Developments in Catholic Biblical Studies Reflected in Three 20th Century “Catholic Encyclopedias”

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes entries pertaining to biblical studies in three Catholic encyclopedias, the Catholic Encyclopedia(1907-1914) and the original and revised editions of the New Catholic Encyclopedia(1967 and 2003), to determine the degree to which, individually, they represent the “state of the art” at the time of publication and, collectively, whether they accurately reflect developments in Catholic biblical scholarship in the twentieth century. The author concludes that, despite certain inadequacies and gaps in coverage, the three encyclopedias are a valuable resource for tracing the course of those developments.     

“I don't reject the Catholic Church—the Catholic Church rejects me”: How Twenty- and Thirty-somethings in Poland Re-evaluate their Religion

Abstract

Given measures of religious belief and participation, young adults in Poland are becoming increasingly disengaged from the Catholic Church. Broad theories of secularisation are less useful for making sense of this trend than an analysis of the role of Catholicism in Polish society in the twentieth century, which demonstrates the ways in which forms of belief are contingent upon wider social and political transformations. This article argues that, since 1989, attempts by the Catholic Church in Poland to influence public life through conservative social and political interventions have alienated young people who are looking for religious resources with which to make sense of their lives in a rapidly changing social milieu. Alongside disengagement from conservative, propositional forms of Catholic truth and rejection of direct authority, young people still possess ‘religious capital’ and look upon religious ideas to orientate their personal lives. However, disaffection from the propositional truths offered by the Church and disengagement from rituals and practices of ‘folk Catholicism’ at the level of the family and local parish have not led to widespread expressions of atheism among young people. Instead, there is a sacralisation of everyday life and there are attempts to use ‘religious capital’ to help young people make choices for life. The reconfigured ‘religious capital’ is often expressed through diffuse Catholic symbols and sentiment as well as the periodic use of major religious festivals as a means of finding access to some form of collective religious experience. The article concludes by reflecting on the implications of these changes for the future religious landscape of Polish society.     

How individual was conscience in the early-modern period? Observations on the development of Catholic moral theology

This article investigates how the notion of individual conscience has to be understood within the early-modern development of Catholic moral theology. It highlights that 16th-century Catholic theologians continued to understand conscience mainly in Thomist terms as a rational judgment. Yet they also came to investigate more deeply questions of intention and individual circumstances that might interfere with the perfect execution of moral reasoning. Particular emphasis is given to the question of probabilism and whether this new method of analyzing moral agency provided a stepping stone towards a more individualized conception of conscience, as some intellectual historians have contended. The article argues that whilst probabilism sharpened the awareness for problems of conscience, this development cannot be disconnected from the culture of counsel of conscience, inscribed into the fundamentally Thomist definition of it.     

Blessed be the Children: A Case–Control Study of Sexual Abusers in the Catholic Church

Individuals working in churches and other youth-serving institutions have a unique level of access to children, yet the problem of sexual abuse in institutional settings has received scant research attention. To address this gap, we analyzed data from a large sample of clergy (N = 1,121) and applied a social–ecological model of offending to identify risk factors for sexual abuse perpetration. Using a case–control study design that compared clergy sexual abusers with three control groups of clergy, this study focuses specifically on individual-, relationship-, and community-level factors associated with a higher risk of abuse in professional populations. Findings revealed that clergy sexual abusers tended to have more truncated pre-seminary dating histories, and that their dating and sexual partners were more likely to have been male than female. Self-reported sexual abuse history was associated with a greater likelihood of sexual abuse perpetration among clergy. Clergy abusers tended to be more involved with youth and adolescents in their ministries; however, they were observed to relate less well to youth and adolescents than their clergy counterparts. Given widespread changes in our cultural understanding of abuse as well as more specific changes in the organizational approach to seminary education, these differences underscore the role that youth-serving institutions and society can have in the primary prevention of child sexual abuse. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Initiation Rites in the Contemporary Catholic Church: What Difference Do They Make?

Since 1988, well over one million individuals in the United States have been initiated into the Roman Catholic Church through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). Studying the RCIA today promises to enrich understanding of contemporary rites of initiation for both basic and applied researchers. To this end, this article asks and answers two key questions: Do individuals who participate in the RCIA process in the Catholic Church experience an increase in ecclesial involvement and spiritual practice? If so, is the extent of that growth explained by aspects of the RCIA process itself? To answer these questions, I employ a quasi-experimental (noequivalent group, pre-test/post-test) design??collecting data on individuals at the beginning of their involvement in the RCIA process and after their initiation (N?=?159)??to identify the extent of change in different domains of religiosity over the course of the RCIA process. I then use organizational-level data on characteristics of the RCIA process in 32 different parishes to explain differences in the extent of individual change. I find those who were initiated in parishes in which the RCIA process was more fully implemented were not only more actively engaged with their parishes (ecclesial involvement) but also grew in their level of spiritual practice. Substantive and methodological contributions of this research are discussed.     

A blessing in disguise? Empowering Catholic health care institutions in the current health care environment.

Health care institutions, including Roman Catholic institutions, are in a time of crisis. This crisis may provide an important opportunity to reinvigorate Roman Catholic health care. The current health care crisis offers Roman Catholic health care institutions a special opportunity to rethink their fundamental commitments and to plan for the future. The author argues that what Catholic health care institutions must first do is articulate the nature of their identity and their commitments. By a renewed commitment to the praxis of health care on their own distinctive terms, Roman Catholic health care institutions may reestablish a vision of human nature and human service in an increasingly secular society. Health care could then reclaim its place as a powerful setting for the expression of Roman Catholic faith, life and witness.     

The Catholic Church’s Mission with the Marginalized

The Catholic Church’s primary mission is to spread the kingdom of God. In the broader sense, the kingdom of God means the reign of righteousness, justice, and peace. However, widespread social, political, and economic inequity tramples the rights of the weak. The church wields tremendous power and influence in the world. However, at times it has failed miserably to protect the weakest. The various scandals within the church call for thorough introspection and repentance. Church authorities need to alter power structures radically to empower the poor and the marginalized. In this paper, I shall refer to Pope Francis’s Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium to propose concrete steps the church could take to reach out to the marginalized, heal their wounds, and collaborate with them to spread the kingdom of righteousness, justice, and peace in this world. Apart from Evangelii gaudium, I shall also refer to the documents on the social teachings of the Catholic Church and the views of experts in this field.     

Youth Ministry in and beyond the Church? The sacrament of confirmation in the Roman Catholic Church as a testcase[1]

This article deals with the dilemma in which the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe is involved, concerning the initiation of young people into the life and faith of Christian communities. Some people argue that only a solid and profound mystagogical catechesis can revitalise the congregation, other people are in favour of the idea that the church should remain open for every particular quest for meaning of young people today. Two different opinions on the meaning of the gospel for postmodern youth cultures are at stake. In the field of confirmation catechesis this discussion culminates in strong tensions and conflicts. In this article a third vision on confirmation catechesis is presented which focuses on the hermeneutical qualities of the Christian gospel and on the possibility of young people to explore these qualities by ‘following the church at some distance’.

     

Is the Catholic Church in America Experiencing Internal Secularization? Priests’ Assessments of Pope Francis and the Condition of the Church

This study addressed internal secularization in the Catholic Church by testing the role of several factors in priests’ assessments of the state of the Church in the United States, priests’ views of whether the Church's situation is getting better or worse, and their attitudes toward Pope Francis. Comparisons with identical questions fielded in 2002 revealed a striking pessimistic turn among priests over the last two decades. In addition, regression analyses using the 2021 Survey of American Catholic Priests revealed that “in-house” factors—namely, attitudes toward Pope Francis and perceptions of how well bishops have restored confidence in the Catholic Church following the sexual abuse crisis—most powerfully predicted priests’ current pessimism. On top of this, politically conservative priests and priests ordained more recently tended to be most critical of how Francis is handling his duties, signaling a pronounced tension inside the Catholic Church over religious authority, a defining feature of internal secularization.     

Becoming a ‘real’ Catholic: Polish migrants and lived religiosity in the UK and Ireland

The effect of migration on religiosity is a well-documented theme in the sociology of religion. Despite the rapid growth in the number of Polish Catholics in the UK and Ireland, little has been written on the spiritual and religious aspects of their journeys. This article is based on the authors’ ethnographic fieldwork with Polish migrants in the UK and Ireland. Drawing on qualitative interviews and participant observation with Polish migrants of various ages and class backgrounds, we identify three possible outcomes for individuals of Catholic faith being transplanted to a secular context: firstly, Catholic Poles continue to practise in the same way as they did in their home country; secondly, they begin to question their faith and leave the church altogether; thirdly, they take the opportunity to explore their faith in a flexible and relatively independent manner. We argue that the third possibility leads to the privatisation and intellectualisation of their Catholicism. Thus, the experience of migration gives some Polish Catholics the freedom and courage to question their beliefs, but it does not necessarily make them irreligious. In their own words, they ‘believe in the way they have always wanted to but did not dare’. In conclusion, this article highlights the secondary benefits of migration for the personal experience of religious faith.     

Are Successful Applicants to the Roman Catholic Deaconate Psychologically Healthy?

The current investigation evaluated psychological and personality profiles of successful applicants to the deaconate in several Roman Catholic dioceses in California. The MMPI-2 and 16PF were administered to 25 applicants between 2004 and 2006 who subsequently entered the permanent deaconate program. Results indicate that these applicants to the deaconate were generally well-adjusted as well as being socially responsible. Findings also suggest some tendency for defensiveness, repression, naivete, and a strong need for affection, as well as for being emotionally stable, genuine, and cooperative.     

‘We believe in One,Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church’: the Armenian Apostolic perspective

This article reviews the four marks of the Church ? Unity, Holiness, Catholicity and Apostolicity ? from the perspective of the Armenian Apostolic historical, doctrinal and liturgical tradition, with particular reference to the importance of the total identification of church and people and drawing attention to comparisons with the ecclesiological works and treatises of Western traditions. Within the rich context of the history and liturgical life of the Armenian Orthodox Church, the author expounds the meaning of the four marks of the Church, their co-inherence and linkage with the Incarnation of Christ, which enables the Church, ‘in her earthly and heavenly missions’ to reflect ‘the historical and mystical realities of what the apostles experienced in their mission as witnesses and teachers sent by Jesus Christ himself’.     

The crisis as a constrained opportunity? Catholic organisations and territorial welfare in the Basque Country and Emilia-Romagna

Interactions between politics and religion are frequently reduced to ethical and civilisational issues which are politicised and given prominence in the media. Focusing instead on the role of religious – here Catholic – actors in the local experience of social economy and welfare provision in times of economic crisis helps instead to highlight the discrete interactions between politics and religion. In particular, the strong involvement of religious actors, beyond their traditional charity-oriented activity, also concerns more solidarity-oriented socioeconomic experiences as well as political advocacy. These articulations generate new forms of politicisation with respect to both social movements and policymakers. In this article I address these issues comparatively in a Spanish region (the Basque Autonomous Community) and an Italian region (Emilia-Romagna).     

Beyond Christendom: Protestant—Catholic distinctions in coming global Christianity

Using actual and projected population data from the World Christian Database, this article evaluates Philip Jenkins' argument that the centre of global Christianity is moving from the Euro‐American centre (the ‘global North’) to the developing world (the ‘global South’) by disaggregating the different outcomes of this shift for Protestants and Catholics. Over the next fifty years, Catholics will decline much less than Protestants in the North, and will be concentrated in Latin America, not Africa. With the decline of the Enlightenment nation‐state, religious authority and identity will become more concentrated in Catholicism but will become more dispersed in Protestantism. This transition from national to global Christianity, I argue, will realign the post‐Reformation achievement of balanced tension among three social realitiesd Protestantism, Catholicism and the nation‐statedto produce not just another Christendom but a new, more complex articulation of civil and religious realities that will move beyond the old arrangement of Christendom altogether.     

Ireland’s economic crisis and austerity: the response of the Irish Catholic Bishops

The Irish Roman Catholic Church has been a dominant institution in Irish society for generations but this dominance has declined in recent decades due to modernisation and secularisation. Since the mid-1990s, the Church has been rocked by scandals of clerical and religious sex abuse of children, which has had a negative impact on its moral standing in Irish society. As a result of the economic crash in 2008, a programme of severe austerity was introduced by the Irish government. In this article, the response of the Irish Catholic Bishops to the recession and austerity measures is assessed through the analysis of their public statements which are available through the news archive of the Irish Bishops’ Conference. The findings show that the Bishops did criticise the socio-economic policies of the Irish government but this was limited due to a range of institutional barriers.     

‘Between Rome and Constantinople’: the Italian-Albanian Church: a study in Eastern Catholic history and ecclesiology

This article examines the Eastern Christian presence on the Italian Peninsula and the Island of Sicily; the settlement of Albanian Christians after the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans, the emergence of a distinct Italo-Albanian Church and the jurisdictional arrangements made to accomodate this. Concentrating on the period from the 15th century onwards, from the arrival of large numbers of Eastern Christian Albanians in southern Italy and Sicily, the article examines the unique arrangement between Rome and Constantinople, from the Council of Florence (1439) to the Council of Trent (1545–1563), when the Orthodox Bishop of Ohrid provided ecclesial jurisdiction, an arrangement which has no direct historical parallel. The article highlights the work of the eighteenth-century historian Pietro Pompilio Rodotà (who related the two distinct phases of Eastern Christian presence, for historical, cultural, ethnic and linguistic reasons, to the development of the general category of the ‘Greek Rite’) and more contemporary attempts by some Italo-Albanians to establish a metropolitanate (posing questions for the relationship of the Italo-Greek Monastery of Grottaferrata to any future Italo-Albanian ecclesial body). The history and tradition of the Italian-Albanian Church and of the Monastery of Grottaferrata, present a unique and significant Eastern Christian–Eastern Catholic presence in Italy, raising important questions for ecumenism and ecclesiolgy in Europe today.     

The Polish Catholic Church’s perception of the processes of EU integration and Europeanisation in the context of traditional norms and values

The Catholic Church has historically played a significant role in the sociocultural and political life of Poland. Its activity was particularly evident and significant during the process of political transformation. Since 1989, however, the sociopolitical conditions have remarkably changed, thereby placing the church in a new, challenging context. Poland’s post-1989 political aspirations (opening to the West in particular) have come to the fore of the public debate, in which the church has actively participated. In this article I aim to analyse the church’s position on the process of EU integration and the Europeanisation of Polish law and culture. The main questions concern the direction of argumentation used by the church’s internal wings and the politicisation of the discourse on the axiological shape of Polish culture and tradition. My analysis embraces the debate surrounding the process of European integration, with special consideration of the church’s internal divisions (between the ‘centre-right’ and ‘radical-right’ in particular) and ideological discrepancies concerning the very idea of integration and the debates on the draft Constitution of the European Union (Constitutional Treaty) and the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms of the European Union.     

Pierre De Bérulle (1575–1629) and the renewal of Catholic spiritual life in France

Pierre de Bérulle, founder of the Oratoire de Jésus (commonly known as the Oratoire de France), is a leading figure in the renewal of the Catholic Church in France in the first half of the seventeenth century. He is generally regarded as the founder of the French School of Spirituality (École française de spiritualité), though this term has been much criticised in recent years. He is often described as a ‘reformer’ of the Church in France, but this is a half-truth which obscures his real originality; he certainly shared the aims of those striving to create a clergy which would be better educated, more morally upright and more pastorally sensitive and zealous; but above all else he was concerned with the spiritual renewal of the clergy and with the Church in France generally. Lastly, he has often been accused of wishing to create chiefly, if not exclusively, a spirituality of the priesthood and to work for the ‘sanctification’ of the clergy. But his work and ideas must be seen here in a broader perspective, for Bérulle and his disciples shared with St Francis de Sales the aim, expressed in his Introduction à la vie devote (1608), of creating and promoting a spirituality available to all Christians. This article examines his conception of the Oratory, which he intended to be an intermediary between the religious orders and the secular clergy, his spiritual theology, what I have called his ‘spiritual pedagogy’, and his influence in France and elsewhere.     

Stem cell research in a Catholic institution: yes or no?

Catholic teaching has no moral difficulties with research on stem cells derived from adult stem cells or fetal cord blood. The ethical problem comes with embryonic stem cells since their genesis involves the destruction of a human embryo. However, there seems to be significant promise of health benefits from such research. Although Catholic teaching does not permit any destruction of human embryos, the question remains whether researchers in a Catholic institution, or any researchers opposed to destruction of human embryos, could participate in research on cultured embryonic stem cells, or whether a Catholic institution could use any therapy that ultimately results from such research. This position paper examines how such research could be conducted legitimately in a Catholic institution by using an ethical analysis involving a narrative context, the nature of the moral act, and the principle of material cooperation, along with references to significant ethical assessments. It also offers tentative guidelines that could be used by a Catholic institution in implementing such research.