Eugenics and Roman Catholicism An Encyclical Letter in Context: Casti connubii, December 31, 1930

1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 527-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Etienne Lepicard
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
Hegemonic Discourse ◽  
The Family ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual ◽  
First Time

The ArgumentLittle has been written about religion vis à vis eugenics and, even less on Roman Catholicism and eugenics. A 1930 papal encyclical, Casti connubii, is usually held by historians to have been the official condemnatory view of the Catholic Church on eugenics, and the document is further supposed to have induced the only organized opposition to eugenic legislative efforts in several countries (especially France). In fact, the encyclical was not directly about eugenics but a general statement of the Catholic doctrine on marriage.This article attempts to clarify the issue of a Catholic position on eugenics by re-examining the encyclical itself as well as its contemporaneous reception in Germany and France, where there was a strong Catholic presence. Casti connubii introduced a change in the prescribed hierarchy of the aims of marriage when, for the first time, relations between spouses took precedence over procreation. While condemning the means (abortion, sterilization, etc.), the encyclical did not condemn positive eugenics. In the broader context of the history of eugenics, the reception of the encyclical emphasizes the family as the third entity between the individual and society. Eugenics, as a “religious Utopia” of modernity, developed a hegemonic discourse over the family realm. As such it entered into competition with more traditional religious institutions such as the Roman Catholic Church.

scholarly journals The International Congresses and Conferences of the Last Century as Forces Working Toward the Solidarity of the World

1907 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 565-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simeon E. Baldwin
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Council Of Trent ◽  
Family Relation ◽  
Political Sovereignty ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
Uniform Law

The pre-Tridentine œcumenical councils of the Roman Catholic church were, as Dr. Francis Wharton has well remarked, international congresses, working toward the establishment of a uniform law for the civilized world. It was a law confined to one set of subjects; but among them were those having to do with the family relation, and which were therefore of the first importance to human society. Each nation of Christendom was represented in these gatherings by its sovereign or political delegates, as well as by its bishops, and it was for each nation, acting through its political departments, to ratify or reject such rules or laws in these respects as the council might propose.The representation of political sovereignty in the Council of Trent was slight, and in the only œcumenical council since called by Eome — that of the Vatican — it was wholly wanting; Bavaria being the only power (though all European cabinets were consulted) which intimated a willingness to send an official delegate.

scholarly journals Geology and religion in Portugal

2013 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 331-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Carneiro ◽  
Ana Simoes ◽  
Maria Paula Diogo ◽  
Teresa Salomé Mota
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Historical Periods

This paper addresses the relationship between geology and religion in Portugal by focusing on three case studies of naturalists who produced original research and lived in different historical periods, from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Whereas in non-peripheral European countries religious themes and even controversies between science and religion were dealt with by scientists and discussed in scientific communities, in Portugal the absence of a debate between science and religion within scientific and intellectual circles is particularly striking. From the historiographic point of view, in a country such as Portugal, where Roman Catholicism is part of the religious and cultural tradition, the influence of religion in all aspects of life has been either taken for granted by those less familiar with the national context or dismissed by local intellectuals, who do not see it as relevant to science. The situation is more complex than these dichotomies, rendering the study of this question particularly appealing from the historiographic point of view, geology being by its very nature a well-suited point from which to approach the theme. We argue that there is a long tradition of independence between science and religion, agnosticism and even atheism among local elites. Especially from the eighteenth century onwards, they are usually portrayed as enlightened minds who struggled against religious and political obscurantism. Religion—or, to be more precise, the Roman Catholic Church and its institutions—was usually identified with backwardness, whereas science was seen as the path to progress; consequently men of science usually dissociated their scientific production from religious belief.

Church and State in Spain

1934 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles S. Braden
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Western World ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
The World ◽  
The Cross

With no other country save possibly Italy has the Roman Catholic Church been more closely linked than with Spain. To think Spain was to think Roman Catholicism. Ferdinand and Isabella whom the world remembers best in relation to the discovery of the western world were known as the Catholic kings and their oft expressed motive in the conquest of the new continent was that of extending the holy faith. Mohammedanism with its resistless armies had made heavy inroads upon the Christian world; Luther and his fellow reformers in Germany, France, and Switzerland had wrought still further havoc, separating vast numbers of the faithful from their allegiance to Rome. To Spain and the Spanish monarchs was to belong the glory of restoring, by their zealous conversion of the western peoples, the power and prestige of Rome. In a few short years Spanish conquerors followed by Spanish priests and nuns had planted the cross from Mexico to the southern end of South America.

5. Forbidden reading

2019 ◽  
pp. 75-93
Author(s):  
Belinda Jack
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Intellectual Freedom ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Political Control ◽  
Political Regimes ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

Censorship, book burnings, and secret reading highlight the relationship between reading and power, and hence the relationship between limiting access to reading and political control. But from the very beginning there have been dissidents who refused to give up the intellectual freedom provided by their reading in the face of despotic regimes. ‘Forbidden reading’ considers the history of book burnings undertaken by repressive political regimes, religious authorities, and maverick leaders. It also discusses the Inquisitions and indexes of banned books first led by the Roman Catholic Church, but then later by other religions. Finally, it looks at different forms of censorship, including press censorship during times of war, censorship of ‘undesirable’ content, and self-censorship.

The ideational clinch of the Roman Catholic Church and the EU

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-197
Author(s):  
Petr Kratochvíl ◽  
Tomáš Doležal
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Eu

The article explores the so far largely ignored question of the political relations between the European Union and the Roman Catholic Church. It analyzes the deeper mutual ideational influences of the two entities, asking whether there has been a convergence of views about several basic political notions between the Church and the EU. The analysis centres on the Church’s approach to four fundamental notions related to the EU – (1) secularism, (2) the individual(ism), (3) free market, and (4) the state, stressing in particular the discursive strategies the Church employs to defend its own position. The conclusion focuses on the relation between the RCC’s “theopolitical” imagination and the EU’s political form and argues that the surprisingly strong support of the Church for the integration process is not only a result of the aggiornamento, but a peculiar example of the Church’s ongoing Europeanization. Methodologically, the paper builds on a discourse analysis of almost 160 documents released by the three key Church bodies which often comment on the EU: the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community, the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, and the Curia.

The Never-Ending Story? Or, Does the Roman Catholic Church Remain Vulnerable to Charges of Improper Handling of Clergy Child Sex Abuse?

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 270-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick S Nash
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Sex Abuse ◽  
Organizational Settings ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Child Sex Abuse

Abstract This article explores whether the Roman Catholic Church’s response to the clergy child sex abuse scandal shields it from further charges of improper handling of cases. It begins by noting the current topicality of institutionalized abuse and how several high-profile public inquiries have recently been established to investigate child sex abuse across a range of secular and religious organizational settings. Although numerous religious institutions have become embroiled in clergy child abuse crises, the Catholic Church has come in for particular scrutiny and condemnation on account of its distinctive institutional characteristics which have exacerbated its own abuse scandal in a uniquely severe way. The Church’s own understanding of this issue is that a culture of antinomianism has taken root within the clerical hierarchy and that, were canon law to be applied properly, the crisis would be resolved. This contrasts quite dramatically with the typical external understanding of the crisis which sees the canonical legal system as part of the problem, namely the Church’s refusal to cooperate fully with the secular criminal justice system and effective assumption of a criminal jurisdiction of its own. The article concludes with a final prognosis of the prospects of fundamental legal and cultural change.

Christianity and Ecology in Latin America

2020 ◽  
pp. 457-472
Author(s):  
Lois Ann Lorentzen
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Initial Contact ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Faith Traditions ◽  
Indigenous Religions

This chapter explores Christianity and ecology in Latin America by charting the religious beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church and liberation theologians, ecofeminist movements, and Protestant faith traditions (emphasizing evangelical and Pentecostal Protestantism). In each case, religious symbols, theologies, rituals, and movements are analyzed as they relate to the nonhuman world. The chapter begins with initial contact between Roman Catholicism and indigenous religions and the consequences for the environment. The ecotheology emerging from liberation theology is explored as well as Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si (Praise be to you): On Care for our Common Home. Environmental movements and activism rooted in both Catholic and Protestant beliefs are also explored.

The Least of My Brethren: Mining, Indigenous Peoples, and the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
William N. Holden
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Environmental Identity ◽  
Hegemonic Discourse ◽  
Liberation Ecology

Political ecology shows how environmental issues can be reframed towards addressing the problems of the socially vulnerable. The environmental identity and social movement thesis of political ecology asserts that environmental issues can generate cross-class and inter-ethnic linkages in an effort to blunt powerful forces. Liberation ecology, a variant of political ecology combined with a counter hegemonic discourse, provides another dimension of political ecology. In the Philippines, mining on indigenous lands has generated opposition from indigenous peoples. By examining how the Roman Catholic Church has aided indigenous peoples in their opposition to mining, examples of the environmental identity and social movement thesis of political ecology and liberation ecology can be gleaned. Liberation theology, an impetus to the church’s commitment to the poor, may be the consummate counter hegemonic discourse.

The Modification of the Anti-Clerical Nationalism of the Mexican Revolution by General Lázaro Cárdenas and Its Relationship to the Church-State Detente in Mexico

1969 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert L. Michaels
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Mexican Revolution ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
The Other ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government ◽  
Lazaro Cardenas ◽  
The Church

The man of the Revolution disputed the very nature of Mexico with the Roman Catholic. The revolutionary, whether Callista or Cardenista, believed that the church had had a pernicious influence on the history of Mexico. He claimed that Mexico could not become a modern nation until the government had eradicated all the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic, on the other hand, was convinced that his religion was the basis of Mexico's nationality. Above all, the Catholic believed that Mexico needed a system of order. He was convinced that his faith had brought order and peace to Mexico in the colonial period, and as the faith declined, Mexico degenerated into anarchy.

Historical Scholarship and Ecumenical Dialogue

Horizons ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 420-424
Author(s):  
Carter Lindberg
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Protestant Reformation ◽  
Final Exam ◽  
Ecumenical Dialogue ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
Hundredth Anniversary ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of

I am honored to participate in this theological roundtable on the five-hundredth anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. I do so as a lay Lutheran church historian. In spite of the editors’ “prompts,” the topic reminds me of that apocryphal final exam question: “Give a history of the universe with a couple of examples.” “What do we think are the possibilities for individual and ecclesial ecumenism between Protestants and Catholics? What are the possibilities for common prayer, shared worship, preaching the gospel, church union, and dialogue with those who are religiously unaffiliated? Why should we commemorate or celebrate this anniversary?” Each “prompt” warrants a few bookshelves of response. The “Protestant Reformation” itself is multivalent. The term “Protestant” derives from the 1529 Diet of Speyer where the evangelical estates responded to the imperial mandate to enforce the Edict of Worms outlawing them. Their response, Protestatio, “testified” or “witnessed to” (pro testari) the evangelical estates’ commitment to the gospel in the face of political coercion (see Acts 5:29). It was not a protest against the Roman Catholic Church and its doctrine. Unfortunately, “Protestant” quickly became a pejorative name and then facilitated an elastic “enemies list.” “Reformation,” traditionally associated with Luther's “Ninety-Five Theses” (1517, hence the five-hundredth anniversary), also encompasses many historical and theological interpretations. Perhaps the Roundtable title reflects the effort in From Conflict to Communion: Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017 (2013) to distinguish Luther's reformational concern from the long historical Reformation (Protestantism), so that this anniversary may be both “celebrated” and self-critically “commemorated.”

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