Arenas of Mortality

2020 ◽  
pp. 113-149
Author(s):  
Mark Seymour

Grief and other reactions to death—among the most profound emotions humans ever experience—are inevitably mediated by cultural and official structures. This chapter explores responses to deaths encompassed by the book’s narrative, setting them against historical dynamics such as the Italian state’s need for public emotional ‘investment’, tension between the state and the Catholic Church, and the rise of scientific, forensic approaches to death. These dynamics led to the development of novel emotional arenas for the shaping and staging of emotions provoked by death. The chapter begins with the demise of Italy’s king, Victor Emanuel II, which gave rise to the nation’s first state funeral. Already closely analysed by historians, the event is re-examined as part of the book’s argument, with the suggestion that Rome became a distinctively secular emotional arena on the occasion of the funeral: officials made conscious use of social spaces to shift popular associations of death away from the Church and towards the state. Fadda’s presence at the funeral links the king’s death to his own, nine months later. The violence of the crime that took his life, excogitated and executed by Pietro Cardinali and others, resulted in very specific contexts for emotional responses. These include journalistic discussions, the morgue in which the autopsy on Fadda’s body took place, and the funeral, which resembled a miniature version of the king’s state funeral. In addition to grief, the funeral was also the scene of bitterness, indignation, and subtly expressed desires for judicial ‘revenge’.

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-176
Author(s):  
Mária Csatlós

With the available archival resources and through exploring the life, work and political actions of Endre Ágotha, the dean and parish priest of Nyárádselye I trace the unfolding and failing of the schismatic catholic peace movement legitimated in Marosvásárhely in the period 1950-1956. The state backed “Catholic Action” did not succeed in severing the Catholic Church in Romania from Rome by settling the “pending cases” between the church and the state and only a small portion of the clergy joined the movement, yet it has made significant moral damages by dividing the believers and the clergy. The Holy See condemned the movement and it’s key figure Endre Ágotha has brought upon himself the harshest punishment of the Catholic Church: excommunicates vitandus. He received absolution only on his deathbed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-119
Author(s):  
Bartosz Kapuściak

The primary task of the military intelligence in the People’s Republic of Poland was to acquire materials on the armament and stationing of NATO troops. However, due to the demand of the communist authorities, it also conducted political activities aimed at, among others, the Catholic Church. The interest of the state authorities increased especially during the pontificate of John Paul II. According to the assessment of military intelligence, the election of Karol Wojtyła as Bishop of Rome stimulated the Catholic Church both in Poland and in the Vatican. In this way, the activities of the Second Directorate of the General Staff of the Polish Army were within the scope of civil intelligence interests. The article aims to show the role played by intelligence officers and informers operating in Rome undercover as military attachés or in civilian institutions. Their actions resulted in the establishment of contacts with the church environment and acquisition of voluntary and involuntary informants. In this way, the Second Directorate of the General Staff of the Polish Army provided the party and political apparatus with interesting news and materials. Following the introduction of martial law in Poland, the church from the Rome area started sending parcels of food, clothes and medicines to Poland. This aid for the country was used to establish contact with the Polish clergy thanks to the initiative of Colonel Franciszek Mazurek.


1948 ◽  
Vol 6 (22) ◽  
pp. 83-100
Author(s):  
Patrick J. Corish

Europe in the seventeenth century was a land of mar and confusion because the great political problems raised by the religious disruption of the preceding century had not yet been solved. Chief among these was the problem of the relations between the Roman catholic church and a protestant state. The teaching of the pope's indirect power in temporal matters in any problem involving a breach of the moral order (ratione peccati) had been strongly re-stated by Bellarmine, and was the official attitude of the church. A protestant prince had committed a grave sin, that of heresy, and so it was the pope's right and duty to depose him and absolve his Catholic subjects from their allegiance. But this political theory was becoming impractical as the seventeenth century progressively demonstrated that Europe was permanently divided. As might be expected, juridical forms lagged behind the development of events; but by the middle of the century the Roman curia, while not prepared to give antecedent approval to a peace with protestants, might be said to be ready to acquiesce once it had been concluded, if the position and rights of the Catholic church could be assured. Yet this assurance was, in the circumstances, almost impossible. The Catholic church could not rest satisfied with toleration as a sect, but demanded recognition as an organised society with a source of jurisdiction illdependent of the state.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 71-92
Author(s):  
Denis Bećirović ◽  

The illumination of the state policy of separating „positive“ from „negative“ priests of the Catholic Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the most important issues in the scientific understanding of the position of this religious community during the first decades of existence of AVNOJ Yugoslavia. The post-war government in Bosnia and Herzegovina treated a large number of priests of the Catholic Church as real or potential enemies of the state. In addition to ideological reasons, which were more or less similar in all communist parties, the negative attitude of the CPY towards the Catholic Church was influenced by the fact that some priests supported the Ustasha movement during World War II. The justification for the negative attitude of party structures towards priests was argued most often in the documents of the Commission for Religious Affairs with the following reasons: that most priests supported the occupier and domestic traitors during the war; that they spread hostile propaganda against the national liberation movement; that they actively participated in the fight against the new social order; that they had committed war crimes and persecuted members of other faiths, and that they had been linked to criminal Ustasha emigration abroad. In addition to „negative“ priests, there were „positive“ priests that also acted in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as they were reported in the documents of the Commission for Religious Affairs. They did not agree to the policy of confrontation with the state and demanded the establishment of dialogue and co-operation between the Church and the state. Some of the most prominent representatives of this group of priests were: Fr Bono Ostojić, Ph.D. Karlo Karin, Fr Mile Leko, Fr Josip Markušić, Fr Serafin Dodig, Fr Kruno Misilo and others. Holders of „positive tendencies“ among the clergy, according to the Commission for Religious Affairs, understood the importance of establishing communication and contacts with state authorities and the harmfulness of the negative attitude of the Catholic Church towards the state. Their goal was to change the methods of solving problems between the Church and the state, and to build a path that would suit the interests of the priests of the Catholic Church and the interests of the state community, without interfering with the church's dogmatic canonical principles. The „differentiation“ of priests was treated as a positive result of the work of the new government, because, according to their assessments, in the first post-war years, representatives of religious communities had a hostile attitude towards the newly created socialist Yugoslav state. Therefore, the Commission for Religious Affairs (federal and republican) has continuously pointed out the importance of implementing a policy of „stratification and differentiation“ within religious communities. According to the observations of the Federal Commission for Religious Affairs, the post-war „differentiation“ among the priests happened primarily due to their attitudes regarding the relationship between the state and the Catholic Church. Some considered it desirable and useful to establish communication with the newly created authorities, while others maintained a negative attitude. In addition to these two groups, there was a third group that was undecided. When considering the biographical data of the priests of the Catholic Church proposed for state decorations, it can be stated that the authorities carefully took into account which priests would be on the list of candidates recommended for awards. A positive attitude towards the new socialist social order, active participation in the establishment of the Association of Catholic Priests in Bosnia and Herzegovina, loyalty, patriotism towards socialist Yugoslavia, and contribution to the development of the Association of Catholic Priests in Bosnia and Herzegovina, are some of the most important reasons for choosing candidates for awards. In the article, based on unpublished archival sources, the author contextualises the political circumstances and the circumstances in which the state policy of differentiation of „positive“ from „reactionary“ priests of the Catholic Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina took place, points out the reasons for and bearers of such policy, and analyses its expression and results. Also, the author presents the policy of awarding state recognitions and decorations to individual priests in Bosnia and Herzegovina.


Sovereignty ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 61-78
Author(s):  
Hermann Heller

This chapter considers Bodin’s theory of sovereignty. Bodin’s concept of sovereignty was the result of a war fought by the French state under the leadership of the king and the University of Paris against the king’s subjection to the Catholic Church and the empire, as well as against the subordination of state power to the feudal barons. Even before Bodin, the “initially relative, comparative concept of royal sovereignty” had changed to “an absolute one.” The state, represented in the king, which had heretofore only been superior in its relationship to the Church, empire, and barons, now became “supreme.” Bodin was the first to claim sovereignty as a defining criterion of the state.


1999 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 710-714
Author(s):  
Francis J. Connell

The author seems to have no regard for the supernatural life and vigor of the Catholic Church. He proposes as the most necessary means of protecting the Church from grave harm in the United States something natural—the “adaptation” of a traditional Catholic doctrine to a naturalistic concept of the State. The truth is that the most effective means toward preserving the Church from harm and promoting its apostolic activity will be found in a more ardent zeal on the part of bishops and priests and in a more faithful observance of God's law by Catholics. It should not be forgotten that Christ has promised to abide with His Church and to sustain it, so that the gates of hell shall never prevail against it. The author does not take this promise into consideration.


2021 ◽  
pp. 299-303
Author(s):  
Bogdan Ferdek

In the opinion of Bogdan Ferdek, the new book of Agnieszka Łoza and Paweł Beyga is a special theological report on the state of the Church in Poland. During the pandemic time since 2021 the Catholic Church has had to search for solving problems in the Christian community. According to the authors of this new book, in the Polish Catholic Church two kinds of problems can be discovered. Firstly, there is a problem with morality among the clergy, the problems of sexual abuse and teaching the Catholic religion in Polish schools. Conversely, there is a problem related to the secularization of Polish people. Bogdan Ferdek in his review showed that the new book of two young Polish theologians is an answer to very important questions in the Polish Christendom in the time of the pandemic.


2006 ◽  
pp. 116-128
Author(s):  
R. Mnozhynska

Before talking about the vision of Orikhov's essence of the relationship between the church and the state, one must first determine what the church is about - Catholic or Orthodox. After all, the thinker lived in Poland when there were still strong, even parity positions of both denominations. He himself was brought up in a family where his father was Catholic and his mother was Orthodox. This was reflected in his mentality: he repeatedly publicly stated the benefits of certain tenets of the Orthodox faith. But most of all he settled on the problem of relations between the Catholic Church and the state.


Indonesia consists of different ethnicities, cultures, religions, and beliefs. This diversity is a gift, but also a challenge for the Indonesian nation. Differences that exist often cause problems and conflicts between tribes and between religions and beliefs. In the midst of this pluralistic situation, the Church in Indonesia needs to develop inculturation in order to be open and to be able to make dialogue with every culture that exists in Indonesia, with different religions and beliefs as well as with the concrete situation occurring in Indonesia. This paper uses an analytical descriptive method to describe and analyze the concrete situation of the Church in its efforts to respond to socio-religious and political problems and challenges in Indonesia. It appears that the Church in Indonesia is very open and fully respond to every problem and challenge that exist in the midst of Indonesian people and society. This paper is expected to be an inspiration for the local Churches in developing its role to contribute to the development of the nation and the State of Indonesia, as well as to be an inspiration to other Churches in other parts of the world wherever experiencing situations more or less similar to the pluralistic situation in Indonesia.


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