Roman Catholic Parish Research Articles

When Values and Ethics of Care Conflict: A Lived Experience in the Roman Catholic Church

This article investigates contemporary understandings of the ethics of care. While the ethics of care is predominantly known as showing empathy and support to others, analysing the complex relationship between institutional and personal values of clerical leaders and the congregation in the Roman Catholic Church in England reveals very different understandings. The sociological and psychological concepts of authority, pastoral care and identity are used to analyse the role of a female youth work leader in a Roman Catholic parish who is exposed to different (conservative and liberal) leadership approaches. She explains how her views on care, gender and participation differ from those of three clerical leaders and powerfully illustrates the resulting conflicts between the priests but also towards the congregation. This story shows that individual agency influences strong conservative institutional values and that leadership in faith-based organisations needs to embrace the complex interplay between institutional and personal dynamics.

The concept and example of assistance aid as a form of support in the social reintegration of prisoners in the context of the activity of the Roman Catholic parish

The aim of the article is to present the assistance aid and forms of support for prisoners undergoing the process of social reintegration in a religious community. A special area of values is the inclusion of the sustainable development principle in the scope of activities aimed at the reintegration process, organized mainly based on the applied subsidiarity principle. The article uses sociological qualitative methods, mainly the case study method based on the sociological observation of the convict and the person supervising him/her, which is included in the category of assistance support. The employment contract of the convicted person in charity work in the parish and spontaneous interviews conducted in the context of the activities of the supervisors were analysed. The result of the conducted observations and analyses is the determination of the purposefulness of the sustainable development principle in the reintegration process. This detailed social principium in the perspective of moderate anthropocentrism strengthens the reintegration process the most by optimizing the working time that a convict in the parish can perform for the environment. The working time saving index, which is the conclusion of the analyses, allows to expand the functionality of the parish as a social institution and improves the chain of goals pursued by the convict. The value of the natural environment does not play a significant role in these activities, because in the perspective of moderate anthropocentrism, the most important value is the person and activities aimed at reintegration in social life. The main form of support for an assistant is accompanying and enabling responsible use of parish resources.

This may help us and the whole cause of due process: Father Joseph Byron, the Washington Nineteen, and American Catholic priests as Sixties rebels

ABSTRACT This article recovers an important episode of Sixties spiritual politics. It tracks the efforts of the Washington Nineteen, a group of Roman Catholic parish priests suspended by their superior for defending the laity’s sexual freedom, to secure rights of due process in the American Catholic Church. Secular dissidents – students, soldiers, and civil rights activists – also demanded rights of due process from local authorities. But these radical priests sustained one of the era’s most prominent campaigns for legal protection from authority. As such, the Nineteen’s story demonstrates how the extension of constitutional rights into non-state institutions comprised a crucial demand of Sixties activists.

Antroponimia pogranicza polsko-wschodniosłowiańskiego w XVII i XVIII wieku na przykładzie rzymskokatolickiej parafii w Żółkwi. Wybrane zagadnienia

Żółkiew (Zhovkva) is located about thirty kilometers north-west of Lwów (Lviv), on the histori­cal route leading to Warsaw. The foundation of the city was on the territory of the village (former ancillary colony) Winniki (Vynnyky) by the Świnia (Svynya) river. Thanks to advantageous town privileges, colonizers from other parts of the country joined Polish and Ukrainian indigenous peo­ple. Registers of baptisms of the Roman Catholic parish in Żółkiew (Zhovkva) were held from the first years of it’s existence; analyzed data is extracted from excerption of homogenous manuscript sources of the 17th and 18th centuries – seven parish registers of baptisms (1604–1787). The analyz­ed anthroponyms show East Slavic influences, especially Polish-Ukrainian linguistic interferences. The personal names of Żółkiew (Zhovkva) and the surrounding area illustrate ethnic and linguistic, religious as well as cultural differentiation of the microregion.

The Fate of the Catholic Church of St. Louis of the French in Soviet Moscow: the Perspective of an American Assumptionist

From 1938 to 1992, the Church of St. Louis of the French was the only legally operating Roman Catholic parish church in Moscow. The peculiarity of the parish was that its core membership and its “executive bodies” comprised foreign nationals and representatives of the diplomatic corps, primarily of France and the United States. In the second half of the 1940s, amid rising tensions with the West, the Soviet authorities subjected the community of St. Louis and its clergy to their control. Today, it is possible to detail the circumstances of this case not only thanks to the Russian archival materials but also to the document published below, a copy of a memorandum by Fr. Leopold Braun, A. A., an American priest who administered the Church of St. Louis in 1934—1945. The document, originally forwarded to the US State Department in February 1954, was found in the Archives of the North American Province of the Assumptionists in the Provincial House in Boston, MA. In this document, Fr. Braun describes the history of the church in the Soviet period, focusing on the confrontation between its clergy and parishioners, on the one hand, and the Soviet authorities, on the other. He also suggests that the US Government intervene in the situation and return control of the church to Catholics of all nationalities, including those who do not have Soviet citizenship. The basis for such interference, from the point of view of Fr. L. Braun, was the Roosevelt — Litvinov agreements of 1933, which contained guarantees of religious freedoms for American citizens in the USSR.

The early history of the Roman Catholic parish in Bibrka

<p>Głównym celem artykułu jest analiza pierwszych zapisów dotyczących historii rzymskokatolickiej parafii w Bóbrce. Aby to osiągnąć, autor zapoznał się z tablicą pamiątkową, treścią niedawno znalezionego dokumentu dotyczącego historii parafii oraz odpowiednimi zapisami Metryki Koronnej. Wyjawiono, że najwcześniejsze znane udokumentowane dowody darowizn na rzecz miejscowej parafii Najświętszej Maryi Panny pochodzą z czasu panowania króla Kazimierza IV Jagiellończyka.</p>

Niedatowana relacja o kościele parafialnym w Rembieszycach ze zbiorów Archiwum Diecezjalnego w Kielcach (trzecia ćwierć XIX wieku)

Rzymskokatolicka parafia w Rembieszycach (woj. świętokrzyskie) powstała w 1438 r. z inicjatywy rodu Odrowążów – właścicieli Rembieszyc i pobliskich wiosek. Źródła historyczne poświadczają w okresie staropolskim obecność dwóch kościołów parafialnych: najstarszy, wzniesiony przed 1438 r., uległ zniszczeniu w wyniku starości; drugi, wystawiony w 1751 r. staraniem miejscowego proboszcza Ludwika Sakiewicza, spłonął w latach dziewięćdziesiątych XVIII stulecia w bliżej nieznanych okolicznościach. W latach 1798–1799 ówczesny kolator Franciszek Saryusz Wolski ufundował trzecią świątynię, która przetrwała do dziś w niemal niezmienionej formie, stanowiąc cenny zabytek drewnianej architektury sakralnej na ziemiach polskich. Publikowany dokument przedstawia wygląd i stan tego obiektu sakralnego w drugiej połowie XIX w., opisuje jego wystrój i wyposażenie, pomniki nagrobne, wyszczególnia kolejnych księży pracujących w parafii. Źródło to w istotny sposób wzbogaca naszą wiedzę na temat miejscowej świątyni i samej parafii.

The development of historical imagination on the example of an exercise addressed to first-year students of history at Nicolaus Copernicus University1

Laddach Agnieszka, The development of historical imagination on the example of an exercise addressed to firstyear students of history at Nicolaus Copernicus University. Culture – Society – Education no 2(16) 2019, Poznań 2019, pp. 163–181, Adam Mickiewicz University Press. ISSN 2300-0422. DOI 10.14746/kse.2019.16.11.
 December 12, 2016 a group of eleven first-year students of history organized at the Institute of History of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (Poland) participated in the field work carried out in the church Roman Catholic parish of St. Jacob the Apostle in Toruń. During a visit in the temple the students performed an exercised to draw their attention: generally to the role of the imagination in the practice of the historian’s research and training his own imagination in whole live. First, the authoress described a process of the exercise. Then she briefly pointed to the literature on the role of the imagination. Later she discussed the work that have arisen in the result of the exercise. Next she characterized the thoughts and impressions of students. She also outlinedthe importance of this exercise in a broader context. At the end she summed up the whole article.

The church garden as an element improving the quality of city life – A case study in Warsaw

The subject of the paper are gardens associated with the Roman Catholic parish churches of the Warsaw Archdiocese. Church gardens derive from tradition of former churchyards which are principally characterized as places of burial. With passing years churchyards have lost their function of burial place and were transformed into designed green areas. The church gardens scattered throughout the urban tissue may constitute significant part of urban green spaces. Despite their fairly small size, the church gardens can function as a compliment to larger public green spaces. The research aims to verify how the church gardens of the Warsaw Archdiocese contribute to urban residents’ quality of life improvement. The data collection, by means of on-site study, included identification of garden layout, types of vegetation, symbolical elements, furniture and other architectonic elements. To identify each church lot size and the surface covered by green space within respective church lot the orthophotomaps were used. Information on social functions of the gardens was acquired from the parish websites and their profiles in the social media (Facebook), and was supplemented by on-site observations carried out in the gardens. The size of the church gardens is diverse, but the majority of them has at least a small-size green space. The gardens which host social events are larger and have larger green space surface but do not differ with respect to the percentage of the green space surface. Social events take place more frequently in gardens with woody plants. Bigger absolute green space surface and presence of trees favors social events. The results show that Warsaw Archdiocese church gardens constitute important part of small urban green spaces structure.

Living Among the Northland Māori: Diary of Father Antoine Garin, 1844–1846.

If Antoine-Marie Garin is remembered today, it’s likely to be in Nelson, where he was Roman Catholic parish priest for very nearly forty years (1850-89). Born in eastern France, near Lyon, in 1810 to a comfortable middle-class family, Garin trained as a priest for his local diocese but after ordination and three years of parish work he joined the new missionary order, the Society of Mary. Marist priests and brothers had already accompanied Bishop Jean-Baptiste Pompallier to Aotearoa in 1838; Garin was one of a number who arrived early in 1841. In late 1843 Garin went to Mangakāhia, to run the Kaipara mission, and it is his time there which is the subject of this book. It is worth noting here that Garin is one of a significant number of Frenchmen and Frenchwomen from around Lyon who were influential in New Zealand Catholicism, from Pompallier himself to Suzanne Aubert, and, indirectly, the founder of the Society of Mary, Jean-Claude Colin. Garin, therefore, dedicated his Mangakāhia mission to St Irenaeus, Hato Irene, as well as to the Holy Rosary, for St Ireneaus was an early second-century bishop of Lyon.

Defending Polish Roman-Catholic Parishes in the Springfield, Massachusetts Diocese. Case study of two parishes: Stanislaus Kostka in Adams and Immaculate Conception in Indian Orchard

The article outlines the conflict between the Roman-Catholic hierarchy and parishioners of two Polish churches in the Diocese of Springfield, Massachusetts: St. Stanislaus Kostka in Adams (established in 1902) and Immaculate Conception in Indian Orchard (established in 1904) who have opposed the decisions of the Bishop and subsequently have overturned them. The article traces its phases, investigates the historical and social contexts of the controversy, and attempts to diagnose the future of Polish Roman-Catholic parishes in the United States.

Priests of Katerynoslav (Dnipropetrovsk) Roman Catholic Parish (Soviet period)

Priests of Katerynoslav (Dnipropetrovsk) Roman Catholic Parish (Soviet period)

Bohaterowie z Reszla i okolic. Tablica honorowa żołnierzy z parafii reszelskiej poległych w latach 1813-1815

Until recently, honorary plaques were rarely the subject of studies by Polish historians. Only in recent years have studies been published discussing their nature and purpose. Unfortunately, due to their previous neglect, including by local authorities, many of these valuable objects were removed from their original place of exhibition, and some were even destroyed. One such plaque, requiring restoration, is from Reszel, commemorating soldiers from the local Roman Catholic parish who fell in the battles with Napoleon in the years 1813–1815. Before the Second World War this plaque was located outside the Church of Saints Peter and Paul, which could be dated to the refurnishing of its interior in 1822–1843. The table’s inscriptional field contains permanent and temporary elements. The former includes inscriptions with the names of fallen soldiers and their place of their origin. The second includes military ranks, names, places and dates of death, dates of birth, decorations received and others. The correct reading of these inscriptions – often written in the form of abbreviations – as well as their verification led to numerous findings, including those relating to units under whose banners fought soldiers from Reszel par�ish in individual battles with Napoleon.

Fieldwork in Ecclesial Borderlands

Abstract Roman Catholic parishes in the United States are steadily becoming more diverse. This article examines St. Mary of the Angels, a small, urban, economically marginal, highly diverse Roman Catholic parish in Boston, as a case study in the question of how researchers might approach the tension between cultural dynamism and structural stability at the heart of multiethnic parish life. Attending to the ways in which parishioners articulated their decisions to belong to St. Mary’s, I demonstrate how their renegotiation of the relationship between parish, place, and belonging reflects broader dynamics underway in U.S. Catholicism. I propose the metaphor of the ecclesial borderland as lens through which to interpret parishes where multiple cultural subcommunities coexist and converge.

From Grief to Healing: A Pastoral Response to a Sexual Abuse Scandal in a Roman Catholic Parish

A pastoral response to challenges faced by lay leaders in a Catholic parish that has experienced an allegation of sexual abuse and the subsequent removal of a priest is described. Organized around a theological reflection, the four-part program draws on the Book of Lamentations and a contemporary understanding of the grieving process mediated by Jewish mourning practices.

Marriage and the First Birth in Zsámbék, Hungary (18th — Early 20th Centuries)

Family is a social institution ensuring the demographic reproduction of populations. It starts with the creation of a stable partnership, in the past almost exclusively a marriage according to prevailing norms. Thus, this ritual generally began the demographic reproduction in historical societies, at least in Europe where the first marriage and first birth were close in time. Consequently, marriage customs had a direct impact on population development. The frequency of marriages and the time spent in marriage significantly affected fertility. The percentage of those who had been married was closely related to the level of fertility, whereas the duration of marriages affected marital fertility by determining the length of women’s reproductive phase together with the frequency and time of widowhood and remarriages. Besides, marriage can be considered one of the key turning points in the life course. In this paper, the author analyses the age of first marriage and the time of first births in Hungarian Zsámbék between the eighteenth century and World War II. The author aims to better understand the determinants of first marriage for men and women at the individual level and in the long run. The research is done with reference to longitudinal family reconstitution data from the Roman Catholic parish registers of the village; these data are then analysed using event history models.

Examining the external validity of the CRUZA study, a randomized trial to promote implementation of evidence-based cancer control programs by faith-based organizations.

The CRUZA trial tested the efficacy of an organizational-level intervention to increase capacity among Catholic parishes to implement evidence-based interventions (EBIs) for cancer control. This paper examines the external generalizability of the CRUZA study findings by comparing characteristics of parishes that agreed to participate in the intervention trial versus those that declined participation. Sixty-five Roman Catholic parishes that offered Spanish-language mass in Massachusetts were invited to complete a four-part survey assessing organization-level characteristics that, based on the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), may be associated with EBI implementation. Forty-nine parishes (75%) completed the survey and were invited to participate in the CRUZA trial, which randomized parishes to either a "capacity enhancement intervention" or a "standard dissemination" group. Of these 49 parishes, 31 (63%) agreed to participate in the trial, whereas 18 parishes (37%) declined participation. Parishes that participated in the CRUZA intervention trial were similar to those that did not participate with respect to "inner organizational setting" characteristics of the CFIR, including innovation and values fit, implementation climate, and organizational culture. Change commitment, a submeasure of organizational readiness that reflects the shared resolve of organizational members to implement an innovation, was significantly higher among the participating parishes (mean = 3.93, SD = 1.08) as compared to nonparticipating parishes (mean = 3.27, SD = 1.08) (Z = -2.16, p = .03). Parishes that agreed to participate in the CRUZA intervention trial were similar to those that declined participation with regard to organizational characteristics that may predict implementation of EBIs. Pragmatic tools to assess external generalizability in community-based implementation trials and to promote readiness among faith-based organizations to implement EBIs are needed to enhance the reach and impact of public health research. Clinical Trial information: The CRUZA trial identifier number with clinicaltrials.gov is NCT01740219.

Akty metrykalne odzwierciedleniem życia społeczności lokalnej Zagłębia Dąbrowskiego (na przykładzie akt stanu cywilnego parafii rzymskokatolickiej w Gołonogu z lat 1808–1912)

The issue of parish civil status records has been an object of research for both historians and genealogists. The literat­ure concerning this issue is quite wide, but many resources of such records have not been worked out yet; records from the Roman Catholic parish in Gołonóg coming from years 1808–1912 belong to the group. They contain a lot of inform­ation concerning inhabitants of the area of the Dąbrowa Basin; they contain not only their names, surnames and dates of birth-baptism, matrimony or death, but also where they lived and their social rank was in the contemporary society of the Dąbrowa Basin. News presenting a lot of events form life of our nation in the 19th century can also be noticed in the registers. The author presented them on the basis of birth-baptism, marriages and deaths certific­ates of her own 19th ancestors from families: Teper, Jurczyk, and Glimosa. The families which have inhabited and belonged to the Gołonóg community parish since four generations.

A Culturally Diverse Roman Catholic Parish as a Community of Musical Practice

From my perspective as a Roman Catholic liturgist and musician, thinking of a local parish as a community of musical practice presents several challenges. First, each local community is part of a m...

Somewhere Between Love and Justice: a Roman Catholic Church in Paris Responds to the European Migration Crisis

The European migration crisis has had a transformative impact on many transit and destination localities in Europe, and in doing so it has mobilised many faith-based communities. This paper analyses the social action of Saint Bernard de La Chapelle, a Roman Catholic parish in northern Paris, which hosts a semi-formal association called Solidarités Saint Bernard (SSB) involved in support and relief activities for indigent migrants in the local area. Based on ethnographic research conducted within the parish and the association, I analyse how the topic of migration has become a point of exchange between the parish community and local civil society, how religious and secular discourses and motivations co-exist within SSB, and how these influences shape SSB’s social action. Through this micro-scale approach, and drawing on Luc Boltanski’s theoretical framework of regimes of action, my aim is to identify conceptual elements to better understand the broad convergence between religion, social action, and migration, and to better understand the relation between charity and justice within faith-based social action in the domain of migration advocacy more specifically.