František Vavřinec Rabas, OFMCap (1901–1969) jako pedagog a blízký spolupracovník litoměřického biskupa Štěpána Trochty

The article is dedicated to Roman Catholic priest, František Rabas, who was in 1918–1946 member of the Friars Minor Capuchin and thus used his monastic name Vavřinec. The chief aim of the text is to connect his two, so far in effect separately perceived identities, that is, one of the Capuchin historiographer, teacher, and educator, the other of the Rector of the seminary in Litoměřice and a secret vicar general of the Litoměřice bishopric. For this ‘subversive’ activity, he was in 1954 together with his bishop, Štěpán Trochta, and other collaborators, sentenced to many years in prison. The authors present a comprehensive biography of a notable personage of the Czech Catholic Church and Catholic intellectual circles of the first two thirds of the twentieth century, whose life aptly demonstrates the developments in the Catholic Church.

Legacies and pitfalls amongst the African Evangelicals: A Kenyan experience from a historical perspective

The research study sets out to explore the contribution of the African Evangelicals in both the colonial and post-colonial Kenya to the social lives of the nation. Can’t it be viewed as a positive social influence or an ecclesiastical pitfall? In utilising a socio-historical design, it poses the question: how did the Evangelical European Missionaries demonstrate their theological and social influences in Kenya, and how did the post-missionary Evangelical-leaning leaderships play out? And was Muthirigu Dance an extremist reaction against the rigidity of the Evangelicals? Methodologically, this article will attempt to explore the Evangelical European Missionary Christianity, especially the Church Missionary Society that entered Central Kenya in the early 1900s, and assess the way in which they handled indigenous cultures of the local Africans. It has also attempted to critically explore their social influences in both colonial and post-colonial Kenya (1895–2021). The CMS has been given more emphasis in this article as an Evangelical society so as to help in bringing out the specific Evangelical activities in the Kirinyaga County of Kenya. Overall, the article has endeavoured to hypothesise that Eurocentrism was not the Evangelical problem, as there were diverse European missionaries, such as the High Anglican Church, the Roman Catholic and the Lutherans who were non-Evangelicals, and who were not necessarily dogmatic and rigid.Contribution: This study adhered to the HTS journal’s vision and scope by its focus on the histories of the Evangelical European Missionaries of the 19th and 20th centuries, their interactions with the local religio-cultures, and how it later played out amongst the Africans.

Representations of Roman Catholic religious sisters’ responses to COVID-19 in the Zambian media

Despite the growing visibility of religious women’s responses to COVID-19 in the media, the discourses of religion and the pandemic in emerging scholarship were preoccupied with the responses of churches to COVID-19, and neglected the contributions of religious women to the pandemic in Zambia. This article, therefore, explores the interface between religion and COVID-19 through the representations of the responses of Roman Catholic religious sisters to the pandemic, in the media in Zambia, from a religious health asset (RHA) perspective. The study drew on two objectives, namely, to describe the representations of Roman Catholic religious sisters’ responses to COVID-19 in the media; and to explain the nature of the Roman Catholic religious sisters’ responses to the pandemic as represented in the media with a focus on the utilisation of RHAs. It drew on an interpretive case study in which data were collected through content analysis. It shows that the responses of the religious sisters were covered more in Catholic related media. These responses ranged from providing key COVID-19 messages, integrating COVID-19 in the existing programmes to providing basic equipment and food to the needy communities as shaped by the utilisation of RHAs at their disposal, and as informed by their prophetic mission. The article argues that the Roman Catholic religious sisters’ responses to the pandemic affirmed women’s active roles in combating the pandemic.Contribution: The article’s contribution lies in adding the narratives of women’s contributions to the pandemic in the early stages of the outbreak of COVID-19 to women theologies scholarship in Africa. And also, extending the utilisation of RHAs to the new pandemic and the implications it draws on the need for engendering religious responses to the pandemic by capturing women’s narratives during a pandemic as part of constructing women theologies in the face of COVID-19.

Witchcraft and the Modern Roman Catholic Church

Witchcraft is rarely mentioned in official documents of the contemporary Roman Catholic church, but ideas about the dangers of witchcraft and other forms of occultism underpin the recent revival of interest in exorcism in the church. This Element examines hierarchical and clerical understandings of witchcraft within the contemporary Roman Catholic church. The Element considers the difficulties faced by clergy in parts of the developing world, where belief in witchcraft is so dominant it has the potential to undermine the church's doctrine and authority. The Element also considers the revival of interest in witchcraft and cursing among Catholic demonologists and exorcists in the developed world. The Element explores whether it is possible for a global church to adopt any kind of coherent approach to a phenomenon appraised so differently across different cultures that the church's responses to witchcraft in one context are likely to seem irrelevant in another.

Robert Sanderson (1587–1663)

Over the course of the reigns of the last two Tudors and first three Stuarts – just in excess of a century – the national established Church of England was disestablished twice and re-established twice. Following the return to Rome under Mary, Elizabeth's settlement re-established the English Church under the royal supremacy, set down church doctrine and liturgy, embarked on a reform of canon law and so consolidated an ecclesial polity which many today see as an Anglican via media between papal Rome and Calvinist Geneva. However, as a compromise, the settlement contained in itself seeds of discord: it outlawed Roman reconciliation and recusancy; it extended lay and clerical discipline by the use of ecclesiastical commissioners; and it drove Puritans to agitate for reform on Presbyterian lines. While James I continued Elizabeth's policy, disappointing both Puritans and Papists, Charles I married a Roman Catholic, sought to impose a prayer book on Calvinist Scotland, asserted divine-right monarchy, engaged in an 11-year personal rule without Parliament and favoured Arminian clergy. With these and other disputes between Crown and Parliament, civil war ensued, a directory of worship replaced the prayer book, episcopacy and monarchy were abolished and a Puritan-style republic was instituted. The republic failed, and in 1660 monarchy was restored, the Church of England was re-established and a limited form of religious toleration was introduced under the Clarendon Code. In all these upheavals, understandings of the nature, source and authority of human law, civil and ecclesiastical, were the subject of claim and counter-claim. Enter Robert Sanderson: a life begun under Elizabeth and ended under Charles II, a protagonist who felt the burdens and benefits of the age, Professor of Divinity at Oxford and later Bishop of Lincoln, and a clerical-jurist who thought deeply on the nature of human law and its place in a cosmic legal order – so much so, he may be compared with three of his great contemporaries: the lawyer Matthew Hale (1609–1676), the cleric Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667) and the philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588–1678).

The Economy of the Transylvanian Roman Catholic Status Between the World Wars

The purpose of the study. To examine how the 20th century’s political changes affected the Roman Catholic Church structurally, and it’s specific institution, the Roman Catholic Status by the agrarian reforms which were part of the modernization process and nation-building in Greater Romania; and more importantly in Transylvania, the area of the four Roman Catholic dioceses of Nagyárad, Gyulafehérvár, Temesvár and Szatmár, and what alternatives were created for economical surviving. Applied methods. Literature review including the history of World War I and the consequences of the upcoming treaties of Versailles. We involved sources from church literature, agrarian estates records and data from researches of the Status archives from Transylvania. The research framework is the history of the Roman Catholic Status. We introduced four ecclesiastical counties whose economically changes influenced the administration of several institutions and funds belonging to the Status. We made a structural analysis examining the new economic system of the Roman Catholic Status situated in the middle of the modernization development of Greater Romania. Outcomes. Due to the annexation of Transylvania to Romania, the Roman Catholic Church went from a privileged position to a marginal position, since the majority of the Romanian population was Orthodox Christian. Many problems of the process of modernization and nationbuilding in Greater Romania were felt by all sections of the population, but it was the ethnic minorities and their institutions - especially the churches - which were to be integrated into the new nation-state that were most affected. The four Roman Catholic dioceses Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia), Nagyvárad (Oradea), Temesvár (Timișoara) and Szatmár (Satu Mare)) expropriated 277,513 acres of a total of 290,570 acres of land, which represented 98% of the land holdings. The agrarian reform of 1919-1920 brought major changes in the management of the Status funds and the estates belonging to them.

Pastoral Care for Migrants. Canonical and Religious Related Legal Requirements on Asylum and on the Change of Religion

Refugees and migrants have always been of particular concern to the Roman Catholic Church and its pastoral care. Even if the large influx of refugees happening in 2015 and 2016 is no longer the case, flight and migration are still relevant topics in Austria. The contribution deals with the historical development of canonical regulations, the situation of refugees and migrants in Austria, the legal basis, the implementation of asylum procedures and numbers, the statements of the Austrian Bishop’s Conference, the access to a Church or religious community and converting from one to another, the question of the Catholic Church’s necessity of salvation, regulations concerning catechumenate and the question of church asylum. It provides figures, data and facts, presents the canonical and state legal situation and analyses it. It tries to make weak points obvious and would like to provide help for future considerations.

The Architecture of Eco-Theology: Towards a New Typology for Christian Sacred Space

This paper will begin by exploring the underlying scriptural and theological foundations for a Christian response to the ecological crisis with particular focus on the writings of cultural historian, Father Thomas Berry, CP. It will then describe the first worship space in Canada that attempts to embody the emergent “Eco-theology” to invoke both the transcendental and imminent presence of the divine by reconsidering every design decision from first principles. As articulated in its architecture, the traditional elements of Roman Catholic sacred space have been re-imagined and given unique expression to emphasize that when we gather for Christian worship, we do so within the greater context of creation. St. Gabriel’s Passionist Parish church therefore represents a distinctly new typology for Christian Worship that contributes towards an understanding of early scriptural teachings which emphasized the sacredness of all creation and not just the sacredness of humankind. The new building as sacred space presents a “Gestalt whole”, and like the medieval cathedrals of Europe, becomes itself a form of Catechetical pedagogy, engaging the senses, demanding reflection, and inviting transformation.

THE SITUATION OF ORTHODOX AND ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGY IN THE SOVIET UKRAINE IN THE 1920s – 1930s: SOURCE REVIEW

Анотація. Мета дослідження – проаналізувати джерельну базу означеної проблеми, здійснити класифікацію джерел з проблеми, з’ясувати їх інформативну цінність. Методологія дослідження спирається на принципи історизму, системності, науковості, об’єктивності, а також на використання загальнонаукових (аналіз, синтез, узагальнення) та спеціально-історичних (історико-типологічний, історико-системний) методів. Наукова новизна одержаних результатів визначається тим, що вперше здійснено узагальнювальний аналіз джерельної бази становища християнського духовенства (православного та римо-католицького) в Радянській Україні в 20–30-ті рр. ХХ ст. Висновки. Досліджено винятково писемні історичні джерела. Вони, зі свого боку, поділяються на опубліковані та неопубліковані (архівні) матеріали. Серед вивчених опублікованих джерел є офіційно-нормативні (актові) документи, справочинні, статистичні джерела, джерела особового походження, періодика. Чимало опублікованих документів уміщено у збірниках документів, наукових працях з різних проблем історії християнства та в інших археографічних виданнях. Репрезентативність джерельної бази з означеної проблеми забезпечує комплекс архівних документів двох центральних та кількох обласних державних архівів України. Цей комплекс матеріалів є різноманітним, строкатим, більшість з них становлять законодавчі, статистичні, справочинні матеріали та інші. Джерельна база даної проблеми є достатньо репрезентативною, всі групи джерел характеризуються високою фактографічною і науковою цінністю.