Are You An Emissary of Jesus Christ?: Justice, The Catholic Church and the Chicano Movement

In 1969, Católicos Por La Raza (CPLR) emerged as an ethnic protest group against the injustices of the American Catholic Church in San Diego and Los Angeles, California. CPLR was critical of the Catholic hierarchy\u27s inconsistencies in relation to the Chicano community. As one of the wealthiest institutions, the Catholic Church was doing very little for a community that made up the largest part of the Church\u27s membership. For CPLR, the Christian message of justice was not practiced by the leaders of the Church. In Los Angeles, Chicanos were asking why the Archdiocese chose to close a high school in the barrio, due to lack of funds, but could still afford to build a three million dollar cathedral in downtown Los Angeles. In San Diego, Chicanos were asking the Catholic Church to become intimately involved in the everyday struggles of the Chicano community. Within this dialogue emerged a clear concept of justice and its meaning for CPLR members in relationship to the hierarchy of the American Catholic Church

The Catholic Physician and Natural Family Planning: Helping to Build a Culture of Life

This paper is based on the author\u27s answer to a question from Theresa Notare, director of the Natural Family Planning Program of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, about what Catholic scientists and physicians can do to promote NFP and what the Catholic Church in the United States can do to help physicians and health professionals promote NFP. The paper reviews the Church\u27s historical call for health professionals to study and to teach NFP methods, briefly analyzes the current state of NFP in Catholic health care, and provides an answer to Dr. Notare from the perspectives of research, education, and practice

When Church Teachings and Policy Commitments Collide: Perspectives on Catholics in the U.S. House of Representatives

This article investigates the influence of religious values on domestic social policy-making, with a particular focus on Catholics. We analyze roll call votes in the 109th Congress and find that Catholic identification is associated with support for Catholic Social Teaching, but both younger Catholics and Republican Catholics are found less supportive. In followup interviews with a small sample of Catholic Republicans, we find that they justify voting contrary to Church teaching by seeing its application to domestic social issues as less authoritative than Church moral teachings on issues like abortion

John Calvin and the English Catholics, c. 1565–1640

This article examines the assessments of John Calvin's life, character, and influence to be found in the polemical writings of English Catholics in the Elizabethan and early Stuart periods. It demonstrates the centrality of Calvin to Catholic claims about the character and history of the established church, and the extent to which Catholic writings propagated a vibrant ‘black legend’ of Calvin's egotism and sexual depravity, drawing heavily not only on the writings of the French Calvinist-turned-Catholic Jerome Bolsec, but also on those of German Lutherans. The article also explores how, over time, Catholic writers increasingly identified some common ground with anti-puritans and anti-Calvinists within the English church, and how claims about the seditious character of Calvin, and by extension Calvinism, were used to articulate the contrasting ‘loyalty’ of Catholics and their right to occupy a place within the English polity

“The Authority to Interpret, the Purpose of Universities, and the Giving of Awards, Honors, or Platforms by Catholic Universities: Some Thoughts on ‘Catholics in Political Life’,”

With its June 2004 statement Catholics in Political Life, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops opened an important and far-reaching discussion about how Catholic individuals ought to comport themselves in political life, and-indirectly-about how Catholic institutions-including Catholic law schools-ought to decide whether or not to give awards, honors, or platforms to those whose views about key moral and political issues may differ from the views expressed in the teachings of the Catholic Church. On the basis of a simple and straightforward reading of the 2004 statement, it might appear that the bishops wanted to say that no Catholic institution-and thus no Catholic law school-should give awards, honors, or platforms to those who endorse or promote views that differ from the fundamental moral teachings of the Church. An important part of the statement plainly declares: "The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions." A few moments of reflection will reveal, however, that the issue here is somewhat more complicated than what one might infer from a simple and straightforward reading of the statement. The aim of the present paper is not to settle the question of whether and how a Catholic law school ought to give awards, honors, or platforms to certain individuals or groups. Instead, the aim is to begin articulating some of the underlying conceptual issues that perhaps ought to be addressed in preparation for answering the further question of whether and how a Catholic law school ought to give awards, honors, or platforms to certain individuals or groups

Churchmanship and personality among clergymen in the church in Wales : are Anglo-Catholic priests more feminine?

The aim of the present study is to develop and test a new measure of Anglo-Catholic orientation capable of assessing the extent of the continuing influence of the Anglican-Catholic movement among Anglican clergy and useful for testing theories regarding the association between Anglo-Catholic orientation and personality. Data provided by a sample of 232 clergymen serving in the Church in Wales support the internal consistency reliability of the 21-item Francis-Littler Anglo-Catholic Orientation Scale, and, in terms of the Eysenckian dimensional model of personality, demonstrate that Anglo-Catholic orientation is associated with higher levels of psychological femininity as assessed by the neuroticism scale, but not as assessed by the psychoticism scale

Behind the mitre: the moral leadership crisis in the Canadian Catholic Church

Reviewed Book: Clarke, Tony. Behind the mitre: the moral leadership crisis in the Canadian Catholic Church. Toronto: HarperCollins, 1995

Book Review: Salvation Outside the Church? Tracing the History of the Catholic Response

A review of Salvation Outside the Church? Tracing the History of the Catholic Response by Francis A. Sullivan

The Sacramental Foundations of Ecclesial Identity: Barrier or Passageway to Ecumenical Unity?

Two important events this year make it clear that ecclesiology still deserves a prominent place on the theological agenda. Pope Francis announced the creation of a council of cardinals to assist him in governing the world-wide Catholic Church. During the next assembly of the World Council of Churches the long awaited Faith & Order statement on The Church: Towards a Common Vision will be officially received. In this volume more than 40 authors (among whom well-known theologians such as André Birmelé, William Cavanaugh, Michael Fahey, Bradford Hinze, Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Paul Murray, Bernard Prusak, Ioan Sauca, Myriam Wijlens, Susan Wood and many others) engage in an ecumenical reflection on the Church, focusing on four major themes. The book starts with several essays by authors representing different fields in the humanities dealing – often from a postmodern perspective – with ‘Community, Individualization, Belonging’. The second part of the book, ‘Strengthening Roman Catholic Ecclesiology’, offers reflections on important topics such as the sinfulness of the Church, the sacramentality of the Church, lay ministries, theologians and the magisterium, to end with contributions on eschatological ecclesiology and the link between ecclesiology and the Catholic Church in dialogue with people of other faiths. In the next part Protestant and Orthodox scholars offer contributions to the renewal of their own ecclesiologies. In the final and longest part of the volume the reader is provided with ‘Reflections on the Future of the Ecumenical Dialogue’