The Roman Catholic Church: committed to the poor in Guatemala

The coexistence of conservative and liberation perspectives within the Roman Catholic Church still causes disagreements. However, since Vatican II, the Catholic Church in Guatemala has established a commitment to act as a church of the poor. There is tension between Guatemala's elite and the Church, which has led to the murders of Church members and the issuance of death threats to others. Although the growth of evangelical movements has caused the Church to lose influence, the Church remains committed to the poor, which places it in sharp contradistinction to neoliberalism.     

From Empires to Nation-State: Remaking the Roman Catholic Church in an Independent Poland

ABSTRACT

Roman Catholicism is most often imagined as an element of continuity in Poland’s turbulent history: even when a Polish state was absent from the map of Europe from the late eighteenth through early twentieth centuries, a recognizably ‘Polish’ church has been presumed to provide a robust institutional anchor for the Polish nation. This article, however, argues that the creation of a ‘Polish’ Roman Catholic church was a belated and protracted process, one that was only getting started in the years following the achievement of Polish independence in 1918. The church’s ‘Polonization’ was only partially a matter of emancipation from imperial-era restrictions. It often also involved the defence and attempted extrapolation of laws, practices and institutions that had developed under the auspices of the German, Austrian or Russian states and that the Catholic hierarchy viewed as healthy and desirable building blocks for a future Polish church. These imperial precedents continued to provide crucial points of reference in ongoing debates about what ‘Polish’ Catholicism was and what it should become.     

罗马教廷、东北天主教会与伪满洲国

罗马教廷在对待伪满洲国的问题上采取了两手策略,一方面极力在外交和法理层面上回避与伪满洲国之间的关系问题,另一方面又在事实上承认了伪满洲国的存在。吉林教区主教高德惠作为罗马教延的实际代表与伪满当局合作,协助当局推行殖民主义政策,其在本质上已经成为日本殖民主义者的帮凶。     

"Child of the Clan" or "Child of the Priests": Life Stories of Two Fipa Catholic Sisters

This paper analyses some of the consequences of Christian conversion and the process of assimilating Catholicism in an area of southwestern Tanzania known as Ufipa during the middle of the twentieth century. It is based on several conversations with two Fipa Catholic Sisters, Edwina and Ocilia. Their reflections highlight the way in which the Fipa people understood conversion. The period covered is not that of initial mission contact but after substantial conversion to Catholicism had taken place. The paper considers the way in which the conversion process was utilized by different families or lineages or, as Sister Edwina states, one "clan" and another. In the life stories of Edwina and Ocilia, control over their biological and social fertility lies at the heart of the conflict over their futures. In effect, the sisters struggled to determine their own place as "child of the clan," or "child of the priests."     

Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) and the Eucharist: Review and Prospects

This article reviews the history of the important dialogue on the Eucharist by the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) underway since the second half of the twentieth century and continuing into the present. Agreed statements from the commission addressing the Eucharist and comments from various bodies of both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Church are critically reviewed. Prospects for future dialogue are assessed and suggestions made about areas that may be the subject of future dialogue.     

Religion and Politics in the Philippines: The Public Role of the Roman Catholic Church in the Democratization of the Filipino Polity

Abstract

From a social-ethical point of view, an appalling lack of a sense of common good continues to haunt Philippine political life even after the restoration of democracy through the 1986 People Power revolution. Our study contends that it is mainly caused by a polity that does not allow for a participatory deliberation and envisioning of the common good and a political culture that is not nurturing but hindering the collective and institutional commitment for it. While the Roman Catholic Church has been partly responsible for this democratic deficit, it nevertheless remains a social force with a moral high ground for political transformation, if it is able to change its social location and re-invent its social mission. A self-critical Filipino church whose base ecclesial communities are inserted like leaven in civil society holds the most important key to the democratization of Philippine polity and culture in the light of the Gospel.     

Leveraging diplomatic power and influence on the UN Security Council: the case of Australia

ABSTRACT

There is scepticism about whether a state like Australia can secure its interests and exercise influence on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). A case study of Australia’s experience as a UNSC member in 2013–2014 shows that it directly influenced UNSC decision-making in a number of ways: first, in the response to the MH17 incident; second, pushing forward UNSC practice through the first-ever resolutions on both ‘small arms and light weapons’ and police in peacekeeping; and third, as chair of three sanctions committees, influencing the decision-making environment towards greater transparency. While Australia did not achieve all its objectives, it made its views well-known. A second case study demonstrates that Australia’s opportunities to influence UNSC decision-making are not limited to stints of membership. Australia was able to achieve many of its foreign policy objectives in East Timor in 1999 through strategically engaging with key UNSC players through an informal diplomatic grouping: the Core Group on East Timor. Both case studies show that Australia’s diplomatic engagement with the UNSC is desirable, necessary and strategic, whether or not it is a current or prospective member.     

Catholic Child Migration Schemes from the United Kingdom to Australia: Systemic Failures and Religious Legitimation

Between 1938 and 1956, an estimated 1,147 children were sent from the United Kingdom to Australia through child migration initiatives delivered by Catholic organisations. Whilst experiences of child migrants varied, there has been a growing public recognition over the past thirty years of the trauma experienced by many. Although the suffering of child migrants occurred in the context of wider policy failures, this article argues that there was a particular pattern of systemic failures characteristic of these Catholic schemes. After providing an overview of the complex organisational structure through which Catholic child migration operated, the article identifies six systemic failures in this work relating both to organisational processes and the institutional conditions to which child migrants were sent. It goes on to argue that these occurred in a framework of religious legitimation which emphasised the unique role of the church as a mediator of salvation, the need to safeguard children's faith, the child as a member of a corporate body more than as an individual and the relative moral authority of the church over secular institutions. Within this framework, these systemic failures were either unrecognised or seen as tolerable in the context of wider organisational and theological priorities.     

Patterns in the Survival of Catholic National Parishes, 1940-1980

National parishes represent the primary institutional response of the Catholic Church to its ethnic diversity in the United States. The national parish differs from the more common territorial parish in the definition of its membership, which comprises all Catholics in an area sharing a specific ethnic or national background. This study examines patterns in the survival of German, Italian and Polish national parishes between 1940 and 1980. Factors related to characteristics of a parish's institutional environment and of the ethnic community it serves have strongly influenced parish survival. These factors include the parish's ethnic affiliation, the size of the ethnic community it serves, the diversity of national parishes present at the local and diocesan level and the process of parish consolidation in places where an ethnic group has formed more than one parish. Through the effects of these factors, national parishes have declined at a much faster rate in the Middle West than in the Northeast, regions in which the vast majority of national parishes were originally established. Catholic ethnic diversity should thus continue to contribute most significantly to American cultural pluralism within the latter region.     

民间文化、旅藏汉裔与民族团结——以拉萨郊外土地庙的两块民国匾文为中心

西藏自治区文物管理委员会现存多块清代、民国木匾,曾在内部刊物披露其简况,只是未引起学术界应有的注意。事实上,这些近代木匾,不仅是先民开拓边疆地区、促进民族文化交流的产物,而且是民族团结的见证,蕴涵着丰富的历史信息。本文以现存的“中夏民国二十年”等两块民国木匾为中心,试作一述论。     

国民参政会性质研究述评

国民参政会是抗战时期成立的一个特殊的国家最高政治机关,它的地位作用和性质,引起了学术界的广泛关注.出现了纷繁复杂的观点,或把国民参政会说成是一个代表人民参政的民意机关(或准民意机关),或把它说成是一个仅仅供国民政府进行咨询的最高机关,或把它说成是一个特殊的具有双重性质的咨议机关,等等.本文对这些观点进行了述评.