Lecture
Catholicism represents the most numerous and widespread variety of Christianity. According to the statistical weekly of the Vatican, the international center of the Roman Catholic Church, the number of adherents of this religion currently reaches 1 billion. The Catholic faith is widely spread among the population of Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Belgium, Lithuania, the USA, and the countries of Latin America. On the territory of the CIS, followers of Catholicism live mainly in the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus. There are also Catholic parishes in Russia. Many have been converted to Catholicism by missionaries in various countries of Africa, Asia, and Oceania.
Fig. Number of Catholics by country
In 395 the Roman Empire split into western and eastern parts. However, contrary to prevailing circumstances, the Christian church remained a single organization. The place of honor in the list of hierarchs of this church was occupied by the bishops of Rome, who considered themselves successors of the apostle Peter. Peter himself, as follows from the Gospel of Matthew, received seniority in the church directly from Jesus himself. Being, in comparison with the eastern bishops, independent of secular authority, the Roman bishops in the West resolutely acted as zealots of the true Christian faith.
With the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476), the Roman bishops, to whom the title "pope" (from the Latin "father") was applied, gained new opportunities to expand their administrative authority both within the church they led and beyond it. From this time on, ideas began to form according to which spiritual power naturally entails secular power as well, and the church, as having authority directly from God, alone can grant it to secular rulers.
The absence of a single secular authority in administratively fragmented Western Europe, as well as the real power of the Christian church, objectively conditioned the fact that the Roman bishops acted as "defenders" of the entire Western world. They sought to pursue their own policy, occupied an important position in the state system, and led military campaigns under the pretext of liberating the Holy Sepulcher of Christ from the power of the "infidels." In the 9th century Pope John VIII proclaimed the right of the church not only to crown (or not crown) secular rulers, but also to strip them of their crowns.
The doctrine of Catholicism was formed over several centuries on the basis of the works of such theologians as Tertullian (c. 160-after 220), Irenaeus (c. 130-c.200), Cyprian (201-258), Ambrose (c. 339-397), and others. Especially fruitful for the ideological formation of Catholicism were the work and activity of Aurelius Augustine (354-430), who united heterogeneous ideas and doctrines into a coherent system. Augustine's teaching incorporated early forms of belief and evangelical conceptions of faith, recognition of the authority of the church, and the cult of the mysteries. Augustine was the creator of the theocratic concept, according to which the church is an institution standing above the state. At the same time, the church differs from the state in every respect and is incomparable to it; it is the church that leads humanity to the "City of God."
An enormous role in the ideological justification of the foundations of Catholicism was played by the famous scholastic Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). According to his teaching, the Catholic church appeared as a hierarchical organization of divine origin, headed by the Roman pope, endowed with unlimited power. All earthly sovereigns were to obey the Roman pope, whose power derived from Jesus Christ himself.
Catholicism as a distinct direction within Christianity arose in the 11th century after the formal break between the eastern (Orthodox) and western (Roman, Latin) churches. Let us note the doctrinal differences that still divide these churches today.
Catholic doctrine is based on the Bible ("Holy Scripture") and Tradition ("Holy Tradition"), which the church declares to be the two sources of divine Revelation.
According to Catholicism, God's transmission of Revelation ended with the death of the apostles - the disciples of Christ - however, Revelation can be further clarified nowadays through its correct comprehension. The Roman pope, who according to Catholic teaching is God's vicar on earth and successor of Saint Peter, holder of the keys to paradise, together with the college of bishops - successors of the apostles - jointly create church teaching that holds the status of "infallibility." Thus the Catholic church justifies the orthodoxy of the dogmas adopted by the head of the church and by councils, which must be accepted by believers in the same way as Revelation from God himself. In addition, Catholics include in the Holy Scripture 11 books of the Old Testament part of the Bible, which they recognize as "divinely inspired."
The Catholic church affirms the dogma of the procession of the Holy Spirit not only from God the Father, as stated in the Creed adopted at the first two Ecumenical Councils (325 and 381), but also from God the Son ("filioque" - "and the Son"). The Eastern (Orthodox) church, however, recognizes the procession of the Holy Spirit only from God the Father. This disagreement has always been considered by the leaders of the Catholic and Orthodox churches to be the most important and even the sole irreconcilable one.
Catholicism teaches that a person can count on the salvation of his soul only with the help of the church, which has the ability to transfer the good deeds of the righteous to sinners. Hence the practice of selling indulgences and absolution of sins. At the beginning of the 15th century the doctrine was adopted according to which the souls of the dead, before their fate is decided, must pass through purgatory, an intermediate stage between heaven and hell. Purification from sins is accomplished through various trials, as well as through good deeds performed by relatives and loved ones of the deceased for the benefit of the church. A significant role in Catholicism is played by the dogma of the infallibility of the Roman pope in matters of faith and morals. Unlike Orthodoxy, Catholicism requires celibacy for the clergy.
Speaking of the doctrinal features of Catholicism, one should mention the special place occupied by the teaching on the Mother of God and the cult devoted to her. In 1854 the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God appeared, and in 1950 Pope Pius XII supplemented the doctrine with the dogma of the bodily Assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven. There is a special church feast dedicated to the Queen of Heaven - the Virgin Mary. An important distinguishing feature of Catholicism is the structure of the church. First, the church has a single head - the Roman pope. Second, the church has an extensive apparatus consisting of the clergy, a huge body of priests, each of whom lives according to a single rule.
Fig. Main Christian denominations
Catholicism is characterized by a lavish, theatrical cult that uses all forms of art to affect the feelings and consciousness of believers. This includes above all wall paintings, frescoes, sculptural decorations, choral singing, organ music, and, more recently, contemporary music using electric instruments and amplifiers. Catholic churches are usually built on a foundation in the shape of a cross. This shape is meant to recall the redemptive sacrifice of Christ. Sometimes churches are built in the shape of a ship, as if carrying believers to the quiet haven of the Kingdom of Heaven. Other symbols are also used in church architecture, including the circle - a symbol of the eternity of faith in God - and the star (most often an eight-pointed one) - a heavenly body pointing the way of humanity toward perfection.
Like other Christians, Catholics consider prayer, accompanied by the sign of the cross - the image of the cross made with the right hand - to be the chief means of communion with God; Catholics cross themselves with the whole palm, whereas the Orthodox join together three fingers: the thumb, index, and middle fingers.
Catholics recognize seven holy sacraments, though they are performed somewhat differently than in Orthodoxy. For example, the sacrament of baptism is performed by sprinkling with water or by immersion in it, whereas in Orthodoxy it is performed only by immersion in water. Unlike the Orthodox rite of chrismation, the Catholic rite of confirmation is not performed simultaneously with baptism, but upon reaching the age of 7-12. It is necessarily performed by a bishop in a solemn setting, which is meant to help reinforce religious feeling. Until the 1960s, communion in Catholicism was administered with bread and wine only to clergy, while laypeople received only bread. Now both receive communion with bread and wine. Among other changes in Catholic worship, one can mention the permission to conduct services (the liturgy) not in Latin but in the native language of believers, supplementing it with elements of the national rites of local peoples. At the same time, the most outdated elements inherited from pagan magical rites are being removed from traditional religious rituals, such as the priest's "breathing" on a child, "anointing" him with saliva, and "feeding" him salt during baptism.
Unlike other branches of Christianity, Catholicism has a unified, strictly centralized, and hierarchical church organization. The center of Catholicism and the residence of its head - the Roman pope - is the Vatican, a city-state within the territory of Rome (44 hectares). Two different definitions are applied to the Vatican: "the Apostolic See" and "the State of Vatican City."
The first denotes the confessional center, while the second refers to an absolutist state whose head is the head of the Catholic church. Thus the current Roman pope is the only absolute monarch on the planet, uniting in his person the supreme legislative, executive, and judicial power. The State of Vatican City has its own coat of arms, flag, anthem (its music was written in the 19th century by the French composer Charles Gounod), postal service, radio, telegraph, press, and other attributes of state power. Currently, as a sovereign state, the Vatican exchanges diplomatic representatives with 146 states of the world, including Italy, on whose territory it is located. The Vatican's diplomatic relations with some states are supplemented by concordats - agreements with the governments of these countries, which stipulate the status of the Catholic church, its rights, and the conditions of its functioning.
The true government of the Vatican is the Roman Curia - the organ of papal administration. It carries out the day-to-day management of all aspects of the life of the Roman Catholic church and the Vatican state. The main institution of the Roman Curia is the Secretariat of State. And if the Roman pope is the supreme ruler of the Vatican, then the secretary of state he appoints can be considered the head of government, since his powers generally coincide with the functions of a prime minister of any secular state.
In addition to the Secretariat of State, the Curia includes 9 distinctive "ministries" - congregations - for matters of doctrine, the Eastern churches, divine worship and the discipline of the sacraments, the causes of saints, bishops, the evangelization of peoples, the clergy, institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life, and Catholic education. Other independent institutions of the Curia are the papal tribunals, chanceries, and the apostolic ecclesiastical court, which deals with cases related to the internal life of the church.
Since 1936 the Pontifical Academy of Sciences has operated at the Vatican, intended to promote the development of the natural and exact sciences. Members of the Academy are personally appointed by the pope, but are not subordinate to the Holy See and are free in their scientific research. They may be citizens of any country. In 1990 the well-known physicist R.Z. Sagdeev became the first Russian member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. The official press organ of the Vatican is the newspaper "L'Osservatore Romano" ("The Roman Observer"). Vatican Radio broadcasts daily in 34 languages, and the total duration of broadcasts reaches 242 hours per week. Since 1983 a Vatican television center has also been in operation.
The Catholic church as an organization took shape under conditions of feudalism and adopted a form typical of the administrative structure of a feudal state. The primary unit of the Catholic church is the parish, which is administered by a priest. The parish priest is appointed by the bishop and is subordinate only to him. Several parishes form what is called a deanery, but the dean is merely a connecting link between the parish and the papal curia. Deaneries in turn combine into larger units - dioceses, which are governed by bishops. Several dioceses form a metropolitanate, or archdiocese. Archbishops (metropolitans), like primates (heads of national churches), are now more honorary titles, since each bishop is directly subordinate to the pope. The highest church rank after the pope in the Catholic church is cardinal. Cardinals are appointed by the pope himself with the consent of the consistory, the assembly of the College of Cardinals. The Roman pope - the absolute lifelong ruler of the church - is elected 18 days after the death of the previous head of the Vatican by cardinals, who are summoned for the occasion to a special closed assembly - the conclave. Election of the pope requires two-thirds of the votes of the conclave participants plus one vote. The number of conclave participants must not exceed 120. According to Catholic teaching, the pope holds the fullness of church authority: without his sanction, no bishop may be appointed or removed in any country, no council may be convened, and no church law may be issued. Through his decretals and bulls the pope can not only determine the entire life of the church, but also establish or change church rites and canons (rules of church organization, doctrine, and cult).
Special church honors are rendered to the pope. A newly elected pope ascends to the throne, on which a bloodless sacrifice is offered, and places upon himself a crown - not a simple episcopal miter, but a tiara, that is, a triple crown, as a sign of the power he receives in the church, in the earthly and the otherworldly realms. At official audiences with the pope, all representatives of the higher church hierarchy must kneel before him and kiss his slipper, on which a cross is depicted. During solemn processions the pope appears before the people on a throne mounted on a portable platform, under a canopy, accompanied by many church dignitaries, and gives his blessing not only to the city of Rome but to the whole world.
The Catholic church has a huge army of clergy and monastics. In 1996 there were about 450,000 priests in the world, serving in nearly 200,000 parishes, and over 1 million monks and nuns. Nuns, who form the majority (866,000), work in the fields of healthcare, upbringing, education, and missionary work. The monastic orders constitute a distinctive structure within the Catholic church. The internal life of each order is determined by its own rules, which provide for a more or less high degree of centralization of authority requiring unconditional obedience to instructions from above. There are "mendicant" orders - the Franciscans, Bernardines, Capuchins, Dominicans, and some others - whose statutes forbid their members to own any property yielding a regular income. Other orders, which do not belong to this group, have the right to earn money that goes into the church treasury or toward charitable purposes.
A special place among the Catholic monastic orders has been and remains occupied by the Jesuit order, founded in 1534 by the Spanish monk Ignatius of Loyola. The order constitutes an elite "state within a state" with strict centralization (absolute power within the order belongs to the general of the order), strict subordination, and unquestioning obedience of juniors to seniors. Today the Jesuit order oversees 177 Catholic universities and cultural centers scattered around the world, as well as 500 schools attended by 1.5 million people. This order, like others (there are about 140 monastic orders in the Catholic church in total), is actively engaged in religious-political propaganda, religious and educational work, and other activities in various corners of the world. The missionary activity of the Catholic monastic orders is striking. The Dominicans, for example, who called themselves "the hounds of the Lord" (Domini canes), a phrase that echoed the name of the monk Dominic who founded the order in 1216, appeared in Rus' as early as 1233 and founded their monastery near Kiev. In 1247 they penetrated into Mongolia, and in 1272 into China, then into Japan and other Asian countries.
The Jesuit order bears the "credit" for creating the so-called Uniate church among the Orthodox population in Poland, in Lithuania, and in the western lands of Belarus and Ukraine. Having failed in several attempts to spread Catholicism there by force, the Jesuits resorted to cunning and deception. They established a church of the "Eastern rite," in which the Orthodox cult was preserved, but mention of the "Ecumenical Patriarch, the Roman Pope" was made obligatory. In 1596 the creation of the Union of Brest was announced, a Uniate church of the "Eastern rite" that came under the jurisdiction of the Roman pope. Immediately thereafter, Orthodoxy was outlawed in these lands and subjected to cruel persecution. The plight of Orthodox believers was especially tragic in Poland. In Ukraine more than 700 churches were converted into Uniate churches, and in 1692 the last Orthodox diocese, that of Lviv, was forced into the union. Only the union of Ukraine (Little Russia) with Russia halted this expansion of Catholicism to the East. Throughout its history the Catholic church has displayed severe intolerance toward dissent. Contrary to the spirit of Christ's commandments, the hierarchy created the courts of the Inquisition. The system of the Inquisition (from the Latin - "investigation") included the following sequence: denunciation - accusation - investigation - interrogation - torture - sentence - auto-da-fé (public announcement of the sentence and burning at the stake). The crimes of the "holy" Inquisition, committed over six centuries, were kept secret and became known only as a result of Napoleon's conquests, which abolished the Inquisition in the territories of the countries he conquered.
Catholicism began to appear on the territory of the Slavic peoples from the second half of the 9th century. Pope Gregory VII in the 11th century, exploiting the internecine struggle among Russian princes, attempted to expand his sphere of influence in the East with financial and military support to individual principalities, and in the 13th century Innocent III blessed the crusader knights of the Teutonic and Livonian Orders to seize the northern Russian lands. And although Prince Alexander Nevsky inflicted a crushing defeat upon them, the Vatican did not abandon its attempts to spread its influence over the peoples of Russia in subsequent centuries either. Such actions of the Holy See caused a negative attitude toward Catholicism in Russia for several centuries. Until the 18th century, practically no Catholic church had been built in the Russian state, and there were only a handful of Catholics.
Official relations between Russia and the Vatican began to develop under Catherine II, and at the end of the 18th century a concordat was concluded between them. With some interruption, a papal nuncio, accredited in Russia from that time, remained here until 1917. By the beginning of the 20th century, the Catholic population of the Russian Empire numbered over 10.5 million people. In total, more than 5,000 Catholic churches operated, served by 4,300 priests. On the territory of Russia there were also 8 male and 16 female Catholic monasteries, home to over 700 monks and nuns. The first Catholic orders to spread in Russia, starting in 1724, were the Franciscans and Dominicans. Later came the Augustinians, Carmelites, Marians, and others. Members of Catholic monastic orders engaged not only in missionary work but also in educational and charitable activities, establishing schools, hospitals, and orphanages.
In the USSR the Catholic church shared the fate of all other churches. Relations between the Vatican and the new state developed in a complicated way. The revolutionary changes gave the Holy See hope for the possibility of intensifying Catholic church activity on the territory of the former Russian Empire. However, the loss by Orthodoxy of its status as the state religion, and its being placed on equal footing with other religions, did not bring Catholics the freedoms they had expected. Catholicism, like Orthodoxy, came under the pressure of persecution and humiliation.
A stumbling block in relations between the Vatican and the USSR was the question of the fate of the Greek Catholics (Uniates), believers whose ancestors had come under the spiritual authority of the Roman pope at the end of the 16th century during the Russo-Polish war for Ukraine. These believers found themselves in the USSR as a result of the reunification of all Ukrainian lands within the Ukrainian SSR in 1939. Faced with the lawlessness of the Stalinist regime, some representatives of the Uniate clergy welcomed the Hitlerite occupiers as liberators in 1941. However, at the end of the Great Patriotic War the leaders of the Uniate church condemned the atrocities of the fascists and began to seek accommodation with the Soviet authorities. Despite this, the Soviet government subjected almost all the Uniate clergy to repression and in 1946, under the pretext of the voluntary wish of believers to return to Orthodoxy, dissolved the Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Eastern Rite itself.
The first business contacts between the Vatican and the USSR in the postwar period were established under N.S. Khrushchev, after the Soviet Union, together with other states, undertook to respect the inviolability of the Vatican as a sovereign state in the event of war.
After a long interruption, in 1990 a papal nuncio in Russia began fulfilling his duties in Moscow. To date, the Holy See has established diplomatic relations with all the CIS countries. In 1990-1991 the Vatican began reforming the structure of the Roman Catholic church that had operated on the territory of the then Soviet Union, and in Russia in particular. Pope John Paul II elevated the apostolic administrator of Minsk, Bishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, to the rank of archbishop and appointed him apostolic administrator for Catholics of the European part of Russia, with residence in Moscow. Bishop Joseph Werth was appointed apostolic administrator of the Asian part of Russia, with residence in the city of Novosibirsk. Today about 200 Catholic parishes operate in Russia, along with two theological seminaries and the Thomas Aquinas College of Catholic Theology. A Catholic information agency, "Truth and Life," has been established, and a monthly magazine of the same name is published in Russian with regular sections "Catholic Moscow," "Catholicism and Russia," and "Russian Catholics."
Noting the existence of the "social question" and class struggle as real facts, Leo XIII sees their cause in a flawed social-economic order, under which workers feel alone and defenseless. Consequently, the church must come out in defense of workers, who are subjected to cruel exploitation. This is facilitated by the excessive concentration of property in the hands of "a small handful of wealthy men" who keep a huge number of proletarians in what is practically a state of slavery.
However, according to the pope, even more vicious and unacceptable is the socialist solution to these problems, since it aims to eliminate private property, which serves as a source of thrift and a means of improving life. Moreover, the elimination of private property would contradict the natural law established from above - after all, God gave earthly goods to all people, and gave them because they possess reason and, consequently, the ability to provide for their own needs. In the pope's view, personal property is the foundation of human freedom, while "common," impersonal property is fraught with social disorder: it creates no opportunity for the development of the individual and his talent, restricts human initiative, and contributes to his enslavement. The pope advocates a "healthy social policy," whose agents should be the church, the state, and the professional associations of the workers themselves. The role of the church in this sphere is expressed in the functions of teacher, educator, and agent of practical love for one's neighbor.
A further development of the social doctrine of Catholicism came with the encyclicals of Pope Pius XI, "Quadragesimo Anno" ("In the Fortieth Year," 1931) and "Divini Redemptoris" ("Divine Redemption," 1937), which actively promoted the idea, put forward by the fascists, of corporatism as a union of workers and employers. The pope unreservedly endorsed the thesis of fascist ideologists on the need to create a state structure that would be based "on the peaceful cooperation of social classes, the elimination of socialist organizations, and the neutralization of their encroachments."
After fascism became the main anti-communist and anti-Soviet force in Western Europe, the Vatican turned into its natural ally. In the late 1930s the Vatican did everything it could to push the fascists toward unleashing war against the USSR. This course seriously undermined the authority of the Catholic church.
In the social program of Pope John XXIII (early 1960s) one can trace a desire to eliminate the existing contradictions between rich and poor and to promote the development of a market economy with a moderate regulatory function for the state. In the early 1970s Pope Paul VI came out with sharp criticism of the exploitation of labor, colonialism, nationalism, and racism, and of the oppression of "third world" countries by the "wealthy West." In his view, "in the case of manifest and prolonged tyranny that seriously violates the rights of the individual and harms the common good," social revolutions are permissible in society.
Much that was new was brought to the social teaching of Catholicism by the pontificate of John Paul II (from 1978). This pope is generally characterized by a pessimistic view of the development of the modern world. He speaks and writes a great deal about the calamities that have befallen modern civilization, warns of the possibility of humanity's self-destruction, and depicts the tragedy of modern human existence. As a remedy for the many problems generated by civilization - the threat of ecological catastrophe and nuclear war, the vices of the mass consumer society, violations of human rights and freedoms, and so on - the pope proposes putting into practice the social and ethical teaching of the church, adhering to the principles of the priority of the person over the thing, of spirit over matter. In one of his latest encyclicals - "Centesimus Annus" ("The Hundredth Year," 1991) - John Paul II, characterizing the events in Eastern Europe at the turn of the 1980s-1990s, writes: "Can it be said that, after the fall of Communism, capitalism is the social system which will replace it, and that efforts should be directed toward it by countries seeking to rebuild their economy and their society? Is this the model to be proposed to Third World countries seeking the path to true economic and civil progress?" The church has no unequivocal answer to this question, John Paul II explains. This is because the Catholic church considers no earthly social order to be perfect.
John Paul II holds the leading place in developing a modern version of the social role and functions of the church. In his encyclicals the church appears as a kind of supra-structural institution, not tied to any social system. It must fulfill an important mission consisting in freeing the world from social, political, and economic conflicts by non-social, non-political, and non-economic methods. Connected with this mission of the church is the conception its hierarchs hold of church politics. Church politics is interpreted by the Vatican exclusively as a form of spiritual pastorship in the world, of service to people through the Gospel. It is no accident that John Paul II repeatedly called upon clergy to avoid participation in political activity.
The modern social teaching of the Catholic church pays great attention to the problems of the family, the moral substance of society. The crisis of the family, associated with the destruction of its patriarchal foundations and the growth of sexual freedom, has called into question the existence of one of the guarantors of the moral well-being of society. The trend of rising divorce rates, together with the declining attractiveness of family life, provokes moral resistance from the church, which actively opposes prostitution, pornography, licentiousness, and unlimited sexual freedom. The Catholic church considers abortion a crime against humanity - the most immoral act, sacrificing an unprotected human life to the new sexual consciousness.
One of the most important points in the social teaching of Catholicism is its attitude toward the state. The Catholic church, as a supra-state entity, has constantly struggled against the omnipotence of the state, although the church's basic social ideal is above all connected with the state. State power, in its view, is a principle of order; it originates from God. At the same time, the use of violence is caused by the fall of man. In its main function of protecting good and combating evil, the state serves the task of human salvation and forms a unity with the church. This unity conditions natural cooperation between church and state, in which the state serves as the material support of the church, and the Catholic church as its spiritual support.
In the social doctrine of the Catholic church, great attention is paid to the problem of war and peace. In the traditional interpretation of social doctrine, the basis of which is the teaching of Thomas Aquinas, war (a just war) is presented as a means of self-defense, as a natural means of restoring international justice. In the view of Pope John XXIII and his followers, unlike the traditional conception, war in the modern world may escalate into total war, and therefore the church must speak out definitively in favor of pacifism. Another current within Catholicism opposes pacifism, arguing that even today one must not conflate concepts such as "war" and "total war." Its adherents believe that not every modern war can lead to the use of weapons of mass destruction, so one can speak of "conventional war," in which the traditional interpretation of war retains its significance, war waged, in the words of Thomas Aquinas, "on sufficient grounds." At present, in international politics the church's line is directed toward strengthening the force of international law, maintaining good-neighborly relations between countries, countering totalitarian regimes, and promoting the strengthening of international unity together with the growing influence of international organizations, especially the UN, with the right to intervene in flaring armed conflicts.
The Catholic church takes a special position on the question of developing countries, where the conflict between wealth and poverty and social injustice have become especially acute. The church calls on developed countries to provide effective support to these countries while avoiding policies of neocolonialism. Increased attention has recently been paid to the countries of Eastern Europe, where restoring normal life is extremely difficult without outside help. In one of his statements, John Paul II noted: "Assistance from other countries, above all European ones, which form part of the same history and bear responsibility for it, is a duty of justice."
In the contemporary social doctrine of the Catholic church, other issues also find their development, such as democracy, culture, ecology, and so on. The evolution of this range of issues proceeds not only in the direction of a deeper religious interpretation of them, but also with regard to the need for the humanistic transformation of society. Many problems of social development are at the center of the attention of the current pope, John Paul II.
Pope John Paul II (born Karol Wojtyła) was born on May 18, 1920, in the city of Wadowice near Kraków, into the family of a minor official. Before the war he entered the Jagiellonian University (Kraków), where he studied not only philosophy and Polish philology but also founded a student theater, for which he himself wrote plays and in which he played leading roles. Due to the closure of the university by the German fascist occupiers, he was forced to interrupt his studies. Until the liberation of Poland in 1945, he worked at a chemical plant near Kraków, and then in a stone quarry, while at the same time attending classes (from 1942) at an illegally operating Catholic seminary.
In 1946 he took holy orders and for two years studied at the Roman Catholic college "Angelicum," where he defended his doctoral dissertation. Until the mid-1950s he taught in seminaries and at the theological faculty of the Jagiellonian University, and after the abolition of this faculty in 1954 he worked at the department of ethics of the Catholic University of Lublin. In 1958 he defended his doctoral dissertation "An Evaluation of the Possibility of Constructing a Christian Ethics on the Basis of the System of Max Scheler." He is the author of the books "Love and Responsibility," "The Acting Person," and about 800 philosophical and theological articles.
From 1958 - bishop, then archbishop (1964), cardinal (1967), Metropolitan of Kraków. He took an active part in preparing the documents of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). On October 24, 1978, he was elected to the highest post in the Roman Catholic church and took the name John Paul II. In the whole history of the church, this was the first pope who was not Italian. Under John Paul II the Holy See established diplomatic relations with 40 countries and resumed relations that had been interrupted with six more.
Pope John Paul II is the author of the social encyclicals: "Rich in Mercy," "Through Work," "On Social Concern," and others. In the pope's view, social conflicts arise in society because of the discord within man himself caused by sin, and his disintegration from the world.
The Catholic church today has enormous financial resources and a broad network of information systems; it finances and organizationally supports numerous Catholic schools, colleges, institutes, and universities, as well as research centers within the system of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. It continues to exert a noticeable influence on the spiritual condition of the peoples of the entire world.
1204 - capture of Constantinople by the crusaders;
1216 - founding of the Dominican monastic order;
1225-1274 - dates of the life of Thomas Aquinas, prominent Catholic theologian and philosopher;
1439 - the Union of Florence, an attempt to unite the Catholic and Orthodox churches;
1534 - founding of the Jesuit order by Ignatius of Loyola;
1596 - establishment of the Union of Brest;
1869-1870 - First Vatican Council;
1962-1965 - Second Vatican Council;
1978 - election of John Paul II to the papal throne;
The Last Supper, a fresco by Leonardo da Vinci from the late 1490s, depicting the last supper of Jesus and his twelve apostles on the eve of his crucifixion. Most of the apostles are buried in Rome, including Saint Peter.
1. What are the distinctive features of Catholicism?
2. When and how did the papacy arise?
3. What are the doctrinal, ritual, and organizational differences between the Catholic and Orthodox churches?
4. What is the Inquisition?
5. Which monastic orders are best known in the Catholic church?
6. How does the Catholic church view the problem of war and peace?
7. What is the attitude toward the Roman Catholic church in post-Soviet Russia?
1. Features of Catholic doctrine and cult.
2. Organization of the Roman Catholic church.
3. The Vatican.
4. The social teaching of Catholicism.
5. The life and work of John Paul II.
6. Catholicism and the global problems of the present day.
96
1. Catholicism in the modern world.
2. The social views of John Paul II.
3. The political activity of the Vatican in the 20th century.
4. The place and role of monastic orders in Catholicism.
5. The Second Vatican Council.
6. Catholicism in Russia.
1. Identify the distinguishing features of Catholic cult. To whom do the following names belong: Thomas Aquinas, Ignatius of Loyola, John Paul II?
2. Characterize the role of the Roman Catholic church in the life of the modern world.
3. Give an assessment of the current state of relations between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church.
4. Solve the crossword puzzle on the topic
1. Full or partial remission of sins, as well as a certificate thereof.
2. A centralized monastic association operating according to a rule.
3. The altar apse in a Christian church.
4. The lamb used as a sacrificial animal.
5. Mandatory celibacy of the Catholic clergy.
6. Magical cultic rites, the performance of which, according to church doctrine, imparts supernatural power to people.
7. The underworld, the abode of the souls of sinners.
8. Persons professionally engaged in performing religious rites.
9. A solemn promise that believers make to God.
10. Elements of social and cultural heritage passed down from generation to generation.
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Borgosz J. Thomas Aquinas. M.,1975.
Gergely J. History of the Papacy. M.,1996.
Grigulevich I.R. The Papacy: the 20th century. M., 1978.
Zaborov M.A. Crusaders in the East. M., 1980.
John Paul II. Unity in Diversity: Reflections on East and West. M.,1993.
Kazakova A. The Second Vatican Council. M.,1973.
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Karsavin L.P. Monasticism in the Middle Ages. M.,1992.
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See also
Anti-Catholicism
Catechism of the Catholic Church
The Catholic Church by country
Catholic spirituality
Glossary of the Catholic Church
List of Catholic religious institutes
Lists of Catholics
The role of Christianity in civilization
Comments