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Ditsi Carolino's "Huwag Kang Papatay" (Thou Shall Not Kill, 2017) is an unconventional Jesus film. As a documentary, it presents the problems and the responses by members of the Roman Catholic Church in Metro Manila to the so-called "War on Drugs" (commonly known as Tokhang) of the Duterte government that resulted in thousands of extrajudicial killing (EJK) victims. From a biblical lens, this paper analyzes examples of grassroots recontextualizing interpretations of select Matthean passages like (1) Mt 6:9−13, the Lord's Prayer, in the context of praying for an extrajudicial killing victim; (2) Mt 2:1−18, a street theater adaptation showing the massacre of the innocents, representing the beginning of the EJKs; and (3) Mt 27:27−50, a street theater adaptation of Jesus' passion recontextualized in the plight of the victimized drug personalities. These episodes are examined using insights from biblical narrative criticism, performance criticism, empire studies, ritual studies and a liberationist approaches. The paper concludes that biblical interpretations from the ground in this documentary film demonstrate Matthew's anti-empire message by recontextualizing Jesus's story in the context of extrajudicial killings to advocate for political dialogue and action-response against human rights violations and development issues caused by the EJKs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents selected aspects of Marian pilgrimages in the context of lived Catholicism in Poland. Lived Catholic Mariology is a concept introduced in this paper and discussed in terms of the intimate as well as communal relationships people establish with Mary through and in various rituals (e.g., pilgrimages), sites (e.g., shrines) and objects (e.g., images). Links between materializing Mary through images; affective, sensual and corporeal religious experiences; and community bonding are presented. They are discussed by drawing on approaches that refer to material religion, religion as mediation, concepts of sensational forms, and aesthetic formations. When examining the centrality of Marian images in Polish pilgrimage practices, this paper focuses on earlier developments, especially (1) those connected with the growth of Marian shrines during the Counter Reformation period and (2) the role played by traditional and innovative Marian pilgrimages during the Communist period in Poland (1945–1989). The final part of the paper refers to the recent changes connected with political polarization of Polish society, the process of radicalization through right-wing discourses that embrace Marian imagery and pilgrimages, the decline of Roman Catholicism and Catholic practices among Poles, and emerging alternative currents relating to Mary and pilgrimages in religious and secular contexts. Referring to various historical and current examples, this paper proposes seeing pilgrimages through the lived religion approach with a focus on materiality and mediatory dimension of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Western Australia (WA), Religious Education (RE) is a mandated learning area within the compulsory years of the Catholic school sector. RE is advocated as a curriculum subject, timetabled for and assessed alongside other subjects and focussed on developing religious knowledge and understanding. In addition to the RE lesson, faith development, or catechesis occurs through the intersection of RE and other faith-based activities in the Catholic school. In the early learning centre that caters for children prior to compulsory schooling, there is no formalised RE curriculum and educators are tasked with raising the religious awareness of children as opportunities arise. This paper presents findings from research that explored educators' understandings of, and practices in, promoting children's spirituality specifically in connection to RE. As a result, the paper advocates for spirituality as the starting point for developing young children's religious beliefs. In addition, it become evident through this investigation that understandings of spirituality, religiosity and RE continue to be complex and educators require assistance to disentangle these if they are to intentionally promote children's spirituality, and subsequently, their religious beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines several aspects of vulnerability, vulnerance, and resilience in pastoral care, with a focus on women in the Roman Catholic Church. It critiques gendered ideologies and the intersection of gender-based violence and systemic risks in pastoral care settings. Through doctrinal analysis and lived experiences, it argues pastoral care settings with their systemic vulnerances and asymmetries enable abuse, often by clerics. The concept of "vulnerance" sheds light on power dynamics, emphasizing the importance of trauma-sensitive pastoral care with high professional standards to foster resilience among victims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pope Leo XIII's publication of Aeterni Patris (1879) was a major factor in the great revival of Thomistic thought in the late 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries. Among the authors that took up the challenge implicit in the Pope's document of bringing Aquinas and his thought into the intellectual debates of the times we find two interesting proposals. The first is that of Juan González Arintero, a Spanish Dominican, and the second one is that of Josef Donat, a Jesuit born and raised in the Austrian Empire. Arintero is mostly known in Catholic circles for his influential works on mysticism, but in fact he devoted much of his early work to the subject of evolution, and how it could interact with the Catholic faith in general, and with Thomism in particular. Donat is the author of a Summa Philosophiae Christianae, a collection that was widely read in Catholic seminaries well into the 20th century. In this paper we will focus on the differing ways in which these authors tackled the problems and questions presented by Darwinian evolutionism to the post-Aeterni Patris Thomism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the Assumptionists' mission, known as the Mission d'Orient, initiated in 1862 with the aim of uniting the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches against the backdrop of a changing political and religious landscape. Despite their aspirations, the mission encountered numerous challenges and obstacles, leading to its ultimate failure. The paper focuses on the Ottoman response to Roman Catholic missions, using the Assumptionists as a case study. It explores the factors contributing to the Mission d'Orient's failure and scrutinizes the Assumptionists' efforts to foster unity between the two churches. The study argues that the failure can be attributed to complex power dynamics between the Ottoman Empire and Western powers, resulting in a hostile environment for Christian communities. The Ottoman response encompassed state-level actions driven by political conflicts and the direct targeting of Catholic missions as symbols of Western imperialism. The paper examines historical sources and primary documents to shed light on the challenges faced by the Assumptionists and their impact on interfaith relations and diplomacy during this significant chapter in Christian missions' history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sets out to study the transnational relations between progressive sectors of the Italian and Spanish Catholic worlds. The aim is to focus on various groups of Italian Catholics who took action against the Spanish dictatorship between 1955 and 1968. To this end, the paper examines Politica, a magazine of the Christian Democratic left and an important publication that criticised both Spanish and Italian Catholicism for appeasing the Francoist dictatorship. The magazine served as the mouthpiece of one of the most dynamic sectors among the new generations of Christians committed to the renewal of Italian politics. Moreover, this current of Christian Democracy was bolstered by the local government activities of Giorgio La Pira, the emblematic mayor of Florence between 1951 and 1964, who embodied a political praxis of staunch commitment to the underclasses and in favour of peace in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The trans-phenomenology of Emmanuel Levinas has helped expose the totalising dynamic that has marked much of Western philosophy. The quest for a unity of knowledge in the truth assimilates any hint of otherness into more of the same. Plurality becomes a source of violence and dissent regarded as decay. Levinasian perspectives, however, and recent developments in magisterial teaching in the Roman Catholic Church point to a more ethical approach that can begin to escape the dialectic binary of the same and the other and so help avoid static conceptions of truth and unity. Religious truth and ecclesial unity, in other words, are explored in this paper for their ethical–dialogical quality. Indeed, the asymmetrical priority of dissent within this dialogical approach offers positive soteriological significance for the church rather than seeing dissent as a threat. Such an approach can enable the church to take plurality and diversity seriously in the current context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Catholic social thought, magisterial documents emphasize the "See, Judge, Act" method in reflecting on social issues. While action is an important aspect of this methodology, aspects of Catholic social thought, as seen in the teaching of magisterial documents, has focused primarily on principles and the "judge" part of the method, where one reflects on the current social context in light of Catholic social thought and gospel values. This paper reminds Catholic social thought of the importance of obtaining the commitment of the people within the community in order to put Catholic social thought principles into practice structurally and that obtaining this commitment will require listening and responding to motivations, fears, values, and concerns of the people when handling conflicting goods at stake, while also offering helpful tools and resources for the work ahead. To obtain this commitment, this paper proposes how the discipline of change management offers tools for those putting Catholic social thought into practice and handling the fears, values, and concerns of the people involved. Specifically, the tools of stakeholder, culture, and ADKAR analysis in change management help practitioners implement projects grounded in the principles of Catholic social thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the general approach to pilgrimage as established by anthropologists and other scientists, the paper analyses the pilgrimage in Nin to Our Lady of Zečevo. More specifically, this pilgrimage will be observed as a maritime pilgrimage, following relevant recent research. Based on the oral story about the apparition of Virgin Mary to a widow, the statue of Mary is transported from Nin in a boat procession via sea to a mediaeval church on the nearby uninhabited island of Zečevo. Pilgrimage practices include many sensorial and symbolic practices, so it will be analysed from several points of view and more than one theoretical approach, including the relational approach and mobility turn, applied also to maritime pilgrimage with a reflection on influence of tourism on pilgrimage activities, especially in the Mediterranean. The paper relies on the field research from 2020–2023 in Nin near Zadar in Croatia which has been supported in part by the Croatian Science Foundation under the project 'PILGRIMAR' (UIP-2019-04-8226). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1953, officials of the Roman Catholic Mission (RCM) Church in Benin City, Nigeria, requested schoolgirls of Benin–Edo ethnic origin at the local Convent Primary School preparing for baptism to bring their fiancés to school as a condition for baptism. The demand for the presentation of their fiancé was the first time such a condition for baptism was given to young teenage girls since the establishment of the RCM in Benin City in 1923. The condition and demand affected the girls' relationship with the RCM denomination. In examining and historicizing this episode, this paper asks and answers the following questions: Why did the local RCM officials change their policy to demand fiancés as a condition for the baptism of schoolgirls of Benin–Edo origin? How did the policy affect schoolgirls, particularly their relations with the Catholic faith, and their response? This paper uses archival documents, personal interviews with some former Convent school girls and Catholic church members, and written sources to find answers to these questions and reconstruct the history of women's education under the RCM in Benin City Parish under colonial rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses findings of studies concerning religious attitudes of Polish Catholics belonging to the so-called Generation Z, i.e., people born during the digital revolution. The authors present religious attitudes of Generation Z representatives against the background of other European states relating to religious practices and opinions concerning the acceptability of abortion, euthanasia, divorce, contraceptives and other conduct not consistent with the Catholic Church teachings. The findings prove that even though the Polish society, including those of Generation Z, is distinguishable from European countries with its high percentage of people engaging in religious practices, the observed trends and the dominance of attitudes contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church indicate the possibility of maintaining a downward trend in the number of Catholics in Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mourning is the state of grieving the loss of a close relationship. It manifests itself in multi-sided suffering affecting the mourner's mental, physical and spiritual sphere. A particularly painful form of mourning is the family experience of grief. Although ways of expressing grief depend on the culture, era and intensity of the interpersonal relationships, it is a universal human experience. This paper aims to answer the question about the role of the mourner's faith in Jesus Christ in the bereaved family experience, as a work in the field of Roman Catholic dogmatic theology. The method used is the analysis of selected material from psychology and Catholic theology (Christology, anthropology, protology, eschatology), in order to synthetically present theological and practical conclusions. The author also quotes mourners' testimonies. First, the author shows the elements of the psychology of mourning. However, his emphasis is on the next step, i.e., discussing the relationship between the mourner's faith in Jesus and the family experience of grief. Furthermore, he deals with theories concerning the relationships between the living and the dead, which are contrary to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church: annihilation, spiritism and reincarnation. Finally, the important role of the faith in Jesus in the mourning process is presented and completed by indicating possible directions for research on this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an introduction to the thought of four German Catholic philosophers of the inter-war era described by Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI as the most influential on his generation of seminarians. The focus of the article is on how they understood the relationship between theology and philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to identify the changes in religiosity among Catholic practitioners in Poland that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, based on the changes in the realization of religious practices by students (N = 354). A questionnaire prepared by the authors was used for the study. We sought to answer the question of the extent to which the socio-demographic characteristics of the subjects, a history of COVID-19, and the death of a family member due to SARS-CoV-2 infection differentiated the subjects' opinions about religiosity and their undertaking of religious practices. The paper also addresses the issue of media-facilitated religious practices. The study showed that the frequency of religious practices was influenced by the perceived religiosity of the family, the religiosity of the respondent, and the declaration concerning the belief in God. The same factors most often significantly differentiated respondents' opinions on COVID-19. No relationship was confirmed between having COVID-19 and subjects' beliefs about the pandemic or frequency of religious practice. Among the respondents, the pandemic did not intensify the practice of religion. In the face of danger, respondents did not turn to God; there was no revitalization of religion. The situation of limiting the physical experience communion of the Church was treated not as an acute undersupply but as an opportunity or a pretext to abandon the practice of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the French Wars of Religion, both the Huguenot and the radical Catholic factions started by stressing their devotion to the Valois monarchy, for reasons both pragmatic and ideological. Both were hoping for the support of the Crown in achieving their goals—the Huguenots to convert France to the Reformation, the radical Catholics to eradicate the Protestantism from the kingdom—and their propaganda made use of numerous Biblical references in order to urge the kings of France to pursue such policy goals. However, Biblical precedents could be a two-edged sword: once hope for royal support was replaced by disappointment and even resentment, the nature of the Biblical models and comparisons changed as well. From appeals to emulate the righteous kings from the Bible, like David, Solomon or Josiah, the propagandists moved to warnings and even threats, by presenting the kings of France with the fate of, this time, wicked rulers like Ahab or Herod, who were grievously punished by God for their transgressions. This paper aims to analyze the recurrences of such examples in the Catholic propaganda during the French Wars of Religion, until the death of Henry III in 1589, and their significance in the political discourse of that age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religion and food culture are two closely related topics in the Christian discourse and have been the subject of extensive anthropological research. This paper takes the Boston Chinese Catholics as a case study, and it adopts an ethnographic research methodology to explore the ways in which the sense of belonging develops in the Church community, based on the analysis of food culture in this context. Chinese Catholics in Boston are mainly Fujian and Hong Kong immigrants, and the class, status, and economic differences between these two communities are well apparent. The Boston Chinese Catholic Church divides food into sacred and secular. During religious rituals, all Catholics share the sacred food, the Holy Body and the Holy Blood, which symbolize the unity of the Catholic Church. In everyday life, Fujian Catholic and Hong Kong Catholic community members follow the dietary habits of their community to maintain a division between each community's traditions. Over the years, the Boston Chinese Catholic Church has developed a flexible strategy—externally consistent and internally differentiated—to maintain the unity of the Church while embracing the cultural differences of its members. This flexible strategy has also influenced the way in which the Boston Chinese Catholic Church operates. This study indicates that we need to place more emphasis on the diversity and complexity of the members of the overseas Chinese Catholic Church and the specificities of the Catholic religion's discourse so that we can better understand the overall practices and methods of overseas Chinese Catholicism. This study is a catalyst for the study of overseas Chinese Catholicism, as well as the study of food culture, religion, community, and identity in that context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Catholic pope and a Rawlsian statesman respectively represent religious and political leaders who confront the reality of war and face the challenge of responding to it. A political decision during conflict based exclusively on religious or secular justifications will be unconvincing in a contemporary plural public space. John Rawls's solution to this dilemma was to offer justifications based on public reason grounded on political values and not on religious or secular values that support non-public reason. However, restraining religious arguments can ignite passionate religious objections when the decisions of government contradict the demands of their religious values. Hence, this paper argues against an exclusive position and highlights the importance of a nuanced approach that engages religious and political perspectives. The arguments are presented by engaging both Catholic and Rawlsian responses to war by focusing on just war theory and the role of a statesman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper foregrounds the Turnerian experiences of pilgrims themselves, for whom pilgrimage is perhaps first and foremost the process of experiencing faith with their whole body and mind. At the Chinese Catholic pilgrimage site of Sheshan, located in western Shanghai, multiple meanings and possibilities are written onto the body of the pilgrim as it interacts with sacred materialities. In the process, the pilgrim materially orients themselves towards the transcendent other and to people and events throughout time. The boundary between subject and object is increasingly blurred in the pilgrim's imagination, and pilgrimage becomes a 'porous' mind-body experience for them. In the process, as pilgrims repeatedly physically enact doctrine and doctrinal texts in the course of pilgrimage—while simultaneously rooting them in their own personal lives—Sheshan is, through the concrete actions of worshippers layered up over time, continually being re-made as sacred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combining religious and national symbolism is not a new phenomenon. There are known examples of countries where there were or still are connections between nationality and religion. Pilgrimage centres are examples of symbolic religious landscapes based on the presence of the sacred. Such anthropogenic landscapes are a visible result of culture formed under the influence of religion, a special spiritual and often national heritage expressed through sacred objects, visual evidence of religiousness and, likewise, national identity. Here, we present a detailed analysis of religious and patriotic symbolism present in the largest pilgrimage centres in Poland. Additionally, the paper discusses a. the historical and socio-cultural conditions of the presence and significance of these elements in religious landscapes; b. the strong relationships between religiousness and the sense of national identity, and c. the resulting significant importance of pilgrimage centres in the development and consolidation of a sense of national identity. Symbolic elements in the analysed pilgrimage centres refer to both universal religious content and cults popular in the Roman Catholic Church, as well as to the identity of the analysed places. In addition to religious symbolism, national and patriotic symbols often occur in Polish sanctuaries. Their occurrence is historically conditioned and, to a large extent, results from the strong ties between religiousness and national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay overviews key aspects of Stratford Caldecott's idea of liberal arts education, within the Roman Catholic tradition and especially focuses on the centrality of the Eucharist in his thought. It also considers how, according to Caldecott, liberal arts education contains a kind of liturgical affordance or sympathy with the form and nature of worship (within Roman Catholicism). In so doing, this paper offers, to date, the most substantive scholarly introduction to key aspects of Caldecott's Eucharistic idea of education, within the context of the liberal arts tradition (broadly conceived). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the framework of the process of secularization of civil society, the institution of marriage has traditionally been at the crossroads between religious and secular law, and it gives the opportunity to investigate whether and to what degree a religious law can develop when it interacts with a secular juridical context without weakening its identity. The Italian lawmaker has traditionally adopted a "benevolent secularism" approach, trying to balance new social expectations with the Catholic idea of marriage. The above-mentioned approach has resulted in aligning with the mainstream opinions in Italian society, which are consistent with the guidelines of the Catholic Church. Indeed, in Italy, the Catholic Church, which considers marriage as a sacred unbreakable bond between a man and a woman, has often had an open and incisive influence on legislative policy choices. Since 1970, there has a been a gradual erosion of Catholic influence on public policies. New statutes and judicial rulings concerning such issue have emphasized a sharp ideological and political polarization between two opposite ethical narratives: the secular and the religious/Catholic one. Catholic tenets are no more able to influence political democratic processes. In the last fifty years, Italian legislation has followed a more progressive direction with regard to the issue of marriage, taking distances from the Catholic model. The Italian legal system has also started to face controversial issues, such as the status of same-sex unions, recognizing broader rights with a view to guaranteeing the coexistence of multiple views about marriage. Thus, the Catholic Church is challenged by new paradigms and is undergoing deep internal tensions and transitions. The present paper aims to focus on some new challenges, with regard to the status of divorcees who married again, unmarried couples, and same-sex couples in canon law. In the framework of the debate concerning the role and the reformability of religious laws, it will take into consideration new pontifical approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to show that victims of spiritual abuse are not guilty of what they have undergone and that, in the Catholic setting, the Church has an institutional responsibility for it. With this objective, after the Introduction (1), the paper analyses the definition of spiritual abuse (2); tackles several topics stemming from the analysis of definitions, such as the nature of spiritual power and its effects (3), the issue of vulnerability (4), the institutional dimension of spiritual abuse in the Catholic setting (5), and the disputed topic of intentionality (6). The article provides a conclusion that aims to summarize the results of the analysis (7). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on an empirical study using in-depth qualitative interviews that examines how Roman Catholic undergraduate seminarians in the United States understand gender, sexuality and masculinity. The findings describe how seminarians reject interactionist and social constructionist models of gender, and rely on a strict biological based model where sex/gender are seen as a unified concept. This leads them to adopt an "essential male inclusivity", where they argue that all people assigned male at birth have equal claim to "manhood", which eases pressures on them to act in gender normative ways. The social-psychological and identity-based motivations of these beliefs are examined in connection to their life in the seminary and other anticipated occupational characteristics. In contrast, the seminary's mandates around both celibacy and compulsory heterosexuality, make sexuality more fraught than gender for seminarians. The larger consequences of these perspectives are also explored in regard to gender inequality, homophobia, and the lack of acceptance for the LGBTIQ+ community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the interest aroused by royal funerals at the end of the Middle Ages, this paper analyses the obsequies held in the Eternal City on the occasion of the death of Isabella the Catholic (1474–1504)—Queen of Castile and Aragon—in a context of international tension and succession unrest. The papal diaries, diplomatic documentation and Ludovico Bruno's sermo funebris allow us to reconstruct the liturgical, scenographic and rhetorical display of a ceremony that seduced with its solemnity and elegance, the fruit of a hybridism that combined Spanish and Italian funerary traditions in the Rome of Julius II. The creativity of the Spanish community is thus evident in its ability to convert the Isabelline funeral ceremony into an expression of dynastic power in the context of Spanish–French competition and incipient tensions between the Habsburg and Fernandine courts over the Castilian succession. Only by starting from this intertwining of the political and the liturgical will we be able to understand the transformations undergone by the funeral ceremonial in its passage—still little explored—from late medieval customs to modern scenographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researching the question of how the Roman Catholic Church (RCC), and by extension other institutional systems, respond or do not respond to the lived reality of abuse and its cover-up cannot be done without seeking to understand the underlying issue: What is the RCC responding (or not responding) to? One elucidating and perhaps surprising answer lies in the little and often misunderstood word vulnerability. Vulnerability, most probably counter-intuitively, has in fact the power to enhance violence or to reverse its destructive influence. This thought forms the basis for an exploration into what Professor Dr. Hildegund Keul has named the vulnerability and expenditure paradox. The logic in both of them seems understandable and straightforward. Yet, when genuinely understood, they are unsettling. They reveal an uncomfortable dilemma, a reality check and, ultimately, a choice as the paradox raises the rather earthly question: do we attempt to cheat death and therefore lose life, or do we opt for "creation through loss"? The first might, though linked to violence, lead to a feeling of security and invulnerability. The second exemplifies the passion of authentic suffering, humility and identity dependence. From a Christian perspective, it is the incarnation of love. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Netherlands, there was always a clear distinction between Protestant and Catholic folklore. That is visible in witchcraft accusations, but it is also visible in ghost lore. This lore is here reconstructed applying a not always used source, to wit newspaper articles. Here, I will discuss how accounts of hoaxing on the one hand and misinterpreted experiences on the other, help to understand how, in this case people in the Netherlands of roughly a century to a century and a half ago, realized their imagination of the dead. Not in a paradisical kind of afterlife, or as rotten corpses in the ground, but as specific entities which permeated the boundaries between the living and the dead. These newspaper reports are confronted with the stories (or jokes) collected by folklorists. I will also discuss content, with a special focus on the phenomenon of the hoax. Hoaxsters, however, allow the researcher to engage with an extra dimension in the encounter, between the ghost and the observer there is now a third party interacting with both. (How this involves the researcher, is always a problem in historical research.) Was there an overall ghost picture? What was the reaction of bystanders? Moreover, this essay will move between story and history, between the past as it was experienced and as it was related to contemporaries, between 'fact' and 'fiction' to give it another name. As it will appear, the boundary between the two seems blurred but in the end turns out rather precise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eventually Pope Francis excommunicated McCarrick from the Church, while the whistleblower in this case called for Francis' resignation. As for victims, Pope Francis claimed that the Church had the duty to provide them with support and encouraged state authorities to apply every measure possible to contain websites that threaten human dignity, the dignity of women, and particularly the dignity of children. This Special Issue of I Religions i examines the transitions that are occurring in Catholic Church-State relations, a phenomenon that is beginning to accelerate in a negative way. Without accepting any major papal responsibility for clerical sexual abuse or giving an official Church apology for it, Francis suggested, instead, that protecting children with "impeccable seriousness" was the Church's means to deal with predatory behavior. [Extracted from the article]

This paper is the first part of a cycle comprising five texts on the marketing use of social media by nationwide opinion-forming Catholic weeklies in Poland. Considering the state of the research so far, it is not completely clear how to classify Catholic media profiles on social networking sites. On the one hand, the media activity of the Church is typically evangelistic in nature, but on the other hand it takes place in typically secular conditions. The evangelising role of the Catholic media cannot be separated from the opinion-forming function. The main objective of the project is, firstly, to assess the marketing potential of social media used by the aforementioned weeklies and secondly, to complement the previously described online presence of religious entities in the context of the mediatization of religions. This paper—as the theoretical background of the research—presents the detailed interdisciplinary literature review on the issues crucial for the project, as well as the methodological introduction to our study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Church seeks to be inclusive; one that opens her doors to everyone. For many Filipino Catholics (FCs) in Japan, their ecclesial existence is marked by a history of negotiation as "guests" hosted by the Japanese Catholics (JCs). Within this field of host–guest interplay, this paper explores the dynamics of sociospatial seclusion by employing the ideation of marginality proffered by Loic Wacquant's study on urban ghettos. The paper argues that the guest-identity of FCs must not be understood as a unilateral action imposed upon by the dominant hosts against the former's subjugated narrative as powerless victims. Instead, its maintenance is perpetuated by FCs' elective and chosen ethnic clustering. In attempt to obtain better analytical clarity of this dynamics, this paper employs the functional value of the Cartesian plane as a mapping device in plotting historical events of interplay within a spatial field. The techne inherent in the Cartesian plane is embedded with the episteme of Wacquant's ideation. Fused together, its utility as a heuristic device is herewith proposed. It is hoped that this theoretical construct can also be useful to any analysis of marginality contained within a host–guest interplay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sixteenth century witnessed dramatic upheavals in Eastern and Western Europe in both the ecclesiastical and political domains. In the previous century, Constantinople had fallen to the Ottoman Turks, meaning that its Eastern Orthodox inhabitants were severed both politically and religiously from their Western Christian neighbors, who were ruled over by sovereigns that derived their spiritual authority from the Papacy. Meanwhile, the Reformation endangered the unity of the political and religious spheres of the Catholic West. As it soon became clear that the mainstream Reformers were neither united nor consistent in their ecclesiological views, one thing remained a constant: a recourse to the Fathers of the Church for the confirmation of Reformed tenets such as sola scriptura and sola fide. The use of Patristic proof texts played an important role in the attempt of the Lutherans to unite with the Orthodox, the former reading the writings of the Fathers in a very different way to the latter. This article analyzes why this attempt at union failed, with specific focus on the correspondence between the Tübingen theologians and the Patriarch of Constantinople, Jeremiah II Tranos, in their respective reading of the Augsburg Confession which represents the main Lutheran articles of faith. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The normative framework is one of the constitutive edges of state regulation of religion. It contributes to the configuration of different forms of relations between state and religions. This can be observed in at least three areas. First, in the way the state defines religion. Second, in the way it recognises and legislates its relationship with different religions. Finally, in the rules it establishes for confessional institutions and actors at different levels of social life (education, health, prisons, etc.). In this article, we propose to comparatively analyse the national legal systems that regulate religion in Italy and Argentina, with special emphasis on the equal or differentiated treatment of different religions. The policies of recognition and integration of religious minorities find in the normative framework an empowering or limiting factor, depending on the national context. Although both countries share a dominant Catholic matrix, their historical developments and legal formats present contrasts that project different scenarios of religious governance, which we will try to elucidate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The religions of South and East Asia resist Eurocentric interpretations, such as the so-called World Religion Paradigm. However, they are subjected in various ways to hetero- and auto-orientalist representations that respond to Western ideals and expectations. This article analyzes how Italian Catholic teachers use online representations of East Asian religions in their lessons to teach these traditions. The aim is to shed light on the interplay, facilitated by online environments, between contemporary processes of Eurocentric and Orientalist interpretation and the educational and confessional motivations of confessional religious education teachers. The result of the analysis indicates that these factors concur to reinforce misleading representations, which contradicts the intercultural aims proclaimed by teachers and other Teaching of Catholic Religion stakeholders. Nevertheless, this article also individuates those elements that could be fruitfully framed in an academic study-of-religions perspective and suggests a modality of cooperation between Catholic Religion teachers and scholars of religions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spread of Christianity to China initiated a process of indigenization, particularly evident in Christian art. This study explores the indigenization of early 20th-century Chinese Christian paintings through literature reviews, case studies, and comparative research. The analysis covers four forms of primary research. First, it explores the indigenization of Christian concepts, tracing their development from the introduction of Nestorian Christianity in the Tang dynasty through the establishment of Fu Jen Catholic University in the Republican era. Matteo Ricci's implementation of the "Ricci Rule" during the late Ming dynasty, subsequently expanded by Celso Costantini, played a crucial role in the indigenous adaptation of Christian painting in China. The second facet focuses on the Beijing Catholic School of Painting, led by Chen Yuandu, a group that innovated Chinese Christian art by integrating local artistic expressions with traditional depictions of saints, assimilating symbols from Chinese literati painting, and preserving time-honored Chinese painting techniques. The third facet examines the strategy behind Christian painting methods. Fourth, this study discusses how the Fu Jen School faced varied reception and evaluations from domestic and international audiences under the complex social currents of the Republic of China and how the artists reflected the national spirit and artistic responsibility in their narrative paintings. Fundamentally, the practice of Christian painting at the early 20th-century Catholic School is not only an innovative artistic endeavor but also a significant case of cultural exchange between East and West and religious localization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can there be an ethics of politics or political ethics in populist authoritarian democracies? Given that politics operates under potentially risky and morally ambiguous methods that involve strategic calculations with some elements of irrationality, developing an ethics of political leadership can be an abstruse exercise. The frequent mismatch between political methods, objectives, and outcomes exemplifies the complexity of political reality and its unpredictability. The existential tension between utilitarian and deontological approaches to ethics frequently arises in politics. However, to address the failures of democracy in political leadership, it is imperative to explore the ethical implications of populist authoritarianism. By scrutinizing how populist authoritarianism undermines democratic principles and polarizes societies, one can better understand its moral challenges and work towards developing a more ethical framework for political leadership. This article discusses Catholic political ethics in response to populist authoritarianism from three different perspectives: first, it analyzes what populist authoritarianism entails and its limitations in political governance; second, it discusses diverse components of political ethics, highlighting realistic dilemmas in the application of each component; and third, it makes an ethical evaluation of populist authoritarianism from the Catholic social ethics perspective, emphasizing human dignity, common good, and solidarity as key to countering populist authoritarianism. The article makes two ethical suggestions in line with Catholic political ethics to address populist authoritarianism. The first is the principle of social cohesion, aimed at addressing the social, ethnic, racial, political, economic, and religious divisions that characterize populist authoritarian leadership. The second is the principle of social recognition, used as a strategy for safeguarding the common good by centralizing human dignity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pontificate of Pope Francis is proving to be one of the most controversial within the Catholic world, particularly because of the several objections and protests it has raised in the most traditional currents of Catholicism. This theological and political opposition to Bergoglio's pontificate has been the subject of many studies, which have focused, in particular, on the growing harshness of this debate in North American Catholic circles. Following these studies, the present contribution aims to study how this polarization spreads and is amplified through the online communication of these groups by providing an analysis of a specific case study: a tweet published by the account of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAL). The PAL is a Vatican institution founded by John Paul II and renewed by Pope Francis in its membership and purpose (Global Bioethics). The Academy is perceived as the cutting edge of Pope Francis' "progressivism", especially regarding sensitive issues such as marriage, family, and euthanasia. For this reason, the Twitter account of PAL is considered the ideal platform to observe the languages, expressions, and content that characterize the opposition to Bergoglio's pontificate today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To effectively carry out its tasks, the church needs a stable financial system. The aim of this article is to present issues related to ensuring the stability of the Catholic Church financing system in times of significant demographic and socio-cultural changes. This study identifies and characterizes the main sources of income and directions of expenses of the available financial resources. The challenges faced by church authorities in this regard are also described. State authorities finance places of prayer for social, cultural, and psychological reasons. Churches have been places of support in difficult times for centuries as well as places of survival and mental support for society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Celebrating the sacrament of penance or confession restores a state of grace in a person's soul. This is vital for a life of faith to which all human persons are called, but only Roman Catholic believers can experience. Celebrating this sacrament requires a private and confidential conversation between an ordained priest and a baptized person. By reviewing sensory perceptions, we conclude that being in the "same location" is not necessary for two persons to celebrate penance. As the world adjusted to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, using distance technologies facilitated meaningful communications, including therapeutic conversations around mental health. We believe that using visual technologies can also help celebrate the sacrament of penance or confession. We suggest a pastoral adaptation may help bring absolution to persons from various locations seeking forgiveness. We believe our suggestions are ontologically probable and canonically adaptable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging adulthood is a time of strong religious change that often leads to deconversion, understood as the abandonment of faith. In the present study, we aimed to verify the role of Catholic religious practices in the deconversion process and the mediating nature of transcendent indebtedness in emerging adults from Poland. In this study, we used the Catholic Religious Practices Questionnaire (CRPQ), the Transcendent Indebtedness to God scale (T-ITG), and the Adolescents' Deconversion Processes Scale (ADS). Two hundred and fifty-four emerging adults, 135 women (53.1%) and 119 men (46.9%), participated in a study conducted in Southern and Northern Poland between September 2022 and May 2023. Our study results revealed that those involved in both official religiosity and folk practices exhibit lower levels of deconversion, and this relationship is mediated by transcendent indebtedness. The presented research indicates that the belief and sense of obligation to repay a favor or debt to God is a buffering factor in the tendency to withdraw from the religious community and abandon faith. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I present the main findings of an empirical study about contemporary spirituality in Italy begun in 2017 by reasoning about the analysis of twelve case studies which are particularly eloquent concerning the different spiritual worlds emerging in Catholic Italy. I argue that three main narratives—the spirituality of nature, wellbeing, and mystery—are useful to synthesize the heterogeneousness of groups, communities, festivals, and organizations engaged in the Italian "holistic milieu". In order to address this reflection, firstly I will trace the international sociological debate that has accompanied the concept of contemporary spirituality and the relationship between spirituality and religion, a couple which I have named "frenemies". Then, I will extend the analysis to the concept of the secular, examining the intertwining of the spiritual, religious, and secular spheres. After illustrating the landscape of contemporary spirituality in Catholic Italy more broadly, I shall focus on the case studies taken as examples of the spirituality of nature, the spirituality of health and wellbeing, and the spirituality of mystery. In the Discussion and Conclusion, I shall raise some fundamental questions that the study of contemporary spirituality poses for the sociology of religion with reference to secularisation, one of its most classic and yet contested paradigms. I shall claim that future research paths could further contribute to strengthening the idea, raised in this article, that secularisation can also be understood not only as an antithetical force to religion but as the process in Western history that has led to the emergence of a secular social space in dialogue with the religious sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Born into a pieds-noir family in Algeria in the first part of the 20th century, Pierre Claverie (1938–1996) realizes that he lived in a colonial bubble, completely ignoring the Algerian and Muslim realities. This "prise de conscience" will constitute the beginning of a deep mystical experience, a true process of "spiritual enlightenment" through which Claverie will try to re-establish himself in the lost meeting of his youth when he used to live in his "Western and Catholic bubble". His theological path will also be an institutional one: he will become a Dominican monk and Catholic bishop of Orano. Inevitably, his desire to spiritually encounter the Algerian reality in its Muslim identity will make Pierre Claverie reflect on the tension present in the paradox of the concept of religious truth (absolutely unique and/or multiple?). His reflection on the uniqueness/pluralism of religious truth represents a model of post-conciliar theological understanding that is worth examining and that supports a very current approach in today's religious and social world: understanding/accepting the truth of the other without the impression of betraying one's own truth. This study aims to deepen the mystical theological reflection of Bishop Pierre Claverie, considered a martyr in the Catholic Church, with regards to the concept of religious truth. It also to tries to understand how this reflection fits into the Catholic theological line inaugurated by the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Fellini-Roma (1972), the film director Federico Fellini includes a sequence about an imaginary ecclesiastical fashion show, a display of ever more outlandish clerical clothing designs. Fellini brought together various elements that, in conventional cultural coding, do not seem to fit together: secular fashion design and catwalks, and Catholic practice and ceremonial. The sequence juxtaposes and intermingles these apparent incompatibles. Surprisingly little scholarly attention has been paid to the nature and significance of this sequence. Yet it is complex, being simultaneously satirical and empathetic, as well as camp and carnivalesque. The paper reaches back in time, reviewing the history of Catholic vestments, to show that the sequence also dramatizes the fact that sartorial fashion and Church garb have overlapped and informed each other historically. The appeal of the sequence for various types of audience has been enhanced in the internet age, and the paper considers how it has become an increasingly ubiquitous reference-point for the fashion industry, bloggers, and cultural critics, especially when the latter want to thematize controversies about male homosexuality in the Church today. Fellini's presentation of catwalk Catholicism is both a rich object of scholarship, and a multivalent vehicle used by actors for various contemporary purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for the appreciation of Filipino folk religiosity as part of cultivating authentic faith expressions among Filipinos. It presents historical, anthropological, sociocultural, and theological views on significant folk religious groups, traditions, and practices in the Philippines, including but not limited to the millenarian movements and popular Catholic feasts. Despite the varied influences and variegated Philippine culture, folk religiosity among Filipinos can be generalized as a syncretic blending of pre-colonial beliefs with the Catholic faith. As an academic and practicing Catholic, the researcher explores the folk religious elements present in the development of the millenarian movements, the unique faith expressions and influences behind folk Catholic feasts and celebrations, and probes deeper into the meaning of ordinary faith expressions. Coming from his own experiences and insights, he refers to previous scholarly works in discussing how spirituality or reverence to the sacred is inherently embedded in the folk religious ways, how the cultural Filipino traits manifest in the religious practices and vice versa, and how folk spirituality enables the expression of deep cultural and personal Christian faith experience. In conclusion, he maintains that millenarian movements are valid faith expressions that also celebrate independence and Filipino identity; traditional festivals and religious rites are the locals' unique way of authentically expressing their faith, and; preserving folk religions and folk religiosity among Catholics is beneficial for engendering the growth of the faithful and the development of religion. A clear sense of folk religiosity is elemental in reappropriating religious dogmas and doctrines as the church and the faithful continuously study, dialogue, and fully experience life in the pursuit of approaching authenticity in faith, beliefs, and religions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the Roman Inquisition's interest in the dietary practices of suspected heretics throughout the Roman Catholic Mediterranean. In an era marked by rampant religious nomadism and a deep uncertainty about assaying and fixing confessional identity, dietary practices were often used to determine religious belonging. For the Roman Inquisition, non-conforming diets served as a clue to potentially more serious spiritual infractions. In the early modern Mediterranean, what one ate was considered a sign of what one believed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines real and notional knowledge in the work of Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) and French Catholic philosopher Maurice Blondel (1861–1949). It explores the relationship between real and notional knowledge through the themes of disproportion, diversion, contingency, and faith in each thinker and argues that the right relationship between real and notional knowledge is the organizing principle of their thoughts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Roman Catholic Church and the various Protestant Churches still represent the largest and most visible expressions of institutionalized religion in Western Europe and North America. Yet, both Christian strands find themselves in sorts of peril, for especially in Europe, membership and participation are declining, influence on various dimensions and contexts of society is shrinking, and in some regions, the public associates the churches more with meaninglessness, backwardness, or outright scandal. Whatever the specifics of the churches' statuses, the reasons for these overall trends are complex. One crucial factor is the success (or lack thereof) in the mediation between a change in the cultural climate for one, and the very essence of Christianity for another: so, while some strands of the Christian religion seem to welcome any sort of change, others would rather want to 'go back' to some better days, which are suspected to lay in the past. Typical 'practical' examples, in which these overall trajectories become tangible, could be issues such as abortion, education, or the role of women in the church, however, likewise, positions occur on somewhat more abstract discussions on gender, climate change, or, most recently, the management of the pandemic or positioning of oneself in the context of war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To curb the spread of COVID-19, houses of worship in the State of New York were legally required to limit attendance at religious ceremonies. Two religious communities—the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and the Orthodox Jewish organization, Agudath Israel of America—asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. This article provides a theological interpretation of the Court's decision to grant these communities injunctive relief, thus freeing them from the State's restrictions on religious attendance. Drawing upon the Catholic tradition, and especially the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas, the article offers a sustained virtue-based analysis of the Court opinion and of the relationship between church and state more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In conservative, mostly Malay-Muslim Malaysia, transgender people are frequently articulated in mainstream Muslim and Christian discourses as gendered anomalies and recalcitrant religious dissidents. Due to the fact that normative gender identities and expressions are generally indexed as valid and, thus, 'successful' indicators of social and religious coherence among Malaysians, transgender people who are unable and/or unwilling to abide by regimes of gendered and religious normativity are regarded with scorn as simultaneous failures in gender and religion. By framing my analysis and theorising of selected narratives from two Malaysian Roman Catholic transgender men through Judith/Jack Halberstam's concept of the queer art of failure, I argue that some transgender men of faith actively repudiate such disdainful perceptions by embracing gendered and religious failures, an intellectual resolution which they then translate into strategic customisations of their own spirituality and ethical living. These customisations, anchored in an unshakeable belief in God's loving support and their inherent value in God's eyes despite ecclesiastical disapproval, are acts of subversion that respond impertinently to and defy hegemonic ideologies of gender and religion, and re-imagine alternative knowledges, values, powers, and pleasures towards meaningful forms of liveability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Almost twenty years have passed since the end of John Paul II's pontificate. The Roman Catholic Church in Poland faces a serious crisis, stimulated not only by secularisation processes, which are characteristic for Western Europe, but also by a whole series of adverse events that unfolded at the end of the year 2020; they resembled a disaster marathon and had a considerable potential to attract media attention. A wide spectrum of Polish opinion-forming weeklies, ranging from left-liberal to ultra-conservative and far-right ones, as well as those associated with the Polish Episcopate, published accounts of the situation within the Catholic Church. In this manner, press discourse shaped the public perception of Catholicism in Poland. An analysis of the periodicals' content disclosed a strong polarisation of opinions and a variety of interpretations. Differences between the particular weeklies were identified at the level of agenda-setting and prioritisation, framing, persuasion techniques employed, and additional contexts that were evoked, including the legal, moral, historical, philosophical, and religious ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women in Joseon Korea (1392–1910) were held to high standards of virtue, which were propagated through didactic texts such as the "Chaste and Obedient Biographies" volume of Lienü Zhuan, the Chinese classic featuring biographies of exemplary women. Joseon women who converted to Catholicism were also educated in standards of Catholic virtue, often through the biographies of saints, which shared with the Confucian exemplar stories an emphasis on faithfulness and self-sacrifice. Yet, the differences between Confucian and Catholic standards of virtue were great enough to elicit persecution of Catholics throughout the nineteenth century. Therefore conversion would have involved evaluating one set of standards against the other and determining that Catholicism was worth the price of social marginalization and persecution. Through a comparison of the Confucian exemplar stories and Catholic saints' stories, this paper explores how Catholic standards of virtue might have motivated conversion of Joseon women to Catholicism. This comparison highlights aspects of the saints' stories that offered lifestyle choices unavailable to women in traditional Joseon society and suggests that portrayals of the saints' confidence in the face of human and natural oppressors could also have provided inspiration to ease the price of conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]