The Irish catholic clergy and emigration during the great famine

1947 ◽  
Vol 5 (20) ◽  
pp. 287-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver MacDonagh

The catholic church in Ireland never, as a church, defined for itself an attitude towards emigration. Priests and bishops, when they spoke of emigration, usually spoke as individuals, not as members of their order. The relatively small number who have left any opinions on record were not necessarily the most influential. We cannot be certain that their views represented the feelings of the clergy as a whole. The day to day conversations and advice of ordinary priests, of which we can know little, mere far more influential in this matter than the pastorals or public letters which survive. In the place of a single voice speaking with authority or the steady murmur of unanimity, we can hear only the heterogeneous confusion of a score of voices, some perhaps seriously distorted by the public controversy in which they were raised.

Politeja ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 14 (1(46)) ◽  
pp. 141-166
Author(s):  
Janusz Mariański

The Catholic Church in Poland in the area of public life: A sociological analysis For the last few years, a slow process of a specific “cooling down” of religious and Church commitment has been taking place in Poland. In this article we assume that religiosity with institutional protection still plays an important role in the Church landscape of Polish society and the sphere of public life. In Poland, a positive attitude vis‑à‑vis the Catholic Church is an important determinant of one’s religiosity. Individuals who do not have confidence in the Church, and who evaluate it negatively as an institution, tend to participate less in religious practices, and their faith seems to be weakening. Religiosity and commitment to the Catholic Church in Poland are very closely related to each other. There are no major discrepancies in the opinion as to the extent of the secularization of society among Polish sociologists, but there are differences in the assessment and understanding in terms of the social role of the Church. Discussions on the position and role of the Catholic Church in society still go on, and we are far from a conclusive diagnosis, especially regarding our understanding and acceptance of a “model Church” that should function in a democratic and pluralistic society. The final answers remain in the realm of hypotheses and assumptions. The majority of Poles are convinced about the Church’s influence in various spheres of public life, including the political sphere. This view is predominant among almost two thirds of adult Poles, but also among the youth (even to a somewhat greater extent). This means that the Church is perceived by part of Polish society as a quasi‑political institution, or at least one that attempts to fulfill political functions. This view, which is quite popular among Poles, has been maintained at a relatively stable level since 1989. Among those who believe that the Church takes up too much space in the public life of Poland are found those people in whom every reference to public matters results in a rejection reaction, as well as among those who take on a moderate attitude, who consider that it would be better if the Church were less involved in matters of public life, particularly political. Most Poles accepts the principle of separation of Church and state, even though close to half of those surveyed have nothing against authorities who follow the Catholic social teaching. The views of many Poles on the place and role of the Church in the public life of the nation are to a certain extent ambivalent, and even inconsistent and incoherent. A major subject of public controversy is the presence of religious symbols in public life space, although most of Polish society speaks about such symbols with approval.


2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 396-408
Author(s):  
Daniel Ude Asue

This essay discusses Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Bill in Nigeria, with a focus on the contribution of the Nigerian Catholic Church to the law. Though the Catholic Church in Nigeria did not actively contribute towards the public debates about homosexuality that resulted into the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Bill it nevertheless welcomed the bill. However, the official teachings of the Catholic Church and elucidations from the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria could potentially contribute to creating an inclusive society. In what way can we potentially utilize the principles of Catholic Social Teaching to make room for an inclusion of homosexual persons in the life of the church and in society?


Author(s):  
Karolina Dłuska

The author of the article tries to indicate the relationship between the perceived presence of the Catholic Church in public life and the election preferences of Poles. The subject of the research here is the parliamentary elections in Poland in 2011 in the context of the perception by the electorate of the individual parties of the public presence of the Catholic Church in the selected aspects. Among them, the author points to: the issue of crosses and other religious symbols in public space, including the issue of a cross in the Sejm meeting room. She also recalls such matters as: religion lessons in schools, the religious nature of the military oath, priests appearing on public television, the Church taking a stand on laws passed by the Sejm and priests telling people how to vote in elections. The presented analysis is based on the results of the Polish General Election Study 2011.


2011 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 195-212
Author(s):  
Piotr Sroka

An account given by Rev. Andrzej Dziełak is one of over a dozen such narratives written down for a scientific conference “Cardinal Kominek – a forerunner of the Polish-German reconciliation” which was organized by The Memory and Future Institute (Wrocław, 4th December 2008). These conference documents give us insight into circumstances and consequences of the Polish bishops addressing the German bishops. In some parts, these documents are focused in the narrative of Rev. Andrzej Dziełak, who in 1965 was a clerical student in the Higher Seminary in Wrocław. For contemporary clerics Cardinal Kominek was an indisputable authority, both moral and intellectual. Every Saturday during a seminary meeting he would share with them his observations on the situation of the Catholic Church in those days in Poland and abroad, and on complex relations with the communist state. Still, the Pastoral Letter of the Polish bishops to the German bishops turned out to be a huge surprise to the Catholic clergy of Wrocław, especially since at the beginning they did not have the text of the document at their disposal. Rev. Dziełak admits that at the beginning the message conveyed in the Letter was received with reluctance by a great part of the congregation. This was due to the recent war and a successful propaganda of the communist government. However, right from the beginning, clerics had no doubts as to the identity of the author of the groundbreaking document – they knew that it was prepared by a bishop of Wrocław who was the most knowledgeable person in the Episcopate regarding German issues.


2018 ◽  
Vol 98 (4) ◽  
pp. 635-667
Author(s):  
Matthew Butler ◽  
Kevin D. Powell

Abstract This article studies an ecclesiastical census, the Relación de sacerdotes, that was compiled by the Secretariat of the Interior during Mexico's Cristero War in 1929. We propose that this statistical device ultimately helped the Catholic Church and the Portes Gil government to plot a way out of the religious crisis. It did so by providing a mutually acceptable means for priests to register with the postrevolutionary state and by providing a discursive mechanism for the Catholic clergy to present itself to the regime as a national, less Rome-oriented body. The Relación can therefore give historians insights into the contingent and bureaucratic ways that revolutionary and ecclesiastical elites renegotiated the contours of Mexico's secular order. The second half of the article contains an analysis of the Relación. There we argue that the Relación offers a kind of prosopographical and political snapshot of the Mexican clergy during the Cristero Rebellion.


2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nelly Mwale

This article revisits Zambian church history in order to show the interconnectedness of the mission of the Catholic Church through education and individual narratives of the clergy in the public sphere. This is done through the example of James Spaita. Informed by an interpretative phenomenological study that drew on interviews and content analysis, and in conversation with the Catholic Social Teachings (CST), the article advances that the contributions of James Spaita to church history were largely through education, advocacy and social justice—as shaped by his positionality as an indigenous priest, educator and church leader, and therefore a product of the Catholic Church’s context. Spaita’s narrative also signifies the growing public role and the mission of the Catholic Church in post-independence Zambia, as underpinned by social teachings of the Catholic Church. While discourses of Catholic Church history in Zambia were preoccupied with historicising missionary work and Catholic education (as part of the mission of the church) at the structural level, the article argues that the mission of the Catholic Church through education was also largely shaped by trajectories of the clergy in postcolonial and modern times.  


1997 ◽  
Vol 30 (119) ◽  
pp. 429-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael McGrath

The Ministry of Education was, and remains, the most important government department for the Catholic church in Northern Ireland. As Cormack, Gallagher and Osborne note, The Department of Education in Northern Ireland occupies a distinctive place in terms of the general relationships between the government and the Catholic community. Throughout the period since the creation of Northern Ireland, the most significant social institution over which the Catholic community has exercised control, principally through the Catholic church, has been the Catholic education system.The devolved government appeared to recognise Catholic educational interests by usually appointing as Minister of Education one of the more liberal figures within the Ulster Unionist Party such as Lord Londonderry, Lord Charlemont and Samuel Hall-Thompson. However, in the first week of 1950 Sir Basil Brooke ‘surprised everyone, and appalled Catholics’ by appointing Harry Midgley, an avowed opponent of the Catholic clergy and autonomous Catholic schools, as Northern Ireland’s sixth Minister of Education.


2021 ◽  
pp. 142-161
Author(s):  
Tom O’Donoghue ◽  
Judith Harford

For the period 1922–1967 the Catholic Church opposed any notion of joint responsibility between laity and clergy for primary and secondary schooling. It did so in order to be able to pursue unhindered its major interest in schooling, which was ‘the salvation of souls’ and the production of priests, brothers, nuns, and a loyal middle class. Further, the State cooperated with the Church because in doing so it was able to pursue its own aim of producing a literate and numerate citizenry, pursuing nation building, and preparing an adequate number of secondary school graduates to address the requirements of the public service and the professions without having to provide schools. The Church legitimated the involvement of the teaching religious in associated practices with parents, school inspectors, and lay teachers. Relatedly, it worked to try to ensure that the voices of educationists who were not religious received little hearing in relation to education policy-making. A small number of secondary schools run largely by lay Catholics were able to operate. The individuals in question, in establishing these schools, quietly contested the hegemony of the Catholic clergy and religious in the provision of education, and indicated what might be possible in the future.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-84
Author(s):  
Michael W. Homer

In 1852 King Victor Emmanuel’s ministers proposed legislation to recognize civil marriages in the Kingdom of Sardinia (Piedmont). This proposal was opposed by Pope Pius IX and other Catholic apologists who argued that it would result in undermining the official status of the Catholic Church and one of the church’s sacraments. Even worse it would mean that Jewish and Protestant marriages would be recognized. This legislation coincided with Mormon missionaries proselytizing in Torino and the public announcement that the church practiced polygamy. Catholic opponents of this legislation argued that even Mormon polygamous marriages would be recognized if the legislation passed. During fierce debates that took place Catholic apologists also claimed that Mormons formed alliances with other Protestant “sects” to push through the civil marriage litigation. The specter of Mormon plural marriages in a civil marriage system continued to be mentioned until civil marriages were finally recognized in 1865.


2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 561-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Ridgedell

The Archpriest Controversy, a dispute that took place from 1598 to 1602 over the necessity for an archpriest to enforce moral discipline among the English Catholic clergy, has been traditionally seen either as a struggle for hierarchical order within the Catholic Church or a serious ideological breach between the Jesuit faction and the Appellants. In contrast to recent historiography, this paper argues that the Appellants, secular clergy that opposed the archpriest, represented views of conservative English Catholics who believed they could reconcile their political loyalty to their monarch with their Catholicism. The Archpriest Controversy should be reconsidered as a critical moment in a chain of important events from the English Mission of 1580–81 to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 that reaffirmed the inherently traditionalist nature of the Catholic community in England.


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