We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
Acquired by the bishop of Chełmno, Mikołaj Chrapicki (who died in 1514), the copy of Gutenberg Bible was handed over by the hierarch to the library of the Franciscans-Bernardines in episcopal city of Lubawa. After the dissolution in year 1821 the masterpiece of the printer from Mainz became the property of the Library of Divinity School in Pelplin, where – as the only copy in Poland – at the end of the 19th century it was adequately exhibited. In the inter-war period – although the selling of the Bible was considered – its ideological popularizer and protector was, among others, the bishop of Chełmno, Stanisław Wojciech Okoniewski, but above all, the priest dr Antonie Liedtke, the director of the library in Pelplin. It was he who dedicated several papers to the “Polish” copy of Gutenberg Bible and just before the war – risking his life – he rescued the Bible from German robbery. e route of its evacuation led from Pelplin, through Warsaw (the treasury of the National Economy Bank), Romania, France, Great Britain to Canada, where it was deposited in the branch of the Bank of Montreal in Ottawa. Although there were some problems with getting it back after the war, the Gutenberg Bible returned to Pelplin and until this day it is a real pearl of the collections of seminar library.
More...
In this work which makes the fourth chapter of his »Weltgeschichte und Heilsgeschehen «, Löwith gives a critical analysis of the idea of unlimited progress of history which in fact represents the secularized version of Christian faith in salvation and completion of history. By interpreting the work of Proudhon and Comte, the author takes note that their reform programme is defined by the Christian idea in spite of the radical denial of the notion of providence. The secularized comprehension of history is in essence an eshatologic expectation of salvation. Therefore, all constructions on historic progress (as well as retrogression) are a late but still powerful result of biblical teachings of decline and salvation.
More...
This article analyzes religious, political and national aspects of beatification and canonization Leopold Bogdan Mandić (1866-1942). Mandić is the only Catholic saint who was born in Montenegro. For blessed was declared in 1976, a saint in 1983. In the history of the Catholic Church, he was among the fastest beatified and canonized saints. The reasons for this were numerous. The Vatican is in this way wanted to implement its policy toward the communist regime in Yugoslavia. The Catholic Church in Croatia is keen to use these events to promote Croatian nationalism in Montenegro, especially in the Bay of Kotor, where Mandić was born. The Catholic Church in Montenegro is in this way wanted to preserve and strengthen the Catholic faith in Montenegro where Orthodoxy was dominant. The article was created solely on the basis of archival sources from the fund of the Republican Commission for Religious Affairs of Montenegro.
More...
What is the point in posing a question about religious freedom in the bosom of the very Church? (Péter Erdö) — this rhetorical question, which constitutes the structure of this study, directs the thought toward one of the most important documents of Vatican II. In the famous declaration Dignitatis Humanae the Council Fathers clearly implied that the key principle libertas religiosa is, in its essence, an affirmation of God’s gift of human freedom and dignity. “Church law is, first and foremost, lex libertatis” — Benedict XVI proclaims nowadays, giving this speech a par excellence personalistic context. The Church’s legal order cannot be, by the means of any measure, brought down to a set of isolated, autonomous regulations, which promulgated: officially valid and effective, should be perceived — invariably — as binding. Such reasoning, contaminated with a legal positivism, would introduce, in an obvious way, a disparity between law and life, and as a consequence it would radically deny the possibility of an anthropological foundation of the law. Whereas ius is the internal structural dimension of Church’s communion, the religious freedom and the integral live message depositum fidei, closely related with it, constitute fundamental principles of the Church’s legal order. What proves clear here is the fact that both categories, Ecclesia iuris and libertas religiosa, remain in a synergic relationship. The remarks offered in this study, although embedded in ecclesiological doctrine of the Catholic Church, have their ecumenical dimension. Indeed it is true that every genuinely Christian activity is at the same time ecumenical: aims at unity given and pre-defined by Christ. Completely authorized, after the Second Vatican Council, affirming of the ecclesiastic character of Churches and Christian communities means that the law of this communities constitutes legitimum ius ecclesiale, and what follows from it — every baptized individual is a rightful subject of Christian activity, which he should develop in his own religious homeland, as a part of own autonomous legal order, which remains the unchangeable Church’s order of freedom.
More...
The article opens with a historical analysis of the sources of contemporary legalregulations concerning religious freedom in Spain. Thus, the author discusses the legislationfrom the period of the Second Spanish Republic and General Franco’s Spain. The text points to the fact that the political separation of Church and state, as well as the guaranty of “the freedom of conscience and the right to practice any religion in freedom” were included for the first time in the Republican Constitution of 9 December 1931 while the first law on religious freedom in Spain was introduced in 1967 during the period of General Franco’s rule. However, in both cases the freedom declared in the documents was limited by the Spanish legislator because of the axiological assumptions of contemporary political systems.Next, the author discusses the present-day legal regulations concerning religious freedom and religious neutrality of the Spanish state. The text analyzes Article 16 of the 1978 Constitution, which guarantees “individuals and communities […] the freedom of ideology, religion and worship,” as well as religious neutrality of the state. At the same time, the authorities are obliged “to consider religious beliefs of the Spanish people,” and “as a result, to maintain a cooperative relationship with the Catholic Church and other denominations.” The analysis encompasses also the activity of the Advisory Commit tee on Religious Freedom, as well as the content of cooperation agreements between the state and the particular confessional associations. The reader’s attention can be drawn to the point of view assumed by the authorin order to present the historical process of creating the Spanish legislation concerningreligious freedom. The author emphasizes the role of Vatican II’s teaching, especially thedeclaration Dignitatis Humanae, which allowed the Spanish legislator “to get free” fromthe restrictions imposed on the declared right to religious freedom, which were presentin both the republican regime and General Franco’s rule.
More...
From the pages of this study, the reader familiar with the canonical organization of a local Orthodox Church could become acquainted with the fact that one of the main canonical fundamental principles of the Eastern Church, that is the principle of (external) autonomy, was affirmed and applied by the Archbishop of Transylvania, Andrei Şaguna, in his Church, in the totality of its content. But, through its forms of manifestation, this principle characterizes not only the relationships between the Church and the state, during Andrei Şaguna’s times († 1873), the Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church from “Hungary and Transylvania,” but also the contemporary relationships between Romanian state and religious denominations, expressed in the Romanian Constitution and the Law no. 489/2006, although, in its content, this principle was not affirmed and applied in the same manner during these two periods of time.
More...
Two traditions depicting God’s creation act described in Gen 1-2, contain also two varying pictures of the creation of woman. Whereas the priestly creation narrative underlines the equality between man and woman both created „in the image of God”, the picture of woman in Gen 2 is presented sometime as representing „male point of view”, in which woman is subdued and inferior in relation to man. However, the close reading of the Bible, such an interpretation finds scarcely any support in the biblical text. Gen 1-2 seem to explicitly indicate the key-role of the woman, „suitable help for man” in the creation narrative.
More...
The debates concerning the problem of termination of pregnancy are currently concentrated upon the question of its decency, namely, on its ethical aspect and on the issue of the acceptance by positive law, that is on legislative aspect. The adversaries of termination of pregnancy refer to arguments which – as it seems – should meet with universal approval and by the same token should have influence on decisions and general morality. However, it appears to be quite self-evident that these arguments are still not known enough or they are simply rejected. For the understanding of this, rather paradoxical, situation it is necessary to analyse the historical and cultural origins of abortionism which affects considerably the point of view of the proponents of termination of pregnancy and which today has massive influence on the public perception of the problem and on its oversimplified ethical assessment. Therefore, only the profound understanding of the on-going events, all the more their reasons will make it possible to take more adequate steps towards the defence of life from its beginning, which manifests itself as the fundamental requirement of the defence of a civilisation of love as opposed to the obtrusive and ostentatious culture of death.
More...
Pope John Paul II in the Motu Proprio Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela on 30 April 2001 promulgated the norms concerning the gravest crimes reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Such an intervention of the Church, as the Pope explained, was required by the necessity to protect the sanctity of the sacraments, especially those of the Most Holy Sacrament and Sacrifice of the Eucharist and Sacrament of Penance, as well as the need to keep the purity of morality in regard to the sixth commandment of the Decalogue. The Church, driven by pastoral concern and keeping in mind the ultimate goal of any Church law, which should be salus animarum, intervenes to prevent any violation in such serious and delicate matter as the sacraments. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued on 18 May 2001 a letter to the Ordinaries and Hierarchs of the Roman Catholic Church describing the new crimes reserved to the Congregation and the procedural norms to be followed in these cases. Nine years after the promulgation of De gravioribus delictis norms, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith modified them, integrating and updating them in order to simplify the procedures, so that they could become more effective in solving contemporary problems. The modified norms concerning the crimes reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith were presented to Pope Benedict XVI who approved of them on 21 May 2010 and ordered to promulgate them. De delictis reservatis norms of 2010 consist of two parts: the first one, Normae substantiales, from article 1 to 7, and the second one including articles 8-31. The first part describes the competence of the Congregation, the crimes belonging to the delicta reservata category, and the norms concerning the prescription of actio criminalis in case of delicta reservata. The latter part defines the procedures in case of delicta reservata for which the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is the Supreme Apostolic Tribunal.This article analyses only those of the crimes reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which refer to the sacraments of the Penance and the Priestly Ordinations. It should be stated that both existing and new norms concerning delicta reservata show great concern of the Church for the protection of the sacraments. On the other hand, which seems alarming, the necessity to update the norms protecting the sacraments indicates their relatively frequent violation. For instance, the introduction of an attempt to ordain a woman to the category of delicta reservata was the consequence of the need to protect the nature and significance of priestly ordinations in the times of questioning the Church’s teaching in that matter. In the context of possible violations of dignified and valid administration of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, penance and priestly ordinations, the knowledge and right interpretation of the Church norms promulgated to protect these sacraments seem vital.
More...