Catholic Theology

CHURCH NEWS: NEW UNITY MOVEMENT STEPS PROPOSED

by Daniel Keeran MSW

by Daniel Keeran, MSW (distrbute freely without charge)

Against the unity prayer of Jesus in the gospel of John chapter 17, divisions within Christianity have been common... more Against the unity prayer of Jesus in the gospel of John chapter 17, divisions within Christianity have been common from the beginning. New steps for unity are outlined that provide grass-roots opportunities in local churches and communities.

Fundamental to the new unity movement are principles and a change in paradigm that give a fresh approach to the ancient problem of divisions among people who identify themselves as followers of Jesus.

Preying on Victims: Radical Christianity and Exploitation of Tragedy in the Name of God By Michele Stopera Freyhauf

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project

It is our moral responsibility, whether we identify as Christians or not, to pray for not prey on the victims of... more It is our moral responsibility, whether we identify as Christians or not, to pray for not prey on the victims of tragedies.

Over the last month, dare I say years, society has witnessed or been subjected to an all out war from radical Christians across America deploying the wrath of God and reveling in the tragedy of others to perpetuate their apocalyptic message of rhetoric and terror.  As I hear the news over the last few months, an old Billy Joel song starts to play in my head “We didn’t start the fire.”  Whether we started the fire or not, we should not feed the flames of hatred but figure out a way to extinguish it.

Here is a brief synopsis of current events that reflect this hatred and radicalism perpetuated in the name of God – examples of Christianity terrorizing or preying on victims through their actions.

The Westboro Southern Baptist Church: Preying on Victims at Funerals and Thanking God for their Tragic Deaths

Catholicism, Contraception, and Conscience: Church Imposed Teaching, God’s Gift of Free Will, and Political Rhetoric by Michele Stopera Freyhauf

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project

ertainly one cannot turn on the news without seeing a story about the feud over the Catholic Church’s stance on... more ertainly one cannot turn on the news without seeing a story about the feud over the Catholic Church’s stance on forbidding the use of contraception and Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that mandates free contraception to women.  In preparing this article, I took the time to review many articles from liberal and conservative news outlets, law professors who are experts on constitutional law, and statements from the USCCB and Bishops.  Before asking questions, I want to outline the following points:

    *In the literature reviewed, only two women, Sr. Carol Keehan and Sr. Mary Ann Walsh, made a statement against this policy stating that the government is interfering with the working of the Church.  Most voices heard and shouting the loudest are members of the clergy.

    *Hospitals considered “Catholic” hire people of all faiths and various beliefs.  They also treat patients of all faiths.  They are not exclusively “Catholic.”

    *Catholic identified Colleges hire professors and staff that are not Catholic.  Moreover, their student body is not totally Catholic.

    *Catholic Charities, once again, hire non-Catholics.

  * Insurance plans currently in place often offer contraception prescriptions at a zero to low co-pay price.  These plans are in-force at many Catholic Institutions.

    *Under HIPAA, healthcare of employees are protected and the Employer, even the Catholic Church cannot violate the privacy of the patient, even if it is an employee.

    *Birth Control Pills are often prescribed for women with endometriosis or other “female” reproductive disorders and not birth control.

    Women pregnant, carrying a dead baby, cannot have surgery due to risks are given medication to induce abortion are given

Turning Points in Identity and Theology: Bisexual Women Choosing Between Monogamous and Polyamorous Relationships

by Margaret Robinson

This study contributes to the development of nascent bisexual theology by examining bisexual women’s lives in relation... more This study contributes to the development of nascent bisexual theology by examining bisexual women’s lives in relation to the stereotype that bisexuals desire concurrent male and female partners.  Building on qualitative email interviews with forty bisexual women in the Greater Toronto Area, this thesis finds that monogamy and polyamory function as strategic identities.  If bisexual theology is to speak authentically to the needs of bisexual women, it must provide a critical analysis of these identities, understand and respond to their role in shaping communities, moral agency and theological knowledge.

Chapter One sets the conflation of bisexuality with polyamory in its political and theological context.  Four characteristics of Catholic sexual ethics—their foundational, sacramental, social, and moral character—frame this investigation about bisexual women as subjects of theological enterprise.  The conflation of bisexuality and polyamory is posed as the key challenge for both secular politics and articulating a bisexual theological perspective.  Chapter Two provides a methodological overview of the qualitative research project using voice centred relational analysis (VCRA) as an appropriate tool to conduct and analyse the interviews in their social context.  Chapter Three summarises the results of the VCRA analysis and highlights key themes from the interviews.  Chapter Four relates the results of the primary research to the theological writing of Robert Goss and Marcella Althaus-Reid by examining five common elements in their work to assess how their work meets the challenges raised by the interview analysis.  The final chapter relates these common elements in the work of Goss and Althaus-Reid to the four characteristics of Catholic sexual ethics outlined in Chapter One to emphasize the importance of building bisexual women’s communities and how this relates to the development of bisexual theology.  The thesis concludes with concrete recommendations for bisexual women’s community building and offers directions for further bisexual theological work. 

De Maria Numquam Satis: On the Fittingness of the Marian Titles “Mediatrix of all Graces” and “Co-Redemptrix”

by Thomas Sundaram

Does the Priest Have to Be There? Contested Marriages Before Roman Tribunals. Italy, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries. In: Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften, 3, 2009, 10-30.

by Cecilia Cristellon

The Council of Trent established the requirements that a marriage be celebrated by the parish priest and two or more... more The Council of Trent established the requirements that a marriage be celebrated by the parish priest and two or more witnesses be present at the marriage (1563), but neglected to specify who the parish priest was. The decrees provoked confusion among both laymen and churchmen. Traces thereof can be found in the hitherto essentially unexplored documentation of The Congregation of the Council. This institution was founded in 1564 specifically to resolve the questions that arose all over the catholic world by the application of the decrees promulgated at Trent. The related records are held in the Vatican Secret Archive. Through an examination of this documentation, complemented by files of the Holy Office the author analyzes how the new rules were understood, experienced, used, circumvented, and manipulated both by laymen and churchmen in order to end an unwanted marriage, to facilitate a union that was socially transgressive, opposed by family, or even heterodox, and to respond to pastoral concerns.

The Meaning and Means of a Catholic Intellectual Culture

by Paul Sullins

Jesus+Golgotha+Medici Alter+Mary Queen of Scots..

by Frank Dougan

My visit to the Holy Sepulchre Basilica, Jerusalem, Israel; February 2012

Jesus+Golgotha+Medici Alter+Mary Queen of Scots..

All pictures presented and directed by; Frank... more Jesus+Golgotha+Medici Alter+Mary Queen of Scots..

All pictures presented and directed by; Frank Dougan...


Jerusalem

He sat on a donkey on palm strewn paths

Cries of delight arose from the mouths

The First born Son of God Christ Jesus.

To the temple he was led

There the money changers the people were bled

He cast them out of the House of His Father

The Sanhedrin were in a rage

Who is this Man to whom multitudes did gather?

He taught a new ideology of the age.

Secret plans they did form to bring Him down

To rob Him of His holy crown

Pilate and the Roman lords were sought

A price of 30 silver coins His friend was bought

At the Garden of Gethsemane from a kiss He was put in chains

Plans to kill Him for their ill-gotten gains

Pilate washed his hands of the affair he could find no crime

The high priest Caiaphas mind was distorted with grime

On His 6th day in Jerusalem they hung Him on a cross

He called to heaven that none of His sheep were lost

His promise to Peter He would return

The start of a new beginning had begun

Jesus is the Messiah the Chosen One.

He cried out loud before He went away

“Eli, Eli, Lama sabachthani”?

His dead corps was taken down and in a crypt buried

On the 3rd day from His death His word delivered

The Son of Man rose from the dead at the hand of Rome

In Jerusalem the spark of light was born Jesus was in His holy home.

By Frank J Dougan


Inside the Basilica of The Holy Sepulchre....is Golgotha (Calvery) where Jesus Christ was executed.....

The Holy Sepulchre Basilica also contains the tomb where Jesus lay...and rose from the dead!

At the foot of where The Cross stood stands the Medici Alter...

Mary Queen of Scots name is inside the Medici Alter!

The Medici Alter was commissioned a few months after Mary was martyrd!

The Alter is on the exact spot where Jesus lay after He was taken down from the cross and Held in His Mother Mary's arms!

Catherine de Medici was the mother Francis II of France....Mary was married to him!

The 11th Station - the Latin (Catholic) chapel.

The chapel's striking altar marks the 11th Station, the site at which Jesus was nailed to the Cross. A fine example of Renaissance art, the altar was made in Florence in 1588 and given to the church by Cardinal Medici a few decades later.

Look for the Medici name. Six panels of hammered silver (four in font and one on each side) depict scenes from the Passion.

— in Jerusalem, Israel.

Do Man-Made Laws Trump the Authority of Jesus? Reflecting on the Meaning of Humility, Priestly Service, and the Issue of Women’s Ordination by Michele Stopera Freyhauf

by Michele Stopera Freyhauf

Originially published on the Feminism and Religion Project

Maundy Thursday – the imitation of Jesus’ act of service and submission is re-created.  Controversy surrounds the... more Maundy Thursday – the imitation of Jesus’ act of service and submission is re-created.  Controversy surrounds the “disciples” – must they be all men?  Are women allowed?  Who steps into Jesus’ role?  Men, women, or both?  Why, when it comes to imitating the act of  humility and priestly service (rooted in our baptismal call), does a distinction of gender need to made at all?

As I progressed towards the intersection, I looked up to witness a grand procession of men dressed in white albs with stoles that often contained subtle hints of gold, worn in a manner to distinguish their role as priests and deacons.  They moved slowly down the sidewalk entering the Cathedral to begin their celebration of the Chrism Mass – a celebration of priesthood and priestly service within the Diocese where all priests and deacons gather to celebrate and re-affirm their commitment to ministry and service to the Church.  It is also during this Mass that the oils used in sacramental celebrations, used by each church, are blessed by the Bishop.

¿Por qué Dios no me llama? Reflexiones sobre la figura de Dios en Parsifal y en Moses und Aron.

by Antonio De Diego

published in Asensio, M.A., A. Aya. y J.J. Padial, (eds), «Pensamiento y religión en las Tres Culturas», Sevilla: Thémata, 2012. pp. 129-149 ISBN: 978-84-936406-5-1

Este capítulo explora el tema del "silencio de Dios" en dos obras escénicas básicas de la modernidad:... more Este capítulo explora el tema del "silencio de Dios" en dos obras escénicas básicas de la modernidad: "Parsifal" de Richard Wagner y "Moses und Aron" de Arnold Schönberg.

Objects of Intention: A Hylomorphic Critique of the 'New Natural Law Theory'

by Matthew O'Brien

Co-authored with Robert C. Koons, forthcoming in the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly (Fall 2012) Vol. 86, Issue 4.

The “New Natural Law” Theory (NNL) of Germain Grisez, John Finnis, Joseph Boyle, and their collaborators offers a... more The “New Natural Law” Theory (NNL) of Germain Grisez, John Finnis, Joseph Boyle, and their collaborators offers a distinctive account of intentional action, which underlies a moral theory that aims to justify many aspects of traditional morality and Catholic doctrine.

In fact, we show that the NNL is committed to premises that entail the permissibility of many actions that are irreconcilable with traditional morality and Catholic doctrine, such as elective abortions. These consequences follow principally from two aspects of the NNL. The first aspect is its distinctive version of the planning theory of intention, in which adopting the 'first-person perspective' of an agent is a sufficient, and not merely necessary, condition for determining the nature of his intentional action; this planning theory rests upon an implicitly Cartesian conception of human behavior, in which behavior chosen by an agent has no intrinsic “intentionalness” apart from what he confers upon it as part of his plan. The second aspect is the NNL's distinctive account of basic human goods' incommensurability, according to which there is no common factor shared by basic human goods that allows them to be comparatively ranked in any way that directs practical deliberation.

The entailments of these two aspects of the NNL, we argue, amount to a reductio ad absurdum. Pace the proponents of the NNL account, we sketch an alternative hylomorphic conception of intentional action that avoids untoward moral implications by grounding human agency in the exercise of basic powers that are either (a) essential constituents of human nature or (b) acquired through participation in social practices. This conception of intentional action provides a stronger foundation for natural law theory.

What Is The Open Church Model?

by Daniel Keeran MSW

by Daniel Keeran, MSW

Church Unity is best achieved through a model of community that facilitates understanding rather than agreement. Church Unity is best achieved through a model of community that facilitates understanding rather than agreement.

The Icon of the Divine Heart of God the Father: Apologia & Canon - Part 3 (Presentation)

by Marcelle Bartolo-Abela

Part 3 continues addressing the revelation of the Divine Paternal Heart of God the Father, in the Roman Catholic Church. Part 3 continues addressing the revelation of the Divine Paternal Heart of God the Father, in the Roman Catholic Church.

Constructing the run away nuns

by Brian Regal

The Icon of the Divine Heart of God the Father: Apologia & Canon - Part 2 (Presentation)

by Marcelle Bartolo-Abela

Part 2 presents the first revealed icon of God the Father in the Roman Catholic Church, its origin and reason for it,... more Part 2 presents the first revealed icon of God the Father in the Roman Catholic Church, its origin and reason for it, while introducing the Divine Paternal Heart.

The Icon of the Divine Heart of God the Father: Apologia & Canon - Part 1 (Presentation)

by Marcelle Bartolo-Abela

Part 1 gives the aims of the icon, background, history of God the Father in iconography, with particular reference to... more Part 1 gives the aims of the icon, background, history of God the Father in iconography, with particular reference to Church Council decrees (RCC/OC), and critical review.

Of Christianity, Infertility and Ethics in Nigeria

by Bimbo Amole

Published in the  Encounter Journal, 2011

The deep anguish which couples seeking  children experience is readily understandable since one of the aims of... more The deep anguish which couples seeking  children experience is readily understandable since one of the aims of marriage is to have fruits of such a union in the form of children, visible replication of the love that exist between the couple. Children are special mirrors in which parents find themselves reflected. Children are like stabilizing rudders on days when the ship of a marriage passes rough waters; they could be sources of fresh wine when the Christian marriage begins to feel the aridity of monotony or similar stress. For they are gifts of the productive Father who himself gave the solemn injunction in the priestly account of creation, “…Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it" ; children are “a confirmation and completion” of the reciprocal self-giving of a couple.  What becomes therefore of those couples who cannot have theirs due to infertility? And how do they cope with the attendant challenges of this lack?
The aim of this paper is to examine the concept of infertility particularly as it affects the Nigerian Christian couple, the several solutions often proffered as way-out of infertility, and particularly, the ethical challenges connected with a number of these proffered solutions.

Anatomy of a Cargo Cult: Virginity, Relic Envy, and Hallowed Boxes

by Ryan Byrne

Resurrecting the Brother of Jesus, eds. Ryan Byrne and Bernadette McNary-Zak (University of North Carolina Press, 2009) pp. 137-186

The Relational Theory of the Holy Trinity

by Marat Dakunin

noted circa 1996, first published on author's blog in 2008

Holy Trinity, theory of Holy Trinity, christianity, dogma, theology, literature, poetry, para-science, God the Father,... more Holy Trinity, theory of Holy Trinity, christianity, dogma, theology, literature, poetry, para-science, God the Father, Christ, Son of God, the Holy Spirit, perfect love, love, relation, ego

Tolkien and Thomas: Examining the Relationship between St Thomas Aquinas and J.R.R. Tolkien

by Amber Lee Baker

basic abstract/thesis proposal