Times have changed

The Papal Encyclicals have changed a lot in recent centuries. They usually occupied one page; today they have a hundred or more pages. Previously, they often addressed specific international issues; today they deal mostly with our relationship with God or with the demands of Christian life. Fundamentally, the language of the Encyclicals have changed radically!

Going for the gold

our life on earth is a sports arena and we need to train ourselves well in order to win over our competitors. But our competitors are not people around us – it’s our ego and the devil – because the devil is always waiting to catch us unawares. “Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (I Peter 5:8).

“Apostle of Christ among Africans”

Pope St John Paul II, in his homily on the day of the canonization of Daniel Comboni, on 5 October 2003, said, “We need evangelizers with the enthusiasm and apostolic outreach of Bishop Daniel Comboni, an apostle of Christ among the Africans. He relied on the resources of his rich personality and solid spirituality to make Christ known and welcomed in Africa, a continent he loved deeply.”

Workshops explore John Paul II’s Theology of the Body

Starting on October 19th and until mid-April 2022, Father Andrzej Blazkiewicz wants to discuss the various meanings of human love in the Divine Plan with local Catholics. The Polish priest will promote a series of workshops –  one per week – based on the book Male and Female He Created Them, a compendium of Pope John Paul II’s teachings on love and sexuality, in which the Polish pontiff discusses issues such as the human condition or human dignity. 

Christian Life: A Spiritual and Moral Life (2)

For St Thomas Aquinas, theology and spiritual theology are “one and the same thing.” Similar is the stand of St Bonaventure. For both doctors of the Church and the traditions they represent, theology is one, not yet divided at their time between dogmatic and moral theology. Spiritual theology permeated the different theological treatises such as the Trinity, Creation, Christology, grace and the sacraments, prayer, etc. It was – and is – more closely connected with moral theology or Christian ethics.

BITE-SIZE THEOLOGY (147) What are indulgences for?

“An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints.”