Roman Catholic Teaching Research Articles

The evolution of the latinization of the Uniate Church and its causes

The object of the study is the Uniate church, founded by the Brest Union in 1596. Then the Orthodox bishops of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth decided to unite with the Pope, provided that Eastern traditions were preserved. However, after the Brest Union, the practice of the Latin Church quickly began to blur the Eastern traditions of the Uniate Church, and the phenomenon of latinization appeared. The subject of the study is the processes and causes of latinization and Delatinization of the Uniate Church. The founding and development of the Uniate Church had strong political factors, since the article also considered its latinization from both religious and political aspects. The author pays special attention to the motives of the delatinization of the Uniate Church over the past 100 years, associated with the spread of the Catholic faith among Orthodox peoples. At the methodological level, the author combines the historical and political background to analyze the materials related to the research topic. The main conclusion of the study is that due to the contradiction between Roman Catholic teaching and Eastern traditions, the union with Rome is doomed to lead to the latinizaition of the Uniate Church. In addition, the latinization of the Uniate Church has a strong political influence. The author's special research contribution to the topic is that he noticed a contradiction in the Uniate Church. Russian Uniate Church is a tool used by the West to spread Catholicism in the Russian land and separate the people from the Russian Orthodox tradition. Latinization lead to the fact that the Uniate church lose its appeal to Orthodox people and affected its spread. However, without latinization, the Uniate Church would not be able to separate its believers from Orthodoxy and the Russian tradition, and would not be able to perform its political functions.

The Religiosity of Polish Roman Catholics and the Meanings They Attribute to Homosexuality: Evidence from Network Analysis

IntroductionPrevious research suggests that negative views on homosexuality are fostered by higher levels of religiosity. Little is known, however, about what meanings religious people attribute to homosexuality, how these meanings connect with each other, what kind of network they form, and which of them are central.MethodsThe research was conducted in 2020, based on a representative sample of Polish Catholics (N = 874). Religiosity was determined using latent class analysis. Based on an investigation of press discourse in Poland, six meanings of homosexuality were identified as positive (orientation, love, fulfillment) and negative (sin, deviation, disease). Network analysis was used to determine the relationship between religiosity and the meanings attributed to homosexuality.ResultsThe analyses showed that greater compliance of religious orientations with the Roman Catholic Church’s expectations translates into increased acceptance of negative meanings of homosexuality (primarily sin). Weaker (negative) correlations were noted between religiosity and positive meanings, which we interpret as resulting from the absence of the negation of positive meanings in Roman Catholic teaching.ConclusionsThe relationships between religiosity and positive and negative meanings of homosexuality were found to be asymmetrical, unbalanced, and designated by negativity bias. The weakening meaning of sin may play an important role in changing religious people’s attitude toward homosexuality.Policy ImplicationsThe absolution of homosexuality would reduce the likelihood of negative meanings such as deviance or disease. This could lead to a reduction in exclusionary perceptions of homosexuality.

Tinjauan Teologis Tentang Api Penyucian dalam Ajaran Katolik Roma Didasarkan Pada Kebenaran Alkitab dan Implikasinya Bagi Kehidupan Orang Percaya

Purgatory is a state, place of purification or temporary punishment. According to Catholic teaching, purgatory refers to a state, or place, where the soul of the dead is purified. There, it is cleansed of unpardonable sin. However, the teaching of purgatory has no place in Christian theology. Therefore, the purpose of writing this scientific work is to explain and describe the theological review of purgatory in Roman Catholic teaching based on biblical truth and implications for the lives of believers. The author uses a qualitative method with a literature study approach. The discussion in this study shows that only the blood of Jesus can erase and purify humans and nothing else. Everyone who lives in Christ will not experience condemnation.

The continuance of gender culture amid change in Mexican–American immigrant Catholic contexts

ABSTRACTThe acceptance and implementation of Roman Catholic teachings on marriage, sexuality, and the family vary both at the individual and at the parish level. While overall, there is a dialectical relationship between gender and religion in the way they inform and mold each other, the majority of research has focused on how religion has shaped gender in communities. We use qualitative data from a Latino immigrant Catholic context in the United States to show the opposite movement: how a Mexican–American gender culture of machismo and marianismo shapes the religious culture in the arenas of marriage and religious authority. The process of incorporating immigrant Mexicans into the dominant culture of the United States takes place in part in these religious centers through the interaction and mixture of Latino gender norms with the therapeutic egalitarianism of the white middle class, through the mediation of priests. Through this, we suggest that there are contexts, times, and places where the gender culture of a community shapes the reception and practice of religion.

Reč Božja u savremenom rimokatoličkom magisterijumu - apostolsko pismo Aperuit illis

On September 30, 2019, Apostolic Letter was issued in Vatican in the form of Motu Proprio ("on his own impulse") by Pope Francis, Aperuit illis. With it the pope establishes a special liturgical and pastoral day, when it is necessary to particularly celebrate, reflect and act more efficiently in the process of spreading the Word of God. The Bishop of Rome with that document has also set that day as the third Sunday of the liturgical year. In this research, we would like to present this new document of Roman Catholic teaching, offer the basic analysis of its key views and give the translation of the script into Serbian.

The Concept of Woman. Volume 3, The Search for Communion of Persons, 1500–2015.

Sr. Prudence Allen's extensive work on the concept of woman finds its culmination in this massive book, the third in a trilogy that began with a first volume on the Aristotelian revolution (up to 1250) and a second that traced developments from 1250 to 1500. In this exhaustively and meticulously researched book, Allen argues for an “integral complementarity” between man and woman that she argues is “proven” through its ability to cohere with John Henry Newman's criteria for doctrinal development, set out in his Essay on the Development of Doctrine (10–11). Through a detailed survey of both men and women thinkers since 1500, including some of the most prominent—Leonardo da Vinci, René Descartes, Immanuel Kant—as well as some lesser known—Elena Tarabotti and Moderata Fonte—Allen argues that only a conception of complementarity based in a revised Aristotelian hylomorphism can adequately account for what it means to be a woman as well as be in accord with Roman Catholic teaching.

Authenticity in employment relations: a theology of the workplace analysis

Authenticityis developed and deployed as a criterion variable for a theology of the workplace inquiry that combines theory and methodological development with data analysis. The goal is to show that social science method can offer an empirically valid, prophetic dimension to the study of employment and work parameters in light of religious teachings on the social question at national, organizational, or firm-specific levels. The function of a criterion variable is described, noting that the switch from a dependent variable approach introduces an open-system dynamism to social science. Authenticity is reviewed to better understand its utility as an emergent, yet verifiable, criterion outcome of prior conditions. Data analysis takes the form of Roman Catholic and Quaker social teachings identified as positive correlations or contrasts. This approach offers a rigorous method bridge between theology and allied fields for the common cause of assessing authenticity in firm, organization, and higher system functions.

Authenticity/ الصحة as a criterion variable for Islam and Roman Catholic theology of the workplace analysis

PurposeAuthenticity/ الصحة (as-sehah) serves as a criterion or predictor variable for the purpose of a comparative theological investigation of employment relations parameters in light of social teachings from Sunni Islam and Roman Catholicism. Authenticity finds initial, shared significance in both religious traditions because of its critically important role in judgments concerning the legitimacy of source documents. It also stands in both traditions as an inspirational goal for human life.Design/methodology/approachParticular issues of theological method for cross-cultural analysis are addressed by the use of insight-based critical realism as a transcultural foundation. Workplace parameters, the minimal enabling conditions for the possibility of authentic employment relations, are then identified and compared. The authors explore shared expectations for authenticity enabling conditions in terms of the direct and indirect employer: those national laws, systems and traditions that condition the functional range of authenticity that can be actualized within national or other work settings as experienced in the direct employment contract.FindingsThe study found remarkable consistency in the minimal conditions identified by Roman Catholic and Sunni Islam social teachings for the prospects of authenticity in employment relations. These conditions addressed seven parameters: work and the concept of labor; private property; the nature of the employment contract; unions and collective bargaining; the treatment of wages; the relationship between managerial prerogative and employee participation; and the crucial role of the state as indirect employer.Practical implicationsSpecific minimal or threshold conditions of employment are described to ensure the prospect for authenticity in modern employment relations according to religious traditions. These include just cause employment conditions, unions and collective bargaining support, some form of management consultation/Shura, a living wage and a consultative exercise of managerial prerogative.Social implicationsThe study offers prescriptive and analytical aid to ensure assessment of circumstances fostering authenticity in employment relations.Originality/valueThe method and findings are a first effort to clarify thought and aid mutual understanding for inter-faith employment circumstances based on Roman Catholic and Sunni Islam social teachings through a transcultural foundation in cognitional operations. The criterion variable specification of authenticity conditions offers a fully developed basis to support further empirical research in management spirituality, corporate social responsibility and enterprise sustainability.

Fifty Years and Learning: Developments in the Roman Catholic Church's Encounter with Religions

In this article the author argues that the Roman Catholic Church does not have a firm theological position on other religions, as its engagement with them as partners in dialogue has emerged only since the Second Vatican Council. The article provides an overview of the Roman Catholic Church's theology and teachings on non-Christian religions, beginning with the council's shortest, but by no means least-significant, document, Nostra aetate. The author claims that an examination of Nostra aetate's redaction history, the text itself, and the text in relation to other conciliar texts, reveals an optimistic view of salvation and other religions. The author then traces further doctrinal developments in the magisterium of John Paul ii. The length of his papacy, coupled with his personal commitment to dialogue, resulted in significant developments and milestones. The teachings of Benedict xvi and Francis are briefly surveyed. A last section explores ever-evolving theologies and practices that shape the church's approach to other religions today: comparative theology, theologies of dialogue, and theologies of religion.

“The Bond of Peace”: A Hermeneutical Rapprochement?

How we interpret our ecumenical differences and the difference they make depends upon our assessment of differences internal to our respective traditions. This essay argues that hermeneutical shifts in modern Roman Catholic teaching on dignity and human rights fundamentally alter the sense of actions regarded as “intrinsically evil.” While these shifts preserve the meaning of the term, they raise serious questions about its applicability to same-sex marriage. Rather than merely assuming that same-sex relations are, per se, intrinsically distorted; Catholic teaching, it is argued, might learn from the Anglican Communion in asking whether the ends of marriage can indeed be fulfilled in such unions.

Gute Ordnung: Ordnungsmodelle und Ordnungsvorstellungen in der Reformationzeit ed. by Irene Dingel and Armin Kohnle (review)

Reviewed by: Gute Ordnung: Ordnungsmodelle und Ordnungsvorstellungen in der Reformationzeited. by Irene Dingel and Armin Kohnle Jeffrey Jaynes Gute Ordnung: Ordnungsmodelle und Ordnungsvorstellungen in der Reformationzeit. Edited by Irene Dingel and Armin Kohnle. Leucorea-Studien zur Geschichte der Reformation und der Lutherischen Orthodoxie, Band 25. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlanganstalt, 2014. 287 pp. This volume features essays on the important early modern theme of “good order” ( Gute Ordnung). The book is one of several resulting from a conference series—“ Die Frühjahrstagungen zur Wittenberger Reformation” (number 10)—most of which have produced works on individual reformers like Nikolaus von Amsdorf, Johannes Bugenhagen, and Philipp Melanchthon. The editors and conference organizers gathered an array of scholars to investigate the growing interest in the political, social, and ecclesiastical ordinances/ Ordnungenof the sixteenth century. The larger umbrella of “policy ordinances” is addressed in an overview chapter by Johannes Staudenmaier, who notes the organizational framework developed by Karl Härter and Michael Stolleis, part of a research project of the Max Plank Institute for Legal History. Several chapters address the primarily secular dimensions of these Ordnungen, ranging from larger territorial legislation ( Landes-ordnungen) to more specific concerns like the regulations of court life (Berger), water rights (Richter), or clothing and luxuries (Weller). Thomas Weller’s chapter on sumptuary legislation ( Kleiderordnungen) offers a particularly instructive example on how arguments for controlling community behavior shifted through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Focusing on the city of Leipzig, a “fashion [End Page 74]center” of the late sixteenth century, his essay analyzes the numerous Leipzig Kleiderordnungento demonstrate how concerns about divine punishment eventually yielded to an interest in maintaining the social status quo in the early seventeenth century. The authors are attentive to the confessional dimensions of these various ordinances, especially in the chapters that directly address the voluminous church ordinances ( Kirchenordnungen) along with visitation protocols, and related matters like school (Töpfer), university (Kohnle), consistory (Butt), marriage (Jürgens), poor relief (Peters) and burial ordinances (Kolb). Sabine Arend’s essay on Kirchenordnungenprovides a good sense for how these ordinances sought to promote their understanding of “good order” while curbing expressions of disorder, which was often associated with those of rival confessional traditions. Unfortunately, her ability to contrast ordinances from varied perspectives—Lutheran, Reformed, and Roman Catholic—is not replicated in several other studies. Most essays concentrate on the Lutheran ordinances, and there is a distinct Saxon flavor throughout the volume. Nevertheless, all essays contain intriguing insights, with bibliography that is up-to-date and valuable. Stefan Michel offers a good assessment of the visitations in Ernestine Saxony, noting both the theological and legal aspects of Melanchthon’s influential Unterricht der Visitatoren. Heiko Jadatz’s chapter on the nearly simultaneous visitations in neighboring Albertine Saxony illustrates how visitations were also employed to bolster traditional Roman Catholic teaching and worship. Legal thinking and Ordnungensurrounding marriage-related matters has received particular attention following the work of John Witte, Law and Protestantism(2002) and the earlier work of Hartwig Dietrich, Das protestantische Eherecht in Deutschland(1970). Henning Jürgen’s contribution on marriage ordinances provides an exceptional overview of this research, with further insights into the thinking rooted in both the Kirchenordnungenand subsequent Eheordnungen. Paired with the article on consistories by Arne Butt, the volume distills a significant body of literature about marriage legislation into a reasonably compact form. Robert Kolb’s final chapter on burial orders is the lone English essay in the book. Kolb mines a host of Kirchenordnungento demonstrate how Luther’s theological [End Page 75]insights regarding death and burial translated into both liturgical practice and the regulation of cemeteries. Irene Dingel’s essay opens this volume and makes the argument that confessions, in their varied ecclesiastical expressions, served an “ordering” function that promoted wider societal concepts of “good order” or the “common good” ( gemeiner Nutz). As noted already in this review, attention to confessional dynamics emerged in each of the essays. Dingel’s comments also provide an apt conclusion to this collection. She explains how confessions, and the varied ordinances they influenced, informed the three arenas of early modern experience: politics ( politia), church ( ecclesia) and household ( oikonomia). In a nearly...

Lying and Christian Ethics.By Christopher O. Tollefsen.

C hristopher T ollefsen ’s book on the ethics of lying weaves together both theological (revelation-based) and philosophical (reason-based) arguments for the traditional Roman Catholic teaching that lying is always and everywhere wrong, regardless of the consequences. It is, however, the philosophical case against lying on which Tollefsen focuses most centrally—not surprisingly, since he is a philosopher. Like Germain Grisez, Joseph Boyle, and John Finnis, Tollefsen is a proponent of the ‘New Natural Law’ school of moral philosophy, a school that is rooted in a certain way of interpreting and developing the natural law thinking of Saint Thomas Aquinas, arguably the single most respected thinker in the Roman Catholic tradition. According to this school, our most basic moral duty is to respect and promote the goods that fulfil human persons, including life, health, truth, friendship, beauty, personal integrity, marriage, and religion. We recognize these things as self-evidently good for their own sakes and do not infer their goodness from mere descriptions of human nature or other facts about the world. While our own circumstances in life will rightly lead us to focus on some goods more than others, we must respect and remain open to all of the goods in every choice we make, and this means we must never act directly or intentionally against any instance of a basic human good. That is, the object of an action must never include damage to a basic human good. Some acts are thus by their very nature intrinsically immoral and sinful and never to be done, no matter what the ulterior goal or circumstances might be—a position articulated by Pope John Paul II in his 1993 encyclical letter Veritatis Splendor .

“Fuelled by Dreams and Powered by Imagination”: Considering Digital Technologies through the Lens of a Theology of Play

The boundaries between information and entertainment, work and leisure, and professional devices and toys are blurred. This has implications for understanding the ways in which we interact with digital devices. This article argues that these new cultural developments are not adequately addressed in existing theologies of technology and proposes that a theology of play provides an important additional critical perspective. Particular focus is placed upon Roman Catholic teachings, including the past decade's Papal messages to the World Communications Day.

Divinely Empowered, Spiritually Gifted: Women in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement in Trinidad

Roman Catholic teaching developed since Vatican II (1962 - 1965) enunciates that Jesus Christ established and ordained a male clergy through his appointment of twelve male disciples. Predicated on this, Roman Catholic women have been denied ordination and access into positions of spiritual authority. In the island of Trinidad however, it has been observed that women have created a unique space for agency that has been seldom a focus of theoretical inquiry. This has been achieved through the emergence of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement (1971), a spirit filled upsurge that revived the entire Church. Through the establishment of powerful prayer ministries, women were the initiators of a new centred spiritual wave; they were all pioneers establishing their own Renewal Communities, and in many instances singlehandedly administering spiritual affairs. These meetings were the perfect environment for God's visitation, which eventually resulted in the bestowal of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of Glossolalia (speaking in tongues) upon all attendants. Inevitably, this phenomenon couldn't be contained; the meetings soon expanded throughout the island, and as the years progressed, specific women saw it fit to establish Renewal Communities that would be the mechanisms used to make Renewal a more visible movement. This paper is a subset of a larger research entitled Zelophehad's Daughters, which is focused on addressing the experiences of female leaders within the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement in Trinidad. Using Feminist Theology as its theoretical foundation and the Interpretative Phenomenological Methodological Approach, this research will attempt to examine the relationship between spiritual experiences and female leadership within the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement.

From Politics to Theology: Responding to Roman Catholic Ecclesial Control of Reproductive Ethics

Shifts in U.S. health-care laws have put Roman Catholic teachings about contraception and abortion front and center in the public square, where the primary discussants are reporters, politicians, and Church leaders.1 Reporters and politicians are often ill-equipped to address abortion or contraception as it relates to Roman Catholic theology. Thus the discussion lacks historical and theological nuance, leaving the Roman Catholic hierarchy’s position beyond scrutiny. Additionally, the hierarchy attempts to ensure they are the only theological voice by directly silencing dissenting opinions related to procreative freedom and responsibility. Simply put, the Church continues to systematically silence theological dialogue, its own history, and, consequently, future developments in moral theology related to contraception and abortion, and sexual ethics more broadly. This is not a new development, but one that calls for a renewed response. Thirty years ago, Beverly Wildung Harrison’s foundational text Our Right to Choose addressed this specific issue, and yet the issue persists. In sketching the political and theological landscape of her time, Harrison compared the moral (characterized by a logical autonomy of reason based on a set of technical, philosophical assumptions) versus theological (characterized by the beliefs, teachings, and sacred texts of a particular religion) approach in debates for

Toward a Theology of Infertility and the Role ofDonum Vitae

A theology of infertility is needed to help couples and the broader ecclesial community understand the theological implications of infertility. Infertility raises questions about human freedom, finitude, embodiment, childlessness, and parenthood. In this article, dominant cultural assumptions surrounding each of these areas when considering reproductive technologies are sketched. Official Roman Catholic teaching on reproductive technologies (Donum Vitae), while rejecting most forms of such technologies, does provide a viable response to the presupposition that reproductive technologies resolve infertility. Given the dominant cultural assumptions and insights from Roman Catholic teaching, this article advocates for several ecclesial changes when considering infertility. Finally, theological resources for developing a theology of infertility are offered. Specifically, insights from Karl Rahner's theology of concupiscence are examined with an eye toward how they provide a framework for rethinking the cultural assumptions about freedom and finitude when considering reproductive technologies.

Out of the homeland: The Croatian Right and Gay Rights

This article discusses how the Croatian right’s attitudes towards gay rights have been defined by nationalism and Europeanism. It focusses on the Croatian Democratic Union (Hrvatska demokratska zajednica, HDZ), which has dominated Croatian politics since it was first elected to government in 1990. It led Croatia to independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 and through the homeland War from 1991 to 1995, and it also started and finished Croatia’s negotiations for accession to the European Union from 2005 to 2011. The HDZ government did not actively address gay rights in Croatia in the 1990s, especially since it espoused a heteronationalism influenced by Roman Catholic teachings. Homosexuality was usually mentioned by HDZ officials only in negative terms, such as when allegations of it were used to discredit critics or opponents. Although the HDZ government had sought to integrate Croatia with Western Europe, it was isolated by the West in the late 1990s because of its authoritarian and nationalist tendencies. However, after its electoral defeat in 2000, the HDZ transformed itself into a more moderate right-wing party, and it returned to government in 2003. Subsequently, it had to actively address gay rights, as these had become a prominent political issue under the previous government and with the rise of a local gay movement. As the HDZ government placed EU accession at the centre of its programme, it also came under pressure from the EU to adopt anti-discrimination laws to protect sexual minorities. However, the HDZ continues to oppose the expansion of gay rights in debates on same-sex marriage or adoption rights for same-sex couples, which are not required for admission into the EU, and it continues to do this with references to traditional Croatian and Catholic values.

GOD'S IMAGE AND LIKENESS IN HUMANS AND OTHER ANIMALS: PERFORMATIVE SOUL‐MAKING AND GRACED NATURE

Abstract Although official Roman Catholic teaching affirms the concept of evolution as a convincing theory in order to explain the biological origin of different life forms, there is still a strong insistence on an “ontological gap” between human beings and all other creatures. This paper investigates how best to interpret that gap while still affirming human evolution. Drawing on medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas, I seek to uncover the influence of Aristotelian ideas on the rational soul. I will argue for the crucial importance of divine grace in consideration of divine image‐bearing bearing so that while other animals share in the likeness of God, only humans, like angels, bear God's image. Such an approach does not provide any justification for the denigration of other creatures. Rather, the possibility of a further transformation of human nature, deification, and thus into the likeness of God depends on Christ as the one who bears the image of God perfectly, and the Spirit, who enables such a transformation in human subjects.

The Power of the Church - The Role of Roman Catholic Teaching in the Transmission of HIV

We use the appointment of a Kenyan Roman Catholic archbishop as a natural experiment to analyze the impact of church authorities' teaching on sexual behavior. Using a triple-difference approach, we find that following the archbishop's counter-doctrinal assertion that condom use within a marriage can be acceptable to reduce HIV infections, Catholic married couples within the archdiocese who had access to condoms were 7.0 percentage points more likely to use condoms than unmarried Catholics in the diocese, non-Catholics within the diocese, or Catholics in other dioceses. These results are quantitatively large and robust to a number of econometric specifications. The evidence for whether advocating condom use leads to an increase in infidelity or a decrease in respect for women is not conclusive. Our results suggest an important role for the Catholic church in the fight against HIV. This is especially relevant in light of Pope Benedict XVI's recent reconciliatory statement about condom use.

Joining in the Dance: Catholic Social Teaching and Ecology

AbstractThis paper charts the emergence of environmental themes in Roman Catholic Social Teaching (CST). I argue that not only has this strand not been adequately acknowledged, but also that the theological basis for these ideas are rooted in core Roman Catholic teachings on creation, Christology and anthropology. In other words, concern for environmental issues is not an optional extra for Christian practice, but expresses in a fundamental way deep incarnation and human image-bearing as responsible stewardship. I argue that a particular concern with issues of social justice shapes the way environmental problems are addressed, so terms such as human ecology, ecological conversion, solidarity, the common good and world peace all take up ecological threads that are then woven into the account. While Pope John Paul II arguably laid the foundation for the theological bases for these ideas, Pope Benedict XVI applies these ideas more explicitly to current concerns. Yet while the former gave witness to the power of contemplation of the natural world, the latter is more concerned with distortions in philosophical reasoning in the Western world, including dangers he perceived in naturalism and pantheism. Both pontiffs show a lack of specific understanding of ecological systems and tend to idealise both nature in terms of harmonious relationships and humans in terms of mastery.