Search Results (88)

This article examines how student voice informed the development of Tō Tātou Whakapono Our Faith, the national Religious Education (RE) curriculum for Catholic schools in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Through student-submitted RE questions and 63 informal Zoom-based “Interschool Catholic Yarns” with over 400 senior students over several years, the National Centre for Religious Studies gathered valuable insights into student experience and expectations. These contributions influenced RE curriculum content, nuance, and priorities. Emphasising accessible engagement with young people, the two outlined approaches align with Catholic commitments to synodality and formation. This article demonstrates that engaging student voice is both possible and necessary in designing RE that is meaningful, faithful, and grounded. Full article

This paper chronicles the evolution of the presbyterate of the Ruthenian Byzantine Metropolitan Catholic Church in the United States of America from the time of the first wave of immigrants to the United States to the present day. It looks at critical junctures in the history of this sui iuris Church regarding (1) the importation of married priests from Europe serving in the Metropolia during the first wave of immigration; (2) the restriction of consideration for priestly formation and ordination to celibate men; (3) the more recent importation of married priests from Europe in response to the critical shortage of clergy; and (4) most recently, the admission of American-born married men to priestly formation and ordination. This paper will examine in more detail the changing face of the presbyterate across the Metropolia, beyond the boundaries of the Passaic Eparchy. This paper also discusses how the Metropolia has adapted to forming married men alongside single men for the presbyterate as well as developed a policy for the formation of married deacons for the married presbyterate. The Byzantine Catholic Seminary adapted from having a student body of celibate men to one that includes celibate men, men who are dating, and others who are married. This paper also discusses the reception of married priests and their families by the lay faithful as well as the reception and acceptance of married priests and their families by celibate clergy. Finally, this paper discusses how the restoration of the married presbyterate to the Metropolia has been a positive development for the Church. Full article

At the end of the 18th century, due to the neighbouring states of Austria, Prussia, and Russia, Poland lost its independence. Despite not being represented on the political maps of Europe, its citizens embarked on numerous initiatives that fostered their sense of belonging to the Polish national community. This was achieved, among other things, through various organisations that promoted Polish culture, language, customs, and faith. Additionally, a space was created for organic efforts aimed at individual and social development, ultimately intended to lead to the regaining of independence. One of the organisations involved in these activities was the Catechists’ Association, which sought to develop the professional qualifications of its members through various initiatives. This, in turn, was expected to enhance the level of education and religious formation within Polish society, particularly concerning children and youth. The article aims to define and characterise the activities of the Catechists’ Association in Galicia that were aimed at advancing professional competencies in the first decade of the 20th century in the territories annexed by the Habsburg Monarchy. Full article

RNA–DNA differences (RDDs) challenge the traditional view of RNA as a faithful copy of DNA, arising through RNA editing, transcriptional errors, and oxidative damage. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play a central role, inducing lesions like 8-oxo-guanine that compromise transcription and translation, leading to dysfunctional proteins. This review explores the biochemical basis of RDDs, their exacerbation under oxidative stress, and their dual roles in cellular adaptation and disease. RDDs contribute to genomic instability and are implicated in cancers, neurodegenerative disorders, and autoimmune diseases, while also driving phenotypic diversity. Drawing on terrestrial and spaceflight studies, we highlight the intersection of oxidative stress, RDD formation, and cellular dysfunction, proposing innovative mitigation approaches. Advancements in RDD detection and quantification, along with ROS management therapies, offer new avenues to restore cellular homeostasis and promote resilience. By positioning RDDs as a hallmark of genomic entropy, this review underscores the limits of biological adaptation. Furthermore, the prevalence of guanine-rich codons in antioxidant genes increases their susceptibility to ROS-induced oxidative lesions, linking redox stress, genomic instability, and constrained adaptation. These insights have profound implications for understanding aging, disease progression, and adaptive mechanisms in both terrestrial and space environments. Full article

The Catholic Church in the United States is no longer a Euro-American church receiving immigrants. Rather, it is an immigrant church, the cross-cultural Body of Christ. Serving such a diverse church is difficult and complex, providing both prophetic and pragmatic challenges for pastoral leaders seeking to build the parish as a dynamic, relational, multicultural community, living out the Gospel of Christ. The challenges of creating vibrant parishes in the light of growing diversity was the subject of a qualitative research study that interviewed more than 500 Catholic pastors, staff, and parishioners, from 40 parishes across the US. This study discovered that, while parishioners from different cultures want the same things—good liturgy, leadership, community, and faith formation—they want it in culturally distinct ways. This has created challenges not previously encountered by parish leaders. Effective leaders in these communities exhibited the skills of adaptive leadership, learning to put aside biases and assumptions, in a synodal style of ministry in which they listen deeply, and respond to, the needs of their faith community while using intercultural competencies. Together, pastoral leaders are becoming bridges, bringing together the faithful across cultures, enriching the life of the community. Full article

This article invites reflection upon the spiritual theological nature of the conscience as a means to discern God’s word in the depths of the soul. Coming from the depths of love and truth, the conscience is an extraordinary, demanding the force of grace. This is because God nurtures the formation of human conscience with the prevenience of grace to give light in darkness. This article explores the darkness and weariness of human existence in terms of self-interest, indolence, fatigue, and boredom, and then seeks to reflect upon how the conscience evidences the invincibility of goodness through blessing, humour, and prayer. This means that the conscience, pronouncing love in truth, and the nearness of the Kingdom of God, is called to be a “light” shining “out of darkness” (2 Cor 4:6). The conscience serves to animate a pastoral and spiritual life and testimony of faith, labour, responsibility, humility, and wisdom, as St. Paul relates: “we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God” (2 Cor 4:2). Encountering “God’s mercy” (2 Cor 4:1), the conscience evidences a theophanic encounter of God’s grace that needs to be pronounced in the goodness of love in truth, of responsibility for-and-with-the-other. Full article

The process of moving away from faith in God has taken place in Europe with varying dynamics in individual countries at least since the end of the Second World War. In Poland, secularisation slowed down significantly during the Communist period; however, it gained momentum after the changes initiated in 1989 and after Poland’s accession to the European Union in 2004. The process of departing from faith in God was strongly accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and this trend was particularly noticeable among young Poles. In the context of cultural change, the formation of young people to faith in God has become a major challenge for Christian churches. The Catholic Church—not only in Poland—is searching for new forms, ways and programmes of religious formation for young people. Fourteen dioceses in Poland are implementing a three-year formation programme titled “Youth on the Threshold” (Polish: “Młodzi na Progu”). It was initiated in the Diocese of Gliwice in 2004, has its own website and is constantly being developed. In 2021, a youth survey was conducted in the Diocese of Tarnów to evaluate this programme. The results of this evaluation, when compared with surveys of religiousness in youth in general, show its positive effects on the continuation of and even the development of faith in God. This article first presents the main assumptions of the “Youth on the Threshold” programme and then the results of its evaluation based on a survey about faith in God conducted among those who completed the programme. Full article

This study deals with the color reproduction of a work of art to digitize it into a 3D realistic model. The experiment aims to digitize a work of art for application in a virtual reality environment concerning faithful color reproduction. Photogrammetry and scanning with a LiDAR sensor are used to compare the methods and work with colors during the reconstruction of the 3D model. An innovative tablet with a camera and LiDAR sensor is used for both methods. At the same time, current findings from the field of color vision and colorimetry are applied to 3D reconstruction. The experiment focuses on working with the RGB and L*a*b* color models and, simultaneously, on the sRGB, CIE XYZ, and Rec.2020(HDR) color spaces for transforming colors into a virtual environment. For this purpose, the color is defined in the Hex Color Value format. This experiment is a starting point for further research on color reproduction in the digital environment. This study represents a partial contribution to the much-discussed area of forgeries of works of art in current trends in forensics and forgery. Full article

This paper examines the role of the Ten Commandments in Christian worship and its influence on believers’ spiritual and ethical formation. Although historically the use of the Commandments in public worship was limited, particularly outside Reformed traditions, they remain a powerful tool for moral reflection and spiritual discipline. By reciting, singing, or creatively incorporating the Commandments into worship, believers are invited to engage in continuous self-reflection and reaffirm their commitment to living according to God’s will. This paper argues that, while not mandatory for every service, the regular use of the Ten Commandments provides essential moral guidance and helps shape the ethical identity of Christians, offering a framework for navigating relationships with God and others in a faithful, disciplined way. Full article

Over the past two decades, Drosophila melanogaster has proven to be successful in modeling the polyglutamine (polyQ) (caused by CAG repeats) family of neurodegenerative disorders, including the faithful recapitulation of pathological features such as polyQ length-dependent formation of protein aggregates and progressive neuronal degeneration. In this study, pan-neuronal expression of human Ataxin-1 with long polyQ repeat of 82 amino acids was driven using an elav-GAL4 driver line. This would essentially model the polyQ disease spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1). Longevity and behavioral analysis of male flies expressing human Ataxin-1 revealed compromised lifespan and accelerated locomotor activity deficits both in diurnal activity and negative geotaxis response compared to control flies. Interestingly, this decline in motor response was coupled to an enhancement of matrix metalloproteinase 1 (dMMP1) expression together with declining expression of extracellular matrix (ECM) fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling by hedgehog (Hh) and branchless (bnl) and a significant decrease in expression of survival motor neuron gene (dsmn) in old (30 d) flies. Taken together, our results indicate a role for dysregulation of matrix metalloproteinase in polyQ disease with consequent impact on ECM signaling factors, as well as SMN at the neuromuscular junction causing overt physiological and behavioral deficits. Full article

Those who are charged with the responsibility of governing, leading or teaching in Catholic schools at this time are challenged by questions which go to the heart of their school’s mission. How is it possible for the mission of the Catholic school to be realised in a culture that is increasingly secularising? What is the secularising context and how is religious belief still possible today? These are questions of profound significance also for the families who seek a Catholic education for their children. Charles Taylor’s analysis of our secular age provides a foundation for addressing these questions as do findings from the Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) research. Whilst the secularising context is sometimes painted as the enemy of Catholic education, it is presented here as being the context in which Catholic schools must realise their mission and this cultural context, like any cultural context, has elements which support the mission and elements which impede it. The following key concepts from Taylor’s analysis are reviewed because of their relevance for Catholic schools: the Expressivist Age, the Cross-Pressured context and the Immanent Frame. The Post-Critical Belief Scale from the ECSI research is also reviewed, as a key finding is that Post-Critical Belief is the only viable option for faith in a secularising context. Full article

This article discusses the Franciscan theme in Polish literature, which was apparent from the 19th century onwards, and especially towards the end of that century. This trend involves the works of many authors and an enormous variety of texts. Therefore, this article focuses on two writers—Józef Wittlin and Roman Brandstaetter—who clearly inherited the broad Franciscan tradition, and also developed and popularised the Franciscan message. The Franciscan revival in Polish literature was initiated by Protestants, which often meant a departure from the figure of St. Francis established by the Church in favour of an individual understanding and presentation of him. The first Polish centre of the revival of Franciscanism as a literary and cultural formation was Lviv. Józef Wittlin grew up in this environment; moreover, he authored, inter alia, the first Polish unfinished novel about St. Francis Salt of the Earth, which refers to Franciscanism, as well as a number of smaller texts with a Franciscan message. Wittlin was a mentor to Roman Brandstaetter, who, after World War II, became the greatest bard of Assisi and St. Francis in Polish literature. Unlike Wittlin, who was Protestant-inspired, Brandstaetter clearly placed the Assisi saint in a Catholic context. This writer greatly expanded references to Franciscan tradition and art in his work. He wrote essays on Assisi, wrote a drama about St. Francis, and combined Franciscanism with biblical themes, as evidenced by his Jesus of Nazareth tetralogy. Despite their differences, what both writers shared is that the saint from Assisi was neither an object of devotional worship nor an outdated figure, but a representative of ideas and layers of spirituality that had remained fresh for people living in that conflicted era. Although they emphasised other aspects of the Franciscan ethos, they both accepted it as a counterbalance to a cold and indifferent world, an idea for living addressed not only to Christians, but also to people of other faiths and agnostics. Full article

Dialogue needs provocative interlocutors. Instilling a grave and shuddering awakening to the conscience, Emmanuel Levinas has provided a corpus of writings unveiling an immemorial horizon and divine calling of infinite responsibility before the other, the brother/sister stranger. Roger Burggraeve has animated Levinas’ writings within a Christian theological horizon as a source of formation in the service of promoting biblical wisdom and love in the life of faith. The writings of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis together portray a Catholic theological gravity to bring dialogue into a spiritual, practical, and social domain. Accordingly, this article develops the notion of dialogue within a Jewish and Christian lens by introducing the sense of the non-reciprocal character of dialogue, an asymmetrical relation of responsibility to the other evidencing the preconditions of dialogue. Levinas’ notion of non-reciprocal dialogue, taken further by the writings of Burggraeve, reveals a pre-original affectivity or ‘dialogical’ character of interpersonal relations of commitment respecting the other’s mystery and unknowability. This means that the dialogical relation is a pathway of ethical transcendence, a holy ground evoking an integral human ecology of maternity and fraternity. Such covenantal alterity in spiritual theological terms signifies an affectivity of atonement and redemptive love. In this way, the movement towards dialogue reveals a synodal path and holy ground to walk together and imagine an integral ecology of difference and mystery to transform words into sacrifice and truth into redemptive love. Journeying together upon such holy ground witnesses to a spiritual theology of dialogue envisioning a place to hear the “good news” (Lk 4:16) and encounter “the hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matt 5:6). Full article

Preaching has always been a means of congregational formation, and it is most effective in this endeavor when the homiletic matches the expectations of the audience. Modernism’s solo, authoritative clergy voice and postmodernism’s inductive New Homiletic responded to the needs of listeners in their respective eras. This paper proposes a homiletical paradigm that responds to metamodernism—a movement emerging in the U.S. over the past 10 years—and imagines this paradigm’s contribution to Christo-formation in the faith community. After the introduction, this paper traces how modernism and postmodernism affected America’s homiletic and subsequent congregational formation. This is followed by a description of metamodernism, its place within postmodernity, and its effect on church members’ expectations. Next, I present a shared pulpit culture, where the congregation hears a myriad of preaching voices, as a formative response to metamodern demands for more complex truths to be discerned within trusting communities. The paper ends with experiences from a faith community that practices a shared pulpit to show how the practice forms the vocational preacher, the members who preach, and the church at large. Full article