Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic Church Books

Book Synopsis“Contraceptive sex,” wrote social science researcher Mary Eberstadt in 2012, “is the fundamental social fact of our time.” In this important and pointed book, Charles E. Rice, of the Notre Dame Law School, makes the novel claim that the acceptance of contraception is a prelude to persecution. He makes the striking point that contraception is not essentially about sex. It is a First Commandment issue: Who is God? It was at the Anglican Lambeth Conference of 1930 when for the first time a Christian denomination said that contraception could ever be a moral choice. The advent of the Pill in the 1960s made the practice of contraception practically universal. This involved a massive displacement of the Divine Law as a normative measure of conduct, not only on sex but across the board. Nature abhors a vacuum. The State moved in to occupy the place formerly held by God as the ultimate moral Lawgiver. The State put itself on a collision course with religious groups and especially with the Catholic Church, which continues to insist on that traditional teacher. A case in point is the Obama Regime’s Health Care Mandate, coercing employees to provide, contrary to conscience, abortifacients and contraceptives to their employees. The first chapter describes that Mandate, which the Catholic bishops have vowed not to obey. Rice goes on to show that the duty to disobey an unjust law that would compel you to violate the Divine Law does not confer a general right to pick and choose what laws you will obey. The third chapter describes the “main event,” which is the bout to determine whether the United States will conform its law and culture to the homosexual (LGBTQ) lifestyle in all its respects. “The main event is well underway and LGBTQ is well ahead on points.” Professor Rice follows with a clear analysis of the 2013 Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage. Part II presents some “underlying causes” of the accelerating persecution of the Catholic Church. The four chapter headings in this part outline the picture: The Dictatorship of Relativism; Conscience Redefined; The Constitution: Moral Neutrality; and The Constitution: Still Taken Seriously? The answer to the last question, as you might expect, is: No. Part III, the controversial heart of the book, presents contraception as “an unacknowledged cause” of persecution. The first chapter argues that contraception is not just a “Catholic issue.” The next chapter describes the “consequences” of contraception and the treatment of women as objects. The third chapter spells out in detail the reality that contraception is a First Commandment issue and that its displacement of God as the ultimate moral authority opened the door for the State to assume that role, bringing on a persecution of the Church. The last chapter, “A Teaching Untaught,” details the admitted failure of the American Catholic bishops to teach Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical, Humanae Vitae. But Rice offers hope that the bishops are now getting their act together Part IV offers as a “response” to the persecution of the Church three remedies: Speak the Truth with clarity and charity; Trust God; and, most important, Pray. As the last sentence in the book puts it: “John Paul II wrote in a letter to U.S. bishops in 1993: ‘America needs much prayer – lest it lose its soul.’” This readable and provocative book is abundantly documented with a detailed index of names and subjects.

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Book SynopsisThere have been serious complaints since Vatican II that many Catholics do not know the basic teaching of the Church on the essentials of the faith, such as the Ten Command-ments, the Seven Sacraments, the Sacrifice of the Mass and the twelve articles of the Creed. That was one of the main reasons for the production of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which was mandated by Blessed John Paul II and published in the 1990s. After Vatican II there was much emphasis on preaching that explains the daily readings from the Bible. That is what we now call a “homily.” Traditionally a sermon has been preaching on some point of doctrine or morals, illustrated and supported by quotes from the Bible. An unintended and unanticipated result of the homily has been the neglect of sermons and a lack of preaching on the fundamentals of the Catholic faith. When the Catechism appeared, some bishops, like Cardinal John J. O’Connor of New York, gave sermons based on it for over a year. The 54 doctrinal sermons in this book are presented in the hope that priests will make use of them to prepare real sermons that explain the basic truths of the Catholic faith. The sermons follow the basic outline of the Catechism: Creed, Sacraments, Commandments, and the Our Father. The purpose of these sermons is to promote a better understanding in the minds of the faithful of the beauty and depth of truth contained in our holy Catholic faith. The grasp of that truth should result in an increase of faith, hope and charity. Table of Contents IntroductionBibleRevelationFaithHopeCharityArticle 1 – BeliefArticle 2 – JesusArticle 3 – ConceivedArticle 4 – SufferedArticle 5 – Descended into HellArticle 6 – Ascended into HeavenArticle 7 – Second ComingArticle 8 – Holy SpiritArticle 9 – ChurchArticle 10 – ForgivenessArticle 11 – ResurrectionArticle 12 – Life EverlastingSacrament 1 – BaptismSacrament 2 – ConfirmationSacrament 3 – EucharistSacrament 4 – PenanceSacrament 5 – AnointingSacrament 6 – Holy OrdersSacrament 7 – MatrimonyCommandment 1 – One GodCommandment 2 – God’s NameCommandment 3 – SundayCommandment 4 – Honor ParentsCommandment 5 – MurderCommandment 6 – AdulteryCommandment 7 – StealingCommandment 8 – False WitnessCommandment 9 & 10 – CovetingPrudenceJusticeTemperanceFortitudeDeathJudgmentHeavenHellPurgatorySinEternitySeven Gifts of Holy SpiritTwelve Fruits of Holy SpiritOur Father – Our FatherOur Father 1 – Thy NameOur Father 2 – Thy KingdomOur Father 3 – Thy WillOur Father 4 – Daily BreadOur Father 5 – ForgivenessOur Father 6 – TemptationOur Father 7 – EvilBibliography

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Book SynopsisFor Notre Dame gathers together the important contributions of a devoted Holy Cross priest to the continuing debate over the mission and identity of the University of Notre Dame. Read together, these essays and addresses by one of the most consistent and committed participants in this ongoing discussion serve to cast vital light on many of the major issues that Notre Dame has confronted in the past two decades. Fr. Bill Miscamble’s spirited essays in For Notre Dame cover a range of topics and reflect his multiple roles at Notre Dame, where he has taught for a quarter century. An award-winning scholar and a noted teacher Miscamble writes thoughtfully of the place of teaching and research in Catholic universities. Crucially, he also is unafraid to explore more contentious subjects like the composition of the faculty and the responsibilities of faculty members who serve in a Catholic university like Notre Dame. Nor has he backed away from the controversies that have beset Notre Dame in recent years. In this volume a reader can learn how he courageously addressed such matters as academic freedom and The Vagina Monologues and, of course, how he protested the Notre Dame decision to honor President Barack Obama at its 2009 Commencement. Throughout this engaging volume, Miscamble’s distinctive voice rings clear. His passion for Notre Dame’s Catholic mission is evident on every page. Also evident is his deep concern for the moral and spiritual well-being of Notre Dame’s students and his deep commitment to the priesthood and to the Congregation of Holy Cross. For Notre Dame is essential reading for all those who love Notre Dame and who are interested in its past, present, and future. It is a book that asks its readers to reflect deeply about the ongoing struggle to determine the university’s present mission and its future course. Readers – including faculty, students, administrators, trustees and alumni – will surely discover through its pages how they too might stand more truly for Notre Dame.

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Book SynopsisJohn Paul II in his personalist approach to moral questions reaffirmed that as sin offends that which is good, if we truly know what human love is––and that it is good––we would thereby see how certain acts can never be acceptable insofar as they in all cases wound this love. Yet in moral debates surrounding love, sex and contraception Adrian Reimers observes that we are not using this approach and these debates are not advancing the cause of real love. Reimers draws upon the encyclical Humanae Vitae and John Paul II’s catechesis known as the theology of the body to respond to the stalled development of moral theology on the issues most crucial to human love and intimacy. “It is time, we are told, for a ‘paradigm shift’ in the Catholic Church’s moral teaching, such shift representing a more pastoral and less dogmatic approach to moral issues,” writes Reimers. His claim that “a paradigm shift in moral theology and philosophy may be valuable––perhaps vital––to scholars who think and write about these sciences and to teachers who communicate moral truth” is not an exhortation to redefine moral truths. Rather, he argues that an approach to contraception, for example, that relies exclusively on natural law is a hackneyed one and often “tedious.” John Paul II’s series of catechetical addresses known as the theology of the body was originally composed in the 1970s after Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae. Albeit derived from the writing of an archbishop and not yet pope, Reimers identifies John Paul II’s perspectives on love, sex and contraception as an essential force behind this so-called paradigm shift in continuity with the profound and unchanging truths set forth in Humanae Vitae. As Reimers states, “Moral truths do not change, even if our ways to understand them improve.” How, then, is our sense of the goodness or badness of contraception meant to be helped by such a development of thought? Ethics grounded philosophically tends to lean toward legalism in the context of moral actions, says Reimers, as it emphasizes conformity to God’s law and largely overlooks “the relationship between moral behavior and the human person’s ultimate end of beatitude with God.” The important principle of the necessarily two-fold description that natural law gives to sex––namely, as unitive and procreative––must not be the authoritative end of the discussion regarding the moral nature of contraception. In an age where technology has given human beings new power it seems there must be new rules as well, and the conquest of procreative acts changes the human perception of the limitations once associated with harmful acts. Herein lies the importance of John Paul II’s catechesis––the goodness or badness of acts is not just concerned with end of a particular act. As Reimers writes, “If we are to understand the complex relationships among love, marriage, and their sexual expression, we must situate these within the context of the end of the human being.” A position on contraception and human sexuality cannot be comprehensive without a concept of love properly understood. Human acts must bring us closer to sanctity, not to comfort or possession. Holiness is the perfection of love, and its pursuit aims at ultimate beatitude. This end, the truest love human can know, is the end which ultimately condemns contraception once and for all, as “contracepted sex is contrary to holiness.” Reimers unpacks this sometimes difficult truth in eight chapters, which begin with love and conclude with faithfulness to moral norms and a spirituality of marriage. The arguments surrounding contraception and “good sex” seem to have set the grounds for coherently choosing a side rather than to have succeeded in presenting certain human acts as definitively immoral. As Reimers notes, a natural law position on contraception often fails to employ its greatest ally: the reality of authentic human love and “victory” of the individual in one’s sanctity as achieved through that love. This work will reorient the objectives and claims of the moral debate, as well as influence the popular notion of what love is and what it cannot be. It is an aid to scholars, students and study groups, humanists, and those who seek to deepen the sense of love’s highest physical expression.

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Book SynopsisThe first document enacted by the Second Vatican Council was its Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, and the liturgical reform mandated by that document has probably had a greater impact on the average Catholic than any other action of the Council. That this liturgical reform has not in every respect been the unalloyed success hoped for by the Council Fathers, however, has only been grudgingly recognized. The liturgists and other Church officials responsible for implementing the reforms have had a vested interest in claiming success, even where there was evidence to the contrary. Nevertheless, the many and sometimes abrupt liturgical changes made were bound to affect long-established modes of worship and devotion – not to speak of the drastic move from Latin to the vernacular which came shortly after the Council, and which necessarily entailed radical change in the Church’s worship. In July 2007, Pope Benedict XVI signaled that the liturgical question needed to be revisited when he issued a motu proprio that allowed, some forty-plus years after the end of the Council, a wider celebration of the unreformed pre-Vatican-II Mass in Latin as an “extraordinary” form of the Roman rite. While the pope’s motu proprio was not a repudiation or cancellation of the Vatican II liturgical reforms — as some liturgists feared (and some traditionalists hoped) – it did indicate a sane and sensible papal recognition that liturgy must be developed organically, not “manufactured” by a “committee.” Above all, the pope recognized that the question of the liturgy must be approached realistically in the light of how the reforms have actually worked out, not of how some have imagined that they might or should have worked out. This book by Kenneth D. Whitehead, who has written extensively both on Vatican II and on the liturgy, explains Pope Benedict’s action in its proper context and describes the reactions to it, while making special reference to some of the pontiff’s own extensive previous writings on the liturgy. The author then doubles back to evaluate the Vatican II liturgical reforms generally – how and why they were enacted, what has actually come about as a result of them, and how and why a “reform of the reform” is now called for.

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Book SynopsisOne of the gravest and most divisive issues confronting the Catholic Church in recent decades – a major factor in an ongoing institutionalized rupture between Rome and at least half a million traditionalist Catholics – is the question of whether Vatican II’s Declaration Dignitatis Humanae can be reconciled with traditional Church doctrine on religious liberty. In this spirited exchange of essays on a topic central to our understanding of justice and human rights, Arnold Guminski and Fr. Brian Harrison debate this difficult question. Guminski argues that DH teaches that there is (and always has been) a natural right not to be prevented from publicly propagating or manifesting non-Catholic religions, subject to the exigencies of a just public order, which is to be understood as not presupposing the truth of natural or any positive religion (including Catholicism), or any supernatural considerations. Harrison disagrees. In his view, DH nowhere teaches that it is always and everywhere unjust for civil authorities to presuppose the truth of Roman Catholicism in determining what restrictions a just public order allows. According to Harrison, the central innovative feature of DH is its clearly implied prudential policy judgment, or norm of ecclesiastical public law, to the effect that in the modern world – so very different from the old Christendom – repression of the public propagation or manifestation of non-Catholic religions as such can no longer be justified by the requirements of the common good. Harrison argues that precisely because this undeniable reversal of the Church’s previous position belongs in the category of changeable prudential judgments, it does not constitute a doctrinal rupture with Catholic tradition. Guminski, on the other hand, contends that the doctrine of DH, properly understood, is inconsistent with relevant preconciliar doctrine. The latter, in his view, was never proposed definitively – i.e., infallibly. Both authors agee to a comprehensive theory of the nature and scope of the Church’s inherent coercive power as it pertains to liberty in religious matters. They agree that this power is limited to the imposition of spiritual penalties and temporal penalties, and that the Church’s inherent coercive power nevertheless must be exercised within the limits of a just public order.

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Book SynopsisAppealing to dialogue is often just a safe way of referring to something negative, or at best blandly neutral: the avoidance of conflict, the denial of similarity, not stirring deep-seated disagreement, etc. When Bernard o’Connor says pope Benedict XVI facilitated dialogue, however, he means something quite positive, very much tangible and certainly transformative. In providing an account of the pope’s interactions with various groups of the international community, O’Connor attempts to convey Benedict XVI’s diplomacy as encounter, where even in the sphere of international relations exhortations to “dialogue” are invitations to see more clearly and be moved as much as move. To dialogue is to embrace, revise perception such that our approaches to the great questions of our day are not simply shared but correct. As O’Connor writes, “Pope Benedict attempts to promote the outlook that a renewed emphasis upon objective, critical and structured philosophical reasoning positions practice, diplomatic and otherwise, to regain its lost foundation and framework. the quest for integrity, if nothing else, should motivate our fidelity to academic pursuit, to intellectual investigation, and to rigorous interdisciplinary inquiry. so influenced, practice will then reject what is arbitrary and be guided by what is time-tested and enduring.”O’Connor illustrates true dialogue emerging from the encounter, and in turn provides scores of characteristics of this encounter as it unfolds in papal diplomacy. In providing scores of addresses and speeches to various bodies, O’Connor presents pope Benedict XVI as an example of effective diplomacy that treats the meetings on the world stage as engaging in true dialogue. encounter is the true basis of dialogue and one that allows it to open to what is truly a catalyst for change toward cooperation––witness, both personal and collective. As o’Connor shows, “where there is authentic encounter, as meeting in mutual trust, what arises is context for witness.” If authentic even the diplomatic encounter has the means to deepen and transform one’s being.Witness Through Encounter intends to fulfill multiple needs. the diplomatic approach exemplified herein is singular and worthy of study among political scientists, sociologists, philosophers and diplomats eager to embrace a worldview that is more personal than simply humanistic. this work will also be useful in inter-religious settings. An additional advantage of O’Connor’s presentation of Benedict XVI’s diplomatic approach, his witness through encounter, is that it contains insight valuable to the scholar alongside the resources used.

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Book SynopsisWhere Did I Come From? Where Am I Going? How Do I Get There? is a complete course on Catholicism, featuring concise, reader-friendly, relevant prose. Straight answers are tailored for today’s generation. Topics addressed include: Can I know anything? Can I know what God is like? How am I really in the image and likeness of God? What about my conscience? Am I a gift to others? What about my freedom? Is any sexual activity OK before marriage? Do we have to keep Grandma on a feeding tube forever? This book adapts a wildly successful high-school curriculum developed by Charles E. Rice, who taught for years at an Indiana high school in addition to his storied career at Notre Dame Law School. This classroom-tested curriculum has had life-changing effects. Rice’s students, who took the course in the late 1970s and early 1980s, credit this course for keeping them Catholic, while their peers turned to Zen, politics, or drugs in their search for ultimate meaning. Rice, with the valuable assistance of co-author and philosopher Theresa Farnan, updates this curriculum by incorporating the Catechism and the personalist philosophy of John Paul II into the timeless wisdom of the Church. Today’s young Catholics admire the faith more than ever, but need clear answers about what it is and who they are. The straight answers found in this book are a sure antidote to the confusion of the culture of death. The revised second edition contains expanded material from Pope Benedict XVI, the Catechism of the Catholic Church and other sources. The second edition, as did the first, has received the Imprimatur from Most Rev. John M. D’Arcy, bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend. The second edition has also received from the Office for the Catechism of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops a Declaration of Conformity, certifying that it is in conformity with the Catechism. The second edition is therefore included in the USCCB’s Conformity Listing of Catechetical Texts and is officially approved for use in Catholic schools and educational programs.

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Book SynopsisThe second Vatican council called for a revitalization of moral theology within the Catholic Church. Forty years later, "Renewing Christian Ethics" assesses the Church's progress, incorporating the work of psychologists, sociologists, theologians, scriptural scholars, and cultural anthropologists to fully analyze the difficult convergence of authority and individual autonomy. Michael Allsopp's text will be welcomed by those who teach courses in Christian ethics as well as by anyone concerned with moral decision making and the ethical demands of everyday life.

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Book SynopsisComposed at the request of the Royal Spanish Chronicler of the Indies, Don Diego Torres y Vargas' "Report on the Island and Diocese of Puerto Rico" was the first history of Puerto Rico written by a native of the Spanish island colony. Torres y Vargas, a fourth generation Puerto Rican and descendant of Ponce de Leon, records here the history of the Catholic Church in Puerto Rico as well as the political, social, military, economic, and natural history of the island. This translation - the first ever into English - includes three historical essays by eminent Puerto Rican and Latino studies scholar Anthony Stevens-Arroyo and extensive translator notes to guide the reader through the realities of seventeenth-century Puerto Rican culture and society.

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Book SynopsisA volume in Research on Religion and Education Series Editors Stephen J. Denig, Niagara University and Lyndon G. Furst, Andrews University Two major real-world problems prompted this study: maintaining the Catholic identity of the Catholic schools, and increasing interest in character education. Traditionally, Catholic schools in the United States were staffed exclusively by priests, sisters, and brothers. Today, they are predominately staffed by laypersons. This change has influenced the essential religious character and culture of Catholic schools. While Religious filter their teachings through their own religious training and emphasize the mission and charisma of Catholic education, lay staff often lack the same intensely religious experiences to bring to the teaching/learning environment. This qualitative interview study explored the influence that a series of spirituality and virtue seminars had on lay teachers' perceptions of the Catholic school and character education.

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Book SynopsisOn October 16, 1943, the Jews of Rome were targeted for arrest and deportation. The Nazis, the Vatican, and the Jews of Rome examines why—and more importantly how—it could have been avoided, featuring new evidence and insight into the Vatican's involvement. At the time, Rome was within reach of the Allies, but the overwhelming force of the Wehrmacht, Gestapo, and SS in Rome precluded direct confrontation. Moral condemnations would not have worked, nor would direct confrontation by the Italians, Jewish leadership, or even the Vatican. Gallo underscores the necessity of determining what courses of actions most likely would have spared Italian Jews from the gas chambers. Examining the historical context and avoiding normative or counterfactual assertions, this book draws upon archival sources ranging from diaries to intelligence intercepts in English, Italian, and German. With antisemitism on the rise today and the last remaining witnesses passing away, it is essential to understand what happened in 1943. The Nazis, the Vatican, and the Jews of Rome grapples with this particular, awful episode within the larger, horrifying story of the Holocaust. Despite the inadequacy of memory, we must continue to attempt to make sense of the inexplicable.Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgments 1. Chief 2. Germany's Fanatic Determination to Fight 3. I'll Go Right into the Vatican 4. I Wanted to Make an Air Drop in Rome 5. The Worst Horrors of the Nazi Regime 6. Do Not Worry 7. Like a City of the Dead 8. The Reincarnation of the Dying Corpse 9. I Have a Special Mission for You 10. A Final Solution to the Jewish Question 11. We Must Disperse the People 12. The Byzantine Christ 13. If You Pay, No Harm Will Come to You 14. We Had the Moral Right 15. Keep Out of All Questions Concerning Jews 16. Like Autumn Leaves Lay Waiting 17. Los! Raus! Schnel! 18. It Is Simply Impossible to Refuse 19. Let's Go Make a Few Phone Calls 20. Train X70469 21. Numbers 1581–158639 22. These Jews Will Never Return to Their Homes 23. He Is No Longer Our Rabbi 24. A Connection to the Pope 25. We Have Contended with Diabolical Forces 26. I Was Only an Executor of Orders Epilogue: I Must Go Back and Tell Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisOn October 16, 1943, the Jews of Rome were targeted for arrest and deportation. The Nazis, the Vatican, and the Jews of Rome examines why—and more importantly how—it could have been avoided, featuring new evidence and insight into the Vatican's involvement. At the time, Rome was within reach of the Allies, but the overwhelming force of the Wehrmacht, Gestapo, and SS in Rome precluded direct confrontation. Moral condemnations would not have worked, nor would direct confrontation by the Italians, Jewish leadership, or even the Vatican. Gallo underscores the necessity of determining what courses of actions most likely would have spared Italian Jews from the gas chambers. Examining the historical context and avoiding normative or counterfactual assertions, this book draws upon archival sources ranging from diaries to intelligence intercepts in English, Italian, and German. With antisemitism on the rise today and the last remaining witnesses passing away, it is essential to understand what happened in 1943. The Nazis, the Vatican, and the Jews of Rome grapples with this particular, awful episode within the larger, horrifying story of the Holocaust. Despite the inadequacy of memory, we must continue to attempt to make sense of the inexplicable.Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgments 1. Chief 2. Germany's Fanatic Determination to Fight 3. I'll Go Right into the Vatican 4. I Wanted to Make an Air Drop in Rome 5. The Worst Horrors of the Nazi Regime 6. Do Not Worry 7. Like a City of the Dead 8. The Reincarnation of the Dying Corpse 9. I Have a Special Mission for You 10. A Final Solution to the Jewish Question 11. We Must Disperse the People 12. The Byzantine Christ 13. If You Pay, No Harm Will Come to You 14. We Had the Moral Right 15. Keep Out of All Questions Concerning Jews 16. Like Autumn Leaves Lay Waiting 17. Los! Raus! Schnel! 18. It Is Simply Impossible to Refuse 19. Let's Go Make a Few Phone Calls 20. Train X70469 21. Numbers 1581–158639 22. These Jews Will Never Return to Their Homes 23. He Is No Longer Our Rabbi 24. A Connection to the Pope 25. We Have Contended with Diabolical Forces 26. I Was Only an Executor of Orders Epilogue: I Must Go Back and Tell Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis book is a study of the contributions of Catholic K-12 schools in the United States to the public interest from the 1800’s to the present. It presents seven strategies that have the possibility of leading Catholic schools in positive, new directions. Outsiders often misunderstand the mission, purpose, and inclusivity of Catholic schools. This book brings a new focus on Catholic schools from the perspective of their service to this country through the education of Catholics and non-Catholics. In 16 chapters, a variety of scholars examine these schools across three periods: echoes of the past, realities of the present, and future directions. The intention of the editor and authors of this volume is that Catholic schools and those interested in conducting Catholic school research will find guidance, especially in examining newer types of partnerships flourishing in different types of Catholic schools in different regions of the country and types of schools from rural, suburban to city and inner-city schools. By increasing the data we have, such studies could help stem the tide of Catholic school demise. In addition, Catholic school leaders, and parents who chose them or are thinking about choosing them, will find here a balanced description of what constitutes a Catholic school and how they are different from public schools. In understanding better the role and function of Catholic schools in serving the public interest, new ideas, innovations, and improvements can help these schools survive and grow.

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Book SynopsisThis book is a study of the contributions of Catholic K-12 schools in the United States to the public interest from the 1800’s to the present. It presents seven strategies that have the possibility of leading Catholic schools in positive, new directions. Outsiders often misunderstand the mission, purpose, and inclusivity of Catholic schools. This book brings a new focus on Catholic schools from the perspective of their service to this country through the education of Catholics and non-Catholics. In 16 chapters, a variety of scholars examine these schools across three periods: echoes of the past, realities of the present, and future directions. The intention of the editor and authors of this volume is that Catholic schools and those interested in conducting Catholic school research will find guidance, especially in examining newer types of partnerships flourishing in different types of Catholic schools in different regions of the country and types of schools from rural, suburban to city and inner-city schools. By increasing the data we have, such studies could help stem the tide of Catholic school demise. In addition, Catholic school leaders, and parents who chose them or are thinking about choosing them, will find here a balanced description of what constitutes a Catholic school and how they are different from public schools. In understanding better the role and function of Catholic schools in serving the public interest, new ideas, innovations, and improvements can help these schools survive and grow.

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Book SynopsisDrawing on rich insights from the early Church Fathers, Discerning Persons addresses the neglected issue of disablism and how discriminatory attitudes fail to treat people with profound disabilities as persons. This discrimination can be found in the field of bioethics, where the stakes are often high and a matter of life or death. Whereas views that give priority to human beings whatever their capacities are seen as speciesist and so discriminatory, bioethical approaches that are disablist are rarely acknowledged as prejudiced. Many bioethicists do not even realize there is an issue. Current bioethical thinking appears uncritical and unreflective in the way it accepts a separation of the human being from the person and downgrades certain individuals who do not fulfill arbitrarily defined and insubstantial criteria for being persons. Using neglected Patristic thinking and its analogies with the human person, abled and disabled, found in reflection on the image of God and in the Trinitarian and Christological disputes of the early centuries where person language originated, the book makes patristic thinking do important work. It establishes that there are no early historical, philosophical, or theological grounds for calling or treating human beings as anything less than persons. Nor is there foundation for defining the person purely in terms of individuality, rationality, autonomy, or self-consciousness. Patristic insights conclusively call us to be discerning persons: to realize that persons are not so much defined as discerned, and to discern that all human beings, whatever their situations or capacities, are unique and unrepeatable persons.

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Book SynopsisWhile there is a long-standing history of reflection among Catholics about the proper orientation of Catholicism towards American society, today the American Catholic community confronts a fundamentally new situation. Catholics face the dual threat of an ever more centralized and increasingly omnicompetent state and a new cultural ethos fundamentally incompatible with--and hostile to--Catholicism.Today, American Catholics no longer live as a religious minority in a Protestant society whose commitment to limited government and religious freedom affords Catholics considerable space to live out their faith commitments, and whose Christian character assures the existence of substantial moral commonality. Now, Catholics are a religious minority in a post-Christian society animated by an anthropology and public morality incompatible with Catholic truth and committed to the exclusion of the faith from public life.This new situation demands a rethinking on the part of American Catholics of their place in America and their relationship with American society. These essays seek to assist with this challenging task by casting light on this new situation and exploring its implications for the Church in America.

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Book SynopsisThe book is exploratory: What do I believe? What am I unsure about? Is religious belief reasonable? Written by Gerard Windsor, a knowledgeable insider who is also a superb writer, it’s entertaining, stimulating and full of anecdote, history, forays into art and literature, and even a bit of gossip.Windsor starts on how you get religion in the first place, goes on to the Gospels and the personality of Jesus Christ and the possibility of any relationship with him. He then moves on to the existence and nature of God, winding down with the grubby present realities – the factions within current Catholicism, scandal, sexual abuse, argument and bigotry. Interlaced with twelve inspirational, edifying, moving cameos of true-life moments of grace, this is Windsor’s take on religion, specifically Catholicism.

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Book SynopsisThe life journey of a woman who-as a medical doctor, missionary nun, pioneer of gender equality, Anglican priest, and now a contemplative Catholic-influenced the lives of thousands. Una Kroll is one of the most outspoken campaigners for the ordination of women. She achieved a certain notoriety in 1978 at the Church of England's General Synod when its members turned down a proposal to prepare legislation to ordain women to the priesthood. Quoting from Matthew 7:9, she shouted from the gallery "We asked you for bread and you gave us a stone." 2014 marks the 20th anniversary of the ordination of women on the Church of England and 2015 will almost certainly see the consecration of women as bishops. This celebration will both rekindle interest in the history of the movement for women's ordination and also serve to further ignite debate for the same in the Roman Catholic Church. Una Kroll told BBC radio about the campaign for the full inclusion of women into the Anglican church and her role in it. Listen again at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04p5f3cTrade ReviewUna Kroll has written a remarkable book from her perspective both as a medical doctor and as one of the first women priests in the Church of England. The stories Una recounts reveal a woman with a passionate humanity, brilliant intellect and deep spiritual insight. As both doctor and priest, Una has been a pioneering advocate for women: whether introducing new healthcare treatments or being one of the most outspoken campaigners for women's ordination. Ultimately, though, Una has written a spiritual biography of women's struggle for full inclusion in the Church's ministries and mission, with her most profound reflections revealing an evolving understanding of God as creative energy and unconditional love. -- Christina Rees, broadcaster; writer; member of General Synod of the Church of England June 2014

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Book SynopsisThe lives and experiences of Irish women religious highlight how an expanding nexus of female houses perpetuated European Counter-Reformation devotion in Ireland. JOINT WINNER: 2023 National University of Ireland's Publication Prize in Irish History HONORABLE MENTION: 2023 Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender (USA) Book Awards SHORT-LISTED: Royal Historical Society 2023 Whitfield Book Prize LONG-LISTED: 2023 Reformation Research Consortium (REFORC) Book Award This book investigates the impact of the dissolution of the monasteries on women religious and examines their survival in the following decades, showing how, despite the state's official proscription of vocation living, religious vocation options for women continued in less formal ways. McShane explores the experiences of Irish women who travelled to the Continent in pursuit of formal religious vocational formation, covering both those accommodated in English and European continental convents' and those in the Irish convents established in Spanish Flanders and the Iberian Peninsula. Further, this book discusses the revival of religious establishments for women in Ireland from 1629 and outlines the links between these new convents and the Irish foundations abroad. Overall, this study provides a rich picture of Irish women religious during a period of unprecedented change and upheaval.Trade ReviewHONORABLE MENTION: A fascinating account of the experiences and journeys religious Irish women underwent, both in Ireland and continental Europe. * SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF EARLY MODERN WOMEN & GENDER *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. Female religious communities and the Henrician suppression campaigns 2. Negotiating religious change: survival and continuity in post-dissolution Ireland 3. 'What difficultie a place is heare gotten for won to enter': Irish women religious in France, and Flanders during the first half of the seventeenth century 4. Irish nuns in Iberia: The Dominican convent of Nossa Senhora do Bom Sucesso, Lisbon 5. Reintegration and renewal: female religious communities in Ireland, 1629-49 6. Cromwell and the cloister: female religious and the impact of the Cromwellian campaigns, 1649-60 7. Restoration, revival and survival, 1660-1700 Conclusion Bibliography

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Book SynopsisChristianity, and its theological and spiritual underpinnings, does not fulfil the needs of people living in a rapidly changing world. For all its good intention, the Catholic Church has failed to provide the necessary religious tools to its congregants and wider Catholic community to confront the ecological and environmental problems that confront mankind. This book sets out the required parameters of spirituality within an evolutionary world context, linking the theological with the practical, under the aegis of the Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. His writings promote a concept of God at the centre of the world we live in - a Christian way of living, fully engaged. At the heart of Teilhard's world view are creation, evolution, and the environment. He provides the spiritual tools to understand a God that is, in real effect, our evolving world and our actions toward it. In looking after God's world through our daily commitment we meet the needs of the whole of creation. And this makes Christian faith truly meaningful and of direct relevance to our living in the world. Indeed, the second encyclical of Pope Francis (Laudato si') with its care for our common home message, is Teilhardian in its outlook. Likewise the Pope's sacrament of the brother teaching. Because of the inextricable link between human activity and the creative work of God, Teilhard saw all human endeavour as holy. Herewith the Ignatian theme of 'finding God in all things', coupled with a cosmic approach to redemption and the notion of ongoing divine creativity. Teilhard's vision is a template for understanding our place in the world, our intimate relationship to the whole of creation and our responsibilities to the environment and to each other. Teilhard asks us to face the challenges of a rapidly changing world as co-creators with God - a tremendous privilege but also an awesome responsibility. An Appendix lists all of Teilhard's writings and their publication sources, divided into five main sections, and further subdivided by topic - an indispensable resource tool for Teilhard scholars, and for readers familiar with The Divine Milieu and The Human Phenomenon.Table of ContentsIntroduction; Living in a Changing World: Challenges and Rewards; A Prophetic Voice: Teilhard and Evangelism; A Century of Change in Church and World; Where on Earth? God in an Evolutionary World; All Change: Living in a Dynamic World; Who was Pierre Teilhard de Chardin?; Teilhards Spirituality; Toward the Future: A Summary; Appendix: Reading Teilhard on The Christian in the World; Glossary; References.

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Book SynopsisThe birth of the Second Spanish Republic in April 1931 ushered in a period of possible secularisation to Spain. Liberals welcomed legal changes, while conservatives feared the special 'privileges' they enjoyed would end. The Catholic Church remained a central focus of left-wing antagonism and right-wing allegiances, and conflicts surrounding the future of religion grew severe. While members of the Spanish Catholic hierarchy had clearly supported the right and disdained the left, the actions and opinions of the Vatican and its hierarchy stationed in Spain were much more nuanced. Similarly, when conservative military action plunged Spain into a Civil War in July 1936, the majority of the Spanish Catholic hierarchy openly supported their victory, but the highest levels of the Vatican remained silent. This book explores the unique position and specialised reactions of the Vatican concerning the Second Republic and Civil War. For the Holy See, the conflict in Spain was not an isolated event at the edge of the continent, but part of a larger narrative of ideological and political tension swirling across Europe. Any public statement by the Vatican concerning the Spanish Republic or Civil War could be misconstrued as support for one side or another, and threaten the Church. True, the Vatican often remained silent -- and some have suggested this supports the conclusion that the Church worked for Franco -- but by accessing previously unavailable sources directly from the Vatican, this book can help to clarify the difficult options that awaited the Holy See during this disastrous period. Similarly, this book works to highlight the fact that the Catholic Church was not some monolithic entity, but men like Pope Pius XI and Secretary of State Pacelli had their own understandings of spirituality and politics.

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Book SynopsisFighting the Antichrist analyzes the discourse against Catholicism from the breach from Rome in 1534 until the death of Elizabeth I in 1603. Cultural representations of Catholicism were decisive in creating and moulding the perceptions that many Englishmen had of the new Anglican Church and its alleged enemies. Such perceptions were essential not only in promoting policies against English Catholics, but in shaping English national identity. Anti-Catholic propaganda elaborated a stereotype of the Catholic that converged with other negative cultural types common in the period, such as that of the lazy, lecherous monk, the cruel Spaniard, the seductive and deceitful Jesuit and the Machiavellian schemer (the last three enjoying special popularity in the second half of the Elizabethan period). These stereotypes allowed anti-Catholics to send a clear message to their Protestant countrymen: that Catholicism was a devilish, corrupt foreign power that could undermine the most basic pillars of English society their Church and State. Dr Alvarez-Recio explores a wide number of texts of different genres in order to determine their contribution to the aforementioned cultural image of the Roman Catholic Church in England. Special attention is paid to political and doctrinal plays and pamphlets, given their appeal to different social groups and their role in creating a new public opinion. Other kinds of material that are also considered include chronicles and private letters, fragments of royal proclamations, and descriptions of royal entries and coronations. All these texts offer a wide spectrum of responses to the Catholic question and assist in understanding the role of anti-Catholic discourse in royal iconography. Originally published in Spanish by Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, the volume provides an inter-disciplinary approach, addressing issues such as the formation of public opinion, the influence of imperial discourse, and the overriding role of religion in nationalist issues.

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Book SynopsisThis is the first ethnography of the Uganda Martyrs Guild [UMG], a lay movement of the Catholic Church, and its organized witch-hunts in the kingdom of Tooro, Western Uganda. This book explores cannibalism, food, eating and being eaten in its many variations. It deals with people who feel threatened by cannibals, churches who combat cannibals and anthropologists who find themselves suspected of being cannibals. It describes how different African and European images of the cannibal intersected and influenced each other in Tooro, Western Uganda, where the figure of the resurrecting cannibal draws on both pre-Christian ideas andchurch dogma of the bodily resurrection and the ritual of Holy Communion. In Tooro cannibals are witches: they bewitch people so that they die only to be resurrected and eaten. This is how they were perceived in the 1990s when a lay movement of the Catholic Church, the Uganda Martyrs Guild [UMG] organized witch-hunts to cleanse the country. The UMG was responding to an extended crisis: growing poverty, the retreat and corruption of the local government, a guerrilla war, a high death rate through AIDS, accompanied by an upsurge of occult forces in the form of cannibal witches. By trying to deal, explain and "heal" the situation of "internal terror", the UMG reinforced the perception of the reality of witches and cannibals while at the same time containing violence and regaining power for the Catholic Church in competition for "lost souls" with other Pentecostal churches and movements. This volumeincludes the DVD of a video film by Armin Linke and Heike Behrend showing a "crusade" to identify and cleanse witches and cannibals organized by the UMG in the rural area of Kyamiaga in 2002. With a heightened awareness and reflective use of the medium, UMG members created a domesticated version of their crusade for Western (and local) consumption as part of a "shared ethnography". Heike Behrend is Professor of Anthropology and African Studies at the University of Cologne, Germany, the author of Alice Lakwena and the Holy Spirits [James Currey, 1999], and co-editor of Spirit Possession, Modernity and Power in Africa[James Currey, 1999]Trade ReviewA major and very welcome addition to the expanding Africanist literatures on religious reformations, the nature of power, and the impact of colonial and postcolonial governance on the felt body. * AFRICAN HISTORY *A must read for all interested in Africa. * AFRICAN STUDIES QUARTERLY *Table of ContentsIntroduction PART I EATING/BEING EATEN 'Eating the King': Fragments of a History of Tooro Kingship Ethnography of Eating: Mediating Food and Power 'Eating God': Western Images of the Cannibal PART II TERROR AND HEALING IN TOORO Crisis and the Rise of Occult Forces Witches and Cannibals in Tooro The Catholic Church and Religious Pluralism in Tooro The Uganda Martyrs Guild The Guild's Crusades PART III THE CANNIBAL IN COLONIAL MISSIONARY ENCOUNTERS The Making of a Christian King and 'Pagan' Persecutions Christian Catechists and Missionaries in Tooro Missionaries, the Eucharist and Cannibals in Tooro Resurrecting Cannibals Medical Spectacles of Resurrection and Colonial Mirroring

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Book SynopsisThis work is an investigation of the ongoing methodical reconstruction of Catholic moral theology. As such it is based on and honors the work of Norbert Rigali, S.J., one of the most important contributors to this reconstruction. The decisive break from the traditional manual approach to moral theology represented by Vatican II reoriented moral theology away from universal natural law morality based on the commandments to a morality based on specifically Christian sources. This reorientation, however, was not an either/or but a both/and proposition. Father Norbert Rigali, S.J. has been an inspiration and a challenge to moral theologians working toward reconstruction. This essays in this collection address four questions in the renewal movement: an investigation of normative methods, a clarification of sources, an investigation of the tension between natural law morality and Christian ethics and/or morality, and a combination of methodical insights of philosophy and traditional Christian sources in their investigation of biomedical ethical issues.

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Book SynopsisJohn B. Bannon excelled in four distinct capacities: as a pastor of a thriving Catholic congregation in St. Louis; as a chaplain with the First Missouri Confederate Infantry at Pea Ridge, Corinth, and Vicksburg; as a diplomat winning Irish support for the cause of the Confederacy; and as Ireland's greatest preacher in the 1880s. William Barnaby Fatherty's latest book, Exile in Erin: A Confederate Chaplain's Story, looks at new historical research and covers the entire life of this great man. It examines Bannon's boyhood in Ireland and his early years as a priest in St. Louis. Bannon gave up a major parish to serve the spiritual needs of the soldiers in the field - the only chaplain in either army to do so. He turned Irish opinion to sympathy for the South, then reoriented himself in his native land after the war. His preaching was part of a devotional revolution that put new life in the Irish Church. In reading Exile in Erin, Civil War buffs will view the conflict from an unusual vantage, students of Irish history will understand the Celtic religious scene from Catholic emancipation in 1827 to the vote for home rule, and all readers will meet an inspirational personality.

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Book SynopsisA selection of outstanding articles from the Fellowship's first thirteen years of proceedings.Trade Review"While the title of this formidable book sound old fashioned and woolly, the thirty-one essays or conferences of outstanding thinkers featured in it are not." - Basil Cole OP, 'New Blackfriars', Feb 2002 "This is indeed a fine book, and may even be essential reading for thoese who struggle against the intellectual darkness within and without." - David Stevens, 'Faith Magazine', Sep-Oct 2001Table of ContentsIntroduction - William E May and Kenneth D Whitehead 1. Catholic Faith and Intrinsically Evil Acts (1978) - Germain Grisez 2. Catholic Theology, Catholic Morality, Catholic Conscience (1978) - Rev Msgr William Smith 3. The Bitter Pill the Catholic Community Swallowed (1978)- Rev Msgr George Kelly 4. God as Prisoner of Our Own Choosing: Critical-historical Study of the Bible (1979) - Rev Dennis J McCarthy 5. Transendental Truth and Cultural Reletavism: A Historian's View (1979) - Glenn W. Olsen 6. Christian Moral Values and Dominant Pshychological Theories: The Case of Kohlberg (1980) - Paul C Vitz 7. Toward a Hermeneutic of Sexuality (1980)- Rev Donald J Keefe SJ 8. Freedom, Christain Values, and Secular Values (1980) - Joseph M Boyle 9. Freedom and the Catholic University (1981) - Rev Richard R Roach 10. Personalism in the Thought of John Paul II (1982) - Rev Roanald Lawler OFM 11. The Fundemental Themes of John Paul II's 'Laborem Exercens'(1982) - John M Finnis 12. Americanism: The "Phantom Heresy" Revisited (1983) - James Hitchcock 13. The Church of Christ and the Catholic Church (1983) - Rev James T O'Connor 14. Existentialism on Trial: Albert Camus's 'The Fall' (1984) - Maura A Daly 15. Derrida or Deity? Deconstruction in the Presence of the Word (1985) - R V Young 16. The Holy and the Good: Relationship beteen Religion and Morality in the Thought of Rudolf Otto and Josef Pieper (1986) - John Haas 17. Natural Law and the Common Good, and American Politics (1987) - Robert P George 18. To Be or Not to Be ... Female (1987) - Joyce A Little 19. The Church's Message to Artists and Scientists (1987) - Benedict M Ashley OP 20. Four Developments in Modern Physics that Subvert Scientific Materialism (1987) - Stephen M Barr 21. The Renewal of the Church: Toward the 21st Century (1987) - Thomas Weinandy OFM 22. Principles in Catholic Scholarship (1988) Patrick Lee 23. Human Life and the Primacy of Contemplation (1989) - Alice Ramos 24. A Historical Perspective on Evangelization in the United States (1990) - Rev Marvin R O'Connell 25. Life Issues in a Pluralistic Culture (1991) - Janet E Smith 26. How the Catholic Church Serves the Common Good (1991) - J Brian Benestead 27. Opening the Mystery of Christ in the Scriptures: Considerations of Approach for Preaching the Scriptures (1992) - Sister Joan Gormley SSMW 28. Catechetics and the Governance of the Church: 'The Catechism of the Catholic Church' (1992) - His Emminence John Cardinal O'Connor 29. The Scriptural Foundations of Natural Family Planning (1993) - Rev Paul Quay SJ 30. America's Catholic Institutions and the New Evangalization (1994) - Gerard V Bradley 31. Church Tradition and the Catholic University (Rev Robert Sololowski Notes

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Book SynopsisMonsignor George Kelly, one of the great churchmen of our time, turns a keen but loving eye on the contemporary Church in this magnificent new book. On several notable occasions in the past, Monsignor Kelly has set before his readers the status quo of Roman Catholicism in the United States. But in this new book, he combines as never before an unclouded vision of unfortunate aspects of the contemporary Church with a robust optimism concerning what lies ahead. He rivals John Paul II in his uncanny ability to go to the heart of the matter and put his finger on where things have gone wrong and are still going wrong. In Second Spring of the Church in America, his negative diagnosis and positive prognosis center on the role of the bishops. Readers will find here surprising revelations of just how bad it is in many areas of Catholicism in this country. But Kelly is not interested in amassing a catalog of errors for its own sake. His kindly pastoral eye is ever on the ready for a remedy. The still-imperfect renewal called for by Vatican II is a task for all, but in a special way the bishops must step forward, individually and collectively, to acknowledge what has gone wrong and to lead the Church into the third millennium. Perhaps no other living Catholic could have written this magnificent book, combining cold critique with warm-hearted confidence in what lies ahead for the Church in America.Table of ContentsPreface by Ralph Mclnerny Introduction One: The Catholic Crisis: Its Nature and Scope Two: The Catholic Bishop: Vicar of Christ or No? Three: The Bishops and The Church's Law Four: The Present Episcopal Dilenuna Five: The Priest - Shepherd or Hired Hand? Six: The Bishops and the University Seven: The Catholic Bishops at War Eight: John Paul II and Diocesan Bishops Nine: The Second Spring Appendix: Response of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith to U.S. Bishops on 'Doctrinal Responsibilities.' Notes Index

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Book SynopsisStarting from what was, at its time, the most important vision of the Virgin Mary ever to take place in Western Europe, The Virgin and the Pentacle gradually uncovers a virtually unknown war that has been taking place across 1,700 years. This is the story of the battle between the orthodox Catholic Church and Freemasonry, itself the most modern manifestation of a much older religious conflict between patriarchal and matriarchal views of the godhead. Erupting occasionally in violence it is strikingly seen in the opposing visions of the Virgin Mary in the 19th century, which defined the conflicting theological parameters and led to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in the 1850s. Underpinning Freemasonic practice is a fraternity that has been active in Europe and beyond since the 4th century. At the heart of the Craft is a very specific social, economic and religious imperative, known only to the highest aspirants. The Virgin and the Pentacle cuts through the accusations that have been showered upon Freemasonry and shows what it's true objectives have been from the start. Reading like a whodunit, it is a story of dirty tricks that have included false visions, subterfuge and even murder. The conclusions are stunning and far reaching.

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Book SynopsisSaint Thomas Aquinas showed the world that Catholic theology is not just something meant to stimulate the mind. Indeed, the authentic study of the sacra doctrina exercises a shaping influence on the whole of the Christian life. In this volume, Dominican theologian Father Romanus Cessario, OP, follows this precedent by considering the integration of theology and Christian living. Focusing on various aspects of Catholic theology and spirituality, the essays in this volume explore the essential relationship between truth and grace. With characteristic wisdom and insight, Father Cessario reveals how theology and sanctity share a common origin and end. Here the doctrine of Saint Thomas Aquinas and his exponents emerges as something eminently relevant to Christian living in the twenty-first century. Written for all those who take the theological life seriously, Theology and Sanctity explains how - and why - only the truth has grace.

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Book SynopsisMother Teresa was one of those rare figures in history who enjoyed a wide and solid reputation of holiness during her lifetime. She became—for Catholics, Christians, and those of other faiths or even of none—a symbol of kindness, compassion, and tender care of the poorest people throughout the world. Known as a joyful and generous soul, Mother Teresa inspired countless persons to experience the “joy of loving,” as she liked to say, through their own acts of love and compassion.It thus came as a total surprise to everyone, including the members of her own religious family, the Missionaries of Charity, that Mother Teresa experienced nearly fifty years of what she called “the darkness.” When a book of her private letters, Come, be My Light, was published in 2007, it caused a sensation. It received worldwide media attention, including as the cover story of Time magazine. People struggled to understand it; many misunderstood it, some entirely!As the president of Ave Maria University, Jim Towey, tells us in the introduction, many questions abound about Mother Teresa’s darkness: “What are we to make of the spiritual darkness that enshrouded Mother Teresa so tightly? Could the words and experiences of this little Albanian woman with no advanced formal education have anything to say to the challenges the twenty-first century presents?”Ave Maria University gathered theologians to begin answering these questions and others. The resulting symposium provided the contents of this book. The first such assembly of scholarly work on the topic, Mother Teresa and the Mystics offers readers the opportunity to enter much more deeply into the interior—even mystical—world of St. Teresa of Calcutta.

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Book SynopsisIn light of the shock and confusion caused by the clerical scandals of the summer of 2018, Ave Maria University organized a conference offering a response to the crisis. Its aim would be to use Ave Maria University's commitment to serving the Church through faithful scholarship as a platform to offer helpful reflections on what had taken place and how the Church might move forward. As a mission-driven institution, Ave Maria University wanted to offer its fidelity to truth as a Catholic university; its Marian identity as ""Ave Maria"" University, and the learned wisdom of its own professors and scholarly friends as a resource for the faithful and Church leaders to turn to during this time of crisis. The conference, ""Crisis in the Church: On the Faith of Mary as the Pathway to Peace,"" took place on the Ave Maria University campus on January 11-12, 2019. The quality of the papers and the fellowship enjoyed by the participans and attendees exceeded expectations. Sapienta Press of Ave Maria University hopes that by disseminating these conference proceedings in book form, many others will also benefit from the wisdom, fidelity, and learning offered by each of the contributors.

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Book SynopsisThe Mystical Theology of Dionysius the Areopagite is one of the greatest classical texts ever written on prayer. The mysterious author, living during the fifth and sixth centuries, most likely in Syria, has been recognized both in the East and the West as a consummate theologian. This volume provides the finest available Greek text along with a facing-page translation as well as an introduction with historical background on Dionysius the Areopagite. Also given is an extended, concise commentary on the text.This will be an essential volume for readers who wish to engage one of the finest writers of Christian Tradition in his classic work on prayer. This would include not only scholars but others who may seek a deeper understanding of and love for God.

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Book SynopsisIn this book Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, Cap. examines the Trinity's eternity in relationship to creation's time, particularly in relation to human persons. Because the persons of the Trinity are subsistent-relationsfully-in-act as the one God, they are immutable as to who they are in relationship to one another. Thus they exist in a timeless manner. Moreover, this volume assesses how the eternal Trinity is personally related to human persons over the course of time, and how human persons are personally related to the persons of the eternal Trinity.In the first part of the book Weinandy treats, in an original and innovative manner, an issue that has been addressed throughout the history of theology, while the second part addresses a related topic that rarely, if ever, has been considered: How does the relationship between the persons of the Trinity and humans change through the saving works of the Trinity—the Incarnation, cross, and Resurrection—and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit? Through faith in the incarnated Son of God, and by participating in the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist, human persons abide in the risen Jesus. The relationship between eternity and time, in the light of salvation, now takes on a whole new perspective, both epistemologically and ontologically. What will be the relationship between the eternal persons of the Trinity and glorified human beings at the end of time? Time will assume a new heavenly and everlasting dimension. But what will this heavenly novelty be like? The Trinity: Eternity in Time answers these questions and more in a thoroughly philosophical, biblical, and theological manner.

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Book SynopsisAs the force that gave birth to Anglo-Catholicism, the Oxford Movement is generally treated as an Anglican phenomenon. Yet the influence of members who converted to Roman Catholicism proved decisive for the years leading up to the First Vatican Council and the definition of papal infallibility in Pastor Aeternus (1870). This collection of original essays edited by Parker and Pahls, explores how various Oxford Movement converts to Roman Catholicism contributed to debates surrounding papal infallibility in the 1850s,1860s and beyond.From Henry Cardinal Manning and Msgr.George Talbot (a chamberlain to Pius 1X)to John Henry Cardinal Newman and Richard Simpson (a liberal Catholic journalist),the diverse voices of these converts marshaled arguments on both sides of the debate and played substantial roles in framing the outcome. The full story of Pastor Aeternus and its subsequent reception cannot be told without exploring the contribution of the combatants, dissidents,and collaborators who left the Church of England.Trade Review"This work will prove a significant contribution to the field...its perspective is wide ranging and original. Highly recommended for research and theological libraries." Professor (Reverend) Andrew Woznicki, SC, STD, Fleishacker Professor (Emeritus), University of San Francisco"

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Book SynopsisThe Second Vatican Council represents a decisive milestone in the relationship between the Church and the world. The pastoral constitution Gaudium et spes proclaims a new spirit of missionary dialogue, openness, and mutual enrichment. The Church endeavored to recognize the genuine “triumphs” of the modern age, and, bearing in mind also the serious “ambiguities” and “tragedies” that characterize our modern culture, sought to present anew the profound beauty of Christian existence.What then does it mean for the Church to be “open” to the modern world? How can the world be receptive to the novel life the Church offers? How does the Christian navigate this dialogue? The essays gathered in this volume explore the theological anthropology of Gaudium et spes for answers to these questions. They strive to elucidate that only by the light of God’s infinite love incarnate in Jesus Christ does the human person come to perceive the mystery of his own being and the world come to realize itself; only then do the social realities of economy, work, and family take on human form.

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Book SynopsisReferring to creation as generous is not common. We normally associate notions of generosity and gift in the created order with human being and action, imputing such notions to other creatures and the whole of creation often only in a ""poetic"" sense. Once we center the reality of all things in God as a loving Creator, however, we become disposed to see everything, in its very givenness, as gift?a reality that participates from its depths, in analogical ways, in God's generosity, such as to make possible a deepened look also at the problem of evil. The Generosity of Creation has a twofold purpose in this light. The four chapters of Part I spell out what this God-centeredness implies for our understanding of the cosmos in various contexts: first, the ""paradigmatic"" meaning of the child and childlikeness for a civilization rightly ordered in terms of gift; second, ecology considered in terms of a ""liberation theology"" guided by ""integral human development""; third, the unity between ""ideas"" and ""reality"" as a necessary condition for ""preserving nature as the pre-sacrament, and the Church as the sacrament, of the Word of God's Love""; fourth, human freedom conceived primarily as a response to the good and a desire for God, in contrast to the would-be neutral or indifferent freedom characteristic of liberal societies.Part II explores the metaphysical foundations for speaking of creatures as ""generous"": gifts from God that participate, each according to its own nature, in God's giving. The exploration unfolds in dialogue with theologian Michael Waldstein, in relation to the anthropology of John Paul II and the metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas.

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Book SynopsisFar Too Easily Pleased was originally published in 1976, although it is just as relevant today. CUA Press is thrilled to be able to bring this book back into print. To summarize the volume we can do better than to excerpt part of Fr. Schall’s introduction to the 1976 edition:This book is intended to be a helpful stimulus to incite the reader to survey the truly exciting literature in this field and to assist in organizing personal reflection about the basic themes of game, play, wonder, rite, contemplation and festivity, themes that the theology of play naturally suggests. For it can be truly said that those who have not yet been initiated into this style of religious and cultural thought have been missing highly liberating and ennobling levels of our heritage. For those who already know what rewards are to be found in play and game, it is hoped that this book can again be a fresh and different approach to wonder and fascination, to the curiously marvelous life we have been given.James V. Schall, SJ, (1928-2019) was an American Jesuit Roman Catholic priest, teacher, writer, and philosopher. He retired in 2012 after a long tenure as a professor of political philosophy at Georgetown University Among his many books are The Universe We Think In; Political Philosophy and Revelation: A Catholic Reading; The Mind That Is Catholic: Philosophical and Political Essays; Schall on Chesterton: Timely Essays on Timeless Paradoxes and At the Limits of Political Philosophy: From “Brilliant Errors” To Things of Uncommon Importance (all CUA Press).

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the contribution of the Rev. Dr. Thomas Shields (1862-1921) to Catholic education in the United States of America in the late 19th and early 20th century.Fr. Shields was a pioneer in combining a career as an academic in Catholic University of America with the publication of many resources for schools. Given his pioneering role in aligning Catholic educational thought with emerging insights in the sciences, and his multi-layered commitment to Catholic education as scholar, author of textbooks and founder of initiatives in the field of Teacher Education, it seems fitting that his considerable body of work should be the subject of fresh scholarly investigation.The book is in five parts. Part 1, ""Catholicism as an Educational Movement"", sets out the contours of the intellectual climate in which Shields operated and presents Catholicism as a dynamic educational movement. Part 2, ""Responding to Progressive Thought"", explores the relationship between Progressivism and Catholic Education, showing how the Catholic Church responded to the challenges presented by Progressive thought. Part 3, ""Shields and the Reform of Pedagogy"", examines both Shields's general pedagogical principles and how they relate to Catholic education. Part 4, ""Forming Teachers in Heart and Mind"", considers Shields' ideas on Catholic Teacher Formation, exploring issues such as culture, vocation, method and curriculum. Part 5, ""The Catholic Education Series"", explores selected examples from Shields' Catholic Education Series to identify how his material for schools reflected, to a greater or lesser extent, his wider educational ideas.As the present age is also witness to considerable and deep-rooted challenges to Catholic education and, indeed to the Catholic understanding of the human person, Shields's work will inspire contemporary reform-minded Catholic educators to reassess and develop the mission of Catholic education in light of the traditions of the Church.Trade ReviewCatholic education in the West often involves an amalgam of secular educational theories infused with a religious content. Given that Catholic education involves the formation of the mind and character, it is important that we take a more holistic approach to the process of education itself. This should start by basing our educational theories on a true Catholic anthropology. Thomas Shields did just that, and so this excellent study of his work is timely given the urgent need to re-evangelize our culture."" - Phillip Booth, St. Mary's University, London""Well-researched and masterfully written, by a seasoned scholar and educator, this book is a must-read for every educator, in Catholic or secular institutions of higher learning. Shields Master Plan of teaching the old in the new, of introducing reform and renewal steeped deeply in the relation between faith and reason and interdisciplinarity, and his reform pedagogy which is not only theoretical but practical and part of the divine vocation of every educator is still relevant. The book guides one to be a reformer while being formator, an innovator while staying steadfastly true to tradition, forward-thinking while valuing the core of the Catholic education. The study provides a road map for educators as they seek to combine truth-seeking with novel opportunities."" - Ines A. Murzaku, Seton Hall University""To paraphrase the first chapter of this timely volume, Professor Franchi's contribution to the history of Catholic education in the United States contains things old and new. The life and work of Thomas Shields is well covered. The striking feature of this well written and researched account is how the rationale for Shields' work resonate with modern audiences who often find themselves grappling with similar issues. Franchi outlines how the genesis of Shields' educational thinking can be seen as a response to the philosophical position of Dewey and the progressivist movement. And here we see and ongoing challenge for Catholic educators, that is, how best to engage with the great cultural issues of the day. Shields was also concerned with the formation of teachers, another perennial topic for Catholic educators. This book is highly recommended for those who see the value of exploring and reflecting on the past to better understand the present and the future."" - Richard Rymarz, Director of Research and Head of Religious Education, BBI-TAITE. Sydney, Australia

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Book SynopsisThis book is a contribution to scholarship in the field of religious education. Its aim is simple: to offer a critical perspective on the nature of religious education in the light of contemporary developments in Catholic thinking in catechesis and wider thinking in education. The issues raised in the book will provide ample material for fruitful dialogue and constructive debate in the world of Catholic education.Part One revolves around four historical contexts selected specifically to illuminate contemporary developments in the field. While these historical periods have porous boundaries, they offer a working structure in support of the core claims of the book.Part Two explores the complex genealogy of the relationship between catechesis and Religious Education. Key thematic frames of reference within which the relevant Magisterial documents and associated academic literature are set out and explored chronologically thus allowing for some cross-referencing across the themes: unsurprisingly the range of the issues for debate resists a neat packaging within specific time-frames but does provide a helpful working structure. Part Three proposes that a Spirituality of Communion should underpin the Church's work in catechesis, education and Religious Education.Shared Mission seems to be a satisfactory articulation of the necessary dialogic relationship between both fields and offers a suitable space for both distinction and reciprocity. The revised edition contains an appendix on the Global Compact on Education.

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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