scholarly journals Evolution of Catholic Marriage Morality in the Twentieth Century from a Baby-Making Contract to a Love-Making Covenant Part I: Code of Cannon Law to Vatican II

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Collins Vacek S.J.

Sexual ethics in the West has been evolving, in practice and in theory, over the last century. The official Catholic Church teaching was challenged by many Christian churches and by the changing culture of the West. The Vatican insisted that no change could be made in its timeless truths. Nevertheless, each challenge required ever more sophisticated and convoluted arguments. The impetus for change came through the Western shift from seeing sexual activity as a procreative act toward viewing it as a way for husbands and wives (and gradually also any consenting adult) to express and deepen love. The Second Vatican Council accepted this new view, but subsequently the official teaching became more strict, insisting that both procreation and marital love-making must be present. The teaching of Pope Paul VI prohibiting contraception was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back for many Catholics. They abandoned the official teaching, recognizing that it was the new personalist view itself that complicated the meaning of marriage. Subsequently, the Canon Law tried reestablish the validity of loveless sex in marriage–the dominant view through the centuries. That move was rejected.

Author(s):  
Ormond Rush

For 400 years after the Council of Trent, a juridical model of the church dominated Roman Catholicism. Shifts towards a broader ecclesiology began to emerge in the nineteenth century. Despite the attempts to repress any deviations from the official theology after the crisis of Roman Catholic Modernism in the early twentieth century, various renewal movements, known as ressourcement, in the decades between the world wars brought forth a period of rich ecclesiological research, with emphasis given to notions such as the Mystical Body, the People of God, the church as mystery, as sacrament, and as communio. The Second Vatican Council incorporated many of these developments into its vision for renewal and reform of the Roman Catholic Church. Over half a century after Vatican II, a new phase in its reception is emerging with the pontificate of Pope Francis.


Author(s):  
Edward T. Brett

Following the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), over a thousand priests and religious sisters and brothers were exiled, imprisoned, tortured, or murdered in Latin America by authoritarian governments. A much larger number of lay Church workers were also incarcerated, brutalized, or killed. Most suffered or died because, following the ideals of Vatican II and the Second Latin American Bishops Conference at Medellín, Colombia (1968), they committed themselves to the amelioration of the marginalized in their countries, even though they were fully aware that to do so placed their lives in great peril. This chapter treats a select number—mostly priests and nuns—who were killed because of their prophetic devotion to the poor. It is limited to the nations of Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and Central America. It also touches on the bitter divisions that resulted in the Church as a consequence of this new religious activism. Finally, it demonstrates why the deaths of so many religious-based social justice activists forced the institutional Catholic Church to reexamine its outdated criteria for martyrdom.


Horizons ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-289
Author(s):  
Edmund Chia

ABSTRACTThe document Dominus Iesus, issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on September 5, 2000, was perhaps the most talked-about document in recent church history, both within and without the Catholic Church. Some of the reactions to it, which came from all quarters, were profound, and provided both a field day for the mass media and much data for theological reflections. Significantly missing from theological journals in the West, however, is the response of the Asian church and its implications for Asian theologies. This is a serious omission since Dominus Iesus, seems to have been written because of and for the Asian church in general and its theologians in particular. The present essay, therefore, looks at this Asian factor, especially in the context of the renewal inaugurated by the Second Vatican Council.


Author(s):  
Francis Appiah-Kubi ◽  
Robert Bonsu

The nature and the missionary role of the laity in the church is one of the issues currently vital to the church and theologians. From the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) perspective, the word laity is technically understood to mean all the faithful except those in holy orders and those in the state of religious life specially approved by the Catholic Church (LG31). These faithful are by baptism made one with Christ and constitute the People of God; they are sharers in the priestly, prophetic and kingly functions of Christ; and they carry out for their own part the mission of the whole Christian people in the church and in the world. However, the distinction between the ordained and the lay is a real one. A great deal of attention has been paid to the ordained ministry of the Church, its nature, its authority and its functions. The laity tends, by way of contrast, to be taken very much for granted, as though in their case no special problems arise. This study discusses the nature, role, and participation of lay people in the mission of the Church as proposed by the Second Vatican Council. It treats succinctly the historical development of the Laity and the challenges and opportunities inherent in their mission.


2020 ◽  
pp. 136-145
Author(s):  
Антоний Борисов

Второй Ватиканский собор (1962-1965) поставил перед монашескими орденами задачу обновить принципы жизни, вернувшись к корням понимания монашеского делания и аскезы. В дальнейшем реформа фактически приравняла монашеский путь спасения к пути мирянина, что послужило причиной неоднозначных изменений в католических обществах посвящённой Богу жизни. В статье проводится анализ последствий этих изменений, произошедших в жизни Католической церкви с инициативы Второго Ватиканского собора. В частности, отмечается, что собор запустил процесс административного и прежде всего смыслового реформирования католического монашества. Этот процесс идёт до сих пор и периодически принимает форму кризиса. The Second Vatican Council (1962-65) challenged the monastic orders to renew the fundamentals of their way of life returning to the original understanding of monastic practice and asceticism. Later the reform virtually equated the monastic way of salvation to the layman’s way, and this caused ambiguous changes in catholic societies of consecrated life. The article analyzes the consequences of these changes brought into the life of the Roman Catholic Church due to Vatican II. In particular, it is indicated that the council started the process of administrative and, above all, conceptual reforms in the catholic monasticism. This process is still ongoing and periodically takes the shape of a crisis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Reid Karr

During Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s Papacy, The Theology Of Conscience Has Taken On A Significant Role. A Developed Theology Of Conscience Emerged During The Second Vatican Council, Most Notably With Gaudium Et Spes, And Later Developed As Essential In Moral Theology. Francis Is The First Pope To Fully Embody Vatican II Teachings, In Particular In His Incorporation Of The Conscience Into Theology And Practice. During The First Months Of His Papacy, He Made It Clear That Conscience Is Crucial To His Theology And, In A Letter Exchange With A Prominent Italian Journalist, He Underscored Obedience To One’s Conscience As The Key To Receiving Forgiveness Of Sins. This Development Has Tremendous Theological And Missiological Implications For The Roman Catholic Church. KEYWORDS: Roman Catholicism, Pope Francis, conscience, missiology, morality, Vatican II, Gaudium et spes


Author(s):  
Tricia Colleen Bruce

This chapter unpacks the meaning of “parish” and significance of canonical parish status in the Catholic Church. Institutional authority matters for defining parish in ways unlike other forms of congregation. This chapter explores the role of territory in defining parish historically, along with exceptions to this rule that proliferated in early American Catholicism. National parishes challenged the institutional Church to clarify bishops’ authority over local religious organizing. Changes to canon law in 1917 reasserted institutional control over parish establishment, once again prioritizing territorial boundaries. The Second Vatican Council and subsequent reforms to canon law in 1983 made room for communities of purpose alongside territory. Bishops found greater discretion to establish purpose-based parishes in their dioceses. This chapter specifies the canonical privileges that accompany parish status. It also profiles the characteristics of personal parishes appearing in the United States today.


Author(s):  
Lorelei Fuchs

The chapter considers key ecumenical developments in the period 1948–65, between the founding of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the closing of the Second Vatican Council, at which the Catholic Church finally embraced the ecumenical movement. Explaining how that period can be seen as pivotal in the history of the movement, it tracks the developing understanding of the ecumenical challenge reflected in successive assemblies of the WCC and conferences on Faith and Order, both at world level and in North America, and the growing desire for Catholic engagement in the ecumenical movement manifested particularly in the activities of the Catholic Conference for Ecumenical Questions. It then considers the teaching of Vatican II on ecumenism, for example, regarding degrees of communion, and the impact of Catholic participation on the ecumenical movement, notably in the practice of bilateral dialogues.


Author(s):  
Daniel A. Keating

This chapter examines the theology of mission and evangelization in the Catholic Church. It begins with a brief overview of how mission developed in the Catholic tradition up to the twentieth century, with particular emphasis on the biblical grounding for a universal mission and the crucial transitions the early Church made from being a Jewish movement to a Gentile-inclusive movement that engaged with and accommodated itself to Greco-Roman culture. It then considers developments in the period leading up to and including the Second Vatican Council, along with the ‘missionary crisis’ and other challenges following Vatican II. Finally, it discusses important continuities and changes in the Catholic theology of mission and evangelization and describes the characteristics of this theology today.


2017 ◽  
Vol 135 (4) ◽  
pp. 199-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Bush

This article examines the hitherto unexplored role of lay Catholics in the tertiary education of Polish exiles in Britain, from the early 1940s to the beginning of the Second Vatican Council in 1962. It will examine the work of the Newman Association, a predominantly lay Catholic graduate society, as a case study to reveal how lay activism towards European exiles was influenced by a range of social, theological and political factors. It will highlight the ways in which support for Polish Catholic education could be manifested, including the establishment of a cultural hub in London, a scholarship programme to assist Polish students in British and Irish universities, and the development of cultural links with individuals and organisations within Poland. Ultimately, this article demonstrates the growing confidence of educated lay Catholics in breaking out of their historically subordinate role within the English Catholic Church in the years prior to Vatican II.


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