Controversy Confusion and Catastrophe - Catholicism in the Wake of Vatican II

Controversy Confusion and Catastrophe - Catholicism in the Wake of Vatican II PDF

Author: John Frawley

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-01

Total Pages: 142

ISBN-13: 9781925138627

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Authority encroaching on the human desire for liberty, happiness and fulfilment in life is often perceived as interfering with individual human rights. Such criticism has always attached to the Catholic Church, an authoritarian institution with, some say, little or no understanding of modern human life. Rather than producing the invigorated Church relevant to the new millennium envisaged and intended, the fifty years following the Second Vatican Council have been marred by factional divisions serving self interests and on-going demands for reform and renewal, often in blatant disregard for Papal authority and Church moral teaching. The controversies and confusions which drive the demands for renewal and reform arise in the main from disagreement with Catholic teaching on matters of human life morality embracing issues such as contraception, abortion, euthanasia, life creating technologies such as cloning and in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), human sexuality, marriage and family, ordination to priesthood and some aspects of feminism. From a Catholic moral perspective, this book seeks to engender understanding and to dispel confusion in the discussion of these controversial issues by outlining what the Church teaches on human life, why it does so and what the Second Vatican Council documents proclaim on these matters.

Catholic Matters

Catholic Matters PDF

Author: Richard John Neuhaus

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 2007-03-09

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 0465003796

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In Catholic Matters, Father Neuhaus addresses the many controversies that have marked recent decades of American Catholicism. Looking beyond these troubles to "the splendor of truth" that constitutes the Church, he proposes a forward-thinking way of being Catholic in America. Drawing on his personal encounters with the late John Paul II and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, Neuhaus describes their hope for a springtime of world evangelization, Christian unity, and Catholic renewal. Catholic Matters reveals a vibrant Church, strengthened and unified by hardship and on the cusp of a great revival in spiritual vitality and an even greater contribution to our common life.

Tumultuous Times

Tumultuous Times PDF

Author: Francisco Radecki

Publisher: St. Joseph's Media

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 692

ISBN-13: 9780971506107

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Well-documented story of the Ecumenical Councils of the Catholic Church. The second part of this work analyzes Vatican II and its effect on our world today. The turbulent history of the Catholic Church will come alive as the centuries unfold before the reader. God's tender care for His children amid life's storms and tumultuous times is evident and unmistakable.

Lost & Found Catholics

Lost & Found Catholics PDF

Author: Christopher M. Bellitto

Publisher: Franciscan Media

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 100

ISBN-13: 9780867163124

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Hear the stories of a generation coming to terms with their own experience of Church. Christopher Bellitto, himself a member of this generation, has listened to these prodigal sons and daughters. These voices offer poignant and articulate perceptions of the confusion that followed the wake of Vatican II. In Lost and Found Catholics, those reaching back to the Church or trying to find a comfortable spot to call home will hear echoes of their own stories and perhaps find the catalyst for coming to terms with their own experience of Church. Those who minister to returning Catholics will understand more deeply the concerns of these lost and found Catholics.

Vatican II

Vatican II PDF

Author: Massimo Faggioli

Publisher: Paulist Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 0809147505

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History The death of John Paul II and the election of Benedict XVI constituted two important elements in the landscape of Catholicism, nourishing the journalistic and political dispute about the history and legacy of Vatican II. This book offers an attempt to go beyond "the clash of interpretations"-Vatican II as a rupture in the history of Catholicism on one side, and the need to read Vatican II in continuity with the tradition on the other-necessary indeed because the ongoing debate about Vatican II is largely misrepresented by the use of "clashing interpretations" as a tool for understanding the role of the council in present-day Catholicism. Book jacket.

Turmoil & Truth

Turmoil & Truth PDF

Author: Philip Trower

Publisher: Ignatius Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9780898709803

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The Catholic Church in recent years, particularly in Europe, the USA and Australia, has suffered a series of crises. Catholics have been forced, whether willing or not, to perform collective examinations of conscience, and to investigate the causes of these problems. In the many books and articles written on this subject, authors have tried to point the blame one way or another. Turmoil and Truth takes a different approach. Drawing on his years of experience as a Catholic writer, Philip Trower offers a long view of how the Church arrived in its present situation. Whereas many analyses take the Second Vatican Council as their starting point, Trower turns his gaze back towards the previous centuries, searching out the roots of modern conflicts over authority within the Church, the nature of Scripture, the relationship with the secular world, and more. His central thesis is that the positive movement for reform, and the negative movements of rebellion against the Church's authority and elements of her teaching, grew up intertwined in the years preceding Vatican II, and that it was only really in the period following the Council that the division between the two became clearer. His analysis introduces the reader to a host of persons and movements who may be unfamiliar today, but whose legacy endures. Philip Trower's accessible style of writing and his attention to detail offer the reader a clear understanding of where the Church has come from in its recent past. Turmoil and Truth is essential reading for all who wish to understand the present and future direction of the Catholic Church Book jacket.

What Happened at Vatican II

What Happened at Vatican II PDF

Author: John W. O'Malley

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2010-09-01

Total Pages: 395

ISBN-13: 0674056752

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During four years in session, Vatican Council II held television audiences rapt with its elegant, magnificently choreographed public ceremonies, while its debates generated front-page news on a near-weekly basis. By virtually any assessment, it was the most important religious event of the twentieth century, with repercussions that reached far beyond the Catholic church. Remarkably enough, this is the first book, solidly based on official documentation, to give a brief, readable account of the council from the moment Pope John XXIII announced it on January 25, 1959, until its conclusion on December 8, 1965; and to locate the issues that emerge in this narrative in their contexts, large and small, historical and theological, thereby providing keys for grasping what the council hoped to accomplish. What Happened at Vatican II captures the drama of the council, depicting the colorful characters involved and their clashes with one another. The book also offers a new set of interpretive categories for understanding the council’s dynamics—categories that move beyond the tired “progressive” and “conservative” labels. As we approach the fiftieth anniversary of the calling of the council, this work reveals in a new way the spirit of Vatican II. A reliable, even-handed introduction to the council, the book is a critical resource for understanding the Catholic church today, including the pontificate of Benedict XVI.

Reclaiming Vatican II

Reclaiming Vatican II PDF

Author: Fr. Blake Britton

Publisher: Ave Maria Press

Published: 2021-10-08

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1646800303

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Winner of a first-place award for a first time author and second-place in popular presentation of the faith from the Catholic Media Association. During the past five decades, the Second Vatican Council has been alternately celebrated or maligned for its supposed break with tradition and embrace of the modern world. But what if we’ve gotten it all wrong? Have Catholics—both those who embrace the spirit of Vatican II and those who regard it with suspicion—misunderstood what the council was really about? Fr. Blake Britton discovered the truth and beauty of the council while he was in seminary and he has witnessed firsthand the power of its teachings in the life of his own parish. In Reclaiming Vatican II—a partnership between Ave Maria Press and Word on Fire Catholic Ministries—Britton presses beyond the political narrative foisted upon the post-conciliar Church and contends that Vatican II was neither conservative nor liberal, but something much more beautiful and challenging. Britton clears up misconceptions about the council and reveals how—when properly understood and applied—it fosters a richer experience of being in the Church. Britton says Vatican II promotes a radical return to the Church Fathers and the Scriptures, holding both a commitment to tradition and the need for constant renewal in life-giving balance, recenters the Church on sacred liturgy and encourages both active participation and genuine encounter with transcendence, and charts a clear path for the Church’s renewal and empowers it for evangelism and transformative engagement with the world. Britton invites all Catholics to step beyond the polarization and embrace Vatican II as one of our greatest resources for being in the Church in a way that is faithful, engaged, and effective if we answer its radical call to worship and renewal.

Vatican II Behind the Iron Curtain

Vatican II Behind the Iron Curtain PDF

Author: Piotr H. Kosicki

Publisher: CUA Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 081322912X

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The goal of this volume is to begin writing Central and Eastern Europe back into the story of the Second Vatican Council, its origins, and its consequences. This volume assembles - for the first time in any language - a broad overview of the place of four different Communist-run countries - Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Yugoslavia - in the story of the Council. Framing these is an account of how the Cold War impacted the Council and its reception. The book engages with both English-language scholarship and the national historiographies of the countries that it examines, offering a global lens on the present state of research (covering all relevant languages) and seeking to propel that research forward. All of the chapters draw on both non-English secondary literature and original primary sources - some published, some archival.

The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America

The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America PDF

Author: David R. Carlin

Publisher: Sophia Institute Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 423

ISBN-13: 1928832792

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Many Catholics blame Vatican II for the decline of the Church in America these past 30 years: traditionalists say it caused too many changes, liberals say too few. In this book, sociologist David Carlin shows that although Vatican II was the flashpoint for change in the Church, the roots of today's crisis go deeper than anything that happened at the Council. Basing his conclusions on sociological analysis rather than on theology or Church teachings, Carlin shows that in the 1960's the Church in America was weakened by the triumph of tolerance as an American virtue (which led Catholics to downplay their uniquely Catholic beliefs for the sake of unity) and then was battered by a culture that, seemingly overnight, had become boldly secularist and even libertine. Called by Vatican II to engage the culture in order to evangelize it, while pressed by the culture to downplay its Catholicity in the name of tolerance, the Church in America lost its way. The result? A widespread loss of Catholic identity; weakening of fidelity to Church teachings; Catholics abandoning their faith; and a diminishment of the Church's role as a moral voice in American society. Carlin's analysis has uncovered a problem that's older and even more dangerous for the future of Catholicism than the deeds that have lately thrust the Church onto the front pages. Indeed, says Carlin, the scandals are merely symptoms of this deeper problem that will continue to drain the Church's vitality long after the scandals are forgotten.