‘Wandering Nuns’: The Return of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the South of England, 1862–1945

1999 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 384-396
Author(s):  
M. Gregory Kirkus
Keyword(s):  
Young Woman ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
The South ◽  
Blessed Virgin Mary ◽  
The World ◽  
The Catholic Church

‘Woods, M. Joseph died ye 20 April 1822, the last of ye Ladies of ye Establishment’So ends the register of the convent founded in Hammersmith in 1669, and with the death of Sister Joseph the Institute of Mary became extinct in the south of England. But in distant Belfast the story of its revival was already taking shape. On 1st April 1812 a little girl, Mary Petronilla, was born there to a Protestant Doctor Barratt and his wife. We know nothing of her childhood, but it is thought that as a young woman she taught singing in a Loreto convent. About the year 1835 she was received into the Catholic Church, and so embarked upon a career that was to have far-reaching effects. The presence of a Roman Catholic daughter may have been embarrassing to the doctor’s household, or perhaps it was just the desire to learn German and to see the world that prompted Mary Barratt to follow the advice of the Loreto Sisters and to accept a teaching post advertised in Augsburg. There she not only learned German in return for giving English lessons, but she observed religious life as lived in the oldest house of the Institute. Strict as the régime was (the nuns rose at 4.30 am. all the year round) she fell in love with it and asked to be received into the novitiate. On 10th September 1844 she was clothed in the habit and given the name Sister Petronilla, though this was later changed to Sister Ignatius.

scholarly journals Newman, Catholicity, and the Church Today: On the Development of Christian Principles through Dialogue with the World

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 507
Author(s):  
Christopher Cimorelli
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Religion And Science ◽  
Potential Development ◽  
The World ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

This article explores the following question: Given the Roman Catholic Church’s present-day teaching on catholicity, how can St. John Henry Newman’s historically conscious, imaginative view of catholicity assist Catholic Christians today in understanding the concept faithfully, but in a manner ‘open’ to its potential development in an age of shifting metaphysics? After (1) an introduction to the topic and challenges to the notion of catholicity today, this article then (2) analyzes the present-day view of catholicity as a mark of the church according to the ‘Catechism of the Catholic Church’, noting areas of development as well as limitations. The article then (3) investigates Newman’s understanding of catholicity within his sacramental and imaginative worldview. Newman’s understanding of the development of principles and doctrines is particularly relevant for a consideration today of how the church’s view of catholicity might authentically develop from a dialogue between religion and science. The article then (4) synthesizes results in a concluding section that indicates how the fruits of the preceding analysis could be realized through eco-theological dialogue.

Mary Ward

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Mondelli
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Boarding School ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
Day School ◽  
Classical Education ◽  
Blessed Virgin Mary ◽  
Modern France ◽  
Education Of Women ◽  
Jesuit College ◽  
The Catholic Church

Mary Ward (b. 1585–d. 1645), founder of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary [IBVM], one of the first institutions created for the advanced education of women, was born to a family of recusant Catholics of gentry standing in Yorkshire, England, in 1585, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Endowed with an excellent education, Ward determined to advance the Catholic cause by developing schools on the Jesuit model that would make a classical education available to women—an ambition that could not be successfully pursued in Protestant England. In 1609, Ward gathered a group of young Catholic Englishwomen who accompanied her to Saint-Omer (modern France) where, in the vicinity of the Jesuit college already existing there, she founded the first house of her institute, complete with a boarding school for English girls and a day-school for local girls. This first foundation she expanded into a European network of schools headed by lay female teachers—the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The first foundations of the Institute were at Saint-Omer (modern France), Liège (Belgium), Cologne and Trier (Rhineland/Germany), Rome, Naples, and Perugia (Italy), Munich (Bavaria/Germany), Vienna (Austria), and Pressburg (Bratislava /Slovakia); eventually some three hundred were constituted, with some schools enrolling as many as five hundred students. Initially, Ward’s institute was encouraged by highly placed officials within the Catholic Church. From the 1620s, however, the institute aroused the suspicions and perhaps the jealousy of other prelates, whose hostility led to its formal suppression, in 1631, by Pope Urban VIII. The institute was denounced for its proposed Jesuit-like hierarchy, its mission to proselytize among heretics and the infidel, and its desire to be both a female religious order and remain unenclosed after the Council of Trent had demanded the full enclosure of women in religious orders. That decision was soon rescinded, and the institute and its offshoots were reaffirmed and its global extension encouraged. But the association of Ward herself with the IBVM was disallowed: in 1749, Pope Benedict XIV issued the decree Quamvis iusto, which prohibited the institute from acknowledging Mary Ward as its founder; in 1909, that ban was lifted. A century later, in 2009, Mary Ward was recognized as venerable by the Catholic Church on account of her “heroic virtue.” The cause for her canonization began in 1929 and remains active. This entry considers works about Ward’s life and mission and places her in the context of contemporary women’s reform movements, English recusancy, and the development of schooling for girls.

Justification: Barth, trent, and küng

1981 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 517-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. E. McGrath
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Small Contribution ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Major Step ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
The Catholic Church

The first assembly of the World Council of Churches recognised that the aspect of the Roman Catholic-Protestant division which constituted ‘our deepest difference’ was the question of justification. The appearance in 1957 of a work by a then unknown Roman Catholic scholar, claiming that ‘it is undeniable that there is a fundamental agreement between Karl Barth's position and that of the Catholic Church seen in its totality' was therefore the occasion as much for surprise as for pleasure. ‘How one would like to believe it!’ remarked Barth. Küng's study marks a major step toward ecumenical discussion on the issue of justification; however, that discussion must be continued. The present study is a small contribution toward that discussion.

scholarly journals Dr. Schaff and the Roman Catholic Church

1894 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 26-28
Author(s):  
Thomas Joseph Shahan
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
Primary Qualities ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Catholic Church

More eloquent tongues than mine have already paid due tribute to the memory of the venerable scholar, whose great learning and manly virtues we can all unite in praising, without regard to religious or scientific differences, however profound and essential they may be. I will not dwell upon the historical training, the grasp of scientific method, and the ripe scholarship which were distinctive of Dr. Schaff, nor upon his sincere sympathy for the spiritual and religious element in the history of human thought, nor upon the uprightness of his historical conscience, and his desire to be objective and candid in the statement of views which were not his own,—these are the primary qualities which we demand of a Church historian, and especially of one who assumes the delicate and responsible office of an historian of theology. You have requested me to speak of the deceased in his relations with the Catholic Church, and I propose to confine myself to a brief enumeration of the motives why that Church respects such men as Dr. Schaff. He devoted his life in a great measure to the history, the theology, and the original texts and sources of the earliest Christian ages, those distant but all important years when the foundations of the Catholic Church were being sunk, and the great beams were being laid on which she has since arisen. He endeavored to bring back the minds of men to a consideration of those primitive days when there was but one spirit and one heart in the Christian body, when belief and discipline, religious life and organization, were substantially of the same type in all the Christian communities.

scholarly journals Mary Ward's English Institute: The Apostolate As Self-Affirmation?

2006 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Lux-Sterritt
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
New Era ◽  
Blessed Virgin Mary ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
The World ◽  
Catholic Mission ◽  
The Church

Mary Ward (1585–1645) is known as the foundress of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, an Order of women which continues to educate thousands of girls around the world. During the first decades of the seventeenth century, her foundation was a religious venture which aimed to transform the Catholic mission of recovery into one that catered for women as well as men. It maintained clandestine satellites on English soil and opened colleges on the Continent, in towns such as St Omer (1611), Liège (1616), Cologne and Trier (1620–1), Rome (1622), Naples and Perugia (1623), Munich and Vienna (1627) and Pressburg and Prague (1628). There, it trained its own members and undertook the education of externs and boarders. The Institute's vocation was not only to maintain the faith where it was already present but also to propagate it; as such, it went far beyond the accepted sphere of the feminine apostolate and its members were often labelled as rebels who strove to shake off the shackles of post-Tridentine religious life. To some modern historians, Mary Ward was an ‘unattached, roving, adventurous feminist’; to others, she was a foundress whose initiative deliberately set out to lay tradition to rest and begin a new era for the women in the Church.

scholarly journals Greek Catholic and Orthodox shrines in the Polish People’s Republic as examples of destroying and saving the cultural heritage of the frontier

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 85-97
Author(s):  
Roman Drozd
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
The South ◽  
Museum Objects

The shrine constituting the centre of spirituality was inseparable from the religious life of the Ukrainian people. The deportations of Ukrainians from the south-east of Poland in 1944–1947 exposed their churches to intentional and unintentional devastation. The communist authorities aimed to erase the traces of Ukrainian people in that area therefore they were not interested in preserving the abandoned Greek Catholic shrines. What is more, they even encouraged their demolition. One way to save them was allowing them to be taken over by the Roman Catholic Church. However, it often involved a change to their interior décor. The best solution was allowing them to be taken over by the Orthodox Catholic Church, or transferring them to open-air museums as museum objects.

Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, Toronto, 11th July 1982

Moreana ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 41 (Number 157- (1-2) ◽  
pp. 58-71
Author(s):  
John McConica
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Historical Review ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
International Commission ◽  
Medieval Studies ◽  
John Paul Ii ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

During the period in which these papers were given, there were great achievements on the ecumenical scene, as the quest to restore the Church’s unity was pursued enthusiastically by all the major Christiandenominations. The Papal visit of John Paul II to England in 1982 witnessed a warmth in relationships between the Church of England and the Catholic Church that had not been experienced since the early 16th century Reformation in England to which More fell victim. The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission was achieving considerable doctrinal consensus and revisionist scholarship was encouraging an historical review by which the faithful Catholic and the confessing Protestant could look upon each other respectfully and appreciatively. It is to this ecumenical theme that James McConica turns in his contribution.

The Church as a Sacrament in a Time of Pandemic: The Philippine Experience

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-280
Author(s):  
Rhoderick John Suarez Abellanosa
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Social Instability ◽  
Presence Of God ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

The declaration of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in various provinces and cities in the Philippines did not impede the Catholic Church from celebrating its sacraments and popular devotions. Mired with poverty and various forms of economic and social limitations, the presence of God for Filipinos is an essential element in moving forward and surviving in a time of pandemic. Predominantly Roman Catholic in religious affiliation, seeking the face of God has been part of Filipinos' lives whenever a serious disaster would strike. This essay presents how the clergy, religious and lay communities in the Philippines have innovatively and creatively sustained treasured religious celebrations as a sign of communion and an expression of faith. In addition to online Eucharistic celebrations that are more of a privilege for some, culturally contextualised efforts were made during the Lenten Season and even on Sundays after Easter. This endeavour ends with a reflection on the Church as the sacrament of God in a time of pandemic. Pushed back to their homes, deprived of life's basic necessities and facing threats of social instability, unemployment and hunger, Filipinos through their innovative celebrations find in their communion with their Church the very presence of God acting significantly in their lives.

scholarly journals To Conscience First, and to the Pope (Long) Afterwards? British Catholics and Their Attitudes Towards Morality and Structural Issues Concerning the Catholic Church

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Clements ◽  
Stephen Bullivant
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Religious Commitment ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Religious Community ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Personal Morality ◽  
Sources Of Variation ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

Abstract Background The attitudes of Catholics in Britain have undergone significant liberalisation on social moral issues across recent decades, whilst the reputation of the Catholic Church has suffered due to public opposition to its traditional teachings on such issues. But there has been comparatively little recent investigation into British Catholics’ views on these debates using surveys aimed at this religious community. Purpose This article examines the sources of attitudinal heterogeneity amongst Catholics in Britain on core debates affecting the Catholic Church. The aims are to examine, firstly, which groups within the British Catholic Community are more likely to conform to or to dissent from the Church’s teachings and, secondly, whether the socio-demographic and religious correlates of attitudes vary across different types of issue. Methods This article uses a new, nationally representative survey of Catholic adults in Britain (n = 1823). The survey is used to examine the sources of variation in Catholics’ attitudes towards a range of issues relating to the Roman Catholic Church. These issues relate to the priesthood, personal morality, and sinful behaviours. OLS models are used to assesses the relative impact of socio-demographic, religious socialisation, and religious commitment variables. Results The findings show that women are consistently more liberal in their views than men. Greater religious commitment is always associated with support for the traditional teachings of the Church. Conclusions and Implications Exploring the sources of attitudinal heterogeneity among Catholics, we provide new insights into the internal dynamics of ‘Britain’s largest minority’. We conclude by discussing the potential effects of increasing ‘nonversion’ for interpreting religious statistics—a topic of relevance beyond the denominational and geographical confines of this study’s explicit focus.

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