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A confessor is not required to have special knowledge about bioethical issues. In these cases the confessor needs to discern the internal dispositions of the penitent; i.e., their repentance, conversion and the readiness to change. The minister of reconciliation needs to keep in mind that this sacrament was established for men and women who are sinners, and for this reason the confessor should receive penitents and assume their good will to be reconciled with the merciful God who is willing to be born in a humble heart. The attack on human life touches the very core of the human person. In this area there are no light or irrelevant issues and, therefore, the confessor dealing with this problem is in contact with life and death. God is always first in the sacrament of reconciliation. Let every confessor keep in mind that the confessional is not a torture chamber but the place where the penitent experiences God’s mercy and where they receive an invitation to change and to do good. The penitent should always hear the truth and receive the assurance of salvific love which, in a mysterious way, is at work in every human being independently of their shortcomings and shortfalls.
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There are two passages in the Book of Revelation where the author evokes the subject of peace (Rev 1:4; 6:4) and, through analysis, we can detect semantic connections between them. God is presented as the source and owner of peace, offering it to human beings (Rev 1:4). Then again, God also allows the second horseman, after the breaking of the seal, to take peace from the earth (Rev 6:4). The union between peace and love/mercy is dependent upon receiving charis from God (Rev 6:4), the result being peace in the world and in the human heart. It implies the need to love one another, with the lack of it leading to hostility (Rev 6:4). The author strengthened that reflection by a series of sensory depictions of peace, in Rev 7:15b-17 and Rev 21:1–22:5, where peace is manifested as an internal experience. On a personal level, the emphasis lies on the value of an individual’s decision to turn to God and thus receive the blessings of peace.
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Review of Europa i jej antropologia polityczna. Człowiek jako droga historii – o filozofii Karola Wojtyły [“Europe and Her Political Anthropology: The Human Being is the Way of History – On the Philosophy of Karol Wojtyła”], ed. by Christoph Böhr and Christian Schmitz, Warszawa: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 2016.
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Interreligious dialogue is fast becoming quite a bit of a challenge, especially for Christians and Muslims. Recent events seem to be confirming the view that religions give rise to violence rather than peace. Nonetheless, Christians and Muslims insist that they - along with their Jewish brothers - are sons of Abraham. Perhaps, yet another analysis of our common heritage will not bring about any miraculous solutions to the existing problems; but it may dispose us to examine the reasons behind ever more bloody intolerance. Perhaps, Abraham and his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, with their differing though complementary fates, may teach Jews, Christians and Muslims how to be messengers of peace. Those witnesses to the truth, justice and peace will help us to erase from our memories the images of massacres, which so obscure our vision of the world today; they will help the Abrahamic communities to direct the world onto the path of peace.
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Reformation in England in the XVI century, while searching for a new identity, retained many aspects of traditional Catholic piety. Rejection of the primacy of the papacy by king Henry VIII in 1533 resulted in the subjugation of the church in England to the state. Anglicanism, as an offshoot of Protestantism, has absorbed certain dogmatic elements of Lutheranism and Calvinism, but never completely abandoned the basic moral and dogmatic statements of Catholicism. Its docrine, expressed in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, defines three principles: Protestant and biblical (Low Church), Catholic and sacramental (High Church) and critical and rational (Broad Church). Today, Anglicanism is often viewed as a via media between Catholicism and Protestantism. It displays an increasingly open attitude towards the papacy (The Malta Report of 1968) and authority in the Church (The Venice Statement of 1976). The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) established in 1969, plays a very important role in theological conversations between both churches, which actually differ more in the interpretation of the doctrine than its content. The discourse over the primacy is centred on the primacy of Rome, collegiality of bishops and the priestly and prophetic functions of the faithful. In fact, Anglicans never questioned the special role of Peter in the Church. They only rejected the concrete, historical papacy.
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The present author describes the Manchuria-Chinese “conflict of hair.” According to the perennial tradition, the Chinese people wore their hair long: the curled ones were treated as a symbol of the Chinese civilisation; the loose ones signed the affiliation to the populace. Having taken the governments, the Manchurian Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) with the Emperor Shun-zhi issued a decree ordering the hair to be cut off as a sign of submission of the Chinese to the Manchu conquerors. Soon afterwards, a law was introduced that obliged men to wear plaits. The heads were shaved, however hair remained on the top of the head, from which the plait grew – a sign of fidelity to the emperor. The refusal of a Chinese man to wear the plait meant his head was cut off. The emperor’s decision met society’s substantial resistance. Numerous secret societies, religious in nature, emerged in the country, opposing to this decree, among them: the Association of Triads (Tiandihui – the Union of Heaven and Earth) associated with the Buddhist Shaolin si (Young Forest) monastery, the White Lotus Association (Bailianjiao), the Elder Brothers Association (Gelaohui) and the Heavenly Order Association (Tianlijiao). Because at the time of the conquest of China (1644), the Manchu population was estimated as 300,000, whereas the Chinese – as 300 million, the conquerors had to apply the strong-arm policy.The imposed on the Chinese in 1645 way of wearing their hair got adopted, though under pressure and with resistance – especially in the cities. Therefore, the 1911 outbreak of the bourgeois-democratic revolution (the so-called Xinhai Revolution) and the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty in 1912 – resulted in changes in this area, too. The new revolutionary government, willing to break with the Manchurian past, ordered the plait to be cut off. Thus, another campaign began and the hair issue again took on political significance and became a hotbed of conflict.In much more modern times (1950s and 1960s), the communist authorities recommended cutting the hair short. It was considered that the “military-style” haircut will be the most appropriate for the revolutionaries who build a new socialist order.
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On the day of the liturgical memorial of Bl. Jakub Strzemię, October 21, 2016, at the Major Seminary of the Salesian Society in Ląd on the Warta River, there was a jubilee XXX Liszt Liturgical Symposium under the patronage of the Scientific Society of Saint Francis de Sales and Fr. Dr. Tadeusz Rozmus SDB - General Councilor of the Salesian Society for Central and Northern Europe. This year's scientific meeting was held under the slogan: Awareness of the sacrament of patients yesterday and today. The symposium brought together clergy and lay people representing various scientific centers and seminarians from several seminaries. About 50 people took part in it. The honorary guest of this year's symposium was Fr. prof. zw. dr hab. Jerzy Stefański - former consultor of the Congregation for Divine Worship in the Vatican, and now a retired professor at the Faculty of Theology of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. The conference was opened by Fr. dr hab. Mariusz Chamarczuk SDB (UKSW), Rector of the Major Seminary of the Salesian Society in Ląd on the Warta River, after which Fr. Dr. Radosław Błaszczyk SDB, organizer of the meeting, welcomed all guests, presented the scientific profiles of the speakers and introduced the participants to the theme of the symposium.
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Vito Mancuso is a lay Catholic theologian whose books and articles have cause significant unrest within the Vatican and throughout Italy for the past decade. With two exceptional best sellers, The Soul and Its Destiny as well as I and God, Mancuso demonstrates his propensity for a liberal understandingof Christianity which, in his view, is an attempt to adapt Christian doctrines to contemporary Western society dominated by secularizing tendencies and scientific discoveries. Despite such trends and developments, the idea of man's spirituality acquires new meanings even if, in Mancuso, spirituality is the result of man's constitutional materiality based on his conviction that matter is the mother of everything, including the human soul. Spirituality is important enough to shape man’s behavior in the world, so ethics is a crucial component of spirituality, as pointed out in chapter six. Our society, however, has a problem, and this has to do with the fact that most human beings, despite their age, want to stay young forever. Consequently, their behavior alters in a way which does not favor the development of their spirituality. Their spiritual growth is hindered because the very essence of youth is immaturity. Mancuso investigates the social consequences of such a thinking pattern, especially the fact that man cannot fully make sense of his existence in the world which eventually ends in death. The result is an empty life which can neither understand death, nor life in its fullness as meaningful existence despite the reality of death. For Mancuso, death is a fact not only because it is the natural end of being in the material world, but also because the very essence of matter is changed. Everything in the world changes one way or another, so change must be understood as a force which drives both the universe as a whole and the human being as a particular form of matter in the world.
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The process of education cannot be anything but an initiative based on the principle of personal liberty of the educated person. In this context, we believe that the educational ideal can be understood in the perspective of the discovering and promotion of the real liberty of human people. Therefore, thereligious education not only that can theoretically confirm the principle of human liberty, but can also organize the entire process of human development through a free and perfect affirmation of human person. The recent paradigms in the process of education are centered on the diversity of opinion of the one that receives it and also the one that offers the educational formation. Moreover, the educational items can also imply a large diversity. However, even under these conditions, the religious educationconfirms that the educational pattern is of the utmost importance in any formative approach through the free will of the one that is educated. Obviously, the actual debates about the religious class brought into question many important aspects concerning the theory of education. Our study is dedicated tosome theological analyses regarding the personal liberty in relation to the effort the educational pattern of Christian becoming as a purpose of education.
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In this study I tried to show that the moral and religious results in the use of religious music within religious closses depend on the extend to wich religious songs and genres correspond to student’s peculiarities of age. I tried to identify in what way students can be more active through songs, at religion, compared with other teaching methods. It is very important that students participate both wich their mind and souls. Student’s souls should be and must be touched by emotion in this special domain. Therefore religious songs should be selected depending on the age of the students. In the theoretical part I emphasized the importance that music has had and has in the formation of young men’s personalities from ancient times until today. The research aims to improve the ways of teaching methods through music, when we transmit christian values.
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God is the source music. And because God has no beginning and no end, no music is not defined by these temporal dimensions. Song is to unite souls have not never known and to strengthen links between people, learn from any distance, for which he received the name of universal language that can be deciphered and studied in every corner of the world. The purpose is to enjoy music and light through various songs and texts, to convey a good feeling, nice and optimism human soul troubled and saddened. Gradually, the music becomes weapon of the devil. Since the second half of the twentieth century, there are composers who inspired rhythms and melodies satanic destroyers. The thirst for fame and celebrity at any cost, the artists are making them to accept even the ultimate compromise, which is to sell their soul to Satan. Satanic music are involved in both Romanian and foreign performers. We have on hand many remedies to get out of this crisis. The media promotes performances that instead of helping youth more you sink. Out of the impasse can only be achieved by leaving any vicious entourage, changing life and union with Christ through the sacraments of confession and communion, giving eternal life.
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It is widely known that humanity is going through a period of rapid transformation, of amazing progress. The progress of science and technique is the most obvious, and it influences every sector of human life. Science goes deeper and deeper into the knowledge of the world by discovering new laws, unexpected new energies. With the help of science, the technique places tools at man’s disposal, which help him master more and more the forces of nature; it places those forces in the service of the humanity. Our time is the time of the young. An old world crushes, while a new one is searching for its forms of life. Its pulse is beating in the veins of the young. It beats faster because of the anxiety, uncertainty, and the unknown. Undoubtedly, there is a gap between the old generation and the new one. The anxiety of the old generation transforms itself into sighs for the ending world. The restlessness of the new generation is represented by the hopes for the coming world. That is why the young represent today’s universal preoccupation. The states where social life searches more thoroughly its new location made this preoccupation their main issue. Obviously, nowadays’ children do not resemble the children that lived 40-50 years ago. If we were to establish on which mystery road the transformation had begun under our eyes, and how we the parents are and still remain unliable to our children, we would be too much into an insecure area, but which is suddenly enlightened by the Holy Scriptures by the indisputable sentence: “The fathers have eaten a sour grape and the children’s teeth are set on edge”.
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The Church always took measures for people in need of support and assistance. Teaching successive popes and the Second Vatican Council repeatedly undertook the subject. Recalled by Pope Francis option for the poor it can be read in terms of the existential. Disability because it is often perceived as a form of poverty, physical or mental. Therefore, as the Church’s teaching is the actual practice in this topic? Or the community of the Church with disabilities are full members or rather are created for them to certain groups in advance to determine their dysfunctions?This article addresses the issue of intellectual disability as a special space to proclaim the Gospel. Also tries to answer the question whether this space is not a field mission of the Church.
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Proclaiming the word of God is one of the fundamental tasks of the Church in preaching the salvific message of the Christ. It is the ministry which is effectuated in the Church community and at the command of the Church. The ministry of preaching the word of God includes: conferences, sermons, catecheses and homily. In this ministry the homily, which is contained in the strictly defined frames and which is included in the liturgical space, occupies a special place. According to the preaching of the Magisterium of the Church included in theological massage and documents of the Church this task is entrusted only to the ordained ministers: deacons, presbyters and bishops. The discussed exhortations remind the homilists about their special duties arising from the office that was entrusted to them. These duties start not only from intellectual but also from the spiritual formation. While preparing the homily the homilist must take into account a number of aspects of preaching the homily. First the homilist himself must become a disciple listening attentively to his Master in order to deliver His words considering the whole teaching of the Church, on behalf of which he speaks. In the last years the whole Church, taking into consideration the difficulties it has perceived as well as more and more frequent weakness of the homily, attended to this problem by convening, at the wish of the Pope, the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. The results of the synodal proceedings were post-synodal apostolic exhortations of Pope Benedict the XVI and Pope Francis, which describe the place and the role of the word of God in the life and mission of the Church. The exhortations discussed in this dissertation are Verbum Domini and Evangelii gaudium. These documents once again remind the teaching of the Church concerning the place of the homily in liturgical space and point out the measures that should be taken into consideration by the homilists (those who preach the word of God in the liturgy) in creation of the homiletic unit. All undertaken activities shall take into account updating the word of God, which brings understanding of the biblical message to the listeners and helps them to integrate it into their everyday Christian life, bringing them closer to God. The effective sign of working of the word of God is not only its influence on the congregation, but, firstly, on the homilist himself. The effectiveness of preaching of the word of God depends not so much on the skill of the homilist, as on the testimony of his unification with the word of God.
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Nowadays we can talk about an explicit Polish Ukrainian reconciliation process of a Christiannature. Reconciliation between the two nations is aimed at overcoming negative stereotypes, overcoming conflicts in the symbolic sphere by referring to Christian axiology.
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