Leaving the Institution. Secularized Priests

2010 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 268-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesc Núñez

Toward the end of the last century, particularly during the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, hundreds of Catholic priests distanced themselves from the Church or decided to leave the ecclesiastical institution. This fact, unusual at that time, is the focal point of the present article, which is the result of an extensive investigation into the renunciation of the priesthood by a significant number of priests in the Barcelona diocese. The author addresses the question why such deeply committed members of an institution, as are the priests of the Catholic Church, decided to leave the institution at that moment. The author discusses some aspects of the social context in which this process took place and offers some explanations for these significant departures.

Horizons ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-149
Author(s):  
Jason Steidl

This contribution to the roundtable will compare two forms of protest in the church—one that is radical and challenges the church from the outside, and the other that is institutional and challenges the church from the inside. For case studies, I will compare Católicos Por La Raza (CPLR), a group of Chicano students that employed dramatic demonstrations in its protest of the Catholic Church, and PADRES, an organization of Catholic priests that utilized the tools at its disposal to challenge racism from within the hierarchy. I will outline the ecclesiologies of CPLR and PADRES, the ways in which these visions led to differing means of dissent, and the successes and failures of each group.


2021 ◽  
pp. 205030322110152
Author(s):  
André Armbruster

Catholic priests who sexually abused minors were transferred to other parishes without disclosing the actual reason for their transfer. Based on reports from Ireland, Germany, and the USA, and relying on Bourdieu’s concepts of field and habitus, this article demonstrates that first, the practices of denying and withholding information even to fellow priests are consequences of the repression of sexuality within the Catholic Church. The Church has not provided a legitimate language for priests to be able to engage openly about sexuality. Sexual repression as a field structure is incorporated into the priests’ habitus, resulting in self-censorship when it comes to articulating the issue of sexual abuse. Secondly, the article accounts for the change within the Catholic field and the priest’s habitus, which has resulted in the facility to verbally express sexual matters in order that the undisclosed practice of transferring abusive priests finally stopped.


2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-94
Author(s):  
Piotr Zwierzchowski

Clergy (Kler, 2018) by Wojciech Smarzowski has aroused great controversy and many discussions about the position and role of the Catholic Church in contemporary Poland. I would like to look at the portraits of priests in the film in relation to the images previously created in Polish cinema. I am not going to analyze particular examples, but point to selected motifs and characters in order to interpret the images of clergymen and the church in their context. I will consider both the construction of individual characters and the image of the Catholic Church as an institution.


1997 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 529-545
Author(s):  
Barbara Wraith

Towards the close of the first decade of the twentieth century there emerged an organized movement within the English Catholic Church which can be distinguished as Social Catholicism. The Catholic Social Guild (CSG), which was founded at the Catholic Truth Society Conference in September 1909, largely represented Social Catholicism in England and, as such, constitutes the focal point of this paper. This small body comprised laypeople, secular priests, and members of religious orders. Of the lay component a significant number of middle-class converts to Catholicism were prominent; whilst at parish level working men and women were recruited largely through schemes of social study. Social Catholicism represented a novel phenomenon not only because of its essential focus upon addressing some of the more intractable social problems of the day but also because it embodied an inherently different social rationale from that of more mainstream Catholic endeavour in this field. Looking back to the Church of medieval times, Social Catholicism perceived an ideal Church which, through its social precepts and actions, had exerted an exemplary socio-economic influence. Moreover such an historical precedent might embody the answer to the ‘social question’ – a multiform modern problematic – provided the Catholic Church could transform its past experience of a pre-modern social engagement into initiatives of theoretical and practical relevance to the modern situation.


Author(s):  
Antonius Galih Arga Aryanto ◽  
Martinus Joko Lelono

This interdisciplinary study attempts to relate corruption with the Catholic Church's role as the moral and social critics that compel believers to participate in confronting corruption and bribery. The interdisciplinarity is also the method applied in the study. It includes an exposition of the economic data of the GDP, its theological interpretation based on the story of Naboth and the king in the Old Testament, and strategic action field theory. The article begins with widespread corruption in ASEAN, then continues with a theological foundation for believers’ role as guardians of moral and social values. The Church, however, faces ritualism and religious formalism that cause faith values do not influence to eradicate corruption. Finally, by implementing the social study of Strategic Action Field (SAFs) theory, the paper proposes an anti-corruption movement as a strategic action for the Catholic Church to tackle corruption. The study found that the social study of Strategic Action Field (SAFs) theory allows the Church to develop the anti-corruption movement as the strategic action to create pastoral works to tackle corruption


2018 ◽  
Vol 73 (292) ◽  
pp. 849-864
Author(s):  
Celso Pinto Carias

Há pouco, a Igreja católica ganhou um novo Papa. Ele escolheu o nome de Francisco. É um símbolo forte. O artigo apresentado quer ratificar o fato de que, teologicamente, a Igreja deve caminhar sob um testemunho de pobreza. Então, em sintonia com a caminhada das CEBs (Comunidades Eclesiais de Base), que nunca perderam a vocação da opção pelos pobres, o artigo pretende chamar atenção para a necessidade de uma Igreja que siga a missão com um fundamento teológico que responda à necessidade de proclamar ao mundo aquilo que o Papa Francisco vem fazendo: humildade e simplicidade.Not so long ago, the Catholic Church gained a new Pope. He chose to be called Francis. This is a strong symbol. The present article wants to ratify the fact that, theologically, the Church must walk under a testimony of poverty. Then, in harmony with the path of the CEBs (Ecclesial Grassroots Communities) that never lost their vocation of an option for the poor, the article intends to call attention to the need for a Church that will follow the mission as a theological fundament that in turn responds to the need to proclaim to the world what Pope Francis has been doing: humility and simplicity.Keywords: Catholic Church. Poor Church. CEBs. Humility. Simplicity.


2000 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 556-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREW J. FINCH

The Catholic Church in Korea dates its foundation from 1784 when Yi Sŭng-hun returned from Beijing where he had been baptised by a member of the resident Catholic mission. He had sought out the Catholic priests at the instigation of Yi Pyok who, in the winter of 1777, had been a member of a meeting of young, reform-minded Shirhak (‘New Learning’) scholars. This meeting had been called to examine scientific, mathematical and religious treatises written by the Jesuits in China. On his return, Yi Sung-hun brought with him books and religious articles which he shared with Yi Pyok, and together they began to evangelise among their friends and neighbours. It was not very long, however, before their activities began to meet with opposition from other Confucian scholars and to arouse the suspicions of the authorities. In 1785 Yi Pyok and other Christians were arrested at a meeting in the house of Kim Pom-u, a member of the chungin class of technical specialists. Those present were given a lecture on proper Confucian conduct and released, apart from Kim Pom-u who was severely beaten and sent into exile where he died from his injuries. Worse was to follow in 1791 with the execution of Yun Chi-ch'ung and his cousin, Kwon Sang-yon, for their refusal to perform the chesa ancestral rites for Yun's dead mother. Nevertheless the Church continued to grow during the 1790s, and its members pressed the bishop of Beijing to send a resident priest. This was achieved in 1795 when a Chinese priest, Fr Chou Wên-mu, arrived in Seoul. Under his ministry, and with the assistance of members of the laity, the Church grew from around 4,000 believers to nearly 10,000 at the outbreak of the Shinyu persecution in 1801. This persecution cost the lives of Fr Chou and at least 300 of the laity, but the Church survived.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 98-108
Author(s):  
Patrick Mwania

Women in Africa, both in the traditional setup and in modern society form the cornerstone of the Church and society. They have spearheaded change in traditional and modern society and heralded the Gospel message on the African soil. Based on the formidable roles women played and the influential areas of authority they occupied in the social, economic, political, and religious dimensions of African traditional societies, such as priestesses, diviners, medicine women etc., I attempt to understand the role women play and the place they occupy in the Church and in society today taking the Catholic Church as a case study. The aim of this paper is to seek to understand the roles women play in society, as well as discerning how the roles could be promoted and improved for the betterment of the Church and society. For the discussion to achieve its objective, the following areas will be addressed: explore the place and the significance that traditional African society accorded to women;  investigate the nature of women’s involvement in the life of the community as well as the precise roles that traditional society assigned to women; discover the place of women in Christianity and some of the roles the Catholic Church assigns to women members as documented; understand some of the challenges women face as members of the Church and  the roles they play in enhancing the Gospel; and finally attempt to provide some recommendations in response to some of the challenges identified.


2018 ◽  
pp. 144-155
Author(s):  
Nikolai V. Chirkov ◽  

In the missionary work of the Roman Catholic Church among non-Christian peoples and cultures, the Church resorts to the use of strategies for the inculturation of Christianity, based on the establishment and development of intercultural and interreligious dialogues. Based on the analysis of the official documents of the Roman Catholic Church (declaration of the Second Vatican Council, social doctrine of the Catholic Church, encyclicals and apostolic exhortations of the pontiffs), the author attempts to reveal the problems of the inculturation of Christianity rising in the context of intercultural and interreligious dialogues and making impact on the missionary work of the Catholic Church. Thanks to the reforms and subsequent decisions of the Second Vatican Council, the aspects, goals, tasks, and instructions for the dialogue of Christianity with non-Christian religions were formulated and set out. In future, the topic of intercultural and interreligious dialogues was developed and expressed in the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, as well as in the encyclicals and apostolic exhortations of the Roman Catholic pontiffs. According to the Roman Catholic Church position, interreligious and intercultural dialogues are aimed at mutual enrichment of various spiritual cultures, and their development should prepare the ground for further evangelization.


1972 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick B. Pike

In order to have avoided the criticism of most writers priding themselves on their progressive and modern spirit, the Catholic Church in the nineteenth-century Hispanic world would have had to accept religious toleration, would have had to surrender much of its material goods, and would have had to reconcile itself to secularism by relinquishing influence in the temporal order. Various circumstances, many of them arising as much from social conditions as from theological viewpoints, caused the Church first in nineteenth-century Spain and somewhat later in Spanish America to set itself resolutely and militantly against these three desiderata of its liberal critics.


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