Brief Overview Of The Organisation And Function Of The Catholic Church

Lecture Notes from the year 2007 in the subject Theology - Historic Theology, Ecclesiastical History, , language: English, abstract: This overview is about the issues in the catholic church. At first it covers a brief overview about the history of the first general council of nicea in 325. Then it gives information about the situation and the rights and obligations of catholic clergy. At the end it mentions the importance of youth involvement in the liturgical life of the catholic church.

This book explores the extent of parallelism and cross-influence between Catholic Social Teaching and the work of the world’s oldest human rights institution, the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Sometimes there is a mutual attraction between seeming opposites who in fact share a common goal. This book is about just such an attraction between a secular organisation born of the political desire for peace and justice, and a metaphysical institution much older founded to bring peace and justice on earth. It examines the principles evident in the teachings of the Catholic Church and in the secular philosophy of the ILO; together with the theological basis of the relevant provisions of Catholic Social Teaching and of the socio-political origins and basis of the ILO. The spectrum of labour rights covered in the book extends from the right to press for rights, i.e., collective bargaining, to rights themselves – conditions in work – and on to post-employment rights in the form of social security and pensions. The extent of the parallelism and cross-influence is reviewed from the issue of the Papal Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII Rerum Novarum (1891) and from the founding of the ILO in 1919. This book is intended to appeal to lay, professional and academic alike, and will be of interest to researchers and academics working in the areas of international human rights, theology, comparative philosophy, history and social and political studies. On 4 January 2021 it was granted an Imprimatur by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool, Malcolm P. McMahon O.P., meaning that the Catholic Church is satisfied that the book is free of doctrinal or moral error.

"This volume," says James Coriden in his introduction, "... allows the reader to reach an accurate understanding of the authentic nature and function of parishes within the Catholic tradition." It describes the origins of parishes and their historical evolution, offers a theology of parish as a local church, links parishes to the church's social teaching and provides a comprehensive overview of their function in Roman Catholic law and their relationship to American civil law." "In clear, nontechnical language, the volume outlines the canonical status of Catholics as parishioners - as well as their rights, duties and forms of assembly and the relationship of parishes to other ecclesial and civil bodies. Ministerial students, clerical and lay ministers, members of parish councils and laypersons generally will find this book an indispensable handbook for living and working within parish communities. Christians of other denominations will make fruitful connections between their own congregational life and Roman Catholic experience."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

There are one billion Catholics in the world today, spread over every continent, speaking almost every conceivable language, and all answering to a single authority. The Vatican is a unique international organization, both in terms of its extraordinary power and influence, and in terms of its endurance. Popes come and go, but the elaborate and complex bureaucracy called the Vatican lives on. For centuries, it has served and sometimes undermined popes; it has been praised and blamed for the actions of the pope and for the state of the church. Yet an objective examination of the workings of the Vatican has been unavailable until now. Drawing on more than a hundred interviews with Vatican officials, this book affords a firsthand look at the people, the politics, and the organization behind the institution. Reese brings remarkable clarity to the almost Byzantine bureaucracy of congregations, agencies, secretariats, tribunals, nunciature, and offices, showing how they serve the pope and, through him, the universal church. He gives a lively account of how popes are elected and bishops appointed, how dissident theologians are disciplined and civil authorities dealt with. Throughout, revealing and colorful anecdotes from church history and the present day bring the unique culture of the Vatican to life. The Vatican is a fascinating institution, a model of continuity and adaptation, which remains constant while functioning powerfully in a changing world. As never before, this book provides a clear, objective perspective on how the enormously complex institution surrounding the papacy operates on a day-to-day level, how it has adapted and endured for close to two thousand years, and how it is likely to face the challenges of the next millennium.

Written in accord with the Catechism of the Catholic Church and rooted in the sound catechetical principles of the National Catechetical Directory, these texts present a well-defined curriculum model that stresses clear objectives, careful organization, and creative methods and evaluation procedures to check the attainment of goals. Very flexible, allowing teachers to select materials to highlight and stress, each text can be implemented on various grade levels for a quarter, a semester, or a full year depending on the length and frequency of class meetings. Intended to function as the primary textbook for a semester or year-long course in a Catholic high school at the eleventh and twelfth grade levels the goal of the course is to help students understand the interrelationship of the components of the Catholic Church. This course emphasizes the living Church and what it is in the present moment and is constructed around themes such as the Church as the People of God, the Church as servant, and the Church as sacrament. Each theme traces major periods of Church history and provides insights as to how the Church has come to its contemporary expression. Recognizing that to truly understand what it means to be Catholic, one must look not only at current theology, worship, and belief, but how those things were developed and accepted through history, The Church: Our Story combines a discussion of ecclesiology -- literally the "study of the nature of the Church" -- with a discussion of Church history. The purpose of the historical sections are not to recount all of the significant events over the past two thousand years, but rather to give insight into the beliefs, practices, and tensionsin Catholicism today that resulted from their historical roots.

Over 3 million copies sold! Essential reading for Catholics of all walks of life. Here it is - the first new Catechism of the Catholic Church in more than 400 years, a complete summary of what Catholics around the world commonly believe. The Catechism draws on the Bible, the Mass, the Sacraments, Church tradition and teaching, and the lives of saints. It comes with a complete index, footnotes and cross-references for a fuller understanding of every subject. The word catechism means "instruction" - this book will serve as the standard for all future catechisms. Using the tradition of explaining what the Church believes (the Creed), what she celebrates (the Sacraments), what she lives (the Commandments), and what she prays (the Lord's Prayer), the Catechism of the Catholic Church offers challenges for believers and answers for all those interested in learning about the mystery of the Catholic faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is a positive, coherent and contemporary map for our spiritual journey toward transformation.

Church Ethics and Its Organizational Context is the first book to provide a broadly interdisciplinary approach to understanding the leadership crisis in the Catholic Church in the wake of the sex abuse scandal and how it was handled. Well-known scholars, religious clergy, and laymen in the trenches of church formation and leadership come together from the disciplines of organizational behavior, theology, sociology, history, and law, to foster the creation of a new code of ethics that is both ecclesial and professional. Touching on issues of governance, authority, accountability, and transparency, this volume goes on to specifically explore whether and how professional ethics can shape the identity and actions of Church leaders, ministers, and their congregations. While evoked by the sex scandal in the Church, the essays in this book raise questions that have implications far beyond this current issue, to much broader issues such as the role of professionalism in ethics and what it means for an organization to engage in moral action.