Around the Bloc: Montenegro Deports Suspected Doomsday Cultists
Local media claim the 58-strong group belonged to the Aum Shinrikiyo cult.
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Local media claim the 58-strong group belonged to the Aum Shinrikiyo cult.
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Russian police detained several alleged members of the banned Aum Shinrikyo religious group on 5 April.
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The initial thesis of the study is John Paul II’s proclamation in the Letter to Family (1994), which states that an individual can exist “for himself” through the sincere gift of self—and, at the same time, fulfill himself as “common good”: “the common good of the whole of the society” and “the common good of marriage and the family” (nn. 10, 11). These latter words give an impulse to undertake an attempt of transforming the profound theological thought of the papal document into conclusions on the canon law plane. The most fundamental ones seem to be: (1) a considerable meaning for the Church matrimonial discipline has its foundation on a realistic vision of a human being; (2) a basis of the contemporary theological and legal doctrine de matrimonio et familia is the structural (ethical) principle of love; (3) the acceptance of the appropriate premises of the juridical anthropology of marriage gives life to all attempts of setting the personalistic dimension of marriage against its legal value; (4) the indissoluble character of marriage is the basis of the common good of the family.
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The point of departure for the deliberations is the Letter to Families written by John Paul II presenting threats to understanding, existing, and functioning of the family in the contemporary world. The author of the study discusses the problem of sovereignty of the family. He depicts it from a wider point of view of its identity and subjectivity, indicating that these three elementary dimensions of family’s existence have impact on its inalienable, fundamental, and universal rights independent of any human authority. For this reason, he analyzes the concepts of identity, subjectivity, and sovereignty of the family, their relationships with each other, their basis which lies in marital covenant, as well as legal and political consequences for the existence of the family within a wider social community.
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Law providing for return of property whose owners are long dead could set a precedent for former communist countries.
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In 1763 the community led by Pious Paisius, comprising 64 members, received Dragomirna Monastery as their abode for permanent settlement. Under Pious Paisius’ guidance, a way of life took root, gained strength and vigour and began to be increasingly sought after, which those who describe it have termed “Paisian spirit”. It revealed to all the use and beauty of experiencing Christian teaching and pure prayer in communal life and the reward received even in this world for the effort of seeking holiness.
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Straipsnyje nagrinėjamas teologijos ir komunikavimo ryšys, apžvelgiamos pagrindinių teologijos sąvokų sąsajos su komunikavimu. Komunikavimo sampratos kontekste aptariamos Švč. Trejybės, Įsikūnijimo Jėzuje Kristuje, Šventosios Dvasios ir Bažnyčios sąvokos. Straipsnyje siekiama parodyti, kad komunikavimo perspektyva ne tik atskleidžia krikščioniškąją teologiją kaip iš esmės komunikacinę, bet ir leidžia geriau paaiškinti pagrindines krikščioniškąsias sąvokas. The article aims to investigate the relationship between theology and communication reviewing the main concepts of theology and communication. This reflection considers the mysteries of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Holy Spirit and the Church in the light of communication. The main aim of the article is to show that taking a communication perspective on theology enables us not only to see the Christian theology as fundamentally communicational but also allows us better to explain the main concepts of Christianity.
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Straipsnyje siekiama parodyti, kaip konstitucija apie šventąją liturgiją (Sacrosanctum Consilium) atvėrė kelią mo¬terims dalyvauti liturgijoje, taip pat, vertinant iš platesnės teologinės perspektyvos, pabrėžė ir išskleidė moterų per Krikštą gautą orumą Bažnyčioje. The purpose of this essay is to identify and to put in context a number of specific contributions made by Sacrosanc¬tum Concilium (the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy) that worked particularly in favour of women’s increased participation in the liturgy and, in a wide theological perspective, the affirmation and development of women’s baptismal dignity in the Church.
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During the first century women’s status and freedom was strictly limited by Jewish law and custom. And there is no attempt within the gospel and later the New Testament traditions to feature the role of women. Th erefore, the high number of references to women in the Jesus tradition is historically intriguing in itself. It shows unmistakably that Jesus’ attitude towards women can certainly be called radical or revolutionary.We find several specifi c references to women disciples. We see Jesus addressing women directly while in public. Contrary to the rabbis and other teachers of the day, we see him using illustrations of his teaching, where women are presented as positive spiritual examples and role models. We see Jesus defending women before hostile religious leaders and a furious multitude, and using the unheard phrase “daughter of Abraham”. We see a Jesus who extends honor and respect to all women. He teaches that women are men’s equals in the sight of God, and they also can receive God’s forgiveness and love. We see a Jesus who never treats an individual woman as merely a member of a class of people, but as a person in her own right, assuming that they are a part of Israel and are sharing in the new reality of the Kingdom of God.
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The central truth of Christian revelation is that absolutely prime are the Three Divine Persons including their mutual adherence and unity. Their communion constitutes the essence, archetype of all realities and it is something according to what everything should be shaped. The awareness of the Three Divine Persons mystery was consummated centuries ago and has gone through different courses of human intellect investigation. At the beginning the efforts of human intellect and faith are considered, traces of which can be found as early as in The Old Testament, and then in The New Testament. The continuation of these efforts was undertaken by the Fathers of the Church, then councils and all Magisterium until contemporary times (H. Mühlen), when there were attempts to discover essential directions for matrimonial union, resulting from truths discovered thanks to The Trinity.
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Gisbert Greshake is a leading German theologian in discussions about resurrection at the moment of death. He defends the thesis that death connects with resurrection, which happens at the moment of death. Consequently this thesis supports man’s unity, which is not destroyed even in death. During death, man meets with God the same as he was in his “corporeality”. In this view the soul carries in himself the revived and adored body, and through this his past world expression. God concludes in the resurrection what man did and realized in his earthly life. Greshake pays attention to one intermediate state, of which the results from this are that the departed people do not reach their fulfillment at the moment of resurrection and rather wait for living people. The German theologian’s justification is due to the fact that the expectation of those risen in death are for the addition of the world.
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The author of the article discusses the controversies arising around the category of particular administrative acts present in the Code of 1983. He proves that the ongoing dispute results mainly from the specificity of the nature of these acts. The inconsistency in opinions of various authors concerning the question of terminology, the specificity of particular administrative acts such as legal acts, the problem of the nature of the power making proper decisions as well as the question of the addressee of an act and its written nature. According to the author, particular administrative acts are unilateral definite acts issued by an executive power in both written and spoken form.
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In the State Archives in Opole there is stored the original document by brothers Otto and Frederick de Linavia from May 1st 1331. Previously, he was in possession of the Upper Lusatian Scientific Society (Oberlausitzische Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften) in Görlitz. Probably after World War II this was in Warsaw, and from there went to Opole. He is known only from regests and has never been completely released in print. It concerns the sale of Bieszków village near Nowa Cerekwia, which is 8.5 cornfields of all the revenue, to the nun Euphemia of Racibórz and Dominican Sisters in Racibórz.
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In Silesia, in the medieval period, three monasteries of the Poor Clares were established, sequentially in Wrocław, Strzelin and Głogów. The article presents the state of research on all three monasteries. The talks focused on the literature of monasteries, revealing issues which researchers have dealt with so far. It also presents further opportunities for research.
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This paper concerns the metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky and his activity for the renewal of monastic life in the Greek-Catholic Orthodox Church at the beginning of the twentieth century. He contributed not only to the revival of religious life, but gave it a new form. The religious foundation for Sheptytsky was eastern spirituality, because it was the monastery of Basilians which aided this formation, and it was completed through study with Jesuits in Kraków. Even through he fulfilled the function of a metropolitan of Lviv-Hal he was still in his spiritual nature a monk.A vision for the renewal of monastic life accompanied Sheptytsky from the beginning of his pastoral service and was developed under the influence of numerous contacts with western orders, like Benedictines, Jesuits and Carmelites. He established an order, gained from their experiences, which responds to Slavic spirituality and religiosity. He began to fulfill this order in 1904, when from two prayer communities he established the foundations of the future order of Studiets. This community took as the foundation of their life the advice of monks written by Studios in the fifth century, and corrected and developed by St. Theodor Studit. In 1923 Sheptytsky obtained from the Vatican confirmation of the rule of their community, which was based on the Byzantine tradition, had numerous elements of the teaching of the western Fathers of the Church, and corresponded with the exigencies of the reality of the time. The basis of the formation of Studiets is not only prayer, asceticism and work, but theological education, patristic knowledge and acquaintance of the eastern liturgy and tradition too. For Sheptytsky the eastern monasticism had to be first of all the source of spiritual life for the Greek-Catholic Orthodox Church and had to influence on the morally and educatory renewal of the believers and the clergy of the diocese.The present article demonstrates the exceptional framework of this order, which was openness to other cultures and religions, through encounters with the Greek-Catholic Orthodox Church of the time. A lot of contacts and activities had an ecumenical dimension. It happened through contact with other Christian’s confessions, showing the richness of the spiritual life, the splendor of eastern liturgy, and indicates the value of unspoiled faith as a way to true unity amongst Christians. The metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky was an example of this openness, because he personally kept many contacts with different ecclesial communities and was the advocate of the realization of the universal Church. He was not fearful of the benefits from the spiritual richness of the whole of Christianity, through it – attached to the thought of John Paul II – he breathed with both the lungs of the Western and Eastern Church.
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Silesia in the first half of the 20th c. painfully experienced rifts caused by uprisings in the plebiscite. In the part of Upper Silesia which remained within the borders of Germany stress was put not only on the development of industry, but also on solving demographic and social problems caused by the quickening increase in population in industrial towns. The phenomenon of greater and greater poverty among workers was a favourable ground for growing social unrest. The Catholic Church was also active on this plane by promoting ideas of just distribution of goods and social peace. The parishes with lots of members required division and the creation of new local communities and diocesan priests were aided by monastic orders and congregations, which since the end of the Kulturkampf restarted founding their posts. In 1923 a monastery was founded in Gliwice by Friars Minor of St. Francis of Assisi from the Wroclaw province of St. Hedwig. After 123 years of absence the Franciscans settled again in Gliwice. Already after a year the church of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus was consecrated in an adapted building of former steelworkers’ inn. In January 1925 a new pastoral post was established at the church. Subject to bilateral agreement it functioned as a curacy linked formally to the old parish of St. Peter and Paul. The topic of the current paper is the history of origin of the monastery of Franciscan Friars in Gliwice and the curacy managed by them. The author outlines the history of origin and development of the smelting quarter in Gliwice. The quick development of industry caused an increase in the number of Catholics in Gliwice. Facing that fact numerous parishes supported their division creating helpful foundations such as the Association for Construction of the Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in the smelting quarter. The act of foundation of the new monastery and construction works have also been characterized. Creation of the new curacy in January 1925 was possible thanks to the agreement between the Franciscans and the parish of St. Peter and Paul.
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Color is a kind of solar ray. Science conducts research on color as a physical phenomenon, physic-chemical as well as physiological. Light and color are elementary means of human orientation in the environment. Rational values with intuitional ones link mutually there. The light and the color are the basic, aesthetic categories for the visual arts even for sacral architecture.A man experiences architecture by thanks and through the senses of: sight, touch, hearing and smell. The meaning of architecture is completed by metaphysical human instinct. The light is a creator of both the physical dimension and metaphysical structures. Without the light, the architecture loses a polysensual integrality. The light and color are universal values which make the architecture sacral space. They enable the creation of a symbolic narration in the form of the building. Thanks to the three-dimensional spaces of contemporary religious sites, we intuitively perceive the infinite element – transcendence.
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One of the most important elements which constitute the functionality of the building is acoustics. In the interiors where speech and music are inextricably linked with the function of a building, this aspect cannot be neglected. Modern sacred architecture brings a lot of acoustic problems. To be precise, issue with acoustics in the building result from underestimation of this function, because it is possible to design acoustically functional interiors without losing the contemporary language of aesthetics and architectural expression. The study focused on the issue related to reverberance due to the fact that reverberation time is the most important parameter in the acoustic design of the church. The problem of reverberance was illustrated by acoustic research carried out in Vienna in churches Wotrubakirche and Donaucity-Kirche.
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The aim of this paper is an anthropological analysis of three individual biographies of Macedonian-speaking Muslims migrants in Italy. An author focuses on young people who migrated from Macedonia with their parents at the early age. In the literature they are named ‘1,5 generation’, while I call them the inbetween gerenation arguing that as immigrants, the people I talked to are between the first and the second immigrant generation, and they find themselves wedged in between the ideas and values of their sending country and the recipient country, and in between childhood and adulthood. They have studied or already completed their education in Italy, they speak Italian fluently and most of their friends are Italian. However, they are still speak Macedonian at home, visit their country of origin every year and are aware of their strong belonging to the Macedonianspeaking Muslim group. Therefore, they should constantly negotiate between traditional values of their parents, and their own patterns of life. The significant issues and tensions regard religious practices, daily habits like food and dress, and – that is most sensitive – gender relations.
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The volume Qur’an and cricket consists of several travelogues produced by a Malay intellectual, Farish A. Noor, during his trips to the most problematic places of the world, marked by the contemporary “battles of God”. This book is interpreted in terms of a quest for transcultural condition understood as a dimension of experience transcending the multiplicity of cultural orders in dissent. Noor sketches his own definition of the intellectual, contrasted in this article with the visions given by Gramsci, Adorno and Said. The subject of the transcultural condition is defined as “itinerant scholar” transgressing the limitations of the academia by his nomadic immersion in the world. The attitude of the traveller is marked by openness and readiness to listen, even if he is confronted to irrational mumbling. Precisely the mumbling of anger and hate becomes the most difficult challenge to the intellectual unable to deal with it rationally. The only remaining answer is a sheer presence and love, emotional attachment to the world, as the scholar rejects the temptation of the ivory tower that would isolate him from the otherness. The modality of speech that opposes the hateful mumbling isn’t based on clear, persuasive argumentation, but on ironic ambivalence conjugated with directness and the rejection of euphemism. Most importantly, the “itinerant scholar” is not a preacher.In opposition to the leftist tradition of defining the intellectual as a secular figure, the “itinerant scholar” remains deeply immersed in religion. The challenge of building up the transcultural dimension is connected to the necessity of finding a place for the authentic religious experience in times of “battles of God”.
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