Аллах в католическата църква
Allah in the Catholic Church

Summary/Abstract: The report presents results from field research that took place in the Catholic Church “St. Marry of Lourdes” (2016) in the city of Plovdiv. This article is focused mainly on the social and charity activities, per¬formed by the catholic organization, and more importantly by the five sisters from the order “Mother Teresa’s mercy”. Examined are two types of social activities- the first, related to the charity works for the poor, and the second-organized social work among gypsy children from Stolipi¬novo district. In the charity works that I joined, I had the opportunity to observe one specific case of religious conversion. Gypsies, which feel themselves as Turks and Muslims, who wear pendants with St. Marry of Lourdes, St. Teresa of Calcutta and crosses. Even though they barely understand the Bulgarian language, namely spoken, they pray to God un¬der the name of Allah, in Catholic Church in the presence of religious people- sisters, nuns and priest. That made me interested in researching the unusual situation as example of religious transformation, taking place in an urban environment. The present summary places the problem of the religious transformations in the urban habit, put in the context of the so¬cial factors that cause them. Presented is one possible approach towards the explanation and analysis of some problems that concern the socio-religious sphere. The main line of the analysis that concerns the factors, related with the cultural diversity, offered by the urban area, forming on specific, in confessional sense, identity. Presented are a few specific strategies of the city person that serve as transition beyond the confessional boundaries and connect with the social interactions and the survival in the urban environment. The social benefit (divident) puts the question for the religious transformations in urban environment, where the individual maneuvers between two religions and two realities, that is to say he is between the need and the social advantage, (that is to say between the penury and “to have in order to exist”), between your own and that of the other, between Allah and Christ.

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