Abstract: How did the Irish stay Irish? Why are Irish and Catholic still so often synonymous in the English-speaking world? Ireland's Empire is the first book to examine the complex relationship between Irish migrants and Roman Catholicism in the nineteenth century on a truly global basis. Drawing on more than 100 archives on five continents, Colin Barr traces the spread of Irish Roman Catholicism across the English-speaking world and explains how the Catholic Church became the vehicle for Irish diasporic identity in the United States, Australia, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Newfoundland, and India between 1829 and 1914. The world these Irish Catholic bishops, priests, nuns, and laity created endured long into the twentieth century, and its legacy is still present today.

Abstract: Orietta Da Rold provides a detailed analysis of the coming of paper to medieval England, and its influence on the literary and non-literary culture of the period. Looking beyond book production, Da Rold maps out the uses of paper and explains the success of this technology in medieval culture, considering how people interacted with it and how it affected their lives. Offering a nuanced understanding of how affordance influenced societal choices, Paper in Medieval England draws on a multilingual array of sources to investigate how paper circulated, was written upon, and was deployed by people across medieval society, from kings to merchants, to bishops, to clerks and to poets, contributing to an understanding of how medieval paper changed communication and shaped modernity.

Abstract: The remarkable, and permanently influential, papal history known as the Liber pontificalis shaped perceptions and the memory of Rome, the popes, and the many-layered past of both city and papacy within western Europe. Rosamond McKitterick offers a new analysis of this extraordinary combination of historical reconstruction, deliberate selection and political use of fiction, to illuminate the history of the early popes and their relationship with Rome. She examines the content, context, and transmission of the text, and the complex relationships between the reality, representation, and reception of authority that it reflects. The Liber pontificalis presented Rome as a holy city of Christian saints and martyrs, as the bishops of Rome established their visible power in buildings, and it articulated the popes' spiritual and ministerial role, accommodated within their Roman imperial inheritance. Drawing on wide-ranging and interdisciplinary international research, Rome and the Invention of the Papacy offers pioneering insights into the evolution of this extraordinary source, and its significance for the history of early medieval Europe.

Abstract: Based on extensive original research at the local level, this book explores the relationship between Russian Orthodoxy and politics in contemporary Russia. It reveals close personal links between politicians at the local, regional and national levels and their counterparts at the equivalent level in the Russian Orthodox Church – priests and monks, bishops and archbishops – who are extensively consulted about political decisions. It outlines a convergence of conservative ideology between politicians and clerics and also highlights that, despite working closely together, there are nevertheless many tensions. The book examines in detail particular areas of cooperation and tension: reform to religious education and a growing emphasis on traditional moral values, the restitution of former church property and the introduction of new festive days. Overall, the book concludes that there is much uncertainty, ambiguity and great local variation.

Abstract: This paper investigates the engagement of the bishops of the Kingdom of Castile with the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 and the ways in which they encountered the events and legislation of the Coun...

Abstract: Based on narrative, iconographical, and liturgical sources, this is the first systematic study to trace the story of the ritual of royal self-coronations from Ancient Persia to the present. Exposing as myth the idea that Napoleon's act of self-coronation in 1804 was the first extraordinary event to break the secular tradition of kings being crowned by bishops, Jaume Aurell vividly demonstrates that self-coronations were not as transgressive or unconventional as has been imagined. Drawing on numerous examples of royal self-coronations, with a particular focus on European Kings of the Middle Ages, including Frederic II of Germany (1229), Alphonse XI of Castile (1328), Peter IV of Aragon (1332) and Charles III of Navarra (1390), Aurell draws on history, anthropology, ritual studies, liturgy and art history to explore royal self-coronations as privileged sites at which the frontiers and limits between the temporal and spiritual, politics and religion, tradition and innovation are encountered.

Abstract: The Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) has reimagined spirituality in Asia by removing the perception of the church in Asia as “foreign” through interreligious dialogue and inculturation. It has done this by pursuing a threefold dialogue, consisting of dialogue with the local cultures, peoples, and religions. The interreligious component of the Triple Dialogue is based on the premise that the Holy Spirit or the Divine Spirit is operative in non-Christian religions (BIRA IV/2, art. 8.5, in Rosales and Arevalo 1997, 253). Indeed, the FABC document, The Spirit at Work in Asia Today (SWAT) issued by the Office of Theological Concerns, begins not with the teaching of the episcopal magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church, but with how the Spirit has functioned in the lives of Asian people within their historical and religio-cultural contexts. In this paper, I examine some of the ways in which the bishops at the FABC have reimagined spirituality in Asia. KEYWORDS: Divine Spirit, FABC, hospitality, inculturation, pneumatology

Abstract: The article presented to the attention of readers is devoted to the question of the attitude of the clergy and other contemporaries of the events of the XIV–XVI centuries to the problem of material abuse of bishops. As an example, we consider a set of sources related to the history of the trial of Metropolitan Peter of Moscow, who was accused by the Tver Bishop Andrei of accepting fees for the services and ordinations performed. The main sources of news about those events are hagiographic news published by scribes of the XVI century. in the most important collections of the time in the Great Reading for Months and the Book of Degrees of Thus, these hagiographic texts contributed to the formation of ideas about the rights of the Metropolitan among readers on the example of the history of Peter the Great. Examination of the hagiographic text allows us to conclude that the circumstances of the court described in the life quite accurately record the socio-political situation in which the cathedral was assembled. These texts extremely adequately convey the procedural side of the proceedings. An analysis of the reports allows us to conclude that the accusations against Metropolitan Peter were not unfounded, and the attitude towards the bishop on the part of the Grand Duke and part of the higher clergy remained openly negative. The investigation was conducted by the patriarchal ambassador. There is every reason to believe that the case ended with the reconciliation of the parties. An inquiry into Metropolitan Peter showed that the position of the Metropolitan, supported by the Allies, was stable. Peter not only was able to turn the tide, but later managed to deal with his opponents. Obviously, the social status of the metropolitan was high and granted the Russian first hierarchs de facto jurisdiction over matters of material abuse.

Abstract: The Methodist Church in Zimbabwe (MCZ) was established in 1891. In 1977, it was granted autonomy by the British Methodist Church. From 1891, top church leadership has been dominated by male clergy. This article explores three instances of a challenge to this trend. The first occurred in 1994 when there was a leadership crisis in one of the districts, and for the first time, a woman was appointed district chairperson. The second followed the election in August 2004 of a male presiding bishop. However, allegations of moral impropriety were made against him. He approached the secular courts, and it led to his withdrawal from the position. The church appointed a woman to the position of acting presiding bishop. When the time came for the substantive post to be filled in August 2005, she was not confirmed in the position; a man was elected instead. The third relates to the controversial appointment in 2017 of a woman to one of the five vacant positions of district bishops. The aim of the research was to analyse the way in which these three women rose to positions of leadership in a male-dominated church. A qualitative research methodology was followed, with data being collected through open-ended interviews. The study highlighted that to be a female clergy leader in the MCZ entails rising against all odds. The study concluded by encouraging the MCZ to support women on their path to leadership rather than overlooking or, worse still, undermining them. Contribution: In spite of the challenges female clergy face in their quest for leadership roles, this feminist ecclesiological study shows stories of rising against all odds, describing the momentum-gaining progress of the ecclesiastical effort in the MCZ to accommodate female leaders, despite slow-moving processes.

Abstract: This article contributes to current debates about the role of religion in governance in the late eighteenth century British Atlantic world by examining the Pitt ministry's policies regarding Catholic subjects in England, Quebec, and Ireland in an early modern context. Starting with an overview of early modern attempts to find a compromise between Catholic subjects and their Protestant rulers, this article shows how the Pitt ministry reused these earlier approaches in its efforts to respond to Catholic subjects during of the age of revolution. Focusing on the English Catholic Relief Act of 1791, the Canada Constitutional Act, and the ministry's unimplemented plans for Catholic emancipation, the article argues that these policies were all shaped in part around the idea that Catholic subjects could be allowed greater freedoms, and even access to political influence in some cases, if their faith was contained through Gallican-style restrictions. These restrictions varied from requiring new oaths to attempting to establish the government's right to select Catholic bishops. Each policy resulted in notably different outcomes based on the location and potential power of the Catholic subjects that they affected. The common goal, however, was to attenuate the Catholics’ connection to the papacy and increase government influence over the Catholic Church in British territory while also upholding the ultimate supremacy of the Anglican Church.

Abstract: This paper is devoted to the analysis of the episcopal behavior and the interpretive frameworks that writers of the Ottonian age used to describe their actions. The focus of the research are various narrative representations, which were attached to the relationships between bishops and kings in the medieval historiography. The saintly bishop, the spiritual instructor of a king, the prosecutor of a ruler, and the bishop-traitor were the most prominent literary models, or modes of description, used in texts from the tenth and eleventh centuries. These modes of episcopal representations, in their relation to royal power, are perceived as parts of the coherent narrative strategies utilized by the medieval historiographers to meet their own aims. These aims included increasing the prestige of a community represented by a bishop, criticizing royal policies, condemning political rivals or justifying their own position. It is argued that all these various literary roles, thrusted upon bishops by chroniclers, hagiographers or polemicists, were realizations of the milestone concepts of episcopal power and medieval political theology: admonition and familiarity. These literary roles thus allowed Ottonian writers to imagine a bishop as being an intimate friend, a loyal lord, a prophet and a pastor to the ruling king and his realm.

Abstract: From around 1130 to 1240, Norway was troubled by a series of internal conflicts and succession disputes. In this article, I explore one element of Norwegian prelates’ conduct during this period whi...

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to understand, in a panoramic way, the ideas that some organized groups of Catholicism have expressed about the pandemic of the new coronavirus. We shall take as material for analysis, the web official pages of the following segments: Conferencia Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil (CNBB) [National Conference of Bishops of Brazil], Heralds of the Gospel and Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR), especially from the moment when the first case of the disease caused by the Sars-Cov-2 virus and the health-social-economic emergency were checked. Catholic beliefs about Covid-19 and related themes (restrictive measures, social inequalities) show an intense and internal conflict of values or worldviews and lead to inquiring about the incidences of Catholicism in the public sphere. The qualitative-exploratory hypothesis demonstrates that the advancement of the new coronavirus has accentuated tension lines existing in the Catholic Church and indicates that there is an ongoing dispute between the various official segments about the correct intonation of the Catholic voice in Brazilian society. To raise responses to the proposed problem, the paper is based on a qualitative method, namely, partial review of the bibliographic productions of the religious studies and analytical mapping of the main official positions (editorials, speeches, notes, texts) proposed by the three Catholic segments aforementioned.

Abstract: This article addresses the earliest manuscripts of the ‘pontifical’ genre which are to be found in the Latin West from the ninth century. Pontificals contain the liturgical ceremonies peculiar to a bishop. Here are examined two distinct and particularly expressive manuscripts from France: eleventh-century London British Library Add. MS 15222 and ninth-century Paris Bibliotheque de l’Arsenal MS 227. Traditionally, liturgical studies has focused on the practical utility of these kinds of books, but the two examples here expand our understanding of what they might be designed to do. Each explains and explores its ritual texts, contextualises and justifies them and offers alternatives. Most dramatically, they link their rituals to the practices of the wider Church, particularly to Rome. Papal practice is transmitted and imitated in actively creative, not passively obedient, ways. This methodology is suggested as an essential element of the earlier pontifical manuscripts, that they allow readers to perceive liturgical usages in the broadest possible context. This is wholly in keeping with the priorities of liturgical scholarship from the Carolingian era, when these books first appear.

Abstract: The trial and execution of the Jesuit John Ogilvie in 1615 is located within diverse political contexts-Reformation and Counter-Reformation; British state formation; and the contested control of the Scottish Kirk between episcopacy and Presbyterianism. The endeavors of James vi and i to promote his ius imperium by land and sea did not convert the union of the crowns into a parliamentary union. However, he pressed ahead with British policies to civilize frontiers, colonize overseas and engage in war and diplomacy. Integral to his desire not to be beholden to any foreign power was his promotion of religious uniformity which resulted in a Presbyterian backlash against episcopacy. At the same time, the Scottish bishops sought to present a united Protestant front by implementing penal laws against Roman Catholic priests and laity, which led to Ogilvie being charged with treason for upholding the spiritual supremacy of the papacy over King James. Ogilvie's martyrdom may stand in isolation, but it served to reinvigorate the Catholic mission to Scotland.

Abstract: The theological formation of Latin American seminarians before and after Vatican II underwent major changes. This article focuses on such formation before the Council. A first part outlines the directions given by the Magisterium for its purpose. In addition, the article presents the wishes about the formation («vota») that the bishops sent to John XXIII. In a second part the article exposes the Christology that was taught in the seminaries and, in particular, the content and purpose of the treatise De Verbo incarnato. The article concludes that this Christology was oriented to the formation of priests who could celebrate the Eucharist as a satisfactory sacrifice to God for sins.

Abstract: The essays collected in this volume explore the power of the medieval bishop through the neglected and problematic lens of personality, tackling the construction and presentation of medieval personalities by historians and medieval writers in an interdisciplinary manner.The question of personality is a problematic one, beset by complications of cultural distance, the layers of the past, and the limitations of the source material.Recognising these difficulties, this volume draws together character sketches based upon historical narratives and a range of sources, including architecture, liturgical manuscripts, chronicles, and hagiographical material, to show a multifaceted range of means by which historians can construct, reconstruct, and deconstruct episcopal power through the person of the bishop.Building on a previous volume of essays, Episcopal Power and Local Society in Medieval Europe, 900-1400, which examined the construction, augmentation, and expression of episcopal power in local society, this second volume seeks to uncover the impact of the personalities behind that power. Through essays dealing with the construction of cultural and political personalities, the shadows they cast, and the contexts that forged them, this volume brings to life the careers of bishops across medieval Europe from c. 900 to c. 1480. This geographical range and broad time span throws up the similarity in applications and benefits of interdisciplinarity which can be applied to ecclesiastical history, and presents a fascinating range of case studies for consideration.

Abstract: Social Network Analysis (SNA) has shed powerful light on cultures where the influence of patronage, preferment, and reciprocal obligations are traditionally important. Accordingly, we argue here that episcopal appointments, culture, and governance within the Catholic Church are ideal topics for SNA interrogation. We analyse original network data for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Significantly, we show how a network-informed approach may help with the urgent task of understanding the ecclesiastical cultures in which sexual abuse occurs, and/or is enabled, ignored, and covered up. Particular reference is made to Theodore McCarrick, the former DC Archbishop "dismissed from the clerical state" for sexual offences. Commentators naturally use terms like "protege", "clique", "network", and "kingmaker" when discussing both the McCarrick affair and church politics more generally: precisely such folk-descriptions of social and political life that SNA is designed to quantify and explain.

Abstract: The sociopolitical crisis of Catalonia under the reign of Philip IV of Spain justified not only the directly intervention of Crown but also the management of armed uprising for a part of the Church. The testimonies of three bishops of the Principality —Francisco Perez Roy, Diego Serrano y Jose Lainez, originating from the bishopric of Elna-Perpinan and Solsona— provides us with a detailed testimony of not only the social reality of Catalonia in the middle of the Seventeenth century, also to offer us an accurate image of the complexity of the political framework ant the different interests that arose during this conflict.

Abstract: This chapter describes the development of the underground Church in China beginning from Deng Xiaoping’s liberalization of the religious policy in 1978. It points out the gradual buildup of communities around bishops and clergy just freed from prisons, who refused any compromise with the Communist authorities. The underground Church, then, became more organized with new priests and sisters formed in its own seminaries and convents and, mainly, with new bishops secretly ordained. The highest attempt on this line was the establishment of the Unofficial Bishops’ Conference in November 1989. All these efforts were carried out under threats, detentions, and persecution by Chinese authorities, who intended to force upon everybody the official registration and acceptance of their autonomy and independence policy. Recently, the soft attitude of the Holy See toward China became another source of worry for the unofficial Church.

Abstract: Sunday, on which the paschal mystery is celebrated, must be by apostolic tradition observed in the universal Church as the primordial holy day of obligation On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Mass (can 1246 §1, 1247 CCL) The duty to keep Sunday holy, especially by sharing in the Eucharist and by relaxing in a spirit of Christian joy and fraternity, is easily understood if we consider the many different aspects of this day upon which the present discussion will focus our attention (DD No 7) In the discussion, we would like to emphasize the empathic and protective attitude of the Slovenian Bishops' Conference, as they strengthened the resilience of believers in order to successfully overcome their own vulnerability, maintain resilience, persistence, flexibility, optimism and human solidarity The instructions of the Slovenian bishops deal with a number of security measures in connection with the public confession of faith and the celebration of Sunday and holiday masses © 2020 Slatinek

Abstract: This article offers an analysis of changing ethical and theological approaches to contraception in successive Lambeth Conferences of Anglican bishops. It also compares these changes with gradual ch...