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This article explores Msgr. Germano Straniero's Report on the State of the Catholic Church in America (1886), based on his official visit to the United States. It provides a historical context for the document, an understudied source of American Catholic history, and examines its significance within the Germano Straniero Papers housed at the University of Notre Dame Archives. Additionally, the article discusses a critical and pedagogical project resulting in the first digital edition of the text, which includes a translation and pedagogical resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In the 1740s and 1750s, the public scene in Italy was abuzz with a debate weighing the pros and cons of swallowing small pieces of paper with a prayer to the Virgin Immaculate printed on them. Having been introduced to the city of Naples by the Jesuit missionary Francesco Pepe, the practice drew the ire of the Catholic reformer Ludovico Antonio Muratori, whose pointed intervention entailed a flurry of publications from both Jesuits and Franciscans. Responding to Muratori, these authors actively sought to establish the paper pills as part of an embodied and sensual religion superior to the reading of pious texts that Muratori was proposing as an alternative to baroque Catholicism. Leveraging Muratori's elitism, his critics touted the paper pills as an expression of the untainted religion of uneducated men and women uncorrupted by the reading revolution that was converting sections of the elite to enlightened values. In later decades, this populist corporeal, anti-intellectual religion was weaponized against the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. Drawing on insights from religious media studies, this article argues that the battle between baroque and reform Catholicism should not be seen exclusively as one of ideas, but rather as embedded in a complex media configuration in which partook both sides of the argument and which accounts for the unlikely survival of baroque Catholicism in the age of mass reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of pupils and teachers within two primary school Shared Education partnerships in Northern Ireland; in particular, how intergroup contact is experienced within such contexts. A comparative, instrumental case study design was employed, which included document review, observation of Shared Education activities, interviews with school principals and teachers, and arts-based group interviews with children. While the paper supports existing research from secondary schools which suggests the potential of Shared Education to create spaces for building positive relations between pupils, the findings also highlighted several key issues which further extend understanding of Shared Education. Firstly, it emphasised the importance of planning, time and structure in Shared Education activity in order to dispel negativity and social awkwardness; secondly, it suggested the need for teachers to 'model' positive cross-group relations in their relationships between each other; and thirdly, it revealed a lack of clarity around how to deal with controversial issues as part of Shared Education activity. The paper concludes by suggesting that there is a need for additional guidance for schools around the intended aims and outcomes of Shared Education in relation to its potential to promote positive intergroup contact.

This paper charts the development of one of Ireland's first comprehensive schools located in Carraroe in County Galway. Through a systematic, historical analysis of Department of Education and diocesan correspondence, this article provides a unique insight into how official policy was reconciled at ground level. The analysis exposes the ambiguity of previous studies surrounding the role of the church hierarchy in educational reform during the 1960s and seeks to clearly identify key personnel involved in consolidating policy concerning the comprehensive school scheme. Underpinning this narrative, is the deliberate exclusion, by both church and state, of local school authorities from policy decision-making regarding the comprehensive school in Carraroe. In particular, this paper illustrates how a paradigm shift in Department of Education negotiation tactics provided the government with an effective means for introducing new educational policy measures in the future.

This paper examines debates over the nature, purpose, and reform of geographical education in schools in the eighteenth-century German-speaking territories. Attention is paid to contemporaries' concerns over the cognitive content of geography -- what geography was -- and, in greater detail, to their views concerning how the subject might be taught, its teaching improved, and the end in view of teaching it, namely to produce informed citizens. The paper shows that while there was widespread agreement over the utility of geography, opinions differed over how best to teach it, and to whom. These differences centred less on religion, between the largely Catholic southern German territories and the chiefly Protestant northern German territories, and more upon the age, social status, gender, and intended future of the pupil. Proposals for the reform of geographical education argued that geography be taught first with reference to the pupil's locality and to notions of "homeland" from which local setting attention would be paid to other states, countries, and continents.

This paper makes a novel and important contribution to scholarship by developing and presenting a set of concepts and questions for those researching student voice in Ireland to consider and explore in their studies, and specifically in relation to classroom practice at post-primary level. Here, a distinction is drawn between consultations that take place inside classrooms between students and teachers and consultations that take place between management and students and cognisance is paid to school patronage, school socio-economic context, and the career stage of teachers and positions in the school hierarchy. This paper ultimately offers a heuristic device as a starting point for future research on student voice in Irish post-primary schools and sets out to bring about more critical thinking regarding how student voice plays out vis-à-vis classroom practice.

This paper presents findings emanating from a larger investigation. In essence, this qualitative project sought to uncover the ways in which early childhood Religious Education (RE) teachers' experience of a formation-based program, known as The T.I.T.U.S Project (Testament In Teachers Using Scripture), transformed their own religious literacy and subsequently, their teaching of RE; it is these findings that form the focus of this paper. Religious literacy is explained as consisting of more than content, to include the complex relationship of content with both context and learner. It is in this nexus between content, context and learner that The T.I.T.U.S Project resided. With existing literature clearly identifying teachers' lack of confidence in teaching scripture within RE, that is, in engaging with context and context as Cullen explains it, this research is significant. The findings from the qualitative survey, interview data and reflective journals suggest that teachers' own personal formational experiences and growth in religious literacy transformed their teaching of classroom Religious Education, including their confidence in teaching scripture.

The notion of the human person, together with the importance that the Catholic community has, since its inception, given to the educational enterprise, has led various authors, including Augustine, Abelard, and Aquinas, among others, to reflect on the meaning of intellect and talents and their effects on education. Yet such reflections were never standalone considerations but rather built in dialogue, and at times in confrontation, with the classics and secular treatises of the time. After outlining how the Catholic community conceptualizes the human person, this paper will touch upon the concepts of talent as developed and dealt with during the 12th century. The latter period has been chosen on the basis of the developments in pedagogical thought and practices. The paper aims to critically analyse the notion of 'ingenium' (understood as talents, innate abilities) against the main philosophical and pedagogical thought that has animated Catholic educational practices.

The Congregation of Holy Cross has been working on evangelisation and education in Bangladesh for more than 170 years. This study examines the educational mission of the Congregation in Bangladesh. The study is conducted from a historical perspective. The paper is based primarily on the examination of written documents -- primary and secondary -- and field work involving oral history interviews. The study identifies four primary aims of Holy Cross education in Bangladesh. The paper argues that they have distinctive educational aims at the nation's elite education both through English and Bengali medium, and villages' primary and secondary level education. The study illustrates that there has been a shift of emphasis on the educational mission over the years. A significant contribution to the changing mission of Holy Cross education has been the independence of Bangladesh. Another factor that contributed significantly to changes in Holy Cross education has been the Catholic Church itself and the structure of Catholic life, as a result of Vatican II. Mission models that emerged after the Council emphasised social justice and religious pluralism. Those teachings of the Church brought changes to the educational missions of Holy Cross in Bangladesh.

This paper analyses the Solidarity movement narratives, focusing on church representatives, religious issues, and symbols in the Polish history textbooks for upper secondary schools between 1991 and 2018. The analysed textbooks prove to reinforce Poland's national and religious identities, with John Paul II and the priest Popieluszko being the primary national heroes of the Solidarity movement. The Catholic Church is presented as a protector of national values during the Solidarity period. The study also reveals the gradual reduction and simplification of the textbooks' content. This tendency is a trigger for the polarisation of the historical discourse, posing a weapon for secular policies to misuse the ideological and symbolic roles of the Church in reproducing the Pole-Catholic pattern in history textbooks.

For over 50 years, a group of Christians has cultivated a movement to revitalize Christian education at secular universities. These leaders formed centers for Christian thought (CCT) to reengage the Christian faith with the "intellectual" life (and vice-versa) and work with students, staff, and faculty within American universities. At present, there are at least 41 CCT in the USA, but little empirical work has been done to explore this type of Christian education. In this paper, we used a collective case study of five established CCT to answer the following research question: What are the distinctive features of Christian study centers and institutes for Catholic thought, and what is the nature of Christian education they offer? Each center we studied exhibited characteristics unique to its institutional context and yet shared some key educational elements with other centers. In sum, CCT used hospitality and intellectual fellowship to engage the riches of the Christian intellectual tradition to satiate the human appetite to live an integrated life. The center staff believed that living the integrated life would strengthen the global church and thereby benefit the university and society. Although CCT are distinct from Christian colleges and universities, opportunities exist for mutual learning between them that could help perpetuate the Christian intellectual tradition. For example, CCT could benefit from the faith integration conversations happening on Christian campuses, who could, in turn, learn from the holistic approaches of CCT and benefit from hiring faculty who were involved with a center as graduate students.

The Synod of Catholic Bishop's 1971 document, "Justice in the World," articulates boldly that "action on behalf of justice is a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel." Fifty years old, it is timely to assess this document today especially as religious educators address the many forms of inequality in the world. Examining gaps in the church's approach to racial justice, this paper maintains that lessons learned from the past 50 years might guide future implementation of this important teaching. The paper proposes both activist and contemplative practices to recover the boldness and passion of "Justice in the World."

I consider in this paper the question of balance in popular education between what we can call annunciation and denunciation, inspired by the work of Paulo Freire. By annunciation, I mean the role of love, affirmation, encouragement and profound encounters with otherness; by denunciation, I have in mind the spirit of critique and challenge to the established order of things. In the process, I question the marginalisation of liberation theology in Paulo Freire's work among some radical educators. There has, I suggest, been a sundering of spirituality, and especially religious insight, from rational enquiry in the academic mainstream, which has influenced readings of Freire. Modernity has privileged intellectualism and critical rationality as the only valid way of knowing; matters of faith and varieties of religious experience have correspondingly been privatised.

Variationist researchers are increasingly adopting intersectionality approaches to analyse identity-linked practice. However, the field of sociolinguistic variation is yet to embrace the full ramifications of intersectionality as an analytical framework. The current paper offers a new method for integrating intersectional approaches into variationist studies by operationalising Blommaert, Jan & Anna De Fina. 2017. Chronotopic identities: On the timespace organization of who we are. In Anna De Fina & Jeremy Wegner (eds.), "Diversity and super-diversity," 1-14. Washington: Georgetown University Press chronotopic frame theory. This method is used to examine how the intersectionality of ethnic, national, and peer-group identities is structured and reproduced in different ways through Chinese Indonesian youths' selection of multilingual variants of an agreement marker in their peer-to-peer interactions at educational institutions in Pontianak city, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. The results illustrate how chronotopic frame approaches to studying identity-linked variation heed calls for integrations of intersectionality to move beyond accounting for intracategorical complexity and instead examine the dynamic mutual constitution of social categories that better represents marginalised people's lived experiences.

This study reports on findings from an online survey which was carried out in Ireland, in May-June 2019, as part of the Adult Religious Education and Faith Development (AREFD) research project being conducted at the "Mater Dei Centre for Catholic Education," Dublin City University. Data provided by 738 respondents to the survey are reported upon in this paper. The three areas focused on are the profile of the respondents, the content areas and skills in religious education and faith development they said they would like to engage with, and the forms and modes of delivery they preferred. The key findings point to the importance of identity, influence, and language, the broad and diverse interests expressed by participants, and the preferences they indicated for blended learning, evening engagement during the week, and local discussion groups. The findings of the study will be beneficial to those involved in developing new and creative approaches to adult religious education and faith development.

The General Education Law was approved half a century ago. It was designed by Francoism to reform the educational system, adjusting itself to the liberal-developmental approach that Franco's regime followed in its last few decades. The oppression that the so-called "vernacular languages" were subject to during the former years of Francoism made their learning recognition stand out amidst the rest of the changes and developments that this law provided. The aim of this paper is to review the concepts and measures that structured Francoist educational politics in regard to languages. Special attention will be paid to the causes, foreseen in the "Libro Blanco" (Spanish for "White Book"), that fostered the change established in the 1970 Law. The idea will be presented that the incorporation of regional languages in the new policies happened to fulfil the idiomatic regulations requested by UNESCO and the Catholic Church, and to meet the need to cope with the popular currents of linguistic demand emerging in the scenario of socio-labour conflict that characterised the final years of the dictatorship. This moment was determined by the tensions generated within a system reluctant to change its traditional values, although it was forced to resolve the external and internal pressures that urged it to recognise the multilingual reality of the Spanish State in schools.

The engagement of both school and university has played a significant role in initial teacher education. The focus of this paper is the growth of an alternative style of school-university partnership from a single school to a Hub of 19 school-university partnership, in the inner-west suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Four school and university mentors who have participated over a seven-year period have completed surveys on their engagement. Using a Community of Practice (CoP) theoretical framework to underpin model development, it is possible to showcase the growth of the partnerships as important in informing discussion relating to the implementation of integrated school-university partnerships and practice.

As "justice natives," today's undergraduate students are motivated to engage directly with the world around them in ways unseen throughout most previous generations. Interestingly, secular humanistic perspectives on changemaking are in keeping with a wide variety of biblical teachings and principles of Christian social thought. At the same time, educators and practitioners can better engage these students to lessen a disconnect that often seems to emerge between social justice causes and the modern church. This paper applies a praxis-based approach, Kingian Theology, the Beatitudes from the gospels, elements of liberation theology, Wesley's thoughts about community engagement, and principles of both Catholic and broader Christian social thought to the modern idea of changemaking, positioning Christianity and the gospels as a liberating force for equality rather than as a colonizing or even racist-associated oppressive ideology.

Adopting a social cohesion framework, we consider how the shared education model in Northern Ireland reflects distributive, ideational and relational dimensions of social cohesion, and the processes through which its implementation may be contributing to a more socially cohesive society. We use this case study to reflect on the current conceptualisation of social cohesion in the literature and to argue for dynamic and interdependent connections between aspects of cohesion that are often assessed in isolation. Our analysis draws on the body of research on shared education that has accumulated since the first pilots were introduced in 2007.

This paper takes up concepts from John Henry Newman's work to support contemporary educational personalism. Newman's ideas are developed in light of his sharp critique of the pragmatic educational model. This essay focuses on the transcendence assigned to the theological and philosophical foundations of Newman's pedagogical ideas, as well as on the value of the educator's example and of trust as key factors in the educational process. Notional assent and real assent in the formation of the person are addressed as relevant educational factors, in conjunction with the gratuity of knowledge, the power of mystery, and the importance of the illative sense.

According to Church statistics, 6.9 million children were enrolled in Catholic primary and secondary schools in Europe. Enrolment has remained relatively stable over the last 40 years in comparison to other regions of the world, contributing to education pluralism. This may be in part because in many countries, Catholic and private schools benefit from state funding, which helps in reducing out-of-pocket costs for parents to send their children to the schools. At the same time, public funding for private schools, including Catholic schools, often remains below the level of funding for public schools. This paper discusses enrolment trends in Catholic schools over time, compares the level of public funding for private and public schools, and looks at the relationships (or lack thereof) between such funding and enrolment in Catholic and private schools.

Previous studies suggest that small rural schools experience a range of challenges relating to their size, financial difficulties and geographical isolation, as well as potential opportunities relating to their position within their communities. In Northern Ireland, these schools are situated within the comparatively rare context of a religiously divided school system. However, research on these schools in this jurisdiction is scarce. The notion of consociationalism is highlighted as central to an understanding of the prevailing schooling system and the peace process in Northern Ireland as a post-conflict society. Set against this backdrop, the paper reports on a survey of principals of small rural schools in Northern Ireland; the challenges they face and their engagement with the communities they serve. The findings reveal how these small rural primary schools, while encountering many similar challenges to such schools globally, continue to play a central consociational role in serving their respective divided communities. Their relationship with the Church is seen as particularly important. The findings raise important broader questions as to the extent to which the current system of schooling is able to contribute to the building of a more integrated society.

The American College of St Maurice at Münster in Westphalia was founded in 1867 to train priests for the Catholic missions in the United States. This paper outlines the history of this short-lived educational institutions (1867-1879), with particular focus on the 68 seminarians, who attended this theological seminary for their pastoral formation, accompanied by scholarly studies in theology and philosophy at the Academy of Münster. This educational concept and history of the American College is considered against the background of the scholarly dispute about the dogma of papal infallibility and the Prussian "Kulturkampf," that eventually led to the closure of the American College in 1879. Finally, attention is paid to the pastoral ministry of the alumni and the situation of the German Catholics in the United States. The alumni of the American College became a particularly sought-after group of priests, not only due to their religio-cultural background, but also with regards to their broader pastoral and academic formation that helped to meet the challenges ahead.

Mathematics was considered to be a universal language that God used to write the book of nature. Many of the greatest mathematicians (such as Descartes, Leibniz, Euler, Cantor) saw their mathematical work as a way to have a clearer insight into the existence of God and His infinity, as well as to glorify His name. This paper explores the mathematics-theology relation in the works of some of the greatest mathematicians from the fifteenth century to the present day. It also discusses how this information could be used to introduce the investigation of the reality of mathematics as divine language in the mathematics curricula of Catholic universities and colleges. At advanced levels, students need to understand Mathematics not only as a secular subject of technical utility, but also as a rich culture in which ideas of transcendence can be explored.

The majority of the Catholic schools under the leadership of their respective Congregations are aimed at transforming the surrounding society by conveying holistic education. The Evangelising Sisters of Mary is one of the Catholic Institutes running different schools among the less advantaged people in the society. This paper explains how the Missionary Congregation of the Evangelising Sisters of Mary carries out its education mission in regard to its charism in the church and society. It gives a brief historical background of their foundation and their founders as it expounds on how they manage the whole idea of running schools, financing the schools, maintain discipline, raising academic performance and handling challenges facing the management of the secondary schools under its care.

This paper examines the socio-political history of the discrimination suffered by the group called Burakumin (部落民) in the city of Nagasaki in early modern and modern Japan (1600–present). More specifically, it looks into, first, the emergence and evolvement of hostility and antagonism between Burakumin and Catholics in Nagasaki, and second, how discrimination against Burakumin became socially invisible in post-1945 Nagasaki when post-atomic bomb reconstruction transformed the urban landscape of Nagasaki and representations of the city came to be dominated by the Catholic imagery of prayer. The paper argues that, on the one hand, the modern nation-state, established on the principles of the freedom and equality of citizens, did not eradicate discrimination, but instead concealed it, resulting in discrimination continuing in changed forms, and on the other hand, Catholics in Nagasaki, while having themselves suffered political persecution in Japanese history, have been involved in practices of discrimination against the Burakumin. There is, however, not an innate relationship between religion and discrimination, but rather the relationship is historically contingent. Understanding its contingent nature requires us to address the historical conditions contributing to discrimination. By so doing, we can start imagining new ways to tackle and eliminate discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In everyday life, one encounters many experiences of affliction that, for whatever reason, nature (ours or others') cannot resolve. Yet, when nature's finite resources are exhausted and hope seems in vain, humans often experience extra-ordinary moments of renewal and resolution—breakthroughs, remissions, insights, and conversions. We experience these moments in our natural existence; yet, we feel they cannot originate, cannot be attributed to nature alone. Rather, these experiences, called "graces" in Christianity, are attributed to a divine power acting in us. How do we come to describe these experiences in this way? Is it possible to formulate a general theory of these experiences as "graces"? Is there an "experience" of grace in general, a "state of grace", which serves as ground and unifying experience for the "graces" we receive? Working from the Catholic theological point of view, this paper examines such experiences of affliction and renewal, as well as the basic Catholic framework schematizing them as found in the Bible and Catholic religious writings. In doing so, this paper highlights the theme of impossibility (absolutely or in context) underlying each experience, and broadly categorizes them as happening within three regions of human life: the external, ethical sphere, the interior self-relationship, and the vertical relationship to the Divine. In dialogue with theologians and phenomenological thinkers, general formulations of the experiences are placed within their respective spheres, and certain problems in the identification or interpretation of these experiences are identified. The paper then explores how the experience of a "New Creation" can serve not only as a label for the totality of these experiences, but also as a totalizing and overarching ground-experience of "grace" and an interpretive hermeneutic for graces in general. As a result, a graced moment of total personal "rebirth" or "recreation", prevenient with respect to any personal co-operation or experiences of grace as grace, is identified as a potential ground for all other graces considered. Finally, this paper considers some potential implications of this account of grace for both Catholic thought and Phenomenology more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between science and religion in the education system of Roman-Catholic Portuguese society. In particular, we explored perceptions of the relationship between science and religion for religious education teachers. We surveyed 198 Portuguese religious education teachers about how they view science and religion. The questionnaires' results revealed a number of similarities: religious education teachers are highly involved in religious practices and exposed to science; they perceived a compatibility between science and religion; and they have an openness to dialogue between both. They do not adhere to anti-scientific perspectives, but they simultaneously try to limit what can be explained by science. Thus, an interpretative view of dialogue and/or integration seems to best explain the perceptions of religious education teachers of the relationship between science and religion. These findings allow a space of discussion, enabling teachers to possibly foster the science-religion dialogue in their contexts of pedagogical activity.

This paper explores the process of negotiation, lobbying and parliamentary debate that brought the Irish universities legislation into being in the early 1900s against a backdrop of political and religious conflict. The complex interaction between British ministers and Catholic bishops before and throughout the legislative process dictated the terms of the university settlement. The principal decisions on the legislation were taken by Augustine Birrell, the chief secretary, in conjunction with Dr William Walsh, the Catholic archbishop of Dublin. Contrary to the argument that the legislation was a product of successful obstructionism by Trinity College Dublin, the outcome was a triumph for Walsh and a pragmatic majority among the bishops, who accepted a university that was formally non-denominational but would be Catholic in its cultural and ideological orientation. The universities settlement was a limited but historic compromise between British political elites of differing ideological persuasions and a majority of Catholic bishops.

In the years either side of Federation in 1901, Australia's Irish Catholics balanced two often contradictory impulses: their determination to retain their cultural and religious links with Ireland in the face of an often unsympathetic Protestant majority, and the desire to become 'good' Australians in order to make 'a go' of their lives in the new land. This paper explores how this process played out at St Joseph's Nudgee College, a Christian Brothers' day and boarding school in Brisbane, the capital of the Australian state of Queensland, and how sport played a central role in satisfying both imperatives. This discussion will be framed by the intersection of the social/political/economic context of Queensland during the period 1891-1914. It will focus on the educational context in which the Irish Christian Brothers operated as they struggled to make the College a bastion of Irish Catholicism and a vehicle for the socio-economic advancement of their community.

Today, the term 'global' has become a pervasive description of universities that aim to alleviate their importance and reach. The global looks inherently big. By relating to a spherical shape it attributes size in two distinct ways: it signifies the comprehensive and extensive reach of a theme or issue as well as the spherical centrality of an organisation. The paper argues that such perceptions of the global as big do not simply derive from the size of a terrestrial body. Rather, it excavates the historic roots of global size-building and the complicity of science and the university therein. It draws on two historic case studies: the formation of globality in the 'cordial agreement' between the "Hohenstaufen" emperors and medieval scholars and the conquering globality in the 'symbiotic relationship' between the Spanish Empire and cosmography. While distinct as historical cases they structure globality in a way that nurtures contemporary perceptions of the global. The historic genesis shows that the university is not merely sized through the global but that the university establishes a common knowledge space that makes the global emblematically big. The global sizing of the university today is just as much the story of the academisation of the globe.

Since the publication of Pope Francis' landmark encyclical (2015), "Laudato Si," there has been a robust discussion among religious educators concerning the notion of ecological conversion. Drawing on this rich scholarship, this paper strives to move from the "what" of ecological conversion to the "how"; that is, how communities of faith might foster ecological conversion in holistic, integrated ways while honoring the breadth and depth of this important process of transformation.

The increase in nationalist tendencies around the world after 2001 signifies changes in the concept of citizenship as reflected in the discourses of the parties coming to power. How does this translate into changes in education? In this article, I analyse the case of Poland. The research is focused on finding an answer to the following question: How does the postulate present in the programme discourse of the ruling, conservative party, of strengthening the national identity, translate into the changes in the school core curricula (CCs)? The applied method of analysis is Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The approach by Ruth Wodak and Martin Reisigl was adopted. The application of discursive strategies in learning outcomes relating to national identity, social equality, and diversity in the old and in the new CCs, was investigated. The analyses demonstrated a significant discursive strengthening of the national identity on the one hand, and application of mitigation/exclusion strategies in relation to issues of social equality and diversity on the other. The analyses presented in this paper contribute to the discussion on the relationship between curriculum studies and educational politics by showing the influence of the dominant ideology of contemporary politics on the concept of citizenship in the national CCs.

Under the terms of the Concordat between the Holy See and Spain, Catholic RE teachers must obtain a declaration of suitability prior to their appointment by the competent administrative authority. The bishop's authority to revoke any such statement, and the State's jurisdictional prerogative in overseeing such decisions, are matters of some dispute in Spanish courts. The Constitutional Court has found that the fundamental rights of applicants are not diminished by the fact that they are acting as religion teachers. In certain cases, however, the Court has highlighted that the right to transmit its beliefs through teaching is a key element of collective religious freedom that should prevail. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in cases "Fernandez Martinez v. Spain" (2014) and "Travaš v. Croacia" (2016) found that, by signing the employment contract, the applicants knowingly and voluntarily accepted a 'heightened duty' of loyalty towards the Church, limiting the scope of their fundamental rights. Following the judgements of the ECtHR, this paper shows how the Spanish system has dealt with collective religious freedom and employees' rights, providing a theoretical analysis of the legal grounds for the courts' judgements.

This paper attempts to look at the Colombian case of secularisation, touching on the current state of religion and Religious Education from three perspectives: the law, the Catholic Church, and the wider society, to determine the challenges acquired by the gap developed between religion, religiosity and secular legislation. With this in mind, the article recognises that Religious Education an Colombian law have fallen short from addressing the issues presented by the Colombian situation. Finally, it introduces some ideas on what the focus of RE and law should be for the subject to be able to respond to some challenges particular to this South American country.

This paper is a follow up to a previous article published online in this journal (Fincham; 2019) in which the writer describes the first phase of research into contemporary challenges facing headteachers in Catholic schools in England as expressed from the perspective of headteachers within one diocese. It was evident from the first phase that leaders in Catholic schools are subject not only to pragmatic concerns about funding and recruitment but also to both implied and overt challenges to Catholic identity and integrity, which are tested by pressures of social media, which have an impact upon the mental and emotional health of young people, and a pervasive secular mind-set, which impinges on faith practice in families and in the community. It was noted that the reduction in the number of priests in Catholic dioceses in England has also often left the school as the single focus of the Catholic community, which has implications for sustaining spiritual capital. The first phase of the investigation examined responses to an open question in which headteachers at a Catholic diocesan conference were invited to indicate their three most pressing challenges. The responses were subject to a process of Thematic Analysis (TA), as a result of which five pre-eminent issues were identified. The opportunity was also taken to investigate the extent to which spiritual capital was being renewed in Catholic schools. These 'categories of discourse' informed the face-to-face interviews that were conducted with five primary headteachers and four secondary headteachers in the second phase of the investigation. The data gathered enabled the researcher to ascribe meaning to headteachers' unique experiences. [For "Headteachers in Catholic Schools in England: Contemporary Challenges. A Follow-Up Research Study: Part 1," see EJ1338202.]

Purpose: The Catholic Church expects theological institutes, priests and seminarians to be well-informed, critical and creative users of information and communications technology. Currently, most theological institutes use the traditional face-to-face teaching method. An attempt to implement blended learning as an innovative teaching and learning modality for communication theology was made at the Saint Peter's Pontifical Institute, Bangalore, India, using the lab-rotation model for one semester. This paper aimed to study the two important course outcomes: participation and satisfaction.Design/methodology/approach: The course was designed using the analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation (ADDIE) model, developed, implemented and evaluated for 21 first-year theology students. The combination of descriptive and quasi-experimental research used an online questionnaire containing statements on a five-point Likert scale. The study evaluated the potentials of blended learning as an innovative modality through student participation and satisfaction.Findings: This research found that a high level of participation augmented satisfaction among the students during the implementation of the blended learning modality. The positive results revealed that future shepherds in the Catholic Church could effectively integrate information and communications technologies (ICTs) in their life and mission and serve digital citizens.Research limitations/implications: The research was conducted in St. Peter's Pontifical Institute of Theology (SPPI) for an elective course, Communication Theology, taught once a week. Only two outcomes; participation and satisfaction were studied. The respondents were 21 first-year theology students of the SPPI, which could have limited the generalizability of the results. They were not allowed to use any gadgets. So this research had to adopt a lab-rotation model wherein the students followed part of their course in the computer room.Practical implications: This pilot experience in blended learning modality will help SPPI recognize the advantage of such an approach and possibly decide to adopt it as one modality in the institute. It may also serve as a model for other Catholic schools and this could trigger the wider adoption of blended learning among Catholic schools. Results of the study can demonstrate to the faculty how blended learning is designed and a sample module can easily guide them on how it may be implemented. Hence, this can equip them already with knowledge and skills about the new modality.Social implications: The positive learning experiences will help the professors to further discover and adopt new and existing learning technologies that can enhance the learning atmosphere for post-millennials. They can now innovate teaching and learning strategies to best address the learning needs in their classroom, given the pervasiveness of ICTs in the everyday lives. This study will also provide a new learning option for the students as they undergo a new student-centred learning exercise.Originality/value: The pioneering effort of integrating ICTs in the form of blended learning in theology curriculum was executed in SPPI. The application of the blended learning approach to teaching communication theology is innovative in that educational technology is not only applied to theology courses but involves the promotion of technology use among future religious leaders. From a long-term perspective, this attempt can transform traditional face-to-face dominated teaching approaches.

In this paper, I propose an account of Camus's ethics in which violent revolutions are never morally permissible but nonetheless acceptable or necessary. My main thesis in this paper is that Camus's ethics of revolution and my defence of it, particularly the non-moral account of the permissibility of violent revolutions it comprises, can shed light on the reasonableness of participating in and supporting violent revolutions to some Catholics and the broader Christian community. My account of Camus's ethics of revolution and argument for its tenability will be compelling to some Catholics because they affirm their intuition that violent revolutions are morally untenable and show why it is nevertheless reasonable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an introduction to a collection of articles that originated from a conference on the Anthropology of Hope. The conference aimed to explore the importance of hope in the face of global challenges and its significance to human existence. The first article in the collection discusses the relationship between hope and truth-telling, while the subsequent articles respond and develop the ideas presented in the initial paper. The collection also includes articles on topics such as the role of hope in addressing sexual abuse in the church, ecumenical relations, and the work of Johann Baptist Metz in promoting dangerous hope. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Mexican Studies / Estudios Mexicanos is the property of University of California Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Catholic schooling in the United States is suffering from a persistent enrollment crisis that has triggered the need for system-wide organizational reforms. However, most of the changes that the sector has experienced has taken place in individual schools making decisions about how to operationally sustain their individual school community. In this article, we present findings from a qualitative analysis of 26 superintendents of (arch)diocesan Catholic school systems in order to better understand why there has been an absence of system-level change in the Catholic sector in the U.S. at a time when systems thinking has started to spread throughout other sectors domestically and internationally. We show through the findings presented in this paper that many Catholic school systems in the United States do not sustain system-level change because they rely on a decentralized "system of schools" organizational form that superintendents believe limits the possibility for sector-wide organizational reform. We highlight in this paper the ways superintendents are forced to navigate these organizational and political limitations and suggest what the implications of this limited possibility for system-level change are for the Catholic sector and other similarly organized sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

The Catholic Church had a rich tradition of church design prior to the liturgical reforms occasioned by Vatican II. The paper examines 20th-century architecture of the Catholic Church in Ibadan, Nigeria in the consolidatory stages of Christianity in the city. Based on documented archival records, oral accounts and field investigations, the paper argues that the earlier 20th-century church buildings of the Catholic Church of Ibadan were largely in line with Charles Borromeo's (1538–1584) summary of Catholic traditions regarding church design and the later 20th-century Catholic Church buildings were in line with modernist Catholic Church architecture influenced by liturgical reforms occasioned by the Second Vatican Council and the modernist ideology of functionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sheds light on the feelings of exclusion and insecurity among female members of Catholic groups in contemporary Poland. It is based on data gathered in the years 2019–2020 within the research project Resistance and Subordination. Religious Agency of Roman Catholic Women in Poland, which involved 48 in-depth interviews with university-educated Catholic women living in large Polish cities and engaged in various religious groups. The conducted analysis indicates that the interviewees resorted to defensive actions, representing a cultural backlash. Taking into consideration the numerical and institutional dominance of Roman Catholicism in Poland, the overarching question of the paper is: why do the interviewed women feel excluded and at what or at whom is their resentment directed? The analysis draws upon a wider discussion on the ongoing ideological polarisation of contemporary societies, showing the case of a country that is religiously homogenous. The interviewed women recognise some external threats, such as liberal culture and feminism, but also internal ones, namely ritualised, habitual, 'mainstream' Catholicism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Vínculos de Historia is the property of Vinculos de Historia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Theology & Morality / Teologia I Moralmosc is the property of Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza (IH UAM) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Theology & Morality / Teologia I Moralmosc is the property of Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza (IH UAM) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Materialist science does not see that consciousness is causal and fundamental. In contrast, as the body of nonlocal consciousness research has become more rigorous, more meticulous, what is notable about the criticism is its growing mediocrity. This paper discusses why the resistance to incorporating consciousness in science is occurring. It also discusses the history of how nonlocal consciousness was exiled from science in the first place. And why. In the pre-Christian world thinking about consciousness and its role in physical reality could not have been more mainstream. The idea of nonlocal consciousness and that all life is interconnected and interdependent, and that space-time itself arises from consciousness, not consciousness from space-time, is not a new idea. In the past based on a kind of empirical observational science nonlocal consciousness was so well accepted for millennia it was explicitly put to use in the service of the state for governmental planning. The Egyptians, the Greeks, the Etruscans, the Romans, the Maya, all these cultures and others have maintained institutions whose function was to create a cadre of what today we would call remote viewers, often boys and girls, whose task was to provide the kind of practical guidance one can get today from remote viewing. Oracles were honored. The origins of materialism are presented and discussed and properly placed in their relationship to the Roman Catholic Church. The history of how denialism developed is discussed, and the difference between skepticism and denialism is defined. The emergence process of a new paradigm incorporating non-physiologically based consciousness is described, and examined in Kuhnian terms. And, finally, the implications of this new paradigm are discussed. [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]