Universal Church Research Articles

Troska o depozyt wiary katolickiej a normy dotyczące osób duchownych i zakonnych występujących w środkach społecznego komunikowania

The role of the means of social communication in social and religious life is increasing. This is clearly shown by the pandemic situation. The author has undertaken an analysis of the canonical norms of CIC / 83 regulating the presence of clergy in radio and television broadcasts. The analysis focuses on their respecting the deposit of the Catholic faith. The norms of the universal Church and of particular Churches in Poland do not differ in their meaning and content. However, their ethical optics are aimed at disciplining media participants (while fully approving of the pastoral role of the media) and advising them to be cautious based on the virtue of prudence. It is important that the clergy expressing their views and opinions in public or participating in broadcasts and commercial programs have adequate knowledge and preparation, but most importantly that they are guided by prudence.

“A Straight Path, a Narrow Path ...” (New Testament Plots in the “Roman Diary of 1944” by Vyacheslav Ivanov: The Apostles)

In this article, a number of selected episodes of the “Gospel text” taken from Vyacheslav Ivanov’s “Roman Diary of 1944” – a kind of “sunset” cycle of the poet – are investigated. Particular attention is paid to the place of this cycle within the poet’s creative output. It is observed that the diary-style of the poetry emphasizes the lyrical and confessional tonality of the texts included in the “Roman Diary of 1944.” A detailed analysis of the poems, whose plot is defined by the apostolic theme, is carried out. In particular, the difference between Vyacheslav Ivanov’s creative interpretation of the Gospel episodes concerning the apostles and the corresponding New Testament passages – a difference that emphasizes the strong personal nature of Ivanov’s interpretation of these texts – is highlighted. Special attention is also paid to the historical and cultural context of the works considered. As a result, the concept of “aiontopos” will be introduced into the creative context of Vyacheslav Ivanov’s poetry. Within this concept, the inseparable (essential) link between the later years of his biography and the common Christian “path” to God is revealed. Special attention is paid to the important and still debated issue concerning Vyacheslav Ivanov’s acceptance of Catholicism according to Vladimir Solovyov’s formula. This entire issue introduces the analyzed verses into the context of the general European cultural and philosophical thought of the twentieth century. In this regard, the analyzed poetic texts indicate the names of the saints equally worshiped in both the Catholic and Orthodox traditions. In this way, the cultural-historical and cultural-philosophical relevance of Vyacheslav Ivanov’s poetic intuitions, the ones that express the idea of a common Christian unity in the bosom of the Universal Church, is remarked.

The Role of Political and Electoral Technologies in Continuing the Church and Civilization Schism in Ukraine

This article examines the impact of the church schism in 2018 on the change in the civilizational identity of modern Ukrainians. Modern Ukraine is in the zone of the conflict of Russian and Western civilizations, openly expressed since 2014. One of the strategies for resolving the conflict appears to be changing the civilizational identity of the enemy by transforming the cultural core of civilization, which also includes religion and religious practices. The transformation of the civilizational core in Ukraine occurs through the instrumentalization of religion, which turns into a way to solve the internal and foreign policy problems of the modern Ukrainian government. This article studies the history of the establishment of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) in 2018, the reception of tomos from the Constantinople Patriarchate and the confrontation between the OCU and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), which acts as a conductor of the Russian civilization's influence. The internal goals of the Ukrainian government, achieved through a church schism, include reducing the consolidation of society and strengthening its own position in a fractured society. Their foreign policy objectives involve reducing the cultural influence of Russia, excluding the Russian part of the Ukrainian society from receiving the Russian civilization's values and changing the civilizational identity of Ukrainians. One way to change the civilizational identity of Russians in Ukraine while formally preserving the Orthodox religion in the country involves promoting eucharistic ecclesiology, which is not historically rooted in the Orthodox Church and has been developing since the mid-20th century as an alternative to the universal ecclesiology. The latter assumes that the universal church is not reduced to the sum of its parts, that the criterion for correct faith is the unity of the episcopate, and that maintaining the integrity of the empirical church is one of the values of church communion. Eucharistic ecclesiology presumes that the fullness of grace is contained in each experiential community united by the common Eucharist. Eucharistic ecclesiology aids in instrumentalizing the church and turning it into the spokesperson for the secular interests of communities, which is already happening in Ukraine. This article shows that despite the church schism itself does not remove Ukrainians from the Russian civilizational space, it includes church communication into the foreign policy of reducing the Russian cultural influence in Ukraine and changing the civilizational identity of its inhabitants.

Pointing to Transcendence: Reflections from an Anglican Context

Abstract After a critical examination of western master narratives of modernization and secularization, David Martin focuses, first, on one of the variants of Christian modernity, Anglican modernity. The Anglican Church provides a simulacrum of the universal church as it ranges from the Catholic to the Evangelical and Pentecostal and is, hence, rigged also by many of the problems confronting the church in the contemporary world. Next, Martin considers some examples of unanchored spirituality and free-floating faith that have, in his opinion, no serious future as major expressions of Christianity—he discusses, in particular, Schumann’s paradigm of Romantic music. Though inevitably fallible, churches are to be regarded as pointers to transcendence, opening, in the words of William Blake, “the doors of perception.” Without the institutional church to protect and perpetuate the Christian language of transcendence and provide ritual re-enactment of the Christian story of ruin and restoration, the Anglican/Christian vision would be as vulnerable and ephemeral as most contemporary forms of non-institutional, un-anchored “spirituality” [the editors].

Zur Kollegialität des Bischofsamtes im Lichte der Communio-Ekklesiologie des Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzils

"The collegiality of the episcopate was a particular concern of the Second Vatican Council. Consequently, ordination always integrates the individual bishop into the college of bishops, so that the episcopal authority conferred on him personally can only be exercised as a member of this college. Through the exercise of the collegiality of the bishops, the synodality of the churches is also expressed. In this context, it can be stated that for centuries the universal Church understood itself as a community of the many local churches of equal theological rank, which were in communion with one another. In the first three centuries, the primacy of Rome in the communion was much more strongly connected with the entire Roman community and not with a person or an office. In the West, a new form of ecclesiastical self-understanding and self-realization established itself in the fifth century, in which the bishop of Rome with his office increasingly detached himself from his own church. This ultimately led to the development of a centralised papal church, which was predominant in the second millennium. Since the Second Vatican Council, the Pope has once again been seen primarily as the bishop of a local church, and only from there as the bearer of primacy, and therefore he remains visibly and concretely inserted into the collegiality of the bishops in the service of the synodality of the churches."

Царство Небесное и царства мирские: полемика В.С. Соловьева и Антония (Храповицкого)

The article considers the controversy between philosopher V.S. Solovyov and Antony (Khrapovitsky) on the relationship between the Kingdom of Heaven and temporal kingdoms, i.e. about the relationship between the church and the state. The study touches upon certain biographical moments – the circumstances of the acquaintance and the first meeting of Solovyov and Antony, as well as the history of their personal communication. The article analyzes in detail Antony’s criticism of the book “Russia and the Universal Church”, written in French, which was banned in Russia, examines the dispute between the philosopher and the future church hierarch about the nature of the church, about the essence of Christian love, true Christianity, the essence of papist teaching and the truth and untruth of Catholicism. The research methodology involves a comprehensive historical and philosophical analysis of sources. In order to analyze the basic concepts discussed in polemics (“church”, “state”, “love”, etc.), to trace the ideas of thinkers, it is necessary to see the integrity of their worldview and views, and for this to carry out a certain synthesis based on the corpus of works, as well as public letters and personal correspondence of the authors. At the same time, philosophical and categorical analysis is required to clarify the discussed ideas and concepts. In addition, the research involved the methods of historical and philosophical reconstruction, comparative analysis, systematization of conclusions and results, as well as historical and biographical analysis. As a result of the study, the author examines personal relationships between Solovyov and Antony, which remained respectful and friendly, despite the worldview and ideological differences, as well as the controversy of the philosopher and the hieromonk about the Kingdom of God and the temporal kingdoms, about common good and personal salvation. Solovyov’s theocratic project, which presupposes the transformation of the Christian state into a universal church, was unacceptable to Anthony, who believed that church and state should be separated in order to avoid the redemption of the church. If Solovyov is convinced that individual salvation is impossible without concern for the common good, that salvation is carried out in the collective organism of mankind, Antony comes to the conclusion that for a Christian concern for his own soul is primary, and the common good by itself grows around the righteous.

Charismatic Leadership in the Catholic Church

The article analyzes the ideas of charismatic leadership developed in the Catholic Church in the second half of the 20th century. These ideas are connected, on the one hand, with the biblical revival, with the attempts to rediscover the heritage of the Church of the first centuries, and on the other hand, with new social phenomena, which are typical for the era after the Second World War. The social dimension of charisma and its role in the creation of associations were rediscovered in Catholicism during the Second Vatican Council. At the same time, a huge number of new social and evangelical initiatives appealing to charisma appeared. The new church movements became the most prominent and well-known examples of catholic “charismatic associations”. The author shows how the Catholic hierarchy managed to streamline and incorporate the charismatic leadership of lay associations into the reality of the universal church structure. The article emphasizes that the concept of charismatic leadership in the Church is in the process of evolution. The author concludes that the documents of church governance, proclaiming the absence of a conflict between charisma and institution in theory, reflect the political processes of the contemporary Catholic era: the emergence of Catholic movements with a predominant role of laity, the change of generations of Catholic elites and the formation of a new balance of responsibility between movements and the church hierarchy.

A Theological Analysis of the Hymn “Teaching Everyone To Live Like Christ”

This article is a theological analysis of the hymn, “Teaching Everyone to live like Christ,” written in support of the 2020/2021 theme of Methodist Church Ghana (MCG). The hymn emerged from the author’s pastoral and theological analysis of the MCG’s theme, “Discipleship: Teaching everyone to live like Christ” (Col. 1:28-29). The hymn touches on two key functions of the universal Church, namely, mission and nurturing of believers. The author brings out the message embedded in the hymn through an expository study of the lyrics together with secondary sources such as books, articles, and others. The paper contends that the survival of the Christian Church now and in the years to come depends on effective disciple-making, which places high emphasis on the teaching ministry. Keywords: Hymn, Christ, Teaching, Church, Perfect, Mature.

TheUniversalChurch of the Kingdom of God in Australia: A church of non-Brazilian migrants

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) is a Brazilian neo-Pentecostal megachurch. Over the past 40 years, it has established branches in over 100 countries among the economically and socially marginalised. This holds true in Australia, where congregants are disenfranchised migrants from diverse ethnic backgrounds and (former) refugees. Drawing on 2 years of ethnographic research in the UCKG’s Australian headquarters, this article explores why a Brazilian church, with a seemingly disagreeable character, attracts a multicultural migrant congregation in Australia. I argue that the UCKG is attractive to these congregants because it provides a space where its followers’ ethnicity is accepted; its cosmovision is easily translated to its congregation’s diverse spiritual sensibilities; and it offers ‘pioneering techniques’ to overcome life obstacles for those on the margins of Australian society. This work contributes to scholarly literature concerning Brazilian religiosity outside of Brazil, and the role religion plays in migrant settlement.

ST. YOSEF SEBAGAI TELADAN PELAYAN PASTORAL

St. Joseph in the Catholic Church has a special place as a protector of the universal Church. Coinciding with the Covid-19 pandemic crisis and the celebration of St. Joseph, the Apostolic Letter "Patris Corde" provides an overview, as well as a reflection on the personality and life of Father Joseph. By exploring the letter and writing of St. Joseph through literature study, it becomes clearly that his personality should be a lifestyle of pastoral servants. The sincerity and patronage of St. Joseph is the basic personality of a pastoral minister needed even in a difficult pandemic situation like this. The way of St. Joseph in facing his situation, it became an inspiration and model in data-based pastoral work and management of pastoral in the Church.

Profesor Ihor Skoczylas (5 IV 1967 – 20 XII 2020)

This article is written in memoriam of Ihor Skochylas, a historian and outstanding researcher. In 1993 he graduated from the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. He worked at the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and then at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. He was visiting professor at the Ukrainische Freie Universität in Munich. He is the author of 250 scientific publications on the history of the Ternopil region and, above all, the history of the Church in Ukraine in the broader perspective of the history of the First Republic and in connection with the universal Church. Innovative research by Ihor Skoczylas is related to the search for a “mental map”. The book by Ihor Skoczylas, co-authored with A. Gil, entitled “Eastern Churches in the Polish-Lithuanian state”

The Process of Creating a Digital Communication Model for the Vatican

In 1978, in the Holy See, all communication took place thanks to the analogue techno­logy of text, sound and image recording. In the following years, the progress in computer science, made it possible to save any kind of data in the form of digital recording, so that one could collect data and transfer it to any place in an instant. Digitalization also ­allowed the Vatican to create a new model of communication with the modern world. This model was first based on the capabilities of computer networks and then on the Internet. It was first tested by the Holy See in Latin America. The experience of the Latin American Church’s Computer Network (RIIAL) was transferred to the Vatican, and then developed and proposed by John Paul II to the entire Universal Church. This model of digital communication would not have been possible without collaborators such as John Patrick Foley, Judith Zoebelein, Joaquin Navarro-Valls and a group of lay Catholics and clergy from Latin America. It was thanks to them that the Holy See began to communicate digitally through the World Wide Web and to use e-mail in a relatively short time since their invention. The present analysis concerns the creation of a digital model of communication during the pontificate of John Paul II (1978–2005).The inclusion of social media in the communication model of the Vatican, took place during the successors of the Pope from Poland.

Theological Preparation of Religion Teachers in the Light of Current Indications of the Church in Poland

John Paul II, in one of his catechesis dedicated to evangelization and catechesis, distinguishes the formation of catechesis as an essential element of the common commitment to the development and vitality of the Church. He points to the need for the formation of all those who are responsible for teaching the truths of the faith, that is, pastors, catechists and all those who have expressed their willingness to help proclaim the Good News. Lack of adequate preparation among those who undertook catechizing leads to small effects and lack of required fruit in catechized people. The broadly understood intellectual formation is intended to deepen the life of faith of the person who serves in catechesis. However, besides the theological knowledge itself, it is important that the catechist is able to develop his own catechetical style. This article analyses the current indications of the Universal Church and the Church in Poland relating to theological education of lay and clerical religion teachers, which is carried out within the framework of studies and later in continuing formation.

Mariological Dimension of the Theological and Pastoral Concepts of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, Primate of Poland

W powyższym artykule zaprezentowano analizę jednego z fundamentalnych aspektów nauczania Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego jakim jest mariologia rozumiana w kategoriach prakseologicznych. Podjęta przez autora eksplikacja materiałów źródłowych ma za zadanie ukazać zaufanie do Maryi, Matki Kościoła, które odegrało niewątpliwie ogromną rolę w życiu i posłudze biskupiej Kardynała Wyszyńskiego. Rola i przymioty Maryi wpisane zostały tutaj w praktykę duszpasterską mającą na celu integralną odnowę moralną człowieka i narodu polskiego. Co więcej, opracowany przez Prymasa maryjny program duszpasterski oparł się naciskom komunistycznego aparatu władzy państwowej. Dzięki temu, stał się odpowiedzią na wiele zagrożeń, jakie niosła ze sobą powojenna rzeczywistość społeczno-polityczna, przyczyniając się do zachowania tożsamości i niezależności kulturowej Polaków.Zamierzeniem autora powyższej publikacji jest syntetyczne ukazanie spojrzenia Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego na Maryję jako na Matkę Boga-Człowieka i Matkę Kościoła. Eksploracja powyższych badań opierać się będzie na analizie tekstów źródłowych dokonywaną metodą historyczno-teologiczną. W konsekwencji, autor niniejszego artykułu starał się uchwycić i zarysować nie tylko mariologię Prymasa Tysiąclecia i zawarte w niej istotne treści teologiczne. Ważnym elementem powyższych badań jest ukazanie jej wymiaru pastoralno-prakseologicznego, przejawiającego się w różnorodnych inicjatywach duszpasterskich, w których nie tylko wyidealizowany pietyzm i admiracja, ale przede wszystkim głęboka wiara i zaufanie do Maryi Królowej Polski i Matki Kościoła odgrywały fundamentalną rolę.

Lives, Lives, and Afterlives

Caesarius of Arles in his role as bishop struggled to guide his growing Christian community amid the political and religious fragmentation of early sixth-century Gaul. This article examines the ways in which he shaped his pastoral pedagogy to address the ecclesiological challenges of the post-Roman world. In his own life, in retelling the lives of saints, and in publishing his sermons, Caesarius variously reconceptualized “example” in order to teach ordinary Christians how to live out their faith in a universal church – a stable, if idealized, community that brought comfort in uncertain times. His innovative pedagogy also reshaped the complex administration of the expanding Gallic church. Caesarius thus created a pedagogy of example to fit the needs of his post-Roman community.

В.С. Соловьев между православием и католичеством: отклики современников

The article is devoted to the foreign and Russian reception of theocratic utopia of V.S. Soloviev, presented in his French works “The Russian Idea”, “Saint Vladimir and Christian Politics”, “Russia and the Universal Church”. Soloviev’s theocratic project, which assumed the subordination of the Russian emperor to the pope and the reunion of the Orthodox and Catholic churches, aroused great interest abroad. His report “The Russian Idea”, dedicated to Russia’s mission to conciliate the two branches of Christianity, was enthusiastically received by the Catholic press and received many praise. The Russian philosopher was seen by Western critics as a new apostle, called to return the Orthodox to Catholic unity. However, the treatise “Russia and the Universal Church” turned out to be unacceptable for Catholics for its mysticism, Soloviev’s teachings about Sophia and creation seemed like a gnostic heresy. Abroad Soloviev’s ecclesiology, philosophy of history, his theocratic project, which in Russia were perceived as treason to Orthodoxy and as an anti-national utopia, were in demand. Despite the fact that the philosophical and religious foundations of his views were shared by many Soloviev’s French writings evoked an unfavorable impression in the government and the Holy Synod (K.P. Pobedonostsev), indignation and irritation of the Slavophils (I.S. Aksakov, S.F. Sharapov), the Pochvenniks (N.N. Strakhov) and conservative circles (L.A. Tikhomirov); Orthodox clergy (Nikolai (Kasatkin), Anthony (Khrapovitsky), Vladimir (Guettée)) spoke extremely negatively about them. The most favorable were the assessments of K.N. Leontiev and T.I. Filippov. The philosopher’s Russian followers embraced Soloviev’s metaphysics, sophiology, his doctrine of total unity, while in his theocratic aspirations the philosopher remained alone.

КАТОЛИЧЕСКИЙ ВЗГЛЯД НА ПРОБЛЕМУ СОЕДИНЕНИЯ ЦЕРКВЕЙ В ПУБЛИЦИСТИКЕ В.В. РОЗАНОВА

The article retraces the “ecumenical” period of V.V. Rozanov (1856-1919), which came at the time of the late 1890s - early 1900s, outlining the philosopher’s views on Catholicism and the unionist problem. These themes, practically untouched in Russian science, were elaborated in the Catholic works within the walls of the Pontific Oriental Institute in Rome. The author introduces the texts, previously unknown to the national specialists on Rozanov. They manifest the intent to present Rozanov as an apologist of Catholicism. The grasp of meanings of the polemical writing of Rozanov’s journalism becomes an axiological guideline of the article, which otherwise leads to a shift of the accents towards the conclusions desirable for the Catholic side. The methodological guideline remains the correlation of the nature of the evolvement of the study of Rozanov’s heritage with the external revision of the unionist question and the attribution of its results to the “new theism” elaborated by the thinker. The author finds the omission of the Catholic side in ignoring the historiosofical constant of Rozanovian thought, in the light of which, the absence of a solution to the unionist problem in the frame of the current cultural paradigm becomes a surety of a different comprehension of the Universal Church.

"Our System": Father Robert T. Kennedy, the American Legal Tradition, and the Development of Administrative Law in the Revision of the Code of Canon Law

As an American civil and canon lawyer, Father Robert Kennedy offered much to the study of canon law and the revision of the Code of Canon Law. As president of the Canon Law Society of America and chairman of the Society's Ad Hoc Committee on Due Process, Kennedy advocated subsidiarity and the development of means of legal recourse through committees of arbitration and administrative courts. With the Church's formation of a Code Commission to study the revision of the code, Kennedy's work as a consultor for the De processibus subcommittee allowed him to advance the cause for subjective rights, due process, and administrative procedures. Kennedy's studies in the United States and Rome provided him with unique insights that he was able to apply concretely to the revision of the code. These insights were influenced by his personal experience of the Universal Church and the American tradition.

A Symbol of the Universal Church. The Twelfth-Century Reliquary Shrine from Warffum (Groningen)

The focus of this article is a small reliquary shrine from the parish church of Warffum (prov. Groningen, Netherlands) that has lost most of its decoration. Only the wooden casket, some ornamental plaques, strips with inscriptions and empty sockets have survived. The shrine has previously been dated either to around 1300 or to the fifteenth century. I argue that the shrine, in its oldest form, belonged to the late twelfth century or the early years of the thirteenth century at the latest, and that it was a so-called collective shrine, the purpose of which was to give expression to the universal character of the church and its message of salvation. The shrine was obviously a cherished object as it was repaired at least once before its final desecration that probably took place in the late sixteenth-century during the period of reform. The additional material on the shrine includes some very interesting Merovingian plaques.

Острые грани общественного идеала (от давних дискуссий к современности)

The author outlines the views on social ideal of Russian thinkers from Vladimir Solovyov to Georgij Fedotov. Solovyov, advancing Fyodor Dostoevsky’s ideas, viewed the social ideal as a realization of the doctrine of universal solidarity and free development of a person under spiritual guidance of the Universal Church. This ecumenic and theocratic utopia had not received any recognition in Russian society, torn apart by unsolvable social and cultural conflicts. Pavel Novgorodtsev, generally sharing on the whole Solovyov’s views, thought that only the constitutional state could put these into effect. Konstantin Pobedonostsev pinned his hopes on monarchy, which would embrace popular religious and cultural traditions and oppose the “destructive” liberal reforms, while Nicolay Berdyaev believed in intelligentsia “transformed” by the idea of freedom. Georgij Fedotov called for the revival of the “need for freedom” and creation of the institutes executing spiritual development of society. The problem of the social ideal is relevant in modern Russia, though discredited by the neglect of cultural values, and above all, the devaluation of personal freedom. The prospect of a new cultural elite to overcome this remains vague.