Catholic Women Religious Vocations in the Twentieth Century: The Slovenian Case

In the twentieth century, female monasticism in Slovenia enjoyed a dynamic period. In this paper, I present changes in numerical trends for the whole century and explore the broader social circumstances and conditions that influenced the dynamics of this phenomenon. The basic thesis is that the numbers of members of religious orders change depending on the manner in which monasticism is structured in the economic, political and cultural life of a certain society. The major part of the discussion focuses on the first half of the century, which saw the greatest growth. In comparing the Slovenian statistical regions, I found that the majority of women members came from regions in which the demographic imbalance favoring women over men and the influence of the Catholic Church on everyday life were the greatest. In Slovenia, the decline in female religious vocations started after WWII and, especially until the second Vatican Council, was part of a manifest secularization process rooted in political change. The numerical trend in Slovenian female monasticism differs from West European and USA trends; therefore, a different approach and explanation was needed. This enabled me to re-think the social circumstances and position of Catholic orders in Slovenian society.     

Catholic Religious Orders of Women in China: Adaptation and Power

Although sociologists have argued that religious orders fulfill the same creative functions within Catholicism that sectarian groups perform for Protestantism, no research has examined whether the orders can serve this function in non-Western societies where Catholics are a minority. This article examines Catholic religious orders of women in mainland China today. Both internal and external factors prevent Chinese sisters from gaining the power and autonomy they would need to serve as change agents in the Chinese Catholic Church. The effectiveness of external attempts to ameliorate the sisters' difficulties is evaluated.     

The Information Behavior of Catholic Women Discerning a Vocation to Religious Life

Approximately 10% of Roman Catholic women seriously discern a vocation to religious life during their lifetime. Spiritual discernment is often characterized by prayer and spiritual direction, but also the acquisition of knowledge and information about religious life. No study to date has sought to understand how women seek out and retrieve information about religious life. Therefore, the current study sought to answer the following research question: “what is the information-seeking behavior (ISB) of Catholic women discerning a vocation to religious life?” using Dervin's Sense-Making Methodology. A survey was administered online and yielded responses from 124 participants. Findings indicated that digital and print resources were heavily utilized. However, participants indicated that connecting with a person face-to-face and visiting religious sisters produced a kind of knowledge and information that could not be acquired online, suggesting that their ISB was an integration of digital and print resources and human connection. This study contributes to the literature by intersecting the disciplines of information science and religion to equip practitioners who seek to develop resources for them. The study introduces the concept of limited Internet effectiveness in order to understand the integration of digital versus in-person resources in spiritual religious processes.     

The Difference Catholic Makes: Catholic Faculty and Catholic Identity

This study examines, for the case of Catholics, the thesis that a "critical mass" of devoted faculty members—50 percent or more, according to the papal document Ex Corde Ecclesia—serves to promote or preserve the religious character of religiously affiliated institutions of higher education. Factor analysis and structural equations are employed to analyze a random sample of faculty members ( n = 1,290) and institutional profiles ( n = 100) of American Catholic colleges and universities. Catholic faculty show higher support for Catholic identity in latent structures of aspiration for improved Catholic distinctiveness, a desire for more theology or philosophy courses, and longer institutional tenure. Institutions having a majority of Catholic faculty exhibit four properties consistent with stronger Catholic identity: a policy of preferential hiring for Catholics ("hiring for mission"), a higher proportion of Catholic students, higher faculty aspiration for Catholic identity, and longer faculty tenure in the institution. These latter two characteristics are not due simply to aggregation, but are stronger, on average, for Catholic faculty when they are in the majority. Preferential hiring marks Catholic identity, but is ineffective to increase the proportion of Catholic faculty. I conclude that the prediction of the critical mass thesis is correct.     

Coming to Rome: Some Anglo Catholic Life Histories and Religious Transition

This study examined religious transition in one Anglican Catholic Church of Canada community. The purpose of the study was twofold. Firstly, it sought to provide some account and social record of a significant event for both the Catholic and Anglican communities. Secondly, it sought to apply some of the theory surrounding religious transition to this very recent case of some Anglo Catholics in Canada.     

儿童早期经验在心理发展中的作用

儿童早期经验在心理发展中的作用受一系列条件的影响：儿童的个人特点,所涉及的心理和行为领域,早期经验发生的时间,早期经验的性质和种类以及儿童以后的环境和经验。不能笼统地说早期经验对心理发展的影响是不可逆转的,出生后的最初几年是心理发展的关键期。对这个问题需进行进一步的研究。     

Jean Piaget,the Child's Conception of Physical Causality (Victoria Hazlitt)

Abstract

Jean Piaget. The Child's Conception of Physical Causality. (Trans. by M. Gabain.) London: Kegan Paul; New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1930. Pp. viii+309.     

Testing the Effects of Organizational Culture on a Catholic Religious Order

It can be stated that very committed religious people do not develop a monolithic culture, even when they belong to the same spiritual tradition, although there is little research on the pluralism present in a religious segment which is often deemed too uniform and closed to study. The present article aims to explore the internal culture of a homogeneous group of Catholic friars and the presence therein of sub-cultures. Further, the study will test the influence of cultural variables on the factors of vitality and performance. A broad survey, based on an individual questionnaire and involving other monks from different generations and geographic areas, will provide the basic data. The results confirm the complexity of ‘organizational culture’ as a factor that contributes to the vitality of a religious institution.     

Aristotle's Logical Works and His Conception of Logic

I provide a survey of the contents of the works belonging to Aristotle's Organon in order to define their nature, in the light of his declared intentions and of other indications (mainly internal ones) about his purposes. No unifying conception of logic can be found in them, such as the traditional one, suggested by the very title Organon, of logic as a methodology of demonstration. Logic for him can also be formal logic (represented in the main by the De Interpretatione), axiomatized syllogistic (represented in the main by the Prior Analytics) and a methodology of dialectical and rhetorical discussion. The consequent lack of unity presented by those works does not exclude that both the set of works called Analytics and the set of works concerning dialectic (Topics and Sophistici Elenchi) form a unity, and that a certain priority is attributed to the analytics with respect to dialectic.     

The Eastern Catholic Churches and the paradox of Vatican II

The author investigates the challenges to Catholic ecclesiology presented by two Eastern Catholic Churches – the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Melkite Greek Catholic Church – as they assert prerogatives validated by the teachings of Vatican II. In their reception of the Council these Churches highlight the need to develop the Trinitarian and Eucharistic ecclesiology rediscovered by the Council. This practical development is mirrored in the progress of the International Roman Catholic–Orthodox Dialogue and the teachings of Pope John Paul II. Although a final resolution still awaits, it is evident in the treatment of the Eastern Catholics by the Vatican that reception of the Council demands a renewed understanding of the mutual interdependence of primacy and conciliarity. Such a development will only hasten Christian reunification.     

父母早期受虐与子女对立违抗症状的关系:亲子虐待和儿童愤怒管理的作用

本研究探讨了父母的早期受虐经历与子女的对立违抗症状的关系,通过构建一个有调节的中介模型,考察了亲子虐待的中介效应和儿童愤怒管理对该效应的调节作用。采用问卷法对359名来自北京市、山东省和云南省的14所小学一至五年级的儿童及其父母进行调查,研究工具包括儿童对立违抗症状评估表、童年期创伤问卷、儿童愤怒管理量表。结果发现：（1）男孩的ODD症状得分显著高于女孩;男孩受到的躯体虐待、情感忽视和躯体忽视显著多于女孩（2）在控制了儿童性别后,父母在童年期的受虐经历仍可显著正向预测其成年期的家庭中子女的ODD症状;（3）亲子虐待在父母受虐和子女ODD症状之间起完全中介作用,即父母受虐通过亲子虐待间接影响子女ODD症状;（4）父母受虐通过亲子虐待影响子女ODD症状的中介效应后半路径受到子女个体水平愤怒失调（AD）的调节,具体来说,当AD水平较高时,亲子虐待对ODD症状的影响更大;但愤怒应对（AC）和愤怒抑制（AI）对中介效应无显著调节作用。     

Child sexual abuse and the Catholic church: An historical and contemporary review

Although the recent revelations of clergy sexual abuse suggests an unusual and recent epidemic among the Catholic church, the historical record suggests this difficulty has plagued the church over the centuries. The recent effort of investigative reporters and adult survivors alleging sexual abuse by clergy, has led to an increased public awareness of the extent of illegal sexual activity occurring in the church. Opinion polls of Catholics in the United States have evidenced a critical view of the Church's administrative response to the crisis. Recently, criminal and civil cases have successfully challenged the negligence of the church hierarchy and the sexual misconduct by some of its members. Judicial decisions, however, tend to not hold churches liable for the sexual acts of their clergy. Despite continuing press coverage and civil/criminal litigation, research on priest offenders is virtually nonexistent The claims of unprecedented treatment success with clergy offenders has not been supported by published data. Given the high recidivism rates of sex offenders, the Catholic church should reconsider its policy of placing known sex offenders back into active ministry.