catholic church extended essay

John Paul diagnosed his culture's ills in terms of the mid-century political revolutions. If he were with us today, he'd undoubtedly extend that analysis — as he did with abortion — to apply it to the redefinition of marriage, transgender ideology, and various assaults on religious liberty.

If we are seeing in our own time challenges to the truths that we are created male and female, and that male and female are created for each other in marriage, it is because we have lost sight of the true nature of man as the  Imago Dei . We must respond to false humanisms with a true humanism committed to the unique and irreplaceable value of each person.

The false humanism in John Paul II's time was on powerful display in the political order, where totalitarianism grew. Today, blindness to the truth about the human person has led to a crisis of family, community, and opportunity. But then as now, we see clearly the Church's latest intellectual and cultural challenge: not primarily the nature of God or redemption, but of man and human flourishing. Our task is to explain what human persons most fundamentally are, and how we are to relate to one another within families and polities.

Now, you've probably noticed that I've hedged in my phrasing when I said the challenges are not  primarily  about God or the Church, and that they are  primarily  about man. But today's false humanism isn't unrelated to modern beliefs about God. The crises of the twentieth century — world wars, totalitarian regimes, genocides, and labor camps — and now of the twenty-first — not only the sexual revolution's continuing unfolding but also the political-economic thought that ping-pongs between atomistic individualism and centralized collectivism — are results of an atrophied rationality that itself is the result of man's closing himself off from the transcendent. No one better diagnosed this reality than the French theologian Henri de Lubac when he explained that "atheistic humanism," in its attempts to liberate man by abolishing God, resulted in chaining man to the whims of the powerful. The attempt to elevate man by ignoring God has led to man's degradation. And we see the results all around us.

In this essay, I reflect on various aspects of our nature as the  Imago Dei  and how that anthropology helps us in responding to the challenges of our times.

Thought and Creation

The first place to focus in an essay on "Catholic Thought and the Challenges of Our Time" is on that word "thought." Catholics take it seriously. Or, at least, we should. But increasingly we live in a thoughtless era.

Of course, you need not be Catholic to take thought seriously. The ancient Greeks, after all, initiated the practice of disciplined thinking that has come to be called philosophy, the love of wisdom. Ancient Greeks could reason from and about the intelligibility they saw in the world.

But an oddity of our time is that so many modern thinkers have undercut the foundations of thought. The Church has become one of the primary defenders of human reason and our ability to know truth. The Greeks worked from the ground up. From the intelligibilities they saw in physical matter, for example, they could reason to the existence of immaterial forms. Taking further steps, they could reason to an unmoved mover, an uncaused cause. The starting point for them was the manifest intelligibility of nature, which inspired the pursuit of explanations.

Catholic thought has taken on this approach from Athens, but has added to it a perspective from Jerusalem. Indeed, Catholics — following the Jewish people — have an additional reason to embrace reason: It has been revealed to us that Creation is rational. Here's how Joseph Ratzinger put it in a lecture he delivered at the Sorbonne, later included as a chapter in his book  Truth and Tolerance :

The question is whether reason, or rationality, stands at the beginning of all things and is grounded in the basis of all things or not. The question is whether reality originated on the basis of chance and necessity (or, as Popper says, in agreement with Butler, on the basis of luck and cunning) and, thus, from what is irrational; that is, whether reason, being a chance by-product of irrationality and floating in an ocean of irrationality, is ultimately just as meaningless; or whether the principle that represents the fundamental conviction of Christian faith and of its philosophy remains true: "In principio erat Verbum" — at the beginning of all things stands the creative power of reason. Now as then, Christian faith represents the choice in favor of the priority of reason and of rationality.

Our faith commits us to the priority of reason and of rationality. It commits us to take thought seriously, to expect — and thus to seek — answers, reasons.

As a cultural matter, the revelation of the God of Genesis fundamentally reshaped the West, freeing it from superstition, determinism, and pagan religiosity. Prior to his lecture at the Sorbonne, in a series of homilies Cardinal Ratzinger delivered on the doctrine of creation, published as a slim but profound book,  In the Beginning , he explained:

And in the face of any fear of these demonic forces we are told that God alone, who is the eternal Reason that is eternal love, created the world, and that it rests in his hands. Only with this in mind can we appreciate the dramatic confrontation implicit in this biblical text, in which all these confused myths were rejected and the world was given its origin in God's Reason and in his Word. This could be shown almost word for word in the present text — as, for example, when the sun and the moon are referred to as lamps that God has hung in the sky for the measurement of time. To the people of that age it must have seemed a terrible sacrilege to designate the "great gods" sun and moon as lamps for measuring time. Here we see the audacity and the temperateness of the faith that, in confronting the pagan myths, made the light of truth appear by showing that the world was not a demonic contest but that it arose from God's Reason and reposes on God's Word.

Hence this creation account may be seen as the decisive "enlightenment" of history and as a breakthrough out of the fears that had oppressed humankind. It placed the world in the context of reason and recognized the world's reasonableness and freedom. But it may also be seen as the true enlightenment from the fact that it put human reason firmly on the primordial basis of God's creating Reason, in order to establish it in truth and in love, without which an "enlightenment" would be exorbitant and ultimately foolish.

As Ratzinger tells it, it was the Enlightenment brought about by God's self-revelation that freed man from slavery to pagan gods and provided the ultimate foundations for both human reason and human freedom. Indeed, in a fascinating lecture delivered several years ago, John Finnis pointed out that on the fundamental metaphysical truths that undergird the West, the Hebrews got there earlier — and with greater clarity — than did the Greeks. That is, Biblical revelation arrived at philosophical truths earlier and more accurately than philosophy itself.

This understanding of the world, nature, as fundamentally  creation , a contingent reality flowing from the reasonable and free choice of God to create, and this understanding of man as  Imago Dei­ , a creature possessing God-like powers of reason and will — literally awe-some powers — fundamentally changed the course of history. It provided the metaphysical foundations for the West. And this commitment to thought, to reason, is sorely needed today.

Faith and Reason

Belief in Creation, by a God who is both  caritas  and  logos , allows Catholic thought to be open to every discipline — every  scientia — that can discover truth. For the Catholic has nothing to fear from science, or philosophy, or reason of any sort. In fact, the Catholic — like all people — needs  reason in order to fully know truth. As John Paul put it in the opening lines to his masterful encyclical  Fides et Ratio :

Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth — in a word, to know himself — so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves.

Right now, we need to use every discipline at our disposal to defend the truth about man. My three previous visits to the University of Dallas have included a lecture on the redefinition of marriage, a lecture on religious liberty in the wake of the redefinition of marriage, and a lecture on transgender ideology. So I won't repeat any of those arguments here. Let me just say that on these aspects of human nature we need all hands on deck. In addition to John Paul's Theology of the Body, we need a philosophy of the body, and a psychology of the body, and a sociology of the body. We need philosophers and theologians. Psychiatrists and psychologists. Biologists and sociologists. And we need artists and saints, because our defense of the truth can never be a merely intellectual exercise.

In a world increasingly hostile to people of faith, people of faith will need to take reason all the more seriously, to be able to speak in terms and tones that our neighbors can understand. To help them see that there is no contradiction between reason rigorously applied, science properly conducted, and the revealed truths taught by the Church. To bad science, we need to respond with good science. To bad legal reasoning, we need to respond with better legal reasoning. To misguided philosophy, we need to respond with true philosophy. And then we need to build on good reason with authentic revelation, for grace perfects nature.

For even as we defend the lofty vocation of reason, being rational isn't enough, for rationality itself points to the existence of truths that reason alone cannot grasp, truths that can only be known through God's revelation, accepted by faith. In other words, man needs to embrace reason without embracing rationalism.

When reason concludes that there are truths about God and the universe that reason itself cannot ascertain, that man's finite intellect cannot exhaust the infinite, this could open the door to legitimizing faith in anything — and everything. Which is why we must be wary of theistic thinkers who attempt to ground faith's legitimacy in what amounts to little more than blind leaps. Modern thinkers from Kant and Kierkegaard to certain strains of contemporary American Christianity attempt to inoculate faith by detaching it from reason, by making the choice for faith lack foundations.

In the media circus surrounding Pope Benedict's Regensburg address, few commentators took the time to note that the main thrust of his remarks was criticism of European, not Islamic, thought. Criticizing those rationalists who castrated reason's true scope, Benedict also challenged Christians to recover the traditions of philosophical theology, to reject the voluntarism that detached God from the rational order, and to see God as  Logos . Our understanding of God should be informed as much by our reason as by our acceptance of God's communication by way of Scripture, and that acceptance of revelation itself should be made for good reason, pointing to the reasonableness of the act of faith. In other words, man needs to embrace faith without embracing fideism.

Reason without rationalism. Faith without fideism.

Reason in Full

It's not just that we need faith and reason. It's also that we need the right type of reason. In criticizing the modern thinkers who have castrated reason's true capacity, Benedict at Regensburg was continuing the critique John Paul offered in  Fides et Ratio  that modern rationality was artificially constricted. Ironically, or perhaps I should say providentially, we're left in this cultural moment in which Catholics have greater confidence in the ability — and scope — of reason than secularists who have reduced reason to empiricism, scientism, pragmatism, and, ultimately, left us living in a technocracy. On the cultural and political implications of this, see Neil Postman's prophetic book  Technopoly . Here, I want to focus on the intellectual implications.

While the scientific method has provided mankind with many indisputably helpful discoveries, to embrace the instrumental, technocratic rationality at the heart of the scientific process as if it were the entirety of rationality is to narrow the range of realities accessible to rational inquiry. While the scientific approach can discover truths about empirical physical realities, it can provide little help in discussions of justice, love, and beauty — whether they be in earthly domains or transcendent ones. Only by broadening the conception of rationality beyond the empirically verifiable realm of the scientific can man arrive at the truths necessary to secure his full flourishing. In other words, man needs to embrace science without embracing scientism.

This was a key — and ignored — aspect of Benedict's Regensburg lecture. Commenting on the reduction of human reason to science, and of science to empiricism and positivism, Benedict remarked:

If science as a whole is this and this alone, then it is man himself who ends up being reduced, for the specifically human questions about our origin and destiny, the questions raised by religion and ethics, then have no place within the purview of collective reason as defined by "science," so understood, and must thus be relegated to the realm of the subjective. The subject then decides, on the basis of his experiences, what he considers tenable in matters of religion, and the subjective "conscience" becomes the sole arbiter of what is ethical. In this way, though, ethics and religion lose their power to create a community and become a completely personal matter. This is a dangerous state of affairs for humanity, as we see from the disturbing pathologies of religion and reason which necessarily erupt when reason is so reduced that questions of religion and ethics no longer concern it. Attempts to construct an ethic from the rules of evolution or from psychology and sociology end up being simply inadequate.

For John Paul faith and reason were like two wings. For Benedict, Athens and Jerusalem, were akin to a "double helix." That's the image Tracey Rowland, an Australian theologian who has written a wonderful book on Benedict's thought, uses to describe Benedict's genealogy of the formation and then corruption of thought in the West. She explains that corruption as one "in which the Hellenic component of the culture was severed from the Christian and in which the Christian component was fundamentally undermined by the mutation of the doctrine of creation. . . . When faith in creation is lost, Christian faith is transformed into  gnosis , and when faith in reason is lost, wisdom is reduced to the empirically verifiable which cannot sustain a moral framework."

So many of the Enlightenment's political efforts were directed at securing man's liberty, and yet the twentieth-century results yielded more bondage than ever. The gamble was on supposing that a "Dictatorship of Relativism" (as Ratzinger put it) provided a more secure ground for human liberty than the "Splendor of Truth" (as John Paul put it). Only if man is capable of knowing truth — including moral and spiritual truths — can he be capable of freely directing himself toward ends freely chosen, away from evil and toward goods that are to be pursued. If man is ultimately the measure of all things, if man purports to  create  good and bad, right and wrong, rather than  discern  these naturally existing realities and respond accordingly, then what at first seemed like unlimited freedom results in stultifying nihilism. If whatever I decide upon is good, then the significance of the choice is eviscerated.

Freedom untethered to truth in the political realm truly does lead to dictatorship, either of the despot who gains power through force or of the majority that imposes its will without justifying reason. For if reason is unable to arrive at truth, what can a political community appeal to when organizing common life? Those who ground democracy on relativism undercut the very foundations that support democratic institutions in the first place: a proper concern for the authentic good of each member of the community and a respect for each member's ability to participate in this process of discernment. Indeed, even human rights become redefined according to majority preference.

Recovering the sapiential dimension of reason that considers the big questions regarding the meaning and destiny of human existence and the significance of human action is a key part of recapturing a more robust conception of human rationality. Reason can ascertain the existence of God and certain key aspects of his nature, and it can also discern objective standards of right and wrong, good and evil.

Freedom for Excellence

The capacity to know right and wrong, good and evil, is key to recovering today a sound understanding of freedom. For the liberty on offer in many post-Christian liberal societies today is not the liberty of the ancient Greeks, Romans, or Christians. For them, the most important freedom was freedom from slavery to sin, freedom for self-mastery. Today we face two competing conceptions of freedom, in what the Belgian-born Dominican theologian Servais Pinckaers has termed a freedom of indifference and a freedom for excellence.

On the modern conception of freedom, freedom is indifferent to what is chosen. What matters is simply that  I  chose it. Whether I chose to degrade myself or to respect my dignity is ultimately irrelevant, provided that I freely choose either way.

The more traditional understanding of freedom flowed out of a different conception of human nature. If freedom is grounded in man's rational and animal nature, and in how such freedoms allow man to flourish given his nature, then freedom is directional — it has a purpose, an end, and thus has limits. It is not primarily a freedom  from  something, but a freedom  for  something. A freedom for excellence, a freedom for human flourishing.

The nineteenth-century Catholic thinker Lord Acton put it this way: "Freedom is having the right to do what we ought." Think of freedom in music. All the rules, exercises, scales, and arpeggios can seem like barriers to our freedom. Yet, properly understood, these "rules" create the context in which we can exercise our freedom, make choices about melodic phrasing, articulation, rhythm, and so on. Just banging on the piano keyboard — "choosing whatever you want" — is not real freedom. It's slavery in ignorance and inability. Fr. Pinckaers describes it thus:

Of course anyone is free to bang out notes haphazardly on the piano, as the fancy strikes him. But this is a rudimentary, savage sort of freedom. It cloaks an incapacity to play even the simplest pieces accurately and well. On the other hand, the person who really possesses the art of playing the piano has acquired a new freedom. He can play whatever he chooses, and also compose new pieces. His musical freedom could be described as the gradually acquired ability to execute works of his choice with perfection. It is based on natural dispositions and a talent developed and stabilized by means of regular, progressive exercises, or properly speaking, a habitus. Aristotle's and St. Thomas's prudent or good man in the moral sphere is like the good pianist in the artistic sphere; and is therefore the truly free man.

"Freedom for excellence" requires us to develop habits of virtue. We are created beings; as such, we have to operate within the truth of the created world in which we live. In doing so, we have to develop a love for living in the real world, a world in which we exercise our freedom to love. This involves education. We need educating as to what really is good. To a certain extent, our conscience knows this inherently. God has placed it in all of our human hearts. But, being fallen creatures, our conscience is less than perfect, and in need of formation.

In a homily John Paul delivered at Mount Sinai, he explained:

The Ten Commandments are not an arbitrary imposition of a tyrannical Lord. They were written in stone; but before that, they were written on the human heart as the universal moral law, valid in every time and place. Today as always, the Ten Words of the Law provide the only true basis for the lives of individuals, societies and nations. Today as always, they are the only future of the human family. They save man from the destructive force of egoism, hatred and falsehood. They point out all the false gods that draw him into slavery: the love of self to the exclusion of God, the greed for power and pleasure that overturns the order of justice and degrades our human dignity and that of our neighbor. If we turn from these false idols and follow the God who sets his people free and remains always with them, then we shall emerge like Moses, after forty days on the mountain, "shining with glory" (Saint Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses, II, 230), ablaze with the light of God!

To keep the Commandments is be faithful to God, but it is also to be faithful to ourselves, to our true nature and our deepest aspirations.

Later on in the homily, John Paul proposed a radical way of thinking about freedom: "The Ten Commandments are the law of freedom: not the freedom to follow our blind passions, but the freedom to love, to choose what is good in every situation."

John Paul was developing a theme recently highlighted by Patrick Deneen in his book  Why Liberalism Failed . It's not just that we have two different conceptions of freedom, but these conceptions of freedom flow from competing anthropologies, and thus give rise to different polities and cultures. John Paul stressed the need to be educated for freedom — where the Commandments serve as a pedagogical tool to authentic freedom. Deneen points out that for the state of nature liberal theorists, man is born free. A thinker like Rousseau would add that we're born free and yet everywhere in chains — with law and culture inhibiting our freedom. That's not the Catholic view. As Deneen lucidly explains, "Liberty is not a condition into which we are naturally born but one we achieve through habituation, training, and education — particularly the discipline of self-command." He makes this point in a chapter on the liberal arts, a liberal arts education classically understood as an education for liberty. You'll receive that sort of education here at UD. But it shouldn't just be a matter for four-year colleges. Ideally, the entire culture — including law and policy — would cultivate freedom for excellence.

And so we're left with two rather different understandings of culture — one in which it constrains and one in which it cultivates. In reality, it constrains in order to cultivate. Cultures cultivate human nature.

Social Persons

Which, of course, leads to another important aspect of Catholic thought for our time: We're not isolated, atomistic individuals; we're social, communal persons. One aspect of being created in the image and likeness of God is that we participate in God's own triune nature. As God is understood as a community of persons in relation to each other, so too should we understand ourselves as a community of persons in relation to each other. And it is in community that we develop authentic freedom and flourish. The culture in which we find ourselves will cultivate our natures — for better or worse.

What I've said so far tonight has largely been a riff on the dignity of the human person, one of the first key principles of Catholic Social Thought. It is the social nature of man that brings to the fore three other key principles: the priority of the common good, and the demands of both solidarity and subsidiarity. All three of these principles flow from a proper understanding of human nature. And all three speak directly to the challenges of our time.

My Ph.D. dissertation was titled "Neither Liberal Nor Libertarian: A Natural Law Approach to Social Justice and Economic Rights." At the heart of that argument was the claim that both of the contemporary American ideologies get property rights and duties wrong. This is partly because almost no one talks about duties, partly because whenever anyone does talk about duties they assign them to the state, and partly because the leading accounts of property rights on offer are too absolute, without corresponding accounts of property duties incumbent upon property owners.

For any of this to make sense, a sound conception of  common  good would have to be advanced. But without a shared understanding of objective goods, no shared understanding of common good is even possible. How could we have goods in common, or even a common good that we all share — and all participate in — if human fulfillment is simply desire-satisfaction or utility maximization, where individuals have their own private desires and separate utility functions?

This is why the Catholic emphasis on reason's ability to grasp the truth, including the truth about human goods, is so important. For without an understanding of objectivity in the realm of goodness, there can be no common good — only private, individual goods that are then aggregated. This, of course, is how the dominant methodology of contemporary liberalism — both Right and Left — approaches the question. Be it in terms of GDP growth or redistribution of income, the focus tends to be aggregates of private goods.

Little attention is paid to the institutions of civil society that facilitate our flourishing — and how our various practices and policies impact those institutions. Nor is there any attention given to the duties that we owe to those institutions. This is ironic, given how much the phrase "social justice" is thrown about today. Sadly, we pay little attention to its original meaning: that man is a social creature, that societies other than the state have real existence, and that we have real duties to these societies.

Let me unpack this.

Some people think social justice is a twentieth-century invention of progressive thinkers, but this starts the history of social justice midstream. To understand its true meaning, we must look further back to its real historical origins.

Understanding Social Justice 

The first known use of the phrase "social justice" is by a Jesuit Thomist, Luigi Taparelli, in his multivolume work published between 1840–1843 titled  Saggio teoretico di dritto naturale appoggiato sul fatto  ( A Theoretical Treatise on Natural Law Resting on Fact ). I want to emphasize two arguments Taparelli highlighted by coining the new phrase "social justice": first, that man is social by nature and belongs to many societies and, second, that man has natural duties to others in justice.

Taparelli created the phrase "social justice" to highlight that there are societies in between individuals and governments. He wanted to avoid both the individualistic and the collectivistic temptations. He wanted to point out that the truth was somewhere in between. He wanted to highlight that, as a matter of nature, man is a social being and that this places duties on individuals — duties people have to their family, to their church, to their community. It also places limits on government — that government is limited by the reality of the natural family, that government is limited by the prerogatives of religious communities, that government is limited by the authority of civil society.

But so too that government has duties to support — not supplant or attack — these communities. This is where our most challenging problems lie in the United States. How can we be in solidarity with our neighbors, while also respecting the demands of subsidiarity to empower them, not replace their own initiative? A big part of the challenge here requires us to be able to think about what common goods are at stake. For if we can recover a sound understanding of common goods, and recognize the demands of both solidarity and subsidiarity, we'd recognize the extent of our problems.

"The American Dream is dead," candidate Donald Trump famously announced on the campaign trail, to the astonishment of many beltway elites. Their disbelief was understandable, given how thick their bubbles are. From their perspective, things were great. The Great Recession had ended. The economy was growing. Unemployment was plummeting. The stock market was at all-time highs. How could anyone seriously claim that the American Dream was dead?

The elites don't only have thick bubbles — they have thick communities. And inside the protective cocoon of community the American Dream is alive and well today. But for many Americans, Trump was the first politician to articulate their reality. And as Tim Carney points out in his new book,  Alienated America , when one studies the electoral map and looks at which counties went strongest for Trump in the primary elections, it was the counties that lack what the social scientists call "social capital." Where churches are shuttering. Where marriage rates are declining. Where single-parenting and absentee dads are the norm. Where suicides and opioid overdoses and deaths of despair are shockingly high.

In short, certain geographic regions in the United States simply lack actual community. And where community is lacking, so too is opportunity. And where opportunity is dead, so too is the American Dream.

To these social problems, we are offered material solutions. But liberal government redistribution programs and libertarian universal basic income (UBI) schemes do little to support meaningful community. In many cases, they end up making the problems worse.

But those are the leading alternatives among our intelligentsia today. And in a cycle of mutually destructive perverse incentives, both radical individualism and collectivism grow together. As American community falls apart, another government solution crops up. As that government program metastasizes, institutions of civil society are crowded out, regulated into oblivion, and shut down (frequently in violation of religious liberty) because they don't share the government's liberal values. As those institutions of civil society disappear, another government program is proposed. On and on the cycle continues, decimating what Edmund Burke called the Little Platoons, what Tocqueville described as America's rich associational life, and reducing us to atomistic individuals and centralized government.

But only at the bottom. When you look at the top — when you look at the college-educated, upper-middle class — you see thriving communities, robust social capital, and a way of life that facilities the American Dream. That is why so many elites have been entirely blind to the struggles of the lower and middle class — struggles that have been documented in books with titles such as  Coming Apart ,  The Fractured Republic ,  Hillbilly Elegy , and  Alienated America . America is divided. Not primarily along racial lines. Not primarily along religious lines. Not primarily along partisan lines.

America is divided along community lines — between those who have rich familial, religious, and civic connections and those who do not. Those who do are thriving. Those who do not are failing. The fault isn't primarily globalism, or technology, or trade — though those all play a role. The problem is that without social capital and a rich web of civil society Americans can't navigate the pathway through these changing times.

So now the question is what can be done for working-class families, especially for workers who find their skills less and less marketable in ever-changing markets because of the forces of globalization and new technology. Appeals to Enlightenment rights or utilitarianism will not allow us to think well about how to the justice in the distribution of costs and benefits of the creative destruction of free trade and how best to smooth out the rough patches. We need to think through the appropriate roles of various institutions. What does justice require of families and churches, of workers and business owners, of civil society and charitable organizations, of local and national governments? What rights and duties do these various individuals and societies have?

In a certain sense, the social and economic challenges I have mentioned can be classified as partly the result of deindustrialization making way for the knowledge economy. If Leo XIII's  Rerum Novarum , which inaugurated modern Catholic social thought, was a response to the industrial revolution, what we now need is a response to the de-industrial revolution. What to do is a question for policymakers. That we need to think about what to do is a demand of justice, and the principles of natural law should inform how we think about it.

Catholic thinking on these questions strives to strike a balance. It is sensitive to the role that markets can play in fostering initiative and innovation, creating jobs, and lifting people out of poverty, but it is not blind to the damage that market activity can cause. Natural law arguments look to the demands of justice and the ways in which liberty can both foster and undermine the common good. They take seriously the rights of private property owners but also their duties in stewarding their wealth. This, in turn, provides an intellectual framework for thinking about both the justifications and the limits of economic liberty — and the reasons that we might be concerned with market failures and excesses.

I don't have space to develop this point here, but let me note that this is not just a challenge to Catholic  thought , but to living. How do we live the realities of our social nature? And what can we do to assist in the replanting of civil society so that more people can live them?

Let me conclude with a few words about the courses I'll be teaching as the St. John Paul II Teaching Fellow in Social Thought at the University of Dallas.

This May, I'll teach an intensive course on natural law and public affairs. The class will start with a basic introduction to natural law theory, and then it will immediately move into disputed questions of public life where natural-law thinking can provide needed clarity. It'll cover debates about killing — abortion, embryo-destructive research, capital punishment, and just war theory — for example. It'll cover debates about sex — marriage, gender identity, gene editing, and the creation of children in the lab. And it'll cover debates about political authority — the nature of the political common good, morals legislation, religious liberty, and economic justice.

In January, we'll look more deeply into natural law theory — or theories, I should say. This intensive course will consider traditional approaches to natural law, most recently developed and articulated by thinkers such as Ralph McInerny, Russ Hittinger, J. Budziszewski, and Ed Feser, as well as what has been called the "new natural law theory" developed and defended by Germain Grisez, John Finnis, Joseph Boyle, Robert George and others. The class will consider the first principles of practical reasoning, the epistemology and metaphysics of the natural law, action theory and how to think about intention, moral norms and principles of justice, and the final end of man, among other topics.

The following May, I'll teach a course titled "The Crisis of Modernity." The first half of that course considers specific topics of interest. We'll explore modern love, science, media, technology, markets, politics, and education. Then we'll turn to several over-arching narratives that try to explain the modern condition, that offer an intellectual genealogy of the who, how, and why, or that at least narrate what has happened. Is John Locke to blame? Is William of Ockham? Is Scotus? Luther? Calvin? Various thinkers have offered competing declension narratives and intellectual genealogies to account for our current condition. By the end of the course, students should have a better appreciation of both the costs and the benefits of modernity, and a more nuanced understanding of a variety of causal pathways that have brought us here. Because most of our intellectual culture highlights the blessing of modernity, the course will tend to focus on the negatives, but largely with an eye toward thinking through how to make the best of modern life and how to flourish in the conditions of modernity.

And then, the following January, I'll teach a course on John Paul's and Benedict's social thought. To a certain extent, this essay highlights many of the themes that that course will cover. We'll read many of the major encyclicals, as well as some of the books that each pontiff published prior to and while holding the chair of Peter. This class will be of particular help in exploring how these two modern popes engaged modernity.

John Paul and Benedict wanted the Church to benefit from the advancements of modernity, but they also wanted our modern world to benefit from the wisdom of the Church. It was to be a two-way conversation, and they had little patience for those who proposed either the progressive or traditionalist monologue — the world setting the agenda for the Church with the Church remaking herself accordingly, or the Church imposing herself on a modern world without reading the signs of the times to discern what of modernity was good and what was bad. This critical engagement entailed speaking to the modern world in terms it could understand and on topics that lay at the heart of contemporary life. Human freedom, its social preconditions and metaphysical foundations, took center stage.

And that brings us full circle. A major theme throughout the most recent papacies has been the centrality of sound anthropology. Pope Francis warns us of what he calls "gender ideology" and the attempt of developed nations to impose this on the rest of the globe in a new form of what he calls "ideological colonization." The four courses I'll teach at UD all aim to equip students to rise to meet the challenges of our time. Just as previous generations of the Church rose to meet the challenges of their ages — challenges to truths about God and truths about the Church — so, too, does our generation need to rise to the occasion to defend truths about man. It has been a wonderful experience to get to work on these issues as a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, and it is a true honor and privilege to begin working with students on these questions as the St. John Paul II Teaching Fellow at UD.

Additional Info

• Author: Ryan Anderson

This article is reprinted and republished with the explicit permission of the Withersoon Institute. Public Discourse: Ethics, Law, and the Common Good . 

It is based on Ryan T. Anderson’s inaugural lecture as the St. John Paul II Teaching Fellow at The University of Dallas.

• Publisher: The Public Discourse

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Acknowledgement

Ryan T. Anderson is editor of Public Discourse: Ethics, Law, and the Common Good . This essay is adapted from a paper presented at the annual conference of the Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame.

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125 Catholic Church Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

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Are you struggling to come up with an engaging and thought-provoking essay topic on the Catholic Church? Look no further! In this article, we have compiled a list of 125 essay topic ideas and examples that will help you explore various aspects of the Catholic Church's history, teachings, controversies, and influence. Whether you are a student, researcher, or simply someone interested in understanding this influential institution, these topics will inspire you to delve deeper into the world of Catholicism.

• The role of the Catholic Church in medieval Europe.
• The impact of the Protestant Reformation on the Catholic Church.
• The Vatican's influence on global politics.
• The role of women in the Catholic Church throughout history.
• The significance of the Pope in Catholicism.
• The Catholic Church's stance on birth control: challenges and controversies.
• The Catholic Church's response to LGBTQ+ rights.
• The role of Catholicism in the formation of Western civilization.
• The Catholic Church's position on abortion: historical perspectives and current debates.
• The role of missionaries in spreading Catholicism around the world.
• The Inquisition: examining the dark side of the Catholic Church's history.
• The Catholic Church's influence on art and architecture.
• The impact of Vatican II on the Catholic Church.
• The role of saints in Catholicism.
• The Catholic Church's stance on social justice and inequality.
• The relationship between science and Catholicism.
• The significance of the Virgin Mary in Catholic theology.
• The Catholic Church's response to the Holocaust.
• The role of Catholic education in shaping young minds.
• The Catholic Church's role in the fight against poverty and hunger.
• The Vatican's position on immigration and refugees.
• The Catholic Church's views on capital punishment.
• The role of the Catholic Church in the abolition of slavery.
• The impact of liberation theology on Catholicism in Latin America.
• The Catholic Church's response to the sexual abuse scandal.
• The influence of Catholicism on literature and poetry.
• The Catholic Church's position on euthanasia.
• The significance of the sacraments in Catholic worship.
• The role of confession in Catholicism.
• The Catholic Church's teachings on the afterlife.
• The Catholic Church's stance on divorce and remarriage.
• The role of Catholicism in the fight against colonialism.
• The Catholic Church's response to environmental issues.
• The impact of Catholic social teaching on economic policies.
• The Catholic Church's role in the fight against human trafficking.
• The significance of pilgrimages in Catholic spirituality.
• The role of the laity in the Catholic Church.
• The Catholic Church's stance on genetic engineering and cloning.
• The influence of Catholicism on music and hymnody.
• The Catholic Church's position on religious freedom.
• The role of Catholicism in the development of universities.
• The Catholic Church's response to the AIDS crisis.
• The significance of the Eucharist in Catholic worship.
• The Catholic Church's teachings on war and peace.
• The role of Catholicism in the civil rights movement.
• The Catholic Church's attitude towards other religions.
• The impact of the Protestant-Catholic divide on Ireland's history.
• The role of Catholicism in the fight against apartheid in South Africa.
• The Catholic Church's response to the rise of secularism.
• The significance of the Vatican Museums in preserving art and culture.
• The Catholic Church's stance on gender equality.
• The role of Catholicism in promoting interfaith dialogue.
• The Catholic Church's teachings on social media and technology.
• The impact of Catholicism on the development of democracy.
• The Catholic Church's response to the legalization of same-sex marriage.
• The significance of Catholic rituals and traditions.
• The Catholic Church's stance on the death penalty.
• The role of Catholicism in the formation of European identity.
• The Catholic Church's teachings on the role of women in the Church.
• The impact of the Catholic Church on healthcare and medical ethics.
• The Catholic Church's response to the refugee crisis.
• The significance of Catholic monasticism in preserving knowledge and learning.
• The Catholic Church's stance on artificial contraception.
• The role of Catholicism in the fight against racism.
• The Catholic Church's teachings on the sanctity of life.
• The impact of Catholicism on the development of Western legal systems.
• The Catholic Church's response to the legalization of marijuana.
• The significance of Catholic pilgrimage sites.
• The role of Catholicism in the fight against human rights abuses.
• The Catholic Church's stance on the use of nuclear weapons.
• The influence of Catholicism on healthcare and medical institutions.
• The Catholic Church's response to the #MeToo movement.
• The significance of Catholic rituals and symbols.
• The role of Catholicism in promoting peace and reconciliation.
• The Catholic Church's teachings on the role of the family.
• The impact of Catholicism on education and schools.
• The Catholic Church's response to the climate change crisis.
• The significance of Catholic liturgy and worship.
• The role of Catholicism in the fight against poverty.
• The Catholic Church's stance on assisted suicide.
• The influence of Catholicism on the development of science.
• The Catholic Church's response to the rise of populism.
• The significance of Catholic social teachings in addressing economic inequality.
• The role of Catholicism in the fight against human rights violations.
• The Catholic Church's teachings on the role of the arts in society.
• The impact of Catholicism on the development of Western music.
• The Catholic Church's response to the refugee crisis in Europe.
• The significance of Catholic sacraments and rites of passage.
• The role of Catholicism in promoting social justice.
• The Catholic Church's stance on assisted reproductive technologies.
• The influence of Catholicism on the development of Western philosophy.
• The Catholic Church's response to the rise of nationalism.
• The significance of Catholic religious orders.
• The role of Catholicism in the fight against human trafficking.
• The Catholic Church's teachings on the role of government and politics.
• The impact of Catholicism on the development of Western art.
• The Catholic Church's response to the rise of religious fundamentalism.
• The significance of Catholic devotions and spirituality.
• The role of Catholicism in promoting gender equality.
• The Catholic Church's stance on the use of embryonic stem cells.
• The influence of Catholicism on the development of Western literature.
• The Catholic Church's response to the rise of anti-immigrant sentiments.
• The significance of Catholic feast days and liturgical seasons.
• The role of Catholicism in promoting peace and non-violence.
• The Catholic Church's teachings on the role of the state in economic affairs.
• The impact of Catholicism on the development of Western theater.
• The Catholic Church's response to the rise of secularization.
• The significance of Catholic devotions to Mary and the saints.
• The Catholic Church's stance on the use of artificial intelligence.
• The influence of Catholicism on the development of Western architecture.
• The Catholic Church's response to the rise of extremist ideologies.
• The significance of Catholic pilgrimage sites outside of Europe.
• The role of Catholicism in promoting environmental conservation.
• The Catholic Church's teachings on the role of technology in society.
• The impact of Catholicism on the development of Western film.
• The Catholic Church's response to the rise of nationalism in Europe.
• The significance of Catholic rituals for different life stages.
• The role of Catholicism in promoting dialogue between religions.
• The Catholic Church's stance on the use of nuclear energy.
• The influence of Catholicism on the development of Western fashion.
• The Catholic Church's response to the rise of religious extremism.
• The significance of Catholic art and iconography.
• The role of Catholicism in promoting global cooperation.
• The Catholic Church's teachings on the role of technology in spirituality.

These essay topic ideas and examples cover a wide range of subjects and perspectives related to the Catholic Church. Whether you are interested in its historical context, theological teachings, or contemporary controversies, there is something here for everyone. Choose a topic that sparks your curiosity and start exploring the rich and complex world of Catholicism.

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Extended Essay: What is the role of mysticism in the Catholic Church from the time of Christ to the mid 1900s?

Related Papers

Andrea Graus

Van Osselaer, T.; Graus, A.; Rossi, L.; Smeyers, K. (2021).The devotion and promotion of stigmatics in Europe, c. 1800-1950. Between saints and celebrities. Leiden: Brill. In the nineteenth century a new type of mystic emerged in Catholic Europe. While cases of stigmatisation had been reported since the thirteenth century, this era witnessed the development of the ‘stigmatic’: young women who attracted widespread interest thanks to the appearance of physical stigmata. To understand the popularity of these stigmatics we need to regard them as the ‘saints’ and religious ‘celebrities’ of their time. With their ‘miraculous’ bodies, they fit contemporary popular ideas (if not necessarily those of the Church) of what sanctity was. As knowledge about them spread via modern media and their fame became marketable, they developed into religious ‘celebrities’.

Agnès Desmazières

La fondation, en 1884, du Bureau des constatations médicales, responsable de l’authentification médicale des guérisons miraculeuses à Lourdes, marque le début d’une « médicalisation du miracle ». Les médecins catholiques affirment leur compétence dans la discrimination entre « vrai » et « faux » mysticisme et promeut une apologétique médicale qui vise à répondre aux critiques rationalistes. Cependant, à partir des années 1920, leur autorité est contestée par les psychologues catholiques, menés par Agostino Gemelli, futur président de l’Académie pontifical des sciences, qui s’illustre dans l’opposition au stigmatisé Padre Pio et défend une apologétique positive basée sur l’autonomie des sciences, contre l’appropriation religieuse des sciences réalisée par les médecins catholiques. Les discussions scientifiques sur les apparitions mariales de Beauraing (Belgique) éclairent l’affrontement entre apologétiques médicale et psychologique. Elles mettent en évidence le processus de « psychologisation de la mystique », mis en lumière par Michel de Certeau, et la montée d’une critique moderne des phénomènes mystiques, fondée non seulement sur la psychologie, mais encore sur le développement d’une spiritualité laïque, qui s’émancipe de la religion populaire.

Religion: Super Religion, ed. Jeffrey Kripal

Cassandra Painter

Therese Neumann, Anna Katharina Emmerick, Anna Schaeffer, Adrienne von Speyer – these are some of the many Catholic women of modern German Europe who claimed to receive stigmata, the mystical wounds of Christ. In many cases, their lives and wounds sparked a flurry of public debate that can reveal much about the hopes and fears surrounding German Catholicism in a particular time and place. Some, such as Emmerick, also achieved a sustained following whose twists and turns can be tracked over time. Yet heretofore, the growing body of scholarship on modern German Catholicism has acknowledged these women in passing, if at all. This neglect may well be due to a general academic tendency to interpret stigmata as a product of internalized, psychologically damaging discourses of human (and especially female) imperfection and inferiority. The work of Caroline Walker Bynum, Andrea Dickens, and others, however, has revealed how mysticism functions as a suite of ideas and practices which can provide Christian women an alternative means of exercising power in the context of the patriarchal institutional Church. In this spirit, the physically punishing asceticism and gory wounds of women stigmatics become signs to be read in the light of the mystic’s theology and cultural context, revealing meanings other than those attributed to them, perhaps anachronistically, by modern psychology.

Nova Religio

Brian Britt

ABSTRACT: On the thirteenth of each month, from October 1990 until May 1994, Nancy Fowler appeared on the porch of a farmhouse in Conyers, Georgia, to deliver the message she had received from an apparition of the Virgin Mary. On apparition days, up to 80,000 ...

Giuseppe Dibello

A historical essay about Marian apparitions: from La Salette (France, 1846) to Fatima (1917), Marienfried (Germany, 1946) and Medjugorje (1981-), among others: they are false or true? Who appears when they don't refer to Christian figures? An explication through history, politics, "fanta-science", actuality, to explane the possible language of Christian and "other" apparitions.

Tourism Review

Darius Liutikas

Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss various aspects of the development of the places of apparitions and miraculous images, motives and behavioral characteristics of pilgrims coming to the miraculous places of the Virgin Mary in Lithuania. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews literature about miraculous events and presents miraculous places in Lithuania (apparition places of the Virgin Mary and sites of miraculous images). Various classifications are applied. Pilgrims’ motivation and behavioral aspects are analyzed based on the quantitative survey. Findings – The research showed that the main motives of religious pilgrims visiting miraculous places were asking for God’s grace, health, expressing gratitude to Jesus or Virgin Mary as well as spiritual quest and renewal. These places attract pilgrims who want to solve different problems in their life or to recover from illnesses. Religious pilgrimage has different forms and rituals, and constitutes different models of the specific behavior. During the journey, pilgrims perform various religious practices such as praying, singing hymns, kissing the relics, etc. The grouping of devotional rituals performed during the pilgrimage and at the destination place is presented. Originality/value – The paper is important to the researchers of pilgrimage and religious tourism. For the first time, miraculous places of Lithuania are analyzed in the broader international context. Classifications of the miraculous sites indicate various aspects of the development of these places. Motives and behavioral characteristics of pilgrims enable to better understand the multidimensional reality of religious pilgrimage. Keywords Religious tourism, Apparition places, Miraculous images, Miraculous places, Motivation and behavior of pilgrims, Lithuania Paper type Research paper

Clemens Cavallin

An area of religious expression in the late 20th and early 21st century that has received relatively little attention from scholars is that of Catholic private revelations. In this paper, a discussion is initiated which focuses on the new opportunities that the increasing speed of ...

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Michael Di Giovine

In the Catholic world, pilgrimages and other devotional rituals are often undertaken to foster healing and well-being Thus, shrines dedicated to saints are particularly relevant in times of pandemic Pilgrimage to the shrines associated with 20th century Italian stigmatic, St Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, known as one of the Catholic world’s most popular saints, is particularly informed by this notion, as Pio is understood as a healing saint thanks to the spiritual and corporal works of mercy that marked his ministry during his lifetime, as well as belief in the miraculous nature of his relics Pio’s hometown of Pietrelcina and his shrine at San Giovanni Rotondo boast millions of religious tourists each year, especially from Italy, Ireland and the Philippines—many of whom come with the expressed purpose of healing their ailments, praying for others who are suffering, or rendering thanks for healing received through the saint’s intercession The current COVID-19 crisis has also seen the fai...

DEVOTION TO THE HOLY FACE OF JESUS

Pedro Sisnando Leite

It is with the feeling of acknowledgement and praise to God that we are launching FACE OF CHRIST PUBLICATIONS. As a matter of fact, more than a desire of ours, it is a need that we have found, since we have performed evangelization through different media such as Television, with the Programa da Família (Family Program), the FACE OF CHRIST Magazine — the family magazine, Educational Tapes and CDs and music. However, we needed to announce the wonders of the Lord through books, even though there are several good writers among us. With the creation of FACE OF CHRIST, new horizons for the evangelization of families are opened, with that, our mission of announcing Jesus Christ, dead and risen, gains a new dimension. We are thankful to God because when He calls us for a mission, He gives us the means and the necessary talent to carry it out. Let the Face Of Christ shine resplendently in our lives.

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Introduction to the Catholic Religion: Beliefs, Practices, and History

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• Beliefs and Teachings
• Holy Days and Holidays
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• The New Testament
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The Catholic religion was established in the Mediterranean region during the first century by a small group of Jewish men and women who were one of several sects bent on reforming the Jewish faith. The word "Catholic" (which means "embracing" or "universal") was first used to refer to the early Christian church by the bishop and martyr Ignatius of Antioch in the first century.

According to figures from the seat of the church, the Vatican in Rome, there are currently 1.4 billion Catholics in the world today, with roughly 40% of them living in Latin America.

Key Takeaways: Catholic Religion

• Catholicism is a Christian religion, a reformation of the Jewish faith that follows the teachings of its founder Jesus Christ.
• Like other Christian religions (and Judaism and Islam), it is also an Abrahamic religion; Catholics consider Abraham as the ancient patriarch. 
• The current head of the church is the Pope, who resides in Vatican City. 
• There are 1.4 billion Catholics in the world today, about 40% of whom live in Latin America. 

What Do Catholics Believe?

The Catholic religion is monotheistic , meaning that Catholics believe there is only one supreme being, called God. The Catholic God has three aspects, known as the Trinity.

The Supreme Being is the creator, called God or God the Father, who resides in heaven and watches over and guides everything on earth. He is known as the lord of heaven and Earth. He's referred to as almighty, eternal, immeasurable, incomprehensible, and infinite in understanding, will, and perfection.

The Holy Trinity is made up of the Father (God), who has no origin and holds the sole power of creation; the Son (Jesus Christ) of God, who shares the wisdom of the Father; and the Holy Spirit, which is the personification of goodness and sanctity, arising from both the Father and Son.

The legendary Founder of the Catholic Church was a Jewish man named Jesus Christ who lived in Jerusalem and preached to a small group of followers. Catholics believe he was the "messiah," the son aspect of the Trinity, who was sent to Earth and born to redeem those who sin against the true religion. Christ is said to have had a human body and a human soul, identical to other humans except that he was without sin. Important religious events said to have occurred in the life of Christ are a virgin birth, miracles he performed during his life, martyrdom by crucifixion, resurrection from the dead, and ascension into heaven.

Significant Historical Figures

None of the individuals named in the Catholic religion as significant or sanctified figures have powers of creation, and as such, they are not to be worshiped, but they can be appealed to for intercession in prayers.

Mary is the name of the human person who was the mother of Jesus Christ, a resident of Bethlehem and Nazareth. She was told by an archangel that she would give birth to Christ as a virgin, and would remain a virgin after the birth. On her death, her body went through the process known as "the assumption," becoming the Queen of Heaven.

The Apostles were the original 12 disciples of Christ: led by Peter, a Galilean fisherman who might have been a follower of John the Baptist first. The others are Andrew, James the Greater, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the Lesser, Jude, Simon, and Judas. After Judas committed suicide, he was replaced by Matthias.

Saints are people who lived an exceptionally holy life, including many martyrs from the second and third centuries, and afterward, are said to reside eternally with God in heaven.

The Pope is the supreme pastor of the Catholic Church. The first pope was the apostle Peter, followed by Clement of Rome around the year 96.

Written Records and Authorities

The main religious document of the Catholic religion is the Judeo-Christian Bible, which Catholics believe to be the inspired word of God. The text includes the Old Testament of the Hebrew religion plus the canonical books of the New Testament as they were established in the fourth century. Parts of the Bible are to be read as literal truth; other parts are considered poetical expressions of faith, and the church leaders define which parts are which.

Canonical law for Catholics emerged from Judaism in the third century but did not become universal for the church until the 20th century. Three main works establishing the canon include Didache ("Teaching"), a Syrian document in Greek written between 90–100 CE; the Apostolic Tradition, a Greek manuscript written in either Rome or Egypt in the early third century, and the Didaskalia Apostolorum ("The Teaching of the Apostles"), from northern Syria and written in the early third century.

Commandments of the Church

There are several types of commandments—rules defining ethical behavior—that are included in Catholic dogma. The two major commandments of the Catholic religion are that believers must love God and keep his commandments. The Ten Commandments are the Jewish laws recorded in the Old Testament books of Exodus and Deuteronomy:

• I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
• Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
• Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
• Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
• Honor thy father and thy mother.
• Thou shalt not kill.
• Thou shalt not commit adultery.
• Thou shalt not steal.
• Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
• Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods.

In addition, there are six chief commandments of the Catholic Church. A Catholic adhering to the laws of the church must:

• Attend Mass on all Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation.
• Fast and abstain on appointed days.
• Confess sins once a year.
• Receive Holy Communion at Easter.
• Contribute to the support of the church.
• Observe the laws of the church concerning marriage.

The seven sacraments are ways in which bishops or priests intercede with or bring grace from God to ordinary people. These are the rites of baptism; confirmation; first Eucharist; penance or reconciliation; anointing of the sick; holy orders for ordained ministers (bishops, priests, and deacons); and marriage.

Prayer is an important aspect of Catholic life and there are five types of prayer performed by Catholics: blessing, petition, intercession, thanksgiving, and praise. Prayers may be directed to God or the saints , either individually or as a litany .

The main tenets of the Catholic religion are that 1) God is universal and loves everyone; 2) Jesus Christ came to save all the people; 3) not formally belonging to the Catholic Church is objectively sinful, and 4) no one who is sinful makes it into heaven.

Creation Story

The Catholic creation story says that God created the universe out of the void, first starting with the angels. One of the angels (Satan or Lucifer) rebelled and took a legion of angels with him (called Demons) and formed the underworld (Hell). Heaven is where goodness resides; Hell is where evil resides, and Earth is where evil and good are at battle.

The world was created in seven days. On the first day, God created the heavens, earth, and light; the firmament on the second; the grass, herbs, and fruit trees on the third; the sun, moon, and stars on the fourth; the creatures of the air and sea on the fifth; and the creatures of the land (including the first human) on the sixth day. On the seventh day, God rested.

The Afterlife

Catholics believe that when a person dies, the soul lives on. Each soul faces a "particular judgment," that is to say, God determines whether she or he has lived a good life and where she or he should spend eternity. If a person has learned to perfectly love God, her soul will go straight to heaven to enjoy endless happiness. If a person loves God imperfectly, her soul will go to Purgatory, where she will be purified before (eventually) going to heaven. If a person has rejected God's love or commits a mortal sin and dies before repenting, he is condemned to the everlasting torments of hell.

Some doctrines state that there is a fourth state called "limbo" where resides a soul who has not been baptized but has not committed any personal sin.

The Catholic Church believes that Christ will return to earth to save it again, announced by signs such as famine, pestilence, natural disasters, false prophets, wars, the renewed persecution of the church, and the fading of faith. The world will end with a revolt involving Satan and his demons ("The Great Apostasy"), a time of great sorrows ("The Great Tribulation"), and the appearance of an Anti-Christ, who will deceive men into believing he is a man of peace and justice.

When Christ returns, the bodies of the dead will be resurrected and reunited with their souls, and Christ will make a final judgment on them. Satan and his Demons and sinning humans will be thrown into Hell; people who belong in Heaven will go there.

Feasts and Holy Days

From the earliest days of the Church, Easter has been considered the central Christian feast. Easter's date is calculated based on the phases of the moon and the spring equinox. Although there are no special rites, other than going to church, performed on Easter in the West, members of the Eastern Orthodox Church will often recite the Homily of St. John Chrysostom  as well. Before Easter day is a 40-day period known as Lent, which has several important days and rites.

Next in importance are the festivals at Christmas, including Advent , the 40 days before the celebrated date for the birth of Jesus Christ, as well as events afterward.

Coming 50 days after Easter and 10 days after the Ascension , Pentecost marks the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles. For that reason, it is often called the "birthday of the Church."

History of the Founding of the Catholic Church

The Catholic Church is traditionally said to have been founded on Pentecost, the 50th day after its founder Jesus Christ ascended to heaven. On that day, Christ's apostle Peter preached to the "multitudes," people assembled in Rome including Parthians, Medes, and Elamites. Peter baptized 3,000 new Christians and sent them back to their home countries to spread the word.

The period from Pentecost until the death of the last Apostle is known as the Apostolic Era, and it was during that time that the church went underground because of Roman persecution. The first Christian martyr was Stephen in Jerusalem about 35 CE, about the same time Paul of Tarsus , who would become an important leader in the early church, was converted to Christianity while on the road to Damascus. Early church leaders met at the Council of Apostles and Elders in 49, to discuss how to modify the rules to allow new converts to be admitted even if they were not Jews, such as lifting dietary and circumcision rules. Paul began his missionary work in Cyprus and Turkey, and he and Peter were executed in Rome.

The second and third centuries saw continuing persecution of Christians by the Romans, who also persecuted other sects including Jewish and Manichean religious groups. The heroic ideal of martyrdom was experienced by men and women, young and old, slaves and soldiers, wives and popes. Not all Roman emperors were uniformly brutal, and during the centuries after Christianity became the state religion, they too practiced persecution of other non-Christian groups.

Establishing Institutions

The first Pope was Peter, although the leaders of the church were not called "pope" until the sixth century—Peter was officially the Bishop of Rome. There is some evidence that after Peter died, a group of bishops supervised the church in Rome, but the second official Pope was Clement in 96. The idea of a monarchical Pope was developed in the eastern part of the church and spread into Rome by the second century. Within 100 years, the control of the Bishop in Rome included regions outside of the city and Italy, through the direct intervention of Pope Stephen I.

Stephen broke the church into regional precincts called dioceses and set up a three-tiered episcopate: the bishops of dioceses, the bishops of larger towns, and the bishops of the three major sees: Rome, Alexandria. and Antioch . Eventually, Constantinople and Jerusalem also became major sees.

Schisms and Change

The most significant changes to the church came after the conversion of Emperor Constantine, who made Christianity the state religion in 324 CE, bringing the Christians out of the underground. The Roman Empire was eventually broken up by barbarian invaders, invaders who in turn converted to Christianity. Evangelization and conversion of central and northern Europe spread Christianity into those regions.

Beginning in the early seventh century, the Eastern church was threatened by the rise of Islam, although Muslim forces did not take Constantinople until 1453. Christians under the Islamic empire were a tolerated minority; eventually, a schism between Eastern and Western churches led to the separation of Eastern (to be called Orthodox) and Western (Catholic or Roman Catholic) churches.

The final great schism affecting the Catholic Church was in 1571, when Martin Luther led the Reformation, dividing the church and leading to the emergence of Protestantism.

Difference Between Catholic and Protestant Religions

The differences between the Catholic and Protestant religions were a result of the sixth-century Protestant Reformation of the church led by Martin Luther . Major changes Luther pushed for included a reduction in the number of sanctified and significant figures who should be prayed to, publishing the Bible in German (provided in Latin or Greek, it had been only accessible to educated authorities), and the marriage of priests. Luther was excommunicated for his beliefs.

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59 Catholic Church Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best catholic church topic ideas & essay examples, ✅ most interesting catholic church topics to write about, 💡 good research topics about catholic church.

• The Catholic Church and the Black Death in the 14th Century Therefore, the essence of this research paper is to investigate the role of Catholic Church during the Black Death, specifically paying attention to the steps the church used to prevent the disease, the Flagellants and […]
• The Corruption of the Catholic Church in Chaucer’s Works Using the central theme of religious hypocrisy, Chaucer successfully used the Pardoner, the Friar, and the Summoner characters to expose the church representatives’ corruption and evil practices.
• History of Catholic Church Catholic religion dominated the lives of the medieval people between the 5th and the 15th century. It was not easy to dislodge Christianity from the lives and minds of the medieval men and women, as […]
• The Catholic Church in the Roman Empire In its ethical concepts, the Roman Catholic Church developed from Stoicism, which was in great harmony with the public mood of the Roman Empire.
• Catholic Church View on Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery Therefore, the authors had a negative stance on cosmetic surgery performed on women, stating that it was a betrayal of the “truth of the feminine self” and a contribution to the exploitation of the female […]
• Indulgences in the Catholic Church The Pope is the highest level of clergy in the Catholic Church, with explicit respect and authority granted by the Christian ecclesiological doctrine.
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IvyPanda . 2023. "59 Catholic Church Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." September 26, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/catholic-church-essay-topics/.

1. IvyPanda . "59 Catholic Church Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." September 26, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/catholic-church-essay-topics/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "59 Catholic Church Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." September 26, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/catholic-church-essay-topics/.

Eastern Orthodoxy: An Evangelical Perspective

The Eastern Orthodox Church is one of two branches of the ancient Catholic Church. Prior to 1054 AD, the Catholic Church was formally united, while serious differences simmered beneath the surface. In 1054, the churches in Eastern Europe, Western Asia and Northern Africa finally broke fellowship with Rome, not wanting to cede ecclesiastical supremacy to the Roman bishop or to accept various dogmas popular in the West. Henceforth, the main centers of Orthodoxy would be Alexandria, Jerusalem, Antioch and Constantinople, with Constantinople serving as “first among equals.” Later, a fifth patriarchate arose in Moscow. Despite notable differences among themselves, the autonomous Orthodox churches have ever since remained loosely bound together by a common faith, liturgy, and system of government. Like Roman Catholics, Orthodox Christians believe that theirs is the one true apostolic Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

An interesting historical episode illuminates the sharp differences between Orthodox and Protestant interpretations of the Christian faith. In the late 1500’s, Philip Melanchthon, a disciple of Martin Luther, sent a copy of the newly formulated Augsburg Confession to Patriarch Joasaph of Constantinople, requesting that he might ” . . . find herein a faithful rendition of Christian truth.” Twenty years later, Joasaph’s successor, Jeremiah, finally responded, condemning as erroneous the Reformation teaching about spiritual authority, the divine nature, predestination, justification by faith alone, and the impropriety of icons and the veneration of the saints in divine worship. Further critiques would follow, effectively placing the Orthodox churches squarely and permanently in the Catholic tradition. It should be remembered, however, that Orthodoxy still remains at odds with Rome on such fundamental questions as the locus of doctrinal authority for the Church, the procession the Holy Spirit, and the nature of sin and salvation.

In this article, I will offer a brief evangelical perspective on Orthodox teaching about spiritual authority, salvation, and the Church. The reader is encouraged to study the Scriptures for himself in order to determine the truth about these fundamental themes.

Orthodox Christians teach that Christ has vested supreme authority in matters of faith and practice in the Church. Practically speaking, this means that authority is vested in the successors of the apostles—the bishops—and in various councils where the bishops infallibly worked out the true and binding meaning of the apostolic writings. Especially important are the seven Ecumenical Councils, held during the fourth through eighth centuries. These, along with the decrees of subsequent local councils, have determined the centuries-old shape of Orthodox tradition.

Following the lead of the sixteenth century Reformers, evangelical Christians argue that final authority in spiritual matters is vested solely in Christ and the Scriptures, especially the New Testament. This means that every believer has both a right and an obligation to seek from the Spirit of Christ the true meaning of the Bible for himself. Since Christ gives teachers to his Church, it is wise to listen carefully to their views. Nevertheless, no teacher, pastor, bishop, pope, council or tradition (other than the biblical tradition) has final authority over the conscience of the individual Christian man or woman. Martin Luther well expressed evangelical conviction on this matter when he said, “My conscience is captive to the Word of God.” Evangelicals find many passages in the New Testament to support Luther’s view (Matthew 23:8-10; Mark 7:1f; Luke 24:44f; John 16:13; 1 John. 2:27; Acts 17:11, 20:32).

For the Orthodox, salvation is theosis—the divinization of man. This startling concept seems to have originated with bishop Athanasius, who wrote, “God became man so that man might become god.” Orthodox theologians use ideas from Neo-Platonic philosophy to explain theosis. Theosis does not mean spiritual union with God’s essence which, after all, is humanly unknowable. Nor does it mean union with the hypostases, or Persons, of the Holy Trinity. Rather, it means union with the energies of God that, like the rays of the sun, emanate from His essence towards His creatures. This view of salvation supports one of the fundamental tenets of orthodoxy: God is so transcendent and so mysterious as to be essentially unknowable by man.

And yet, despite the vast chasm separating God and man, Orthodoxy affirms that Adam was created with in innate desire for fuller union with God—for a mystical participation in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). In the path of virtue, he would have attained it. But Adam’s transgression subjected him and his posterity to mortality, which now pressures all men to sin by choosing the things of this life rather than the things of God. Thus, Adam’s children do not inherit his guilt or a sin nature, only the spiritually weakening effect of mortality.

Christ offers salvation from this downward spiral by means of His incarnation, death and resurrection—all of which somehow lift believers out of their sin and mortality to God. Practically, salvation is accomplished through the cooperation of God and man. God reaches out to man in the Church, and especially in its sacraments. Man, however, must respond, freely partaking of the sacraments so as to receive the divine energies that produce theosis. This means that outside the (Orthodox) Church and its sacraments, there is no salvation.

The path to divinization includes other works as well: asceticism, prayer, contemplation, and good deeds. While water baptism and faithful Church membership apparently assure final salvation, Orthodoxy teaches that temporary punishments after death may also be necessary to make salvation complete.

Evangelical Christians find this soteriology truncated and unbiblical at many points. On the manward side, it denies that Adam’s sin is imputed to his offspring (Romans 5); that man inherits a sin nature as well as physical mortality (Mark 7; Romans 7, 8:1-8); that far from being free to respond to the Gospel, he is actually dead in trespasses and sins and therefore in desperate need of the grace of God to regenerate him and draw him to Christ (John 6; Ephesians 2); that salvation has primarily to do with pardon and deliverance from the wrath to come (Romans 1-3); that this pardon is received as a free gift, once for all, by faith at the moment of conversion (John 3, 6; Romans 3; Ephesians 2); and that the justified soul immediately enters Heaven at the moment of death (John 17; Philippians 1).

Similarly, on the Godward side Orthodoxy denies that God sovereignly elected a particular people to salvation before the creation of the world (John 17; Romans 8; Ephesians 1); that salvation is conferred solely only the basis of Christ’s righteous life and atoning death on the cross (Romans 3; 1 Corinthians 1; 2 Corinthians 5); that Christ’s death was substitutionary and therefore designed especially for God’s elect (John 10, 17; Romans 5; Ephesians 1); and that the Holy Spirit gives to the elect full assurance of their salvation, along with perseverance in the faith to the very end of their lives (John 14:16; Romans 8; Ephesians 1:13-14).

In sum, Orthodoxy rightly emphasizes that God created man for fellowship with Him, and that redemption has this great good in view. But by obscuring the biblical testimony concerning God’s actual plan of salvation, Orthodoxy makes the experience and enjoyment of this fellowship difficult at best.

Like Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy offers a sacerdotal interpretation of the Christian faith. That is, it emphasizes the Church, and especially the hierarchy of priests who allegedly mediate Christ and His salvation to His people. As we have seen, sacerdotalism entails that priests and bishops alone have the right to determine the true meaning of the New Testament for the faithful. Similarly, it entails that the priests alone hold the keys of the kingdom of God—the sacraments—in their hands.

Here, in a nutshell, was the bone of contention that gave rise to the Reformation. After centuries of toil under this kind of authoritarian system, the Reformers finally repudiated the sacerdotal interpretation of the Christian faith. Returning to the New Testament itself, they found to their amazement that Christ alone is the one Mediator between God and man, and that all true Christians are part of His eternal priesthood (1 Timothy 2; 1 Peter 2). This radically biblical view once again placed all believers under the direct authority of Christ and the apostolic writings. And this, in turn, made it possible for them to reexamine centuries of Christian tradition, much of which they found, to their amazement, was completely unbiblical. Thus, the Reformers not only challenged Catholic views on authority and salvation, but also on the mass, the number and nature of the sacraments, the veneration of Mary, prayers to the saints, the use of icons and relics in divine worship, and more. Succeeding generations of biblical Christians would question infant baptism, traditional ideas about Church-State relations, the gifts of the Spirit, and the true nature of Church government.

Orthodox and Roman Catholic theologians lament these challenges, finding in them a tragic departure from the one true apostolic faith. Evangelicals, on the other hand, welcome them, finding instead a departure from defective human traditions and a return to the pure apostolic faith. For evangelicals, this historical struggle for the biblical gospel is understood to be an ongoing work of the Spirit of Christ. While believers are semper reformans (ever reforming), their Lord is ever bringing His Church closer to ” . . . the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness Christ” (Ephesians 4).

Earlier I mentioned that upon reading a copy of the Augsburg Confession, Patriarch Jeremiah wrote back to Melanchton, repudiating it at nearly every point. I did not mention, however, another telling episode in the history of Protestant-Orthodox relations that occurred around the same time.

In 1620, Patriarch Cyril of Lucaris also investigated the new Protestant teachings. But unlike Jeremiah, Cyril was so taken with them that he immediately proposed a new Orthodox confession constructed along essentially Calvinistic lines. Sadly, history shows that his labors met with widespread rejection from Orthodox leaders. That rejection became official and has continued right up to our own day.

Evangelical Christians, glorying in the simplicity and newfound freedom of the biblical gospel, are disappointed that Cyril’s views did not prevail. We pray that they yet might, even as we remain confident that Christ will indeed bring His people to the unity of the one true faith. Until that day, however, it falls to every believer to decide for himself which interpretation of the Christian religion accords best with the teaching of Christ and His apostles. Like the Bereans of old, we must search the Scriptures daily to see which of all these things are so (Acts 17:11).

Bibliography

• Walter Elwell, ed., The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, (Baker, 2001). See Article: The Orthodox Tradition.
• Paul Negrut, Searching for the True Apostolic Church.
• Benjamin Warfield, The Plan of Salvation, (Eerdmans 1975).

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‘Redemption and suffering’: The turbulent history of Moscow’s Immaculate Conception Cathedral

By Courtney Mares

Rome Newsroom, Mar 24, 2022 / 09:15 am

More than 15 years before Our Lady of Fatima asked for the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, construction began in Moscow on a cathedral dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. It was to be the largest Catholic cathedral in Russia.

The neo-Gothic cathedral was built before the Russian Revolution with a design by Foma Bogdanovich-Dvorzhetsky, an architect who had trained at the Imperial Academy of the Arts inaugurated by Catherine the Great.

At the time, Moscow’s Catholic minority population numbered more than 30,000, which exceeded the capacity of the city’s two existing Catholic churches.

Construction began in 1901 and lasted for 10 years until the church was consecrated on December 21, 1911, in the name of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Father Mikhail Tsakul was the cathedral’s first rector. He came from a family with Polish roots. He had studied in the St. Petersburg Catholic Seminary, where he was greatly influenced by Servant of God Father Konstantin Budkevich — who was later executed on the night of Holy Saturday in 1923 for organizing non-violent resistance against the first Soviet anti-religious campaign.

As rector, Tsakul was repeatedly arrested in the years following the 1917 Russian Revolution. He was arrested in 1924, 1927, 1929, and again in 1931, when he was seized with a group of Catholic clergy and laypeople accused of “raising children in an anti-Soviet spirit.”

Tsakul was exiled to Tambov, central Russia, for two years before he was allowed to return to Moscow, where he resumed his ministry.

Less than five years after his return, the priest was arrested for offering Mass on May 3, Poland’s Constitution Day, at the request of the Polish ambassador. He was held in the notorious Butyrka prison for three months before he was sentenced to death.

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He was shot dead on Aug. 21, 1937, and buried in a common grave with other victims of Soviet persecution.

Among the other martyr priests closely connected with the cathedral are Father Sergey Solovyov and Blessed Leonid Fedorov , who offered his last Easter Mass there before he died after years of labor in a gulag.

After the death of its rector, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was closed in 1938 and its property looted. It would be more than 50 years before Mass was offered again inside the cathedral, which did not reopen until 1999.

During the atheistic Soviet era, the cathedral building housed a scientific research institute and its interior was completely changed so that it could be used as dormitory space for machine operators.

In 1990, Soviet authorities gave Father Tadeusz Pikus , a chaplain for Polish people working in the USSR, permission to offer Mass on the steps outside of the cathedral. Hundreds of people attended the outdoor Mass held in December in the bitter cold.

But it would be years until the cathedral building was returned to the Catholic Church.

Catholics in Moscow continued to attend Mass every so often on the steps of the cathedral, and later in its narthex, in the years that followed, until Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz sent a letter to President Boris Yeltsin in 1995 requesting the previously authorized transfer of the cathedral to the Catholic Church be expedited.

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In 1999, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano reconsecrated the cathedral.

The following year, a statue of Our Lady of Fatima was crowned in the cathedral and a Eucharistic procession was held through the streets of Moscow.

Pope John Paul II prayed the rosary via teleconference with Catholics gathered inside the Moscow cathedral in March 2002.

On the 100th anniversary of the cathedral’s consecration, Benedict XVI said that the history of Moscow’s Immaculate Conception Cathedral was one of “redemption and suffering.” He described the cathedral as “a bright symbol of the strength of faith.”

Today, Masses are regularly held in the massive neo-Gothic cathedral in Russian, Polish, English, and French with as many as 11 Masses held in the cathedral on Sundays.

A priest said in 2017 that around 150 people are baptized into Catholicism each year in Moscow.

Archbishop Paolo Pezzi, who leads the Catholic Archdiocese of the Mother of God at Moscow, welcomed “with great joy and gratitude” Pope Francis’ decision to consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25.

The archbishop will offer Mass in the cathedral on March 25, the Solemnity of the Annunciation, and the congregation will watch and pray along with the live broadcast of the pope’s consecration from Moscow.

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As the Soviet Union was disintegrating 30 years ago, St. John Paul II appointed apostolic administrators for the pastoral care of Latin Rite Catholics based in Moscow and Siberia.

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Catholicism: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edn)

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Despite a long history of external threats and internal strife, the Roman Catholic Church remains a vast and influential presence in our modern world. But what were its origins, and how has it changed over the centuries? Catholicism: A Very Short Introduction covers the history of the Catholic Church and considers some of the key issues facing Catholicism today, such as the recent clerical abuse scandals and the impact of the growth of Islam. It also shows how Catholics are being increasingly challenged by tensions between their traditional Christian values and rights endorsed by the secular world, and considers the future for the largest and oldest institution in the world.

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“The Glorious Palms of Martyrs”: On the Damascus Martyrs of 1860

Eight Franciscan friars and three Maronite laymen martyred during the massacre of Christians in Damascus in July 1860 be canonized on October 20, 2024.

September 7, 2024 J. J. Ziegler Essay , Features , Special Report 0 Print

On May 23, Pope Francis  approved  a request by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to canonize eight Franciscan friars and three Maronite laymen martyred during the  massacre of Christians in Damascus  in July 1860. On July 1, during an ordinary public consistory of the College of Cardinals, Pope Francis  announced  that the eleven martyrs would be canonized on October 20, along with Blesseds  Giuseppe Allamano ,  Marie-Léonie Paradis , and  Elena Guerra .

In approving the canonization of the Damascus martyrs, who were beatified in 1926, Pope Francis acceded to  petitions  from the Order of Friars Minor and the Holy Synod of Maronite Bishops.

“The martyrs of Damascus are a fine image of the Church that has been able to experience the missionary testimony up to the gift of life,” Father Francesco Patton, OFM, the Custos, or superior, of the Franciscan province of the Holy Land,  said  following the papal approval of the canonization. “May these martyrs be an example for all of us, friars of the Custody, never to spare ourselves in our mission.”

“It gives us hope, it shows us where to put our feet on the path towards saintliness, which is the destination of every person who devotes their life to loving God and their neighbor,” added Father Firas Lufti, OFM, the guardian of the  Franciscan monastery  in Damascus where the martyrdom took place, and where the martyrs’ relics are venerated.

Pope Pius XI beatified the eleven martyrs on October 10, 1926, with his apostolic letter  Contingit ex auspicato.  The letter, published in  Acta Apostolicae Sedis  (Acts of the Apostolic See, pp. 411-415), was reprinted in the  Acta Ordinis Fratrum Minorum  (Acts of the Order of Friars Minor) and in  The Irish Ecclesiastical Record ,  but has never to my knowledge been translated into English.

In view of the martyrs’ upcoming canonization, I have translated  Contingit ex auspicato  into English, retaining the pontiff’s use of the  historical present tense  as he vividly described some of the martyrdoms.

In  Contingit ex auspicato,  Pope Pius XI referred to the beatification process  de non cultu  ( here  defined) and to the greater double rite ( here  described), as well as to the dispensation of the requirement for miracles prior to beatification, in accord with  Canon 2116  of the 1917 Code of Canon Law. There was a typographical error in the letter: the vigil of Pentecost was described as taking place on June 22, 1926, though it fell on May 22 that year.

Pope Pius referred to the martyrs’ slayers as Turks. The Custody of the Holy Land  describes the assailants  as Druze Shiites, who at the time were subjects of the Turkish Ottoman Empire.

For those with a desire for a deeper knowledge of the historical context, the destruction of Damascus’s Christian quarter, during which the martyrdom of the eleven took place, is the subject of books by the Lebanese historian Leila Tarazi Fawaz and by Eugene Rogan, professor of modern Middle Eastern history at the University of Oxford. Fawaz wrote  An Occasion for War  in 1994 and focused on the massacre in Chapter 4; Rogan published  The Damascus Events  earlier this year. Rogan has discussed the destruction of the Christian quarter in several recent  podcasts .

THE VENERABLE SERVANTS OF GOD

THE PRIEST MANUEL RUIZ AND SEVEN COMPANIONS, O.F.M

AND ALSO THREE BROTHERS

FRANCIS, MOOTI, AND RAPHAEL MASSABKI

MARTYRS AT DAMASCUS

ARE DECLARED BLESSEDS

Pope Pius XI

For the perpetual memory thereof. — Out of this auspicious year, indeed in these days in which, in the whole world, festivals are held in honor of the seventh centenary of the death of Saint Francis of Assisi, it happens that eight illustrious sons of the same Saint, who poured forth their blood in this our age for asserting the faith of Christ, are advanced, by solemn rite, to the honors of Blessed Martyrs.

In the year 1860, in the monastery in Damascus joined by spiritual bond to the Custody of the Holy Land, the unconquered heroes, killed in hatred of the Faith by barbaric crowds of Turks, themselves accomplished a martyrdom glorious in the sight of the Lord.

The first of them, Manuel Ruiz, a Spaniard by birth, had received the religious habit of Francis in the year 1825. The priest, perceiving himself called to preach Christ’s word to unbelievers, had come to the Missions of the Holy Land, and after exhausting years, through further apostolic labors with the richest fruit, governed the monastery at Damascus with singular prudence, and with a reputation of holiness.

The second, Carmelo Volta, himself also a Spaniard, entered the Order of Friars Minor in the province of Valencia in the same year 1825, and sent to Palestine, had been selected, as most knowledgeable in the Arabic language, as teacher of Missionaries in Damascus.

The third, Engelbert Kolland from the Tyrolean province, was a man of remarkable holiness and innocence of conduct, as well as of keen intelligence. Having made his solemn vows, he had come to Damascus, to the sacred Missions, and was a tireless helper of the previously mentioned Manuel in the pastoral office.

The fourth, Nicanor Ascanio, addressed by Arabs as Joseph, was from the Castilian province. After twenty years of active priestly ministry in Spain as a most eloquent herald of the divine Word, he had come to Palestine, so that also in that place he might sow the crop rich above all others in the Lord’s field.

The fifth and sixth were Nicolás Alberca from Andalusia and Pedro Soler from the Murcian province, men of remarkable virtue; the first was born in the year 1830, the second in the year 1827. Having been professed in the Order of Minors in the flower of youth, and having reached the Missions of Palestine, they devoted themselves in Damascus to the study of the Arabic language.

Two lay brothers, Francisco Pinazo d’Arpuentes and Juan Jacob Fernández, both Spaniards, served these illustrious priests. Resplendent with the spirit of piety, not less than that of humility, assigned to service in the monastery at Damascus, they fulfilled the tasks of their office most diligently, and with singular obedience.

That most hideous persecution against Christians, set in motion by the hostile enemies of the Faith of Christ on the tenth day of the month of July in the year 1860, stole away all these men, intent on their accustomed pious works. The persecution flared suddenly and brought destruction, fire, pillage, and slaughter.

And indeed, the infuriated throngs of Turks storm into the monastery and first rage against Manuel Ruiz. Warned about the imminent massacre, and with his companions strengthened for perseverance by sacramental absolution, he had come into the church to consume the sacred species, “lest he give up the heavenly members to rabid dogs.” Urged in vain to defect from the Faith, he himself is slaughtered by the sword, as he was praying on bended knees before the high altar.

Carmelo Volta, himself also invited again and again to embrace the Mohammedan religion, is killed by being beaten with a club.

Pedro Soler, as he professed that he was a Christian, is transfixed by a sword.

Nicolás Alberca, after he had declared openly that he would rather die a thousand times than defect from the Faith, is killed by a shot from a fiery crossbow.

Engelbert Kolland, who had fled from the religious house and had been able to escape from the first moment of slaughter, was caught by pursuers. Tempted to apostasy without success, he was struck with a hatchet and lay dead.

At length, Nicanor Ascanio was detected and slain on the upper floor of the monastery, and he himself gained an equal share of martyrdom with his companions.

The two lay brothers, Francisco Pinazo and Juan Jacob Fernández, who had fled into the bell tower, were sought by accomplices with cudgels and a sword. They prayed with hands raised to heaven until they were thrown headfirst from the top of the tower and acquired the glorious palms of Martyrs.

But not only did it fall to the eight sons of St. Francis to encounter death for Christ on that day; indeed, the fury of the Turks also burned against the brothers Francis, Mooti, and Raphael Massabki, Maronite Catholic men.

The first of them, Francis, seventy years old, abounded in a conspicuous patrimony of riches, not less than of Christian virtues, and for that reason prospered with the best reputation in the presence of the citizens of Damascus.

The second, Mooti, like his brother Francis a most virtuous father of a family, left behind his business, which he had conducted as honorably as possible. Dedicated to works of piety, he was handing on the Arabic language in the school of the Franciscan monastery.

Finally, the third, Raphael, celibate, surrendering himself wholly to prayer and living an ascetic life, frequented the church of the Franciscan friars every day.

Lest they abandon the Franciscan fathers in their peril, the same three men, at the first sound of the tumult, run to the monastery, and there, refreshed by the Eucharistic banquet, prayed before the altar together with the Religious. Heedless of their children and familial affairs, they courageously awaited death.

Seized by the Mohammedans storming into the church, they professed that they were Christians and moreover would die for the Faith of Christ. And immediately, before the steps of the high altar of the church itself, they were killed with iron clubs.

After this horrendous slaughter, the Servants of God began to be considered to be Martyrs of Christ, slain as victims by the ferocity of Mohammedans in hatred of the Faith. For this reason, the cause was first begun of decreeing the honors of Blessed Martyrs for the eight sons of the family of Friars Minor. Our Predecessor Pope Leo XIII, on December 17, 1885, affixed a seal with his own hand to the Commission of the introduction of the Cause.

Afterwards, when, under the Congregation of Sacred Rites, the question was proposed about martyrdom, and the cause of martyrdom, and likewise about signs and miracles, and it was indeed certain that the massacre of the same eight Servants of God from the Franciscan family occurred above all in hatred of the Christian name, and the Faith alone was its cause, We declared, in a solemn decree, on May 2, 1926, that the cause of martyrdom of Manuel Ruiz and his seven companions is certain. From the precept concerning signs or miracles, a dispensation was granted.

When, therefore, there was certainty about martyrdom and the cause of martyrdom, it remained for the Cardinals and Consultors of the Sacred Rites to be asked whether they recommended that the solemn Beatification of the same eight Servants of God could safely proceed. Our venerable brother Gennaro Granito Pignatelli di Belmonte, Bishop of Albano, Relator of the Cause, provided this in the general assembly of Sacred Rites, held in Our presence in the Vatican on June 18 of the current year, and all who were present — both the Cardinals and the Father Consultors –responded in the affirmative.

We, in truth, on the vigil day of Pentecost, namely, June 22 of this year, with the Sacred Eucharistic rite offered, and with Our Venerable Brothers summoned and present — Antonio Vico, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Bishop of Porto and Santa Rufina, Prefect of the Congregation of Sacred Rites; Gennaro Granito di Belmonte, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Bishop of Albano, Relator of the Cause; together with Our beloved sons Angelo Mariani, secretary of the same Congregation of Sacred Rites, and Carlo Salotti, general Promoter of the Holy Faith — We solemnly declared that it is safe to proceed to the Beatification of the eight sons of the seraphic family.

Then, when the decision about these men was made known, Our venerable brother Béchara Chémali, Maronite Archbishop of Damascus, expressed, too, the desires of the Eastern Patriarchs and Bishops: he entreated Us with pious requests that the honors of the heavenly Blesseds also be decreed for the three Massabki brothers, slain in hatred of the Faith, in one and the same slaughter as the previously mentioned Franciscan Religious.

We, moreover, willing to grant these requests, ordered that a judicial process be instituted in Damascus concerning the martyrdom of the same three Servants of God. When there was certainty about the martyrdom and cause of martyrdom, after a customary decree of the Congregation of Sacred Rites for these men was given on the fifth day of this month, and also a dispensation from signs according to law, at length on the seventh day of October, We decreed that to these three Servants of God also, the honors of the heavenly Blesseds could safely be granted.

Because these things are so, We, moved by the desires of the whole family of the Order of Friars Minor, and at the same time of the Archbishop of Damascus and the Eastern Bishops, and of the clergy and faithful of the Maronites, by Our apostolic authority, with the force of this letter, grant the faculty that the Venerable Servants of God Manuel Ruiz, Carmelo Volta, Engelbert Kolland, Nicanor Ascanio, Nicolás Alberca, and Pedro Soler, priests; Francisco Pinazo d’Arpuentes and Juan Jacob Fernández, lay Brothers, from the Order of Minors; and likewise the three Maronites, the brothers Francis, Mooti, and Raphael Massabki, be given the name of Blesseds, and that their bodies and relics, if extant, be proposed for the public veneration of the faithful, though not in a solemn fashion, and that their images be decorated with rays.

Moreover, by the same authority of Ours, we grant that their Office be recited and Mass be celebrated from the common of Martyrs, according to the Rubrics of the Roman Missal and Breviary. In such a manner, we specifically grant that the recitation of the Office and celebration of the Mass occur to this extent: in the dioceses in which the same Servants of God were respectively born, and likewise within the boundaries of the Maronite Archdiocese of Damascus and also in all the churches and chapels, wherever located in the world, with monasteries attached, which pertain to the family of Friars Minor; by all the faithful, whether seculars or religious, who are bound to recite the canonical Hours; and in what pertains to Masses, by assembled priests at the churches in which the feast of the Blessed Martyrs themselves is celebrated.

Finally, we grant that the solemnities of the Beatification of the same Servants of God be accomplished with an Office and Mass of greater double rite: and we grant that it be done in the aforesaid dioceses, and in churches or oratories, which we have named, on a day designated by the Ordinary, within a year after the same solemnities have been celebrated in the Patriarchal Vatican Basilica.

All things to the contrary notwithstanding, including Apostolic Constitutions and ordinances, and also published decrees  de non cultu . We wish, moreover, that copies of this Letter also be printed, provided that they be secured with the handwritten signature of the Secretary of the Congregation of Sacred Rites and the seal of the Prefect. We wish that in juridical discussions also, the same straightforward fidelity be extended, which has been held by the signification of Our will in this letter here shown.

Given at Rome, at St. Peter’s, under the ring of the Fisherman, on October 10, 1926, in the fifth year of Our Pontificate.

From P. Cardinal Gasparri, Secretary of State

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Exploring Catholic Moscow: History, beauty and where to worship

Catholicism has become such an integral part of Moscow and the lives of its inhabitants, that even many non-Catholics have added Catholic Christmas on December 25 to their list of winter holidays. These days the winter holiday hustle and bustle in Moscow begins in the middle of December and continues until mid-January when Russians celebrate one of their most mysterious holidays – Old New Year.

Many of Moscow’s Catholic sights emerged in the 18th century. These include Gothic Roman Catholic cathedrals, old mansions and Orthodox church dedicated to Pope St. Clement I .  

1. Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin Mary (27/13 Malaya Gruzinskaya ul.)

This is the  largest Catholic cathedral in Russia . It was founded at the beginning of the 20th century on Malaya Gruzinskaya ul. where a large Polish diaspora community lived. During the Soviet period this cathedral shared the fate of many houses of worship: at first it was closed down, and later reformatted into a Soviet secular institution. Only in 1999 did this Roman Catholic church reopen to its congregation in its original Neo-Gothic form.

Today concerts of spiritual music are regularly held, there is an acting congregational choir and Christmas is celebrated according to Catholic rules: They put up the nativity scene, decorate fir trees, build booths for a charitable fair and organize concerts of organ music. On Christmas Eve a solemn mass and a parish dinner are held.

2. Vatican Embassy in the Russian Federation (7/37 Vadkovsky pereulok)

The Vatican Embassy in Moscow is notable first and foremost for its building, a gorgeous Art Nouveau mansion. It opens up to the public twice a year, both during the Days of the Historical and Cultural Heritage of Moscow in April and May (guided tours are provided). Despite the numerous contacts between the Vatican and the Russian Empire, official diplomatic relations between the two states were only established in 1990 and at the time only at the level of permanent diplomatic missions. In 2009, after the visit of then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the mission’s status was upgraded to full relations with an embassy.

3. St. Clement’s Church (26/1 Pyatnitskaya ul.)

Snuggled in between Malaya Ordynka and Pyatnitskaya streets, St. Clement’s Church is dedicated to this Roman Pope, a saint revered equally by the Orthodox and Catholic churches.

The blue and golden domes of this church overlook a recently renovated area of Zamoskvorechye, an old Moscow district that has retained much of its charm. You should definitely have a walk along the European-style promenade with its cycling trail, access to pedestrian streets and many trendy cafes.

4. Vvedenskoye cemetery (1 Nalichnaya ulitsa)

The Vvedenskoye cemetery (also referred to as the German cemetery) in southeast Moscow is full of mausoleums and monuments created by famous architects. Up until the Soviet period the cemetery was the final resting place for members of the capital’s Catholic and Protestant population, as well as foreign soldiers that died during various conflicts. Since its opening in 1771 this cemetery has become a site of cultural heritage and today guided tours are offered in English, German and French.

Great scientists, actors, writers and artists have been buried here, along with Peter the Great’s associates Franz Lefort and Patrick Gordon , French soldiers that died in Moscow during Napoleon's invasion and pilots from the Normandie-Niemen Regiment (in the 1950s their remains were transferred to France, but the memorial is still preserved).

5. Duchess Zinaida Volkonskaya’s mansion (14 Tverskaya ul.)

It's a paradox, but the luxurious Yeliseyevsky store on Tverskaya ul. is also connected with the history of Catholicism in Moscow. The market where you can buy replica Fabergé eggs filled with vodka and the most expensive baguette in the city used to be the center of Moscow's cultural life – the secular salon of Duchess Zinaida Volkonskaya , a representative of high nobility and a patron of arts. Volkonskaya, who lived here in the 1820s, was known for her conversion from Orthodox Christianity to Catholicism, a very brave move at a time when changing religious confessions was considered a crime punishable by the confiscation of property.

6. The Church of St. Louis of France (12A Malaya Lubyanka ul.)

The Church of St. Louis of France is hidden in the backyard of a district that was once famous for housing the KGB headquarters. During the Soviet period it was the only place in Moscow where Catholic services were regularly held. The U.S. Consulate chaplain Leopold Braun, who conducted mass here while living in Moscow from 1936-1945, was something akin to a head of the Catholic Church in the Soviet Union for a time.

Today the cathedral is thriving: Catholic masses are held in seven languages ranging from Italian to Vietnamese and every year on March 26 during the Days of the Historical and Cultural heritage of Moscow guided tours are organized. These tours come highly recommended, as many interesting events have occurred here since its founding by order of Catherine the Great in 1789.

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