Teologia, ordini religiosi e rapporti politici: la questione dell’Immacolata Concezione di Maria tra Roma e Madrid (1614-1663)

The article analyses the first moments of the doctrinal controversy about the dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception of Mary form the point of view of the relationships, managed by nuncio Antonio Caetani, between the Holy See and the Spanish Monarchy. Through the correspondence between the nuncio and the Roman Curia it is possible to appreciate Papacy’s will to avoid public “scandals” and to look for a mediation among conflicting religious orders (Dominicans, Franciscans and Jesuits). The controversy represented for the Spanish Monarchy of Philip III (and, later, of Philip IV) a further occasion to affirm its right of intervention in doctrinal and ecclesiastical matters on the basis of its prerogative to defend the Roman Church.El artículo analiza los primeros años de las polémicas doctrinales alrededor de la definición dogmática de la Inmaculada Concepción de la Virgen desde el punto de vista de las relaciones entre la Santa Sede y la Monarquía española, gestionadas por el nuncio Antonio Caetani. Sobre la base de la correspondencia epistolar del nuncio con la Curia romana se evidencia la voluntad, por parte de Roma, de evitar los “escándalos” de los alborotos populares y de buscar una mediación entre las órdenes religiosas en lucha (dominicos, franciscanos y jesuitas). Estas polémicas fueron una ocasión más, para la Monarquía hispana de Felipe III (y luego de Felipe IV), para afirmar su propio derecho de intervención en asuntos doctrinales y eclesiásticos en virtud de su prerogativa de defensa de la Iglesia de Roma

Angiogenesis in Head and Neck Cancer: A Review of the Literature

Angiogenesis is a necessary process for tumor growth, progression and diffusion. In the last years many efforts have been made to understand the mechanisms necessary to the formation of new vessels in tumor tissue and how to integrate these findings in the treatment of different type of cancer. Thanks to these studies there are today many anti-angiogenic drugs with established activity in cancer and approved in clinical practice. Head and neck cancer is a common tumor worldwide that often has advanced stage at diagnosis and poor prognosis. Angiogenesis has a well recognized role in head and neck cancer progression and resistance to drugs and radiotherapy and many clinical trials has been conducted with antiangiogenic agents in this disease, even if they often showed limited efficacy. In this review we summarize the main trials published about angiogenesis in head and neck cancer with particular attention to factors involved in this process and the available data on the efficacy of treatment with anti-angiogenic agents in this disease

I gesuiti e la confessione sacramentale nel Perù coloniale: ipotesi di ricerca

Taking as a starting point the most recent trends of European religious historiography, which focused in these last few years on the relationship between confession and Inquisition, this contribution intends to underline the capital importance achieved even in the New World by the sacramental confession in the religious conquest of the native population. In effect, not so much attention was paid so far to the role of confession in the concrete strategies of evangelisation carried out by the religious orders, and by the Jesuits in particular, above all in the framework of the "idolatries' hunt". Through several narrative sources the particular vision of the complementarity between itinerant missions and the judicial and coercive instruments of the Colonial Church are analysed

Un teologo irlandese nella Roma del Seicento: il francescano Luke Wadding

The essay explores the Irish Franciscan theologian Luke Wadding’s decades-long stay and activity in Rome. After having been educated in the Iberian peninsula (Portugal and Spain), Wadding was chosen in 1618 to assist, as a theological export, the Spanish prelate Antonio de Trejo in his diplomatic mission to the Holy See with the purpose of convincing Pope Paul V to proclaim the Immaculate Conception as dogma. When Trejo’s mission ended, Wadding stayed in Rome, where he remained until his death in 1657. The essay focuses, in addition to the foundation of the two Roman Irish Colleges, one of his most important achievements, on Wadding’s activity as theological advisor, initially within the context of the Immaculist mission and, later as consultant for the Holy Office and for the Congregation of the Index. What appears in this analysis is the adaptability and the opportunism of a friar who had been entrusted by Philip III to support the Spanish Monarchy’s interests and who, nevertheless, just a few years later, would be able to become a champion of Roman Catholic orthodoxy and its jurisdictional claims