The Spanish Catholic Church,the public sphere,and the economic recession: rival legitimacies?

Spanish society was severely affected by the post-2008 economic recession. The country’s political institutions were faced with a major crisis of legitimacy that gave birth to new social and political movements. In this context, the response of the Roman Catholic Church to the recession was threefold. Firstly, the recession had an impact on the Church itself, as it reactivated the recurring public debate on Church–State relations and the institutional benefits enjoyed by the Church. Secondly, the recession also provided a limited opportunity for the Church. On a normative level, the Catholic hierarchy used the recession to give voice to its discourse on the moralization of the economy and politics, relating it to recurrent campaigns by the Church on family policies and the territorial unity of Spain. In addition, the social sector of the Church responded to the recession through a program of social work intended to offset the failures of both the market and the public authorities. Thirdly, the social work undertaken by specific sectors of the Church unexpectedly led to forms of political advocacy, independently or alongside anti-austerity or pro-migrant social movements. All these effects sharpened previously existing dividing lines within the Catholic landscape.     

The Roman Catholic Church of Norway and migration challenges

Ever since its re-establishment in Norway in 1843, the Roman Catholic Church has grown steadily. On 1 January 2017, the church had a total membership of approximately 150,000. The reason for the latest, and certainly largest, wave of Catholic migrants to settle in Norway is labour migration resulting from the eastward expansion of the EU in 2004, when Poland and Lithuania joined. About half the Catholic population of Norway originates from these two countries. This article focuses on the following research question: How does the Roman Catholic Church in Norway, represented by sisters in religious communities, priests and ecclesiastical employees, respond to the large influx of Catholic migrants to Norway? The study is based on a qualitative survey consisting of semi-structured interviews with 10 informants, all religious sisters, priests or ecclesiastical employees. Although some informants admit that the strong growth resulting from migration has posed problems, such as tendencies to form ‘parallel congregations’ based on ethnic origin, most expressed a positive view of this influx of migrants and of the future of the Catholic Church in Norway.     

Differentiated Consensus as a Means of Correcting Unilateral Ecclesiological Developments?

The methodology of “differentiated consensus,” which was used to arrive at the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification between Lutherans and Catholics in 1999, has led to more progress in 40 years than in the previous five centuries, through reinterpreting certain formulations that were seemingly incompatible, and allowing correction of those doctrinal developments that are unilaterally self‐referential and that reach far back in history. To assess the progress made, this article examines the type of doctrinal consensus originally required by the Catholic Church, so as to understand what is new about differentiated consensus and its potential for correcting unilateral doctrinal developments.     

Conquest and the Western Church

This article examines the action of power relations in the church in pursuit of worldly advantage – political, economic, and social – in the formation, action, and spread of the institution of the Western church, often in collusion with the imperial aspirations of state powers. It argues that redress is required to make amends for injustices and crimes against humanity, as well as to evangelize more effectively in a world that includes those victimized by those claiming to represent God's authority.     

Co-occurring risk and protective factors and regulatory behavior of infants living in low-income homes

Early self-regulation is a foundation for lifelong wellness and can be shaped by the interplay among several vital exposures. In this study, we examined the emergence of reliable profiles based upon exposure to risk and protective factors in infancy, determined if sociodemographic resources predict profile membership, and determined if these profiles predict early regulatory behaviors in a sample of infants reared in low-income homes. Data were collected from a sample of primarily Black or White mother-infant dyads living in low-income homes in the Midwest (n = 222) during the infants’ first year of life (mean maternal age at enrollment: 26.29 years; range 18−43 years). Exposures included mother-infant interactions; father support; maternal depression, stress, and self-efficacy; home environment; food security; and breastfeeding duration. Sociodemographic resources included poverty status; economic hardship; maternal education, employment, and age; parental marital status; and infant race and sex. Infant regulatory behaviors were measured with the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised Very Short Form effortful control subscale (mean age 11 months; range 8.5−14.3 months). Latent profile analysis was used to profile infants by risk and protective exposures. Regression was used to differentiate profiles by sociodemographic resources and to predict infant regulatory behavior from profiles. Three profiles emerged: low father support, good maternal mental health, and poor maternal mental health. A married mother, less economic hardship, and working mothers predicted infant exposure to good maternal mental health. Infant regulatory behavior was best when the infant was exposed to the good maternal mental health profile. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Community‐Based Participatory Research With Black Churches

Black Americans are more likely than other racial/ethnic groups to rely on spiritual and religious resources for mental health support. As such, counselors must seek unique ways to reach and understand Black communities. This article provides an overview of Black Americans' help‐seeking behaviors, the significance and culture of the Black Church, and a framework for counselors and counseling researchers to form effective partnerships to conduct community‐based participatory research initiatives that will produce empirical outcomes and promote culturally responsive mental health and wellness programming in Black communities.     

Self-control,parenting, and problem behavior in early childhood: A multi-method,multi-informant study

BackgroundEarly childhood self-control and parenting are suggested to play key roles in the development of child problem behavior. The current study aims to 1) replicate earlier work by examining the unique and combined effects of child self-control and parenting on child problem behavior and 2) extend earlier work by including both mother and father reports.MethodsData were used from 107 Dutch families: mothers, fathers, and their two-year old child. Child self-control was measured using both father’s and mother’s reports of effortful control and with an observed behavioral task (i.e., gift-in-bag task). Similarly, parenting (i.e., emotional availability and discipline) and child problem behavior (i.e., externalizing and internalizing problems) were measured by using both father’s and mother’s reports.ResultsChild self-control reported by fathers and mothers, but not observed self-control, was related to fewer externalizing and (mother-reported) internalizing problems. Paternal emotional availability showed a modest association with fewer child externalizing problems, maternal emotional availability was related to fewer internalizing problems. Finally, there was an interaction between father- (but not mother) reported self-control and paternal emotional availability in the prediction of child internalizing problems. No main or interaction effect was revealed for discipline.ConclusionFindings confirm prior work on self-control, parenting, and child problem behavior. Most importantly however, the current study adds to the literature by highlighting the need for additional research including maternal as well as paternal data. Specifically, insight in the unique role of fathers may shed light on aspects of child adjustment not covered by mother reports alone.     

Trust,organisational boundaries and gender: Mothers Prayers in Ukraine

This article is focused on the Ukrainian branch of an international prayer network Mothers Prayers and its relations with the hierarchy of the Greek Catholic Church. The argument made here can be located within investigations on the transformations of religion and gender relations under Soviet socialism and the post-Soviet conditions (Buckley 1997; Kormina et al. 2015; Luehrmann 2011; Ngo and Quijada 2015; Wanner 2012). While a gender-focused analysis can undoubtedly help us understand some crucial aspects of this movement’s development, here I put forward a complementary interpretation which stresses the need to understand religious vitality and the role of religion, including religious organisations such as churches, in social and political struggles as an outcome of the Soviet secularisation project. The secularisation politics in the Soviet Union resulted both in the appearance of an ‘ambient faith’ (Engelke 2012; Wanner 2014) in unexpected areas of life and in changes of how people perceive the role of religious organisations in religious and political life. I argue that the praying mothers mobilise their motherhood to challenge the male-dominated hierarchical religious organisation in ways that are implicit and indirect, but nevertheless significant.     

Nonfirmands: Danish youth who choose not to have a Lutheran confirmation

Most Danish youth participate in the traditional Lutheran ritual of confirmation. However, a growing minority does not. Based on survey data collected in 2011 from over 600 Danish pupils, this study examines the ways in which Danish ‘nonfirmands’ are different from their peers who participate in confirmation in relation to religious background, personal religious beliefs, intellectual engagement, and demographic factors. We further explore key motivations for ‘nonfirmation’ expressed by the nonfirmands in the sample. Broadly speaking, our findings highlight secular socialization and individual beliefs about God as key elements in understanding the nonfirmand and his or her reasons for opting out of confirmation. We expect confirmations to continue to decline in popularity as nonfirmation gains social acceptance, as nonfirmands raise their own children, and as Denmark becomes increasingly secular.     

An emerging local musical voice at Grahamstown Anglican Cathedral: experiments in localisation

This article is an introduction to and analysis of experiments in localisation at Grahamstown Anglican Cathedral. To this end, three songs are presented, each composed or arranged by the junior choristers of the cathedral choir. The method of composition/arrangement is loosely based on experimental workshops conducted by David Dargie in the 1970s and 1980s with people across Southern Africa. The texts and music of the songs are analysed, with the express purpose of determining to what extent Southern African cultures have interacted with western cultures. A method of categorisation, derived from models developed by Huib Schippers and Akin Euba, is used to determine the depth of cultural contact. The author finds that in two of the songs there is evidence of creative and meaningful mingling of local and western cultures. The third song, being simply an arrangement of a local song, is more obviously Southern African, although it too shows influence of western harmonic conventions, albeit more superficially.