Repositório RCAAP

The study that follows aims to be a sociological approach to the structure of contemporary Catholicism, with special reference to its expression in the centre and west of continental Europe. Not wishing to ignore other aspects of the issue, nor to exhaust the question, it seeks to focus on a sector of religious semantics in contemporary Catholicism: the area of the social order. Aware that Catholicism cannot be reduced to its religious dimension, even if this dimension, currently in crisis, has been the dominant tendency over the centuries, the present contribution endeavours to synthesise the results achieved through research dedicated to contemporary Catholic religious semantics and, in particular, to the way in which this thematises and organises questions relating to the social order. In this sense, it analyses certain aspects of the radical divergence between the most widely publicised religious semantic and another alternative one recovered by tradition through the 2nd Vatican Council, but not taken fully on board by Catholicism in the geographical-cultural area referred to. After an exposition of the two types of semantic, there is a presentation of the differences that distinguish them. Lastly is an attempt to shed light on certain perspectives under debate by the currently non-dominant semantic, albeit assumed by Vatican II and subsequent Popes.

It may be stated that there are occurrences in the social action of Christian communities: the paradox of informality and of institutional weight; the assistance of the laity; systemic complicity; impoverishment of social pastoral care; and certain blockages. These characteristics denote extraordinary potentials, which may be seen throughout history, and also certain limitations worthy of consideration. In order to make the most of the potentials and to overcome the limitations, the following lines of action seem recommendable: social action groups in all parishes; a social reception service in the parish institutions; qualification of the service of parish reception; organisation and management of Church institutions, in the light of the Church’s social doctrine; taking on and recognising lay identity; bringing about activity in Christian communities; coordination of parish social action; participation in the Parish Pastoral Council; integration in the social action of the Diocese; cooperation with non-Church entities; living in Christian brotherhood. Naturally each parish should adopt the kinds of action it regards as appropriate; it would be a considerable step forward if in every parish in the country, a social action group were to function, with representatives of all parts of the area that it covers.

The Church lives from the Liturgy. This is its decisive, non-exclusive dimension, because the Liturgy is the first school of faith and of spiritual life. Liturgy is not only rite, nor mere execution of rubrics, but ethos and, fundamentally an art of action, where the Church seeks aid for its everyday life. Christian life is founded on the Liturgy, that is, on sacramental celebration, especially on the sacraments of Christian Initiation, in celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours and in the broad horizon of the Liturgical Year. Indeed, spiritual life, though founded on God’s Word and on the Liturgy, requires catechesis, meditation, personal prayer, charity and many other dimensions of life in Christ. Liturgy is the Bible made prayer. Faith, professed and transmitted by the Church, is celebrated in the Liturgy and radiates to life in charity. The presence of God in the sacramentality of the Liturgy transforms the Christian to the measure of Christ. Anyone who has truly found Christ and has been found with Him, must announce and witness it in the simplicity of everyday life. This is the simple and beautiful seriousness of the Liturgy.

Our starting point is an affirmation by Romano Penna, an important specialist in the world of Pauline studies. He states, “The ex-Pharisee of Tarsus helps us all to purify the concept of Christianity.” Is this true? Can Paul’s thinking serve as a guide to a revisitation and prophetic reconfiguration of current Christian morphology? Does Paul indeed provide us with a set of interpellations that are valid not only “for all seasons” of the ecclesial path, but for the age in which we ourselves live? Well now, if we had to explain why Penna’s observation seems to us positively instigating, we would put forward four fundamental challenges: the challenge to receive metamorphosis as a grammar of belief; the challenge to build a Church consigned to Christ, more than to itself; the challenge of taking the community nature of Faith seriously; the challenge of living in a state of renewed beginning.

Research into the synodal experience of the early Church tends to consider these early synodal experiences in the light of the ‘prestigious model’ of the great ecumenical Councils, projecting the model of the great post-Constantinian episcopal gatherings on the rich and variegated synodal life of the earlier Church. From this stems, on the one hand, an inadequate valuing of the rich and inspiring experience of the early Church and, on the other, the continued prevalence of the modal of ‘episcopal’, i.e. clerical, synods, in which other members of the church have a merely facultative place. Hence this study is centred precisely on an analysis of synodal experience in the pre-Nicean period. After discussing the multiple expressions of synodality, we move on to the principal moments of synodality in actu. In a second part, taking advantage of the generous documentation provided by St Cyprian of Carthage, special attention is paid to the case of the African churches in the 3rd century.

In this study, inspired by the sixth centenary of the decree Haec Sancta, promulgated by the Council of Constance, and the fiftieth anniversary of the 2nd Vatican Council, based on William of Ockham’s Dialogus I, V, 25-28, we analyse and comment on two opposing opinions and their bases, the first of which upholds the fallibility of the General Council, (Venerabilis Inceptor), the other, its infallibility, (Marsilius of Padua, Defensor Pacis); following this, the study refutes the arguments in favour of conciliar infallibility, concluding with an appendix that presents the text of the four aforementioned chapters in Portuguese.

This paper, after stating that in the last five centuries the Church has only held two ecumenical councils, explains how Vatican II recovers the ecclesial collegiality theorised in the first half of the 15th century. It analyses this revival of collegiality in the Conciliar theologians K. Rahner and J. Ratzinger, and in the text of the constitution Lumen Gentium; it deals critically with the obstacles to its development over several decades; and it welcomes the current revival from the hand of the pope Francis.

The Church possesses a structure and composition that is hierarchical and synodal. This truth of the history and wisdom of the Church is, at the same time, a binomial of tension for which it is necessary to search repeatedly for a balance that is not always simple. The present text begins by showing the absence of structural equivalence between the hierarchical and synodal principle, almost always to the detriment of the synodal constitution, which appears in the Catholic Church as the weak principle in relation to the strong or hierarchical principle; that there has been a clear move forward towards a new balance between the principles mentioned (point II); thirdly (point 3), concrete proposals are presented for a reinforcement of the synodal structural element in the bosom of the Catholic Church.

The Church evangelises through its institutions in a double sense: it evangelises through mediation and as an institution. The ecclesial institutions are in themselves a message to the extent that they convey, mediate and communicate a message. This is particularly true in relation to the synodal institutions. As Pope Francis insists, these institutions aim not so much to organise the Church as to put it in a state of mission. The organs of participation are institutional places in which the faithful take part in decisions that have to do with the proclamation of the Gospel in a locality. That is how the faithful form a body in a “dynamic, open and missionary community”. On the basis of this triple qualification I wish, in the present reflection, to question the text that presents the Councils of the diocesan Church according to the code of Canon Law. This approach and concern is, however, of an ecclesial order and seeks, on this basis, to propose a formulation for the formula Votum tantum consultivum that is canonically more satisfactory, in order to honour the vocation of the faithful and their mission “in the Church and in the world”.

Taking as a starting point the ecclesial experience of the diocesan Synods and the principal documents of the recent Magisterium on the subject, this text aims to make a brief retrospective and assessment on the Synods that have taken place in the different local Churches in Portugal following the 2nd Vatican Council, or are still in progress. The thread of this reflection may be glimpsed immediately from the title: the diocesan Synods are a precious service to the mission of the local Church that promotes them, to the extent that they contribute to projecting its renovation and its evangelising and missionary pastoral action. Communion, renovation, mission, evangelisation and joint responsibility are, among others, incisive words that make the diocesan Synods of this period pulsate with a rhythm.

Taking as a starting point the ecclesial experience of the diocesan Synods and the principal documents of the recent Magisterium on the subject, this text aims to make a brief retrospective and assessment on the Synods that have taken place in the different local Churches in Portugal following the 2nd Vatican Council, or are still in progress. The thread of this reflection may be glimpsed immediately from the title: the diocesan Synods are a precious service to the mission of the local Church that promotes them, to the extent that they contribute to projecting its renovation and its evangelising and missionary pastoral action. Communion, renovation, mission, evangelisation and joint responsibility are, among others, incisive words that make the diocesan Synods of this period pulsate with a rhythm.

In this contribution, I propose to explore the force that remains in the proposal Gaudium et spes with regard to political life, at a time of disenchantment with the democratic model. I shall start by placing the crisis of civic commitment which Europe is living, to propose Christian hope as a way in to a political ethic in times of crisis, particularly because of its critical potential in the face of false hopes. I will then show that the concept of the common good developed at Vatican II permits a new prophetic boldness for which Pope Francis has mapped out the path, thus contributing to restoring the capacity of politics to partake of a perspective of direction that corresponds to the expectations of the contemporary world.

In exegesis and in theology, in the catechism and pastoral mission, the traditional interpretation of Gn 2,4b-3,24 parts from certain presuppositions: that this narrative speaks of Adam and Eve, of an original sin or guilty act committed by them, of a promise of salvation, of the devil in the form of a serpent, of paradise lost… And explicitly links sin to creation. Now, here and in another work quoted, using the exegetic methods recommended by the ecclesial magisterium, reading it within its own context, as offered by the Mesopotamian literatures discovered in archaeological excavations that took place there in the 19th century, a radically new interpretation is proposed. Through the discovery that this is an origin myth and functions like other origin myths, an intense exegesis of the text leads to the conclusion that it aims to give ultimate meaning to the beautiful and painful present – good and evil – of human life but is completely dissociated from the idea of sin.

This article seeks to provide evidence for the essential and characteristic foundations underlying God’s people, making use, to this end, of God’s revelation expressed in the book of Genesis, specifically in relation to what Abraham, Jacob and Joseph tell us. With this in mind, we begin by distinguishing God’s people from the founding event that led to, set in motion and still maintains its life dynamic. In reality, this founding event proves to be decisive and present throughout the testimony of Abraham, Jacob and Joseph, who form their own models of response to the unique vocation of God’s people, whether it be through Abraham’s obedience of God, Jacob’s openness to divine providence, or the wisdom taken on by Joseph, son of Jacob.

This study is divided into two brief chapters: the first, on structure and composition, contributes to its interpretation; following this, I carry out a study of the psalm as such, from a fundamental angle which I have called “Theology of 2 S 7,12-16 and Ps 89”. The parallels between these two texts are drawn in diagrams that offer a joint perspective. The marks on the side of the presentation of the psalm text seek to indicate the principal sections of the same. Furthermore, I study the psalm from synchronical and canonical points of views, not taking into account its diachronical evolution or other aspects of textual criticism.

This article is situated in the midst of the debate on the diversity of Biblical languages. The literary field chosen is the unusual and unexpected language of the Song of Songs, in which the human word of a man to a woman and the human word of a woman to a man are taken as a key to Revelation and to the understanding of the Scriptures. Faced with the question of how a text that is articulated as a loving language between a man and a woman lends itself to the articulation of a dialogue between God and a human being, our concern is not to find an answer but to try to catch a glimpse of the possibilities of intelligibility that this question implies. Our method will be to approach the language of the Song of Songs recognising it as: a door that clarifies the invisible; a language that mirrors what we are; a language that is the echo of a ‘love’ that precedes and redeems all human loves.

In the present article the author adds new elements in the sense of showing echoes of rabbinic tradition in texts originating from the Joanine community. These Jewish motifs come above all from the oral and liturgical tradition, as can be shown in the items analysed in this article: the theme of light; the liturgy of the day of Expiation (Kippourim); the traditions relating to Isaac; the theme of the “tabernacle of God among men” and the name of the covenant (ani hu). A few examples that show the importance of a ‘Jewish’ reading of the New Testament texts. The final aim is to encourage a pluralistic study of Judaism in the first century as a fundamental presupposition for a proper exegesis of the New Testament.

We do not know exactly what kinds of ills those that came to Jesus suffered from. They asked to be cured, purged, consoled, exorcised, reconciled and returned to peace. The usual term ‘unclean spirits’ has a broad range of meanings: illnesses, handicaps, woes, all sorts of conditions that nowadays might be labelled in general terms (in some instances) as psychiatric cases. Jesus also found cases of mental illnesses, despair, psychosomatic diseases, which were regarded by many first-century Jews as stemming from “unclean spirits”. Be that as it may (and, in any case, not in any sense denying the absolute singularity of Jesus’ thaumaturgy), Jesus reestablished many people not only with his very particular noteworthy and astonishing gestures. And in the process of exorcism, Jesus restored a person psychologically, thereby reinstating to the citizenship of Israel and to the religious life of its people those who thus far had been cast aside as impure.

For many centuries as well as in the present, the passage in 1 Cor 1,25 has always aroused the same endless sense of wonder. There the apostle confronts nothing more nor less than the disconcerting theme of God’s fragility. And he does so in a manner that is challenging, demanding and unforgettable, immersing the reader in an agitated ocean of questions. As we shall see, in Paul’s view this question of God’s fragility gains a programmatic character. The contents of 1 Cor 1,25 sets in motion a veritable ‘conversion of the imagination’, not only because it criticises and dismantles the conventional framework of dominant values, but because it offers a new hermeneutic for approaching the world and existence.

The interpretation of the Scripture and its different personages enriched the Christian Tradition but this reception is quite often marked by debates and polemics. Melchizedek, the king and priest who blessed Abraham in the Genesis, is an example of a reception through different perceptions in the Christian Tradition, as Ambrosiaster and Jerome witness to us. This article presents the position of Ambrosiaster and his comprehension of Melchizedek as a personification of the Holy Spirit and the reaction of Jerome affirming that the King and Priest is only a man.