Repositório RCAAP

It is the question of the experience and visibility of the Christian faith, in a cultural context that makes the exercise and transmission of it particularly difficult, that has led to this study of the constellation formed by the theologians Sequeri, Rizzi and Theobald. In their work it is underlined how affective resonance, ethical appeal and relational style are, in fact, significant, operative features of faith in Jesus of Nazareth.On the practical attention that we now give them, both on a theological and anthropological level, may depend the necessary reparation of the affinity between the Christian event and the basic places and rhythms of human existence.

The present study, which is based on the principle of unity that is formed between the two components of the Eucharistic celebration – Word and Eucology –, develops a methodological proposition implicitly contained in Sacrosanctum Concilium, 56. Examining the texts individually, research leads to a unitary vision of the celebration. The Mass is presented not as the sum of the individual parts that constitute it, but as the fruit of an ecclesial reflection that unites the liturgical theology of the celebration in the bringing together of texts inspired by the Holy Spirit. The components thus come together in a new context, within which they retain their original value, but acquire a new, unique significance: that of celebration. Through a bibliographical search among post-Conciliar texts we may conclude that an analysis of the Mass as a unit is only marginally touched upon. Scholars limit themselves to going into two aspects: the scriptural and the eucological. The present contribution thus puts forward a novelty: it establishes the methodological coordinates for an analysis of that which is a single act of worship (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 56).

The Holy Vine of David in its theological exploration, requires greater nurture of its soil, so that the fruits of reflection, harvested from selected vines, might be savoured in a multiple reading of spiritual aromas. The present work by Joaquim O. Bragança does not seek to make known a vine belonging to a demarcated region, somewhere among the sunny slopes of Israel, but to deepen the sense of a theological-liturgical expression, formulated in Chapter IX (n.º 2) of the Didache: “We thank You, our Father, for the holy vine of Your servant David… which was revealed through Jesus”. Following preliminary observations, concerned with the philological significance of certain terms and on the nature of the Eucharistic prayers of Chapters 9 and 10 of the Didache, the subject is treated in a more detailed fashion in the patristic literature of the 2nd and 3rd centuries: in the writings of Hermas, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyon, Hypollitus of Rome and, though briefly, in the celebrated apocryphal book of the Dormition of Mary (ms. Vatican Greek 1982). The hermeneutics of the texts permit the author to capture the significance of various determinations and relations concerning the Holy Vine of David, and to conclude that many of the messages of a theological and spiritual nature continue to this day to be of considerable importance.

The discovery, cataloguing, publishing and study of fragments of mediaeval codices is a vital area for a greater knowledge of liturgical traditions. For the Use of Braga it is essential, since most of the codices that led to its origin and even of the period in which it was constituted, have sadly been lost. Bearing in mind a recognised and renewed interest, the present article provides an overview, in chronological order, short but up-to-date, with regard to the liturgical fragments of Braga. It takes into account the work of António de Vasconcelos, Justo Pérez de Urbel, Germán Prado, Avelino de Jesus, Pierre David, Solange Corbin, Jorge Barbosa, Jordan, Romano Rocha, Joaquim Bragança, Joaquim Félix and, lastly, Manuel Pedro Ferreira, who is currently coordinating a project involving inventorying and making digital photographs of the manuscripts with musical notation.

The discursive genre is the depositary of the memory of a community brought together in the output of pronouncements and texts. What is at issue in this text is not the homily as a literary genre as such, but its operativity, its instances of pronouncement. The homily is not just a genre, given the multiple forms of discourse with which it has manifested itself in the course of history. To preach is to translate, to illuminate, more than to explain or to communicate. It is the idea of locutio that is missing, the work of the mystagogy, in the absence of interlocution. Where is the new word at which Dante hinted and about which Master Eckhart preached?

The present article follows a diachronic and typological framework, on which to base the notion of ministeriality, showing a hermeneutic of the continuity of ordained ministry well defined in the local church with the figure of the bishop, surrounded by the priests and aided by the deacons, simultaneously emphasising the sacramental nature of ministry in union with Christ and the Church. This theological-liturgical study demonstrates that the differences in the laying on of hands are, in themselves, revealing of the different relationships between ministries. Thus the bishop is a member of the episcopal college, the priests the bishop’s council and members of the priesthood, and the deacon is at the service of the bishop. In truth, the sacrament of Order establishes an intimate relationship between liturgical celebration and the theology of the sacrament itself. From celebration is born ministry and, in its turn, ministry determines celebration. An understanding of the liturgy, as a celebration of the mysteries of faith ‘per ritus et preces’, makes it possible to attain the profound truth of the ordained ministries.

‘Liturgical Theology’ was born at the beginning of the 20th century, with the Liturgical Movement. How did this new area come about in the framework of the history of reflection on the faith? A brief historical outline on the genesis of the Liturgical Movement and a presentation of two of its protagonists (Columba Marmion and Lambert Beauduin) lead us to the figure of António Coelho, principal promoter of the ideals of the Liturgical Movement in Portugal and to his Liturgical Theology. Reflecting on the ‘why?’ of the existence of worship and ‘what’ is its efficacy in the complex issues surrounding faith, A. Coelho gives two responses to the liturgical question: the first is found in his Curso de Liturgia Romana; the second in his sermons, for which reason he may be considered a ‘mystagogue’ of liturgy.

Liturgical Science, as a subject in university Theology courses, was only included in the Theology curriculum in the 18th century. This article is concerned with the process of creation and structuring of the first chairs in Liturgy, namely the Schola Sacrorum Rituum of the Roman College, the chair in Sacred Rites of the Pontifical Liturgical Academy at Coimbra. Both of these chairs were linked to the figure of the Jesuit Manuel de Azevedo. Indirectly, the chair in ‘Liturgical Theology’ of the University of Coimbra, created in 1772 by the Pombaline reform of the University, was also influenced by him. After Manuel de Azevedo, other chairs in Liturgy arose, but it is thanks to this Jesuit that the movement came about: he was the first to insist explicitly that Liturgical Science should have a place among theological disciplines and it was through his intervention that Liturgical Science became a university subject.

The parish church of Santo António, at Moscavide, dedicated on 9 December 1956 by Cardinal Cerejeira, is characterised by being a building that marks a break, a manifesto of opposition to revivalist churches that were then being opened in Lisbon, which left no-one indifferent and led to a heated controversy, involving the most varied shades of opinion, in favour and against the new church. Designed by the architects João de Almeida and António de Freitas Leal, it appeared as a building linked to a modern and essentially functional style, with marked influence from German Swiss architecture. Inside, the organisation of the liturgical space by giving priority to the altar, by distancing it from the far wall and by placing the congregation in three arms in the form of a T, represented a potential route which was ultimately not followed in Portugal.

This brief essay presents two pieces of music – one mediaeval, the other contemporary – that occur as interstitial additions to a consolidated liturgical practice: the first having recourse to a new text, the second reusing traditional texts. These are the two possibilities mentioned by Tertulian, in the 3rd century, when describing the spontaneous praise of God that concluded typical Christian meetings at that time. In both instances, separated by 900 years, music enables a deeper affective appropriation and an expression of the theological sensibility of its protagonists, placing the accent on aspects that otherwise are little stressed in the celebration.

This article seeks to show that in the work of Adília Lopes, frequent autobiographical contractualisation produces the double effect of a form of writing that uses its unarmed condition to become completely disarming. In this context certain features of Adília’s writing are stressed, namely hybridism, prosaism and the ‘grammatical view’, as instruments for the denunciation of violence and of the cruelty present in our daily lives.

João Luís Carrilho da Graça (Portalegre, 1952) is the architect of the church inaugurated on 13 June 2008 and dedicated to St. Anthony, in the Assentos area of Portalegre. He is responsible for some of the leading projects in contemporary Portuguese architecture, whose value has justly been recognised through the award of the Pessoa Prize. In Portalegre he drew up his first design within this specific typology, creating a building that is overtly contemporary with simple lines and white surfaces that make up an elemental structure close to traditional Alentejo architecture. If the attention to the exterior revealed by the architect is incontrovertible, it gains equal if not greater interest in the care – unusual in this country – given to the organisation of the liturgical space. There is particular concern to understand and manifest the ecclesiological and liturgical spirit renewed through the 2nd Vatican Council, which results in a church that is, taken as a whole, one of the most important and significant steps in present-day Portuguese religious architecture.

With the Motu proprio “Omnium in mentem”, the Pope altered the wording of 5 canons of the Code of Canon Law. In 2 canons, concerning the sacrament of the Order, the norm, now with greater clarity, formulates the ministerial function of deacons. In 3 canons, concerning the sacrament of Matrimony, the incisive ‘formal defection from the Catholic Church’ was withdrawn, considered neither necessary nor appropriate. This commentary clarifies in detail what the said formal act of defection is and what process should be gone through.

The new situation for the institutions of consecrated life, characterised by the difficulties arising from the aging of its members and the shortage of new vocations, demands deep reflection as to the causes and path to tread to bring about renovation. New roads will open when the causes of difficulty have been isolated and eliminated.This study seeks new models for the institutions of consecrated life centred fundamentally on the aspects of the administration of their worldly goods and in the running of the various works that they currently possess, putting forward proposals for solutions to the problem, according to the rules of Church law.

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The Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium legislates on the ordinary (and extraordinary) process for the designation of bishops in the oriental Churches and on the respective method, which is twofold: by list or by direct election. By expressing personal opinions and reflections, felt to be useful and opportune, the author makes himself an echo of observations, complaints, demands and protests in oriental Churches with regard to this canonical process.

H. U. von Balthasar in his work Theology of History formulates a fundamental problem in theology: the question of the universale concretum. The answer is to be found in the mystery of the Incarnation, the contingent case in history, whose universalisation is given through the action of the divine Pneuma, in the sacramental kairos. In this brief note the author seeks to show how right Balthasar’s position was, by illustrating through the history of sacramental theology the route that Balthasar’s thesis presupposes and confirms.

Very often Jesus has been presented and preached as someone who lived against the law of Israel, as someone that only loved. The message of the gospel was reduced in the liberal protestant exegesis of the nineteenth century to a message of pure love viewed merely as a feeling. Unfortunately this still continues today. This small exercise tries to show exactly the opposite, tries to evidence how Jesus did not deny the law, how Jesus interprets the law (the torah), assuming the different meanings the word bears and applying them to his fellows to his generation of the Judea Province of the first century. This gives the message of Jesus a public, social and political incidence.

‘Justice’ is a central idea in the Hebrew Bible, in which abound a wealth of parallels and contexts. In some of these it is not distinguished very much from mercy and from love: it is an aspect of both. A concept rich in meanings, it needs to be expressed through at least three nouns: mišpāţ, şedeq and şedāqāh.Mišpāţ is objective and subjective ‘right’, which does the person concerned justice. Şedeq is created order, which establishes how just relationships between human beings are. Şedāqāh expresses just behaviour with regard to this order and as ‘saving action’. The three seek to promote the good of the one in need: they go beyond strict justice and form part of liberating justice.

In debates on the death penalty, the position of Saint Augustin is often invoked by way of legitimisation. It has been so for centuries. In fact, various of his writings and indeed some of the most important and influential take this line. They do not question current Roman law. However, if we take his writings as a whole, certain texts stand out, especially letters addressed to the judicial authorities, in which he expressly appeals for the death penalty not to be applied. And this for Gospel-related reasons and as a matter of coherence with the faith. The intercessio episcopalis is situated in this position, between civil penal law, which admits of it, and the Gospel of pardon, of mercy and of the opportunity for repentance.