalism and grassroots mutualistas (mutual-aid societies) shaped the colonia (Mexican neighborhood).

Evangelizing on YouTube – a Case Study of the Dominikanie Szczecin Channel in 2020

The text is a result of a research project titled “The significance of parish-distributed press for the evangelization and formation activities of the Szczecin-Kamień Church (2016–2020).” The project was realized by members of the Department of Media Evangelism of the Institute of Journalism as part of the basic statutory activity of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Jesuit University Ignatianum in Krakow. The article touches on the use of YouTube in the work of evangelization by the Dominicans of the Roman Catholic Parish of St. Dominic in Szczecin in 2020, when, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, for many of the faithful, online media was the primary way to stay in touch with clergy and attend Mass.

Римско-католический приход в Златоусте на рубеже XIX–XX веков: численность и территориальные границы

The article presents the first comprehensive study of the quantitative indicators that cha racterize the development of the Roman Catholic parish in Zlatoust in the late 19 – early 20-th centuries. Studying Church registration documents of 1899–1916, the author reveals the statistics of the rites performed in the Zlatoust parish, analyzes the dynamics of baptisms, weddings and burials, and estimates the intensity of religious life during this period. The article states that at the turn of the 19–20-th centuries there was a significant transformation of the Catholic parish in Zlatoust, associated with the separation of independent Ufa and Chelyabinsk communities. The author defines the consequences of such a transformation as well as the approximate number of Catholics remaining in the Zlatoust Church, and separately studies the impact of migration processes (including forced migration) on the development of the Zlatoust parish. The article proves that the resettlement boom in the early of 20-th century had relatively little effect on the development of the Zlatoust Catholic community in comparison with the Catholic community of Chelyabinsk. Based on the information about the place of the rites, the article establishes the territorial and administrative boundaries of this parish and the geography of the settlement of Catholics in 1899–1902 (before the separation of the parishes of Zlatoust and Chelyabinsk) and in 1903–1916 (after separation).

„Nowa Jutrzenka” (1908–1924) – jako narzędzie działalności ks. Antoniego Kwiatkowskiego. Wybrane zagadnienia

The article presents the periodical “Nowa Jutrzenka” [“The New Morning Star”] which circulated in Bychawa between 1908 and1924, founded and edited by the Roman Catholic parish priest of Bychawa, Fr Antoni Kwiatkowski. On the basis of its contents analysis we wish to present the selected socio-economic initiatives, undertaken by the priest-editor for the development of Bychawa, as well as the improvement of its inhabitants’ well-being. That activity brought significant changes in many areas of life, whose results are visible in its urban space even today. Fr Kwiatkowski is regarded as one of the main precursors of the development of Bychawa. He takes a significant place in the regional historical memory. „Nowa Jutrzenka” constituted the main tool for presenting the intentions of its founder and initiating specific social, economic or educational undertakings.

Older Adults’ Experiences of the Covid-19 Restrictions on Religious Gatherings

ABSTRACT Attending church services is an important experience for many older adults. Social distancing measures during the Covid-19 pandemic prompted a temporary suspension of church services. During this lockdown period, churches provided a range of alternative service formats. This study investigates how older people experienced these. Telephone interviews were conducted with 12 regular churchgoers between the ages of 67 and 94 during the lockdown period in three Roman Catholic parishes in Southern Germany. Participants missed church services, but valued various alternative formats. The cemetery became a focal meeting point for some older parishioners. Flexibility in the organization of spiritual support was appreciated.

Sacred Language in the Borderlands: Discussions on the Language of Belarusian Catholicism

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

МЕТРИЧЕСКИЕ КНИГИ РИМСКО-КАТОЛИЧЕСКИХ ПРИХОДОВ НА ТЕРРИТОРИИ БССР В 1945–1991 ГГ.

The article analyzes the changes that the metric books of the Roman Catholic parishes of the BSSR underwent in the conditions of the anti-religious campaigns in 1945–1991. With the establishment of the Soviet power on the territory of Belarus, active secularization processes began in all spheres of social life. One of the aspects of the secularization was the ban in 1917 on keeping metric books. They were replaced by the civil status acts registered by the Registry Office. After the accession of Western Belarus to the BSSR in 1939, All Catholic believers in Belarus started getting spiritual guidance from the Apostolic Administration of Vilnius and its branch in Bialystok. As a result, at an unofficial level, due to the demands of the bishops in those Roman Catholic parishes that were not liquidated, the practice of metrication continued. They lasted the whole phase of existence of the Soviet state. The key moment of the functioning of the metric books in the post-war period was the instruction of the Apostolic Administrator in 1948. It emphasized the primacy of the ecclesiastical law over the civil law in relation to the metrication materials. The metric books had lost the rigor of the form. The entries were often made in the school notebooks and on the scraps of paper using the non-literary forms of the language. The right to make an entry in the books on baptisms, marriages, burials was granted to the people who had not been ordained.

Spisy ludności rzymskokatolickiej parafii Bończa z pierwszej połowy XVIII wieku

Spisy ludności pochodzące sprzed drugiej połowy XVIII wieku są rzadkością na terenie Polski. Wyjątkowym rezultatem poszukiwań badawczych w archiwach parafii dawnej diecezji chełmskiej obrządku łacińskiego jest zatem rejestr spowiedniczy z Bończy datowany na lata 1728–1750. Jego edycja, będąca włączeniem do obiegu naukowego cennego materiału źródłowego, stanowi szansę opracowania zawartych w nim danych przez specjalistów z zakresu demografii historycznej, zwłaszcza w odniesieniu do struktury wewnętrznej gospodarstwa domowego i zmian zachodzących w jego składzie. Zachowane w parafii księgi metrykalne chrztów i zgonów z tego okresu również umożliwiają szersze badania.

Z dziejów parafii rzymskokatolickiej i średniowiecznego kościoła w Stawiszynie w latach 1880-1940. Przyczynek do badań

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

Poles in Seattle 1890–2020: Continuity and Change

The text presents the preliminary results of the ongoing research on the Polish American community in Seattle, Washington. So far overlooked by the historians of the Polish American experience, the local group differs significantly from other centers of the Polish diaspora in the US. Poles settled in the Pacific Northwest from the late nineteenth century onward, and they developed in the city and around it a strong community that is internally diversified. In Seattle they were confronted with German, Irish, and Jewish groups, as was the case in other American cities, but also with other immigrants, for example with numerous Asians, Nordic people, Croatians, and Bulgarians. Contrary to the patterns of the Polish American community building, there has never been a Polish neighborhood in the city, and the Polish Roman Catholic parish was founded in Seattle as late as 1989. In fact, the parish never gained a crucial importance in the local ethnic community, and presently, as it used to be in the past, the immigrant life is organized around the Polish Home that was launched by the pioneer immigrants in 1918/1920. Many descendants of the earlier immigrant generations participate in the events initiated in Seattle by Poles who arrived in the last decades, and several recent immigrants became involved in the Polish Home Association. Moreover, web platforms – new forms of ethnic connection that developed in the last decades, contribute to the increase of the bonding social capital within the Polish group.

“You Are a Priest Forever”: The Dual Sacramentality and Humanity of Andean Roman Catholic Priests in Talavera, Peru

For the first time within living memory, the rural Roman Catholic parish of Talavera in the south-central Peruvian Andes features only native clergy. By placing the Talaveran Catholic priests in theological and historical context, this article shows how this current generation of Catholic priests in Talavera must be understood within the context of the post–Vatican II Catholic Church in Latin America, which explicitly encouraged the training of native clergy and recast the relationship between the sacramental and the human as mutually compatible and constitutive. Although such initiatives are generally associated with liberal parishes unlike Talavera, the nouvelle theology that shaped Vatican II nevertheless meant that the dual nature of the Roman Catholic priesthood—as concretely human but also ineffably sacramental—fundamentally shapes the lay relationship with the Catholic priests in Talavera, too. The resulting tension between the priest as a sacramental mediator to the divine and the priest as a human man is continually renegotiated by laity and clergy alike, and is essential to understanding Catholic priests in Latin America and how lay parishioners experience the Catholic priesthood.

Parafia rzymskokatolicka w świadomości młodzieży polskiej przełomu wieków. Badania socjologiczne z lat 1988–2018

In this paper I present a widely understood attitude of gymnasium, high school and academic youth in Poland in the two last decades of the 20th century and both first decades of the 21st century towards the Roman-catholic parish as a church institition and a socio-religious community of secular Catholics. The basis for the presented issues is being made by the research outcome of various sociologists of religion undertaken in the mentioned time frame. The main issue is being made here by the general question – how did shape in this time frame the attitude of the youth towards the Roman-catholic parish? The goal of this paper is to present the declaration of the youth related to the attitude towards the home parish. The presented investigations use the method of the analysis of in situ data and a comparison of various related research.