A Significant Shift: A Pentadic Analysis of the Two Rhetorics of the Post-Vatican II Roman Catholic Church Regarding Homosexuality

This paper argues that, since the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II), there has been a significant shift in the rhetorical stance of the Roman Catholic Church toward homosexuality in which the pre-council rhetoric, which condemned both act (i.e., homosexual behavior) and actor (i.e., the homosexual) has been replaced by two distinctly different rhetorics: a moral rhetoric, which continues the Church's long-standing condemnation of homosexual acts as sins, and a pastoral rhetoric, which argues that homosexuals should be ministered to and embraced. A Burkean pentadic analysis is used to define how the two rhetorics differ from each other and from the earlier rhetoric. The three major influences (i.e., Scripture, Tradition, and Catholic theology/philosophy) that have shaped, and continue to shape, the Church's position regarding homosexuality are described. Some of the socio-political implications of this shift are emphasized.     

The Roman Catholic Church: A Centuries Old History of Awareness of Clerical Child Sexual Abuse (from the First to the 19th Century)

Debates in international forums and in mainstream media on the role, responsibility, liability, and response of ecclesiastical authorities of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) toward clerical child sexual abuse (cCSA) fail to take into account the historical roots and awareness of the problem. Reports also fail to mention the historic organizational laws RCC developed over centuries. In contrast, RCC documents evidence that the Catholic Church not only carried century’s old history of cCSA, but also repeatedly condemned cCSA by successive papal authorities, organizational laws, and institutional management mechanisms. During the first millennium, however, church laws remained confined to the bookshelves and were not converted into appropriate management policies and infrastructural models. This was largely due to the absence of a central administrative organizational structure, which developed later in the 12th century, following the Second Council of Lateran (1139) when the Papacy asserted its authority to establish administrative control over the organizational church. It was only then that management policies started to be framed and institutional structures enacted to deal more appropriately with cCSA from the 14th to 20th centuries. Despite this, RCC developed a culture of secrecy using clandestine organizational management models and institutional laws prescribed in 1568, 1622, 1741, 1866, 1922, and 1962 which aimed to manage cCSA. The current study traces reported cCSA as far back as the first century and critically examines the organizational laws, and institutional policies developed by RCC to address clerical sexual misconduct up to the end of the 19th century.     

Assessing reporting patterns of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church using discontinuities in model parameter timeseries

Prior to 2002, little was known about sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. After the Boston Globe broke the story about John Geoghan - a priest in the Boston Archdiocese who was accused of abusing numerous children, convicted of one count of indecent assault, and eventually murdered in prison - the Church had many questions to answer. To this end, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) commissioned John Jay College of Criminal Justice to research the nature and scope, as well as the causes and context of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.This research analyzes the data from the John Jay studies using a new quantitative technique, capable of adjusting for distortions introduced by delays in abuse reporting. By isolating discontinuities in model parameter timeseries, we determine changes in reporting patterns occurred during the period 1982-1988. A posteriori to the analysis, we provide some possible explanations for the changes in abuse reporting associated with the change-point. While the scope of this paper is limited to presenting a new methodological approach within the frame of a particular case study, the techniques are more broadly applicable in settings where reporting lag is manifested.     

天主教会与西欧中世纪经济的复兴

因罗马帝国后期的内乱、日耳曼人大迁徙带来的长期战乱,致使西欧进入中世纪出现了土地荒芜、技术落后、经济发展长期停滞的局面,是天主教会组织带头进行农业垦殖、传播生产技术、建设公共设施,促进了经济的复兴。     

近代直隶天主教传教士对自然灾害的赈济

近代以来,直隶地区灾荒频仍.面对自然灾害,传教士采取多种方式救助灾民,取得了一定成效.传教士在本着博爱、慈善愿望开展赈济事业的同时,也带有改变教会殖民形象和吸引灾民入教的实用功利动机.正因为一些传教士过分注重赈济事业的传教目的,采取了一些急功近利的传教政策,故而弱化了教会赈济事业的慈善色彩.     

王徴研究综述（1979-2009）

王徴的研究是探索陕西天主教历史与现状而绕不开的一个课题。北京师范大学古籍整理研究所的毛瑞方于2006年在《中国史研究动态》第8期上撰文发表《王徴研究学术史回顾与展望》,文章全面梳理了自清初以降至当代研究王徴的学术作品,细致入微,逻辑宏观。另外作者还展望了今后研究应当努力的方向。对王徴的研究综述是从20世纪70年代末的研究成果开始,主要是总结30年来学界对王？研究的重点及以后努力的方向。     

Collaborative Responses to the Demands of Emerging Human Needs

Abstract

The paper explores the disintegration and integration which exist between faith and religion and social work and learning. There is a brief explanation of Catholic Papal Teachings and Catholic Social Teaching as a demonstration of de facto concordance between social work and religion. The paper contains citations based on the current social principles of the Catholic Church, several recent papal exhortations and encyclicals. These readings highlight the need for good social work practice. The paper ends with some practical suggestions in ways to promote collaboration between the two fields of endeavor.     

Intellectual disability and faith communities: perspectives of Catholic religious leaders

Faith communities create community and are important to many individuals with intellectual disability. However, relatively little is known about how intellectual disability is construed among faith leaders and the inclusion of people with intellectual disability in faith communities. To address these gaps in knowledge, we interviewed 12 Catholic priests, parochial vicars, and deacons to explore: their experiences with individuals with intellectual disability; their beliefs towards the involvement of individuals with intellectual disability within faith communities; and how religion informs their understanding of intellectual disability. We identified five religiously-anchored narratives of intellectual disability, and explore implications for individuals with intellectual disability and faith communities.     

“Something More”: The Meanings of Marriage for Religious Couples in America

This study focused on how couples’ beliefs about marriage and religion shape the meanings they find in their marriage. Interviews about connections between religion and marriage were conducted with 57 Christian, Jewish, and Muslim couples in New England and northern California. Qualitative analyses found the major theme, common across faith traditions, was that marriage is a sacred union that is “something more": more than the self, more than the couple, and more than the family unit. To these couples marriage is divine and institutional and a vital support for their relationship. Our findings raise an interesting counterpoint to the current scholarly discourse about the deinstitutionalization and individualization of contemporary marriage. Institutionalized features of marriage may retain their strength in contemporary society as many religious couples, and perhaps many other couples as well, believe marriage is something more than the deinstitutionalized, private relationship that many scholars now see.     

日据时期台湾天主教信徒与台湾社会

天主教是近世台湾社会的一重要力量,但大陆对其研究的各种论述却极为鲜见。日据时期,天主教会改变传教方法,吸收台湾民众入教,信徒人数不断发展,对台湾社会产生了深远影响。