Posted on by Marc O. DeGirolami

Fosi’s “Papal Justice: Subjects and Courts in the Papal State, 1500-1750”

Readers interested in the late history of ecclesiastical law may want to check out Papal Justice: Subjects and Courts in the Papal State, 1500-1750 (CUA Press 2011), by Irene Fosi (G. D’Annunzio, Chieti-Pescara) (translated by Thomas V. Cohen).  The publisher’s description follows.  — MOD

In early modern Europe, justice was always the key to public order and the state’s main pillar. The pope, though the head of the church, was also a prince like any other, but his justice, as machinery and moral model, displayed the double nature of his rule, targeting not only actions but also beliefs and consciences. Irene Fosi, the doyenne of scholars of papal justice, lays out the ambitious, complex, and sometimes baffled endeavors of the pope’s magistrates and through lively anecdotes gives the flavor of the encounter between the pope’s assorted magistrates, inquisitors, and others, and the men and women hauled before the law.

Originally published in Italian and widely acclaimed, Papal Justice has been translated into English by Thomas V. Cohen, professor of history at York University. With the English edition, this lively overview of the papal justice system reaches a transatlantic readership and makes available the fruit of Fosi’s decades-long research in unpublished archives in Rome and the Vatican.

The book examines the very motley shape of the pope’s territorial domain, the institutions found there, and the relationships between Rome and its outlying cities. Microhistories of how things worked form a clear picture of relations between the sovereign and his subjects.

Posted on by Marc O. DeGirolami

Crockpot and Microwave Catholics

Here’s an interesting column by David Gibson from a couple of days ago about Catholics who have been raised as such from birth (often within a family structure), and those who convert to Catholicism later in life.  Gibson mentions it himself, but William James’s discussion of conversion in The Varieties of Religious Experience seems to reflect a preference for the latter.  Peter Berger is quoted at the end of the piece as saying that “religion today is a choice, and we are all converts to one degree or another[.]”  Maybe that’s right, though I wonder whether it might also be right to say that “choice” is a concept with many attendant and very different conceptions.  — MOD [x-posted MOJ]

Posted on by Marc O. DeGirolami

Liveblogging the Religion and Bankruptcy Conference, Part I

I am at the St. John’s Religion and Bankruptcy Conference this morning, and I thought to report on some of the papers and discussion going on right now.

The first presentation was by Professor Theresa Radwan of Stetson University School of Law, dealing with the use of tithing to establish the non-dischargeability of debt following the Religious Liberties and Charitable Protection Act and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.  

The issue is whether post-petition tithing can operate to shield the debtor from creditors.  RFRA reinstituted the substantial burden/compelling state interest of Sherbert v. Verner, and the panelists are now talking about whether that test means that the state is appropriately reluctant to judge whether and how the “undue hardship” standard in the discharge of student loan debts interacts with the substantial burden component of RFRA.

Read more

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Catholic Bishops in England and Wales Restore Meatless Fridays

Starting today, Catholic bishops in England and Wales have restored the centuries-old tradition of asking believers to abstain from meat and offer prayers on Fridays as an act of common penance.  The bishops argue that abstaining and praying in a communal way will encourage penitence and solidarity with the suffering and also serve as a mark of Catholic identity in the wider society.  The bishops’ explanation of the new policy, first announced last spring, is here.

There are many angles to this story – theological, sociological, even political – but CLR Forum readers will likely find the legal aspects most interesting.  As a legal matter, the bishops’ reasoning goes like this.  The canon law of the Catholic Church provides that, for Latin-Rite Catholics, “[a]ll Fridays through the year … are penitential days … throughout the entire Church” (Canon 1250).  Particular forms of Friday penance are prescribed by local bishops (Canon 1251).  For centuries, the bishops had prescribed meatless Fridays as the form penance should take, but in 1985 they decided to allow Catholics to substitute other forms of penance.  The bishops’ new decision, which that takes effect today, restores the earlier practice.  – MLM

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Hauling the Pope before the International Criminal Court

Yesterday, the Center for Constitutional Rights requested that the International Criminal Court, a tribunal headquartered in The Hague, prosecute the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI, and three cardinals for “crimes against humanity” in connection with the clergy sex-abuse scandal.  The complaint alleges that the Vatican tolerated the systematic and widespread rape and torture of children and vulnerable adults throughout the world and that Pope Benedict XVI and three cardinals bear personal responsibility for these crimes as a matter of direct authority and respondeat superior.

There are serious legal problems with CCR’s complaint.  First, sexual abuse by clergy does not fit easily within the definition of a “crime against humanity” contained in the ICC’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute of 2002.  The Rome Statute defines a “crime against humanity” as “a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population,” a definition that suggests something like a wartime atrocity.  Second, the Vatican is not a state-party to the Rome Treaty.  That’s not necessarily a show-stopper, as the ICC has jurisdiction over crimes Read more

Posted on by Marc O. DeGirolami

“The Last Liberal Catholic”

Those who may not know the blog, Palazzo Apostolico (“Apostolic Palace”), authored by Paolo Rodari and run by the Italian newspaper, Il Foglio, may want to take a look.  One of Rodari’s recent posts deals with liberal Catholicism in Italy.  A phenomenon of the nineteenth century, Rodari writes that liberal Catholicism consisted in the position that it was a good thing that the Church lose its temporal power inasmuch as it could devote its energies exclusively to its spiritual vocation.  Most interestingly, Rodari writes that liberal Catholics of that era believed that they owed obedience and allegiance to the Pope and to the Church’s core precepts (as Rodari says, this distinguishes them from the “liberal” of today), even as they also believed that individual conscience had an important role to play and that they were not obliged to “bow their heads” to the wishes of bishops and cardinals.  The heroes of the liberal Catholics were Cardinal John Henry Newman, Alessandro Manzoni (author of The Betrothed), and Antonio Rosmini.

The referent of this post’s title is former Italian President and liberal Catholic, Francesco Cossiga (a controversial figure in his own right), whose party was the Democrazia Cristiana (now gone), and who recently passed away .  Below the fold, a translation of some of Cossiga’s thoughts about liberal Catholicism from Rodari’s post.  — MOD

Read more

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

American Theocracy, cont.

More evidence that worries about creeping “theocracy” in America are misguided: According to a poll released this week by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, only 16% of American Catholics are aware that during the 2008 election cycle, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a document explaining Catholic teaching on political issues. The report, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” was not a new idea; the bishops issue such a report every presidential election cycle. Even more striking: 71% of American Catholics said the report would not have made a difference to them even if they had known about it.  Three-quarters who read the report said it had no influence on their vote.

Statistics like these don’t explain why American Catholics apparently tuned out the bishops’ report.  Maybe the report wasn’t sufficiently publicized. Maybe the report was vague. Maybe American Catholics know what the Church teaches about political questions and don’t think they need a refresher. Maybe – and this surely worries the Bishops Conference – the vast majority of American Catholics simply do not believe they have to form their consciences according to Church teaching. One implication is clear. If “theocracy” means that believers blindly vote the way their churches tell them – or even seriously consider their churches’ positions on political questions – theocracy doesn’t seem a real issue in America today. — MLM

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

End of the Catholic Left?

Relax, everyone, we’re talking about France.  In a post on Religio Blog, the insightful religion correspondent for Le Figaro, Jean-Marie Guénois, reports on a survey of French participants at the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day, currently underway in Madrid.  The poll reveals the extent to which young French Catholics see themselves as conservative.  Almost half describe themselves as on the “right” or the “far right”; only about eight percent say they are on the “left” or “far left.”  Guénois cautions that there are nuances in the responses and one should avoid simplistic labels.  Still, he believes that these figures show a major shift in French Catholicism.  Since the 1970s, he writes, the Catholic intelligentsia in France has been decidedly progressive; conservativism has been highly frowned upon.  But les cathos de gauche are now the party of grey hair (des cheveux blancs) and they have not had a lasting impact.  Indeed, Guénois argues that the poll results indicate the end of the Left’s decisive influence in the French Church.

I’m no expert on the sociology of French Catholicism, but I wonder how much one can read into this survey.  Kids who attend the World Youth Day are seriously committed to Catholicism; it’s not surprising, for example, that they would report widespread agreement with the moral teachings of the Church.  One wonders what those young Catholics who aren’t attending the conference would say.  And of course many young French have left the Catholic Church altogether.  Still, people tend to be more liberal when they are young and to become more conservative as they get older, so the fact that so many young French Catholics already identify as conservative suggests that the future of the French Church, as Guénois writes, will be more conservative than its recent past. – MLM