scholarly journals RELIGION AND POLITICS IN BELGIUM: FROM AN INSTITUTIONALIZED MANIFEST CATHOLIC TO A LATENT CHRISTIAN PILLAR

Author(s):  
Karel Dobbelaere

After having described the historical basis of the process of pillarization in Belgium, the author explains the emergence of the Catholic pillar as a defence mechanism of the Catholic Church and the Catholic leadership to protect the Catholic flock from secularization. He describes the different services the Catholic pillar was offering for its members and the development of Belgium as a state based on three pillars: the catholic, the socialist and the liberal one that were all three institutionalized. This structure meant that Belgium was rather a segregated country that was vertically integrated. In the sixties of last century, the pillar was confronted with a growing secularization of the population, which forced the leadership of the pillar to adapt the collective consciousness: the Catholic credo, values and norms were replaced by so-called typical values of the Gospel integrated in what is called a Socio-Cultural Christianity. Under the impact of the changing economic situation, the politicization of the Flemish question and the emergence of Ecologist parties, the Christian pillar had to adapt its services and is now based on clienteles rather than members. Only in the Flemish part of Belgium is it still an institutionalized pillar.

Author(s):  
Eamonn Wall

Eamonn Wall’s discussion of Irish American Catholic experience reveals many similarities on either side of the pond, and some differences also. The Irish American authors and commentators provide unique perspectives on many facets of Irish life, including the unique role played by the Catholic Church. Among the authors discussed are Frank McCourt, whose account of a poor Catholic childhood in Limerick is so memorably captured in the best-seller, Angela’s Ashes, Colum McCann, Colm Tóibín and Mary Gordon. Similarly, the theologian Richard P. McBrien, journalist and writer Maureen Dezell, and sociologist Andrew Greely combine to illustrate the impact that the Irish Church has had on its American equivalent. Wall maintains that looking towards Ireland from the US, and drawing on American notions of egalitarianism and individual freedom, sometimes allows for a more dispassionate view of Ireland’s Catholic heritage and enables envisaging its future with a far greater clarity than can be achieved when change is all around you.


Author(s):  
John F. Schwaller

The Catholic Church was one of the most important institutions of colonial Latin America; yet, it is poorly understood by many scholars. This chapter outlines the important features of the Catholic Church both from the point of view of institutional structure and the impact of these on the society at large. While generally considered a monolithic institution, the Church consisted of many disparate and often competing units. The clergy itself was divided between those who were members of religious orders and communities and those who were directly under the administrative control of bishops and archbishops. The Church also touched the life of nearly every resident of the colonies, from baptism until death. The Church also had an important impact on the finances of the colonies. In short, this study looks at the broad scope of the actions and activities of the Catholic Church in colonial Latin America.


2003 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Fredericks

[Catholic thinking about other religious traditions has continued to develop rapidly since the Second Vatican Council. The author discusses the impact of conciliar texts, the thought of John Paul II, the “pluralist” and “regnocentric” theologies of religion, and the practice of interreligious dialogue on Catholic views of other religious paths. The multiple issues selected for discussion reflect the controversy surrounding the declaration Dominus Iesus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.]


1981 ◽  
Vol 59 (5) ◽  
pp. 1183
Author(s):  
Robert D. Crassweller ◽  
Daniel H. Levine

1994 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 622-628 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Howard

In his History of Dogma, Adolph Harnack wrote that the ‘Pseudo-Clementines contribute absolutely nothing to our knowledge of the origin of the Catholic Church and doctrine.’ Hans Lietzmann, Harnack's successor in Berlin, concluded similarly in his assessment of these writings. He wrote that the Clementines are ‘fictions without historical basis, and valueless for the study of the early Christian and Judaistic period’.


2005 ◽  
Vol 8 (37) ◽  
pp. 121-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
John McAreavey

This paper traces the developments in the Catholic law on mixed marriages beginning with an outline of the canonical provisions that were in force prior to the Second Vatican Council. The impact of the Council teaching on ecumenism and religious freedom became apparent with the promulgation of Matrimonii sacramentum (1966), Crescens matrimoniorum (1967) and Matrimonia mixta (1970). These documents put the legislation on mixed marriages on a new footing and provided the basis for the legislation of the 1983 Code of Canon Law. Bishop McAreavey analyses various ecumenical dialogues on mixed marriages: ARCIC, the dialogue between the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Catholic Church, and ongoing dialogues between the Methodist Church and the Orthodox Church (primarily in the United States) and the Catholic Church. He notes in particular what those discussions have to say on the issue of ‘the promises’ and canonical form and comments on the provisions of the 1983 Code of Canon Law on mixed marriages. He considers the basis of the commitment required of the Catholic party ‘to remove dangers of defecting from the faith’ and the commitment ‘to do all in his or her power in order that all the children be baptised and brought up in the Catholic faith’. He accepts the view of Fr Navarrete that whereas the former obligation is of divine law the latter obligation goes no further than ‘to do his or her best’ (pro viribus in the Latin phrase). In the final section, he reflects on the pastoral impact of developments in the canon law regarding mixed marriages, noting the statements of the World Gatherings of Interchurch Families in Geneva (1998) and in Rome (2003).


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