Mater Et Magistra Mater Et Magistra is the encyclical written by Pope John XXIII on the topic of "Christianity and Social Progress." It was promulgated on 15 May 1961. The title means "mother and teacher," referring to the role of the church. It describes a necessity to work towards authentic community in order to promote human dignity. It taught that the state must sometimes intervene in matters of health care, education, and housing.
Assaults on the dignity and the rights of the human person have been central to the ongoing crisis of the modern era in the last hundred years. This book takes a searching look at the roots of this problem and the various approaches to it by the eight men who led the Catholic Church in the twentieth century, from Pope St. Pius X and his crusade against Modernism to Pope St. John Paul II and his appeal for a renewed rapprochement between faith and reason. Thus it offers a distinctive, illuminating interpretation of recent world events viewed through the lens of an ancient institution, the papacy. The fascinating story is told by a veteran observer of Church affairs through short profiles of the eight popes, which include crucial, often little-known facts. The book includes substantial excerpts from the writings of the popes that give important insights into their personalities and thinking. It also includes a useful overview of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) and its pivotal role in reshaping the Catholic Church. Serious and open-minded readers, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, as well as students of Church history will find this unique work an informative, timely, and inspiring guide to understanding many central events and issues of our times.
Including contributions from twenty-two leading moral theologians, this volume is the most thorough assessment of modern Roman Catholic social teaching available. In addition to interrogations of the major documents, it provides insight into the biblical and philosophical foundations of Catholic social teaching, addresses the doctrinal issues that arise in such a context, and explores the social thought leading up to the "modern" era, which is generally accepted as beginning in 1891 with the publication of Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum. The book also includes a review of how Catholic social teaching has been received in the United States and offers an informed look at the shortcomings and questions that future generations must address. This second edition includes revised and updated essays as well as two new commentaries: one on Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical Caritas in Veritate and one on Pope Francis's encyclical Laudato Si'. An outstanding reference work for anyone interested in studying and understanding the key documents that make up the central corpus of modern Catholic social teaching.
Look out for a new book from Garry Wills, What The Qur'an Meant, coming fall 2017. "The truth, we are told, will make us free. It is time to free Catholics, lay as well as clerical, from the structures of deceit that are our subtle modern form of papal sin. Paler, subtler, less dramatic than the sins castigated by Orcagna or Dante, these are the quiet sins of intellectual betrayal." --from the Introduction From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Garry Wills comes an assured, acutely insightful--and occasionally stinging--critique of the Catholic Church and its hierarchy from the nineteenth century to the present. Papal Sin in the past was blatant, as Catholics themselves realized when they painted popes roasting in hell on their own church walls. Surely, the great abuses of the past--the nepotism, murders, and wars of conquest--no longer prevail; yet, the sin of the modern papacy, as revealed by Garry Wills in his penetrating new book, is every bit as real, though less obvious than the old sins. Wills describes a papacy that seems steadfastly unwilling to face the truth about itself, its past, and its relations with others. The refusal of the authorities of the Church to be honest about its teachings has needlessly exacerbated original mistakes. Even when the Vatican has tried to tell the truth--e.g., about Catholics and the Holocaust--it has ended up resorting to historical distortions and evasions. The same is true when the papacy has attempted to deal with its record of discrimination against women, or with its unbelievable assertion that "natural law" dictates its sexual code. Though the blithe disregard of some Catholics for papal directives has occasionally been attributed to mere hedonism or willfulness, it actually reflects a failure, after long trying on their part, to find a credible level of honesty in the official positions adopted by modern popes. On many issues outside the realm of revealed doctrine, the papacy has made itself unbelievable even to the well-disposed laity. The resulting distrust is in fact a neglected reason for the shortage of priests. Entirely aside from the public uproar over celibacy, potential clergy have proven unwilling to put themselves in a position that supports dishonest teachings. Wills traces the rise of the papacy's stubborn resistance to the truth, beginning with the challenges posed in the nineteenth century by science, democracy, scriptural scholarship, and rigorous history. The legacy of that resistance, despite the brief flare of John XXIII's papacy and some good initiatives in the 1960s by the Second Vatican Council (later baffled), is still strong in the Vatican. Finally Wills reminds the reader of the positive potential of the Church by turning to some great truth tellers of the Catholic tradition--St. Augustine, John Henry Newman, John Acton, and John XXIII. In them, Wills shows that the righteous path can still be taken, if only the Vatican will muster the courage to speak even embarrassing truths in the name of Truth itself.
"The Catholic Church is in disarray. A crisis of authority followed on the false optimism of the Second Vatican Council, just as it did on the empty hopes of President Kennedy's 'Camelot.' In Bare Rusined Choirs, Mr. Wills takes the confusion of the Church as a model of institutional breakdown, not only in religion but in the state."--Page 4 of cover
Catholic Press Association Award Winner The Gospel call to do justice has inspired Christians to practice justice throughout the centuries. Yet popular usage associates justice with the legal system, due process, or with fair treatment in ways that are not helpful to Christian practitioners and ministers of justice. When Love Is Not Enoughaddresses the practice of justice at the dawn of the new millennium through the lens of eight dilemmas that confront Christians in their daily efforts to do justice. After an initial description and analysis of these eight specific dilemmas that impact the Christian understanding and practice of justice, When Love Is Not Enough draws on the experience of practitioners of justice; the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures; Catholic Social Teachings; and contemporary theories of justice to develop a comprehensive approach to justice based on faith. Chapter one introduces the dilemmas in contemporary justice that reflect a theological, eschatological, sacramental, and ethical worldview. Chapter two traces the theological framework of justice through the experience of ministers and practitioners of justice. Chapter three looks at the theological framework of justice in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, while chapter four examines the theological framework of justice in Catholic Social Teachings. Chapter five draws upon contemporary and classical theories of justice, showing justice as a historically evolving practice. Chapter six examines the anthropological, theological, and sacramental contexts for justice as participation in the human community. Chapter seven outlines how justice as participation in the human community is built around seven important points. The final chapter illustrates how justice as participation can sort out some just practices that respond to the eight initial dilemmas. Chapters are Contemporary Dilemmas of Justice," *Justice and its Theological Framework in the Experience of Ministers and Practitioners of Justice, - *Justice and its Theological Framework in the Hebrew and in the Christian Scriptures, - *Justice and its Theological Framework in Catholic Social Teachings, - *Contemporary, Classic Theories of Justice, - *The Contexts of Justice as Participation in the Human Community, - *Justice as Participation in the Human Community, - and *The Practice of Justice as Participation in the Human Community. - Mary Elsbernd, OSF, STD, is associate professor of pastoral studies in social ethics at Loyola University, Chicago. She is also the director of the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University, Chicago. Fr. Reimund Bieringer, STD, is associate professor of New Testament exegesis and biblical Greek at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. "
The Council Fathers express a desire to engage in conversation with the entire human family so that the Church--whose role it is so scrutinize the signs of the times and interpret them in the light of the Gospel--can help solve contemporary problems. Acknowledging the positive and negative realities of this new age of human history, Church teachings about man's relationship to economics, poverty, social justice, culture, science and technology, and ecumenism are explored.
