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When I look back, I recognise that there has been a will other than mine that has been guiding me towards and along the path of artistic creation. As a believer, I identify this will with divine Providence, which opens the doors through which I must pass. Thus, I acknowledge in my artistic work a vocation, a call to which I must respond, and I find myself in the need to put the talents I have received at the service of this special mission. Along my journey, I have encountered various texts that have helped me understand what this vocation consists of, among them two have deeply touched me, Rodin's Artistic Testament and Saint John Paul II's Letter to Artists. Thanks to them, I have discovered that art can be a good means to understand reality and make it understood, or that it can be a suitable means to praise and give thanks to God for all the blessings He gives us. Beauty plays a leading role in all of this. Its relationship with truth particularly interests me because it serves me as a guide in my creations. As Rodin has taught me, I seek above all that my works reveal the true character that lies beneath the forms, since when we find truth, inevitably we find beauty as well. To achieve this, I use both painting and sculpture, working with very specific materials that I try to shape. Material reality makes physical what is not, art has the ability to make the invisible visible, I consider it to have an almost sacramental dimension and therefore the materials and the way of using them are of great importance. I highly value technique, which I try to master in order to express myself with true freedom. Every work of art can be an open window to transcendence, but sacred art destined for liturgy or devotion must strive to achieve this. To do this, I believe it is good to draw from the masters of the past, to maintain continuity in the use of symbolism and iconography, and I see a certain degree of figuration is necessary to make the biblical characters and scenes recognisable and thus be a catechetical vehicle. All this does not equate to imitating styles of the past since there is room for each artist to express themselves according to their own personality and for the result to be a product of their time.

This article examines the communication strategies of the Popes of the Catholic Church in response to cases of sexual abuse of minors in the Catholic Church. The authors are interested in how the official communications of the last three popes address this sensitive topic and how the Holy See's discourse on sexual abuse is developed. The article analyses the official texts of the Holy See signed by the Popes (John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis), taking into account the historical development and current trends in the way they communicate. The authors focus on the communication strategies used and on the naming of the situation and the expression of the relations with victims, representatives of the Church, the faithful and the public. They point out how the Popes applied elements of crisis communication in response to these controversial events. Based on the content and thematic analysis, the text shows that the Catholic Church Popes' communication regarding sexual abuse has been different. While John Paul II avoided the topic in official communication and Benedict XVI linked it to the overall decline of the faith, Francis relates sexual abuse to clericalism and the abuse of power in the Church in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives The article outlines the role of John Paul II's pontificate as shown in the broadcasts of Radio Free Europe’s Polish Broadcasting Station from 1978 to 1994. Material and methods For this purpose, selected programmes available on Radio Liberty’s website were examined. The source material was compared with press publications in the monthly Na Antenie. The literature on the subject, including memoirs, letters, biographies and academic studies, provided the background for further consideration. The primary methods used in the article included media and press content analysis and critical analysis of the literature. A comparative analysis of the information contained in various sources was also useful. Results The analysis proved that radio broadcasts on the Pope were not only of religious, social and political natures, but also cultural. Considerable airtime was devoted to reports of papal pilgrimages to Poland, coverage of special speeches and day-to-day statements made by the Pope about current events in the country. Conclusions Considerable airtime was devoted to reports of papal pilgrimages to Poland, coverage of special speeches and day-to-day statements made by the Pope about current events in the country, including the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union Solidarity, martial law, the imprisonment of Lech Walesa, and the killing of Rev. Jerzy Popieluszko. Both the election to the Holy See and details of the assassination attempt on the Pope in 1981 were covered. Original recordings of John Paul II's homilies, sermons and reflections were promoted.

Copyright of Journal of Modern Science is the property of Alcide De Gasperi University of Euroregional Economy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sacrum et Decorum is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The problem of dealing justly and efficiently with the most serious crimes in the Church after the promulgation of the Code of Canon Law in 1983 became the concern of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Benedict XVI, and John Paul II. Their cooperation and the decisions of Benedict XVI, as a continuation of the path started, laid the foundations for the creation of a system of canonical criminal law capable of responding properly and effectively to the most serious crimes committed by the faithful in the Church. The introduction of a clear scope of competence for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the definition of a longer limitation period, the possibility of revoking it, the centralization of procedural steps, entrusting them to qualified personnel, enabling the control of the action of individual superiors are very concrete legal solutions that confirm the teaching of the Church and the definite statements of the two Popes on the protection of the most vulnerable in the Church from the immense harm of sexual abuse that some clerics could commit against them. The article presents and discusses concrete legal solutions and relates them with the teachings and attitudes of the two popes towards protecting minors in the Church. It is an attempt to argue for the defense of their good names and to oppose the unfounded accusations made against these two authorities.

Twenty-five years ago, John Paul II’s encyclical Fides et ratio was published, where the question of truth occupies a central place. The task of the Church is to transmit to people the truth revealed by Jesus Christ, which discloses the mystery of God and man, is accessible in faith, and appeals to the intellect to accept it. In these times, dominated by a pragmatic approach to reality, a question arises about the practical, existential meaning of the truth proclaimed by the Church. The content analysis of the papal teaching in “Fides et ratio” leads to the conclusion that the truth cannot be reduced to a set of ideas that enrich human cognition. Therefore, the ecclesial ‘diakonia’ of truth serves human life because it helps man use his freedom properly and leads him to the fullness of humanity. The truth allows man to protect himself from relativism and religious egalitarianism threats. The communication of truth should consider people’s needs to perceive it as a precious gift from God, not as a yoke.

This article shows the role and influence of the socio-political activities of Pope John Paul II on the socio-political processes in Poland, which led to the fall of the socialist system in Europe. The article provides answers to the following questions: How did John Paul II, based on his personal political beliefs, use the influence of the religious factor of the head of the Roman Catholic Church on socio-political processes in Poland? What was his role in changing the constitutional order in the Polish People's Republic? How did the change of the socio-political system in Poland affect the collapse of the socialist camp in Europe? Was there a relationship between the socio-political activities of John Paul II and the processes of "perestroika" in the Soviet Union? The answers to these questions will make it possible to understand the origins of socio-political changes in Eastern European states, primarily in Poland, and the USSR in the late 1970s and early 1990s.

Max Weber’s thesis on the decisive influence of Protestant ethic on the formation and development of modern capitalism has become one of the best-known and widely shared canonical claims in social sciences. Since its publication at the beginning of the 20th century, this thesis, supported by subsequent great works by the German classic, has rarely been the subject of major controversy. The work of correcting Weber’s thesis was undertaken in the late 20th century by Michael Novak. Novak’s correction is not confrontational, but complementary. The American thinker abandons the research area of minority Protestant communities, which caught Weber’s attention, and undertakes an analysis of the broader religious tradition, developing both before and after the Reformation. In particular, the achievements of Pope John Paul II, interpreted by Novak in terms of the renewal of a liberty current of Catholic social thought, provide important corrective data.

Catholicism has long been hostile towards Jews. It has even been claimed that its anti-Judaism was the matrix of twentieth-century anti-Semitism. This contribution sets out to show that the pontificate of John Paul II marks a break in the history of the Church in this respect. A relative break perhaps: the Polish Pope is following in the footsteps of the Second Vatican Council, one of whose major texts, the declaration Nostra aetate (1965), revokes the idea of the Jewish people's guilt in Christ's death sentence and accepts that the Jews are still part of the Alliance with God. However, there was one decisive break: influenced by his education between the wars, which brought him into contact with nineteenth-century literature favourable to an inclusive nationalism, he accentuated the “philo-Judaism” of the conciliar period by developing a new approach to the Jewish community, linking recognition of the State of Israel with a request for forgiveness for the sins of Christians addressed to the “Jewish People”.

AbstractThe purpose of the text is to analyze the leadership of Pope John Paul II in Poland from the 1970s to the present, showing the changes in the perception of the pope’s leadership during three different phases. In the communist period the papal leadership focused on social justice issues; during the transitional period on religious issues; and in the final, contemporary phase, it is perceived as part of Polish identity. The change in the perception of the papal leadership was linked not only to political changes, but also to processes in Polish society, including increasing secularization.

The purpose of the text is to analyze the leadership of Pope John Paul II in Poland from the 1970s to the present, showing the changes in the perception of the pope's leadership during three different phases. In the communist period the papal leadership focused on social justice issues; during the transitional period on religious issues; and in the final, contemporary phase, it is perceived as part of Polish identity. The change in the perception of the papal leadership was linked not only to political changes, but also to processes in Polish society, including increasing secularization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Karol Wojtyła’s seminal essay, “Thomistic Personalism,” presents an integral theory of the human person that may serve as the foundation for an authentically personalist psychology. Relevant to the contemporary field of psychology, which appears fragmented and in search of a unifying paradigm, Wojtyła considered theory (anthropology), research (epistemology), and practice (ethics). In terms of research, he identified four complementary methods of understanding the human person: revelation (theology), reason (philosophy), observation (empiricism), and introspection (experience). In terms of theory, Wojtyła addressed the rudiments of Rychlak’s four dimensions of a personality theory: structure, motivation, development, and personality. In terms of practice, he described four guiding ethical principles: freedom for morality, freedom for love, personal good and common good, and transtemporal values. Wojtyła thus offered an outline for the project of a comprehensive psychology of persons with significant implications for the theory, research, and practice of psychology.

In the document Letter of his Holiness Pope John Paul II to Artists, John Paul II pointed out that artists, with their creation, perform a professional social service for the benefit of the common good through the "spirituality of artistic service", which, through the perspective of "educational art," contributes to the life and revival of the individual and society. Since that document does not specify what a model of such spirituality would consist of, the goal of this paper is to offer a proposal for the theoretical elaboration of its potential framework. The topic is discussed from the perspective of Christian theological aesthetics. The starting point for the development of the spirituality of the artistic service model is Christian artistic creation. The indicated theoretical framework of the spirituality of artistic service is based on three dimensions of Christian artistic creation. The first represents Christian artistic creation that points to the depths of the mystery of the sacred through Christian symbols. The second dimension of Christian artistic creation relies on the contemporary form of religious imagery in changed cultural circumstances in order to adequately present a transcendent perspective of the meaning of existence. The third dimension of Christian artistic creation awakens admiration in the recipients through artistic contemplation, thus enabling a spiritual transformation and serving as the bearer of eschatological hope. In the end, it is shown that this model of spirituality in artistic service can serve as a good theoretical framework for the implementation of three new dimensions of Christian art suitable for the contemporary cultural environment: mystagogic, existential, and contemplative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research overviews of and historiography on the attitude of the Catholic Church and theologians towards athletes with intellectual and physical disabilities assume that the Church and theologians have only very recently begun to interest themselves in this subject. Starting from John Paul II's contribution to this field, and above all from his integral anthropological vision, this article assesses his position by comparing it with that of his two successors Benedict XVI and Francis. Especially the latter's addresses and interviews and the official documents on sport issued by the Holy See during his pontificate are testimony to his special commitment to athletes with disabilities. The article also examines the history of the Holy See and studies its attention to athletes with a disability. The results of this inquiry are that papal interest in this field is not limited to, nor did it start with the pontificate of John Paul II. Instead, it dates from the very beginning of the modern phenomenon of sport, with Pope Pius X at the beginning of the 20th century, continued by Pius XII and John XXIII. The latter's speech to the participants of the first Paralympic Games in 1960 is the strongest indication of a pre-John Paul II affirmation of disabled sport. This points to the importance of taking a more nuanced position in the current debate, although it is clear that Pope Francis must be considered the champion of the Holy See's commitment to the inclusion of athletes with a disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Roman College of Holy Mary was established by the founder of Opus Dei in 1953 to provide a better preparation for the women who would undertake tasks of formation and government in a number of different countries. From 1959 and 1962 the College was closed. The reopening took place in Castel Gandolfo in 1963, with a special feature: studies in Pedagogy. This article describes the process of the acquisition of the premises, the vision of the founder of Opus Dei, the evolution and objective of these courses in education, and the meetings of the students and lecturers with Paul VI and John Paul II.

This article deals with a radical change in the religious politics of the Soviet government between 1987 and 1988. Then, the celebration of the 1000th Anniversary of the Christianization of Rus’ became not only a Church issue but also an event of great political significance. Additionally, the official visit of Mikhail Gorbachev to the Vatican was designed in this period. The author argues that the communication problems which Gorbachev faced during his negotiations with Ronald Reagan in Geneva, Reykjav?k, and Moscow were the reason for this change. Since the anti-religious policy of the Soviet Union was one of the main obstacles to rapprochement between Reagan’s administration and the Soviet government, Gorbachev and his advisers decided to revise their approach to the Church issues. The author also assumes that Pope John Paul II unofficially played an important role in the negotiations between the US diplomats and the Soviet government. According to the article, the “Holy Alliance” between Reagan and Pope John Paul II had a significant impact on this negotiation process. Gorbachev’s visit to the Vatican was, in the author’s view, a link in the chain of events which led to the changes of Soviet religious politics. The legalization of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church was, according to the author, a price to pay for the normalization of the relationships both with the Vatican and with the USA. Based on recently published and unpublished sources, the author describes this process in a broad historical context and analyze the attitude of both the Russian Orthodox Church and the Holy See towards the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, religious freedom, and the role of religion in the public sphere.

The study presents three images of St. Joseph included in selected writings of the last three popes: John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis. It notes that despite the same data from Scripture, the analysed images are different. Their diversity results from different sources used in theological reflection as well as from different methods of interpretation. John Paul II interprets the figure of the Guardian of the Redeemer in the light of God revealing Himself, carrying out His eternal plan. The emphasis was placed on God’s eternal plan that was actualized in earthly history and in human events. This made it possible to show both the realization of the divine plan in concrete terms, as well as the cooperation, faith and obedience of the carpenters of Nazareth in this work. In turn, Cardinal Ratzinger shows the figure of Joseph based on the message contained in a Baroque relief of a Portuguese altar. The symbolic language of the anonymous sculptor and the message contained in the Baroque relief allowed the theologian to draw attention to certain aspects that are difficult to see in the Gospels of Childhood. On the other hand, the image of Joseph presented by Pope Francis emphasizes the paternity of the Patriarch, expressing a certain analogy to the paternity of God towards Israel and the paternity of God to His Son. From this perspective, Joseph’s paternity appears to be a shadow of God’s paternity. This term refers to the title of a novel by Jan Dobraczyński, the message of which influenced the content of the theological icon in the document of Pope Francis. This study found that, despite the limited data on Joseph in Scripture, thanks to the theological sources used and the new interpretative methods used, it was possible to show new, original images of the Guardian of the Redeemer, which allow future generations of Christians to better understand the role and place of St. Joseph in the history of salvation and in the life of the Church.

Edith Stein is widely recognised as a saint, a martyr, a victim of the Holocaust and a female philosopher – but can she be a Doctor of the Church? So far, thirty-seven figures, including four women, carry the title due to their so-called ‘eminent doctrines’, eminentes doctrinae. For centuries, a procedural difficulty existed in awarding the titles to martyrs, however, in the second decade of the 21st century, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints reached a conclusion that martyrdom is not, in principle, an obstacle in awarding the title. A question, therefore, can be posed: does the legacy of someone among the Christian martyrs fulfill the criteria of the Church’s Doctorate? The aim of this article is to investigate the criteria for conferral of the title of the Doctor of the Church, prime among which is a criterion called eminens doctrina, and apply them to one example, that of Edith Stein. In doing so, I consider the question purely historically and philosophically, starting out with definitions of the Father of the Church and the Doctor of the Church in part one (published in June 2023, no 1, p. 131–149). In the second part of the article (available below), I ask what aspects of the female martyr’s theology, philosophy and spirituality fulfill the criteria of an eminent doctrine, as formulated in the Church’s documents, and which are insufficient or lacking. In order to highlight the nature of a particular criterion, I contrast Stein’s case with other recently debated cases, such as those of Irenaeus of Lyons and John Paul II.

The right to life has a unique and outstanding importance in the International Human Rights Law. However, at the same time, this right suffers from new threats and contradictions. In this paper, I will address these paradoxes, concerning the moment, in which the legal protection of the human being begins; the tendency to accommodate the beginning of life to biotechnological interests; the manipulation of language, as well as the relativization of the right to life and the pretensions of justifying abortion and euthanasia as a requirement of the right to life. I will offer an assessment of these paradoxes in the light of the Magisterium of John Paul II, and I will end with four signs of hope and commitment at the beginning of the 21st century in relation to the protection of the right to life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

John Paul II formulated the prohibition of killing an innocent person in terms of natural Human Rights. He advocated in favour of the right to life of unborn children, through diplomacy and action at the United Nations. The Polish Pope opposed both the claims and the methods of the pro-abortion lobby. This article examines news of this worldwide battle, analysing both Human Rights Law and the power relations surrounding abortion. Nearly thirty years after the Cairo Conference (1994), unborn children have not been excluded from the protection of the right to life and an international obligation to legalize abortion has never been created. However, the assaults of the pro-abortion lobby are as strong as during the 1990s. The entryism of this lobby has even created dysfunctions in the international institutions themselves, thus affecting and losing their impartiality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

John Henry Newman, Josemaría Escrivá, and Karol Wojtyła are three modern saints who insisted on the general or universal call to holiness in everyday life, which until recent centuries focused on religious vows, degrees of prayer or mystical experiences. All three taught that this call is rooted in the sacrament of baptism with its subsequent growth by means of prayer, sacramental life, and the exercise of the virtues. They conceived of Christian holiness in terms of the imitation of Christ through the action of the Holy Spirit. For them, each Christian participates in the threefold office of Christ, Priest, Prophet, and King. Their teaching on divine filiation, sanctification of work and secular realities is a notable contribution towards a theology of holiness which calls for further elaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modern world, on the one hand, longs for authority figures, and on the other, often rejects them all. The present paper is a scientific reflection on the issue of authority in the context of the person and teachings of John Paul II and the family. Referring to scientific research, the text demonstrates the need for authority figures in society while also giving examples of how these role models are rejected. Over the years, there has also been a visible decline in the percentage of people declaring that John Paul II or the family are their supreme authority. The media and the increase in the number of 'hip' celebrities and influencers play an important role in this process. It is often they who take the place of traditional authority figures and values in the public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Kultura Slowian is the property of Jagiellonian University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Kultura Slowian is the property of Jagiellonian University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Studia Koszalinsko-Kolobrzeskie is the property of University of Szczecin Press / Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecinskiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article discusses a little-known episode of collaboration between Ukrainian intellectuals at Harvard and Pope John Paul II Universities. Based on Polish, Ukrainian and American archival collections, the author shows the degree of entanglement between purely scholarly celebrations of the Millennium of Christianity in Rus’-Ukraine and the new realities of the Vatican’s Eastern Policy under the Polish Pope. The preparations of the conference in Ravenna in 1988, organized by Ukrainian scholars together with Polish and Italian, are contextualized within the evolving geopolitical situation in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and the growing cooperation between Polish and Ukrainian intellectual elites.

The human being is in the center of John Paul II’s vision of work. There is no work without the human being. The personalistic attitude to work is in line with the ethics of work, because labor or capital must contribute to the good of humanity. The ethics of work highlights the value attached to the worker. The theology of work cannot exist without recognizing the subjective dimension of work. The ethics of work is centered on man because of his and his fellow men’s good, and thus saves the worker from being disconnected from work. Work that is devoid of moral sense becomes pointless, as it loses its social meaning and becomes a source of socioeconomic problems.

This article presents an analysis of John Paul II’s Letters to Priests for Maundy Thursday. Published throughout his pontificate, the letters, addressed to the community of priests, deal with many topics related to priestly life. Their common feature is an anthropological perspective. In the analyzed writings, Pope John Paul II describes issues related to the ministerial priesthood, such as the role of the priest in the life of the Church community, or priestly identity and spirituality with an emphasis on Christ. The author has conducted research and articulated the characteristic features that emerge during the discourse on the priesthood of Jesus Christ.

When reflecting on the relationship between the Catholic Church and the modern world in the second half of the 20th century, it is impossible to overlook the radical shift brought about by John Paul II. As Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde points out, the saintly Pope opened a "new dimension of the Church's influence on the world". The essence of this novelty was John Paul II's perception of the Church's task as being defined "centrally and exclusively from the perspective of its salvation mission". The above thesis seems proven regarding Holy See diplomacy. The most prominent example of a "new approach" was the decision taken by John Paul II to put aside Ostpolitik, dominant since the t ime of John XXIII. Nonetheless, the question arises regarding a change in the social teaching of the Church under St. John Paul II, for ultimately, political praxis is always rooted in some theory. In the case of the Church, the theoretical foundation of the Church's socio-political activity and its relation to modern world is Catholic social doctrine. The presented article examines the meaning of the teaching of St. John Paul II for the nature, method, and goals of the social teaching of the Church. If Böckenförde is right when writing about the political novelty of the Polish Pope's pontificate, also in this field, despite numerous references to his predecessors, the position of John Paul II should be associated with a significant novum. The article is devoted to discussing this thesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Question (1669-6581) is the property of Universidad Nacional de La Plata and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Church in the World / Crkva u Svijetu is the property of University of Split, Catholic Faculty of Theology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Seminare Learned Investigations / Seminare. Poszukiwania naukowe is the property of Francis de Sales Scientific Society / Towarzystwo Naukowe Franciszka Salezego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The history of forming the totally new politicy by John Paul II makes up the content of the article. This politicy is oriented towards non-democratic regimes and it has changed the regional “eastern policy of Vatican” into a global one. The basis of the article is constituted by the two texts, i.e. a newly discovered text of the speech (for a restricted audience) of John Paul II addressed to the Main Council of the Episcopate of Poland (05.06.1979) and the text of the Pope’s public sermon in the Cathedral in Gniezno (03.06.1979). We also used memoirs about private conversations of the Pope with statesmen and public fi gures about the liberation theology. The article draws attention to the coordination of the politics of John Paul II in relation to the countries of Eastern Europe with his politics in Latin America. Without refusing to maintain diplomatic contacts with non-democratic regimes, the Pope shifted the focus of his policy to strengthening the positions of national episcopates and activating the spiritual life of believers in these countries. To this end, John Paul II made extensive use of pastoral messages, pastoral visits, and the media. In terms of the formation of his policy, the most influential were three trips of the new Pope: to Mexico, to Poland, and to the USA. All of them took place in 1979.

This article argues that Kaminski’s concept of philosophy meets the requirements for being a Christian philosophy as articulated by John Paul II. In the encyclical letter Fides et Ratio, John Paul II affirmed the possibility, existence, meaning, and need for a Christian philosophy. He distinguished three stances of philosophy concerning the Christian faith. First, philosophy should be completely independent of the Biblical Revelation but implicitly open to the supernatural. A second stance adopted by philosophy is often designated as Christian philosophy. Third, philosophy presents another stance that is closely related to theology. Kamiński constructed an understanding of philosophy that is original, universal, and autonomous. Such a notion of philosophy (and its methodology) was based on the classical theory of being, which fulfils the demand for the autonomy of philosophy through its relationship with faith. Kamiński’s doctrinal standpoints in philosophy are rational, objective, and universal. According to him, philosophy is also compatible with the Christian faith. In this sense, one can speak of his philosophy as a Christian philosophy.

This paper highlights John Paul II’s (JPII) Philosophy of Labor and points out the need to have a Visayan philosophy of labor. Moreover, this proposes to view and analyze the Visayan philosophy of labor within the context of the Visayan notion of kahimtang. The researchers believe that the word kahimtang can be viewed as a combination of three words ka, himu and butang, in which himu connotes a concept of work. Furthermore, within the compatibilist minds of the Visayan, himu (labor) plays a significant role to redirect one’s kahimtang. Work (labor), for the Visayan, is an essential expression of freedom which has a similar expression to JPII’s Philosophy of Labor.

The Center of Interdisciplinary Studies in Cracow has a very rich tradition that has been studied by many and recently by Kamil Trombik. The very difficult period for the Church and for philosophy during the materialistic Marxist ideology was an opportunity for card. K. Wojtyła to outline a new mode of dialog between science and religion. The future Center, organized by Michał Heller and Józef Życiński not only captured this idea but transformed it into an academic institution centered on the idea of philosophy in science, which was also developed at the Vatican Observatory by W.G. Stoeger et al. Trombik’s book is an excellent study of the historical context and initial years of activity of the Center and its development.

The paper undertakes the topic of racism and its moral evaluation by the Church’s Magisterium. It begins with an inductive study which consists in a lexical analysis of selected texts of the Church’s Magisterium and papal encyclicals aimed at tracing the topics of race and racism. The study has shown that although not numerous, the documents addressing this issue are very significant. The paper additionally reviews selected definitions of racism. Finally, the author makes an attempt to interpret the phenomenon of racism and provides a theological proposal to overcome this problem in a theoretical and definitional sense. The article is a contribution to further research and exploration.

The paper studies the problem of the transcendence of the person suggested by Karol Wojtyła/John Paul II. It originates in the philosophical thought of this Polish personalist and is complemented in his theological works. According to Wojtyła transcendence can be described as “another name for the person” as it is closely related to the fulfilment of man as a personal being. The paper contains analyses of three dimensions of transcendence, and these are: 1) transcendence in action; 2) transcendence towards another “I”; and 3) transcendence towards personal God.

In the document Letter of his Holiness Pope John Paul II to Artists, John Paul II pointed out that artists, with their creation, perform a professional social service for the benefit of the common good through the “spirituality of artistic service”, which, through the perspective of “educational art,” contributes to the life and revival of the individual and society. Since that document does not specify what a model of such spirituality would consist of, the goal of this paper is to offer a proposal for the theoretical elaboration of its potential framework. The topic is discussed from the perspective of Christian theological aesthetics. The starting point for the development of the spirituality of the artistic service model is Christian artistic creation. The indicated theoretical framework of the spirituality of artistic service is based on three dimensions of Christian artistic creation. The first represents Christian artistic creation that points to the depths of the mystery of the sacred through Christian symbols. The second dimension of Christian artistic creation relies on the contemporary form of religious imagery in changed cultural circumstances in order to adequately present a transcendent perspective of the meaning of existence. The third dimension of Christian artistic creation awakens admiration in the recipients through artistic contemplation, thus enabling a spiritual transformation and serving as the bearer of eschatological hope. In the end, it is shown that this model of spirituality in artistic service can serve as a good theoretical framework for the implementation of three new dimensions of Christian art suitable for the contemporary cultural environment: mystagogic, existential, and contemplative.

Research overviews of and historiography on the attitude of the Catholic Church and theologians towards athletes with intellectual and physical disabilities assume that the Church and theologians have only very recently begun to interest themselves in this subject. Starting from John Paul II’s contribution to this field, and above all from his integral anthropological vision, this article assesses his position by comparing it with that of his two successors Benedict XVI and Francis. Especially the latter’s addresses and interviews and the official documents on sport issued by the Holy See during his pontificate are testimony to his special commitment to athletes with disabilities. The article also examines the history of the Holy See and studies its attention to athletes with a disability. The results of this inquiry are that papal interest in this field is not limited to, nor did it start with the pontificate of John Paul II. Instead, it dates from the very beginning of the modern phenomenon of sport, with Pope Pius X at the beginning of the 20th century, continued by Pius XII and John XXIII. The latter’s speech to the participants of the first Paralympic Games in 1960 is the strongest indication of a pre-John Paul II affirmation of disabled sport. This points to the importance of taking a more nuanced position in the current debate, although it is clear that Pope Francis must be considered the champion of the Holy See’s commitment to the inclusion of athletes with a disability.

One of John Paul II’s remarkable innovations was his embrace of the question of “the meaning of life.” The question of “the meaning of life” was never asked before the 19th century, and it was slow to be integrated into Catholic discourse. When the question of life’s meaning emerged, it effectively replaced a prior question, about the purpose or telos of life, with a very different set of theoretical assumptions. From the traditional perspective, the question of life’s meaning is highly suspicious, and even Pope John Paul II’s unparalleled embrace of the question confirms that he framed his personalism in terms of the older question of life’s purpose or telos.

Joshua Hochschild credits John Paul II for the success of the expression “meaning of life” among Christians, but he warns that this expression stems from a modern framework different from classical theism. Hochschild’s criticism challenges theists to clarify how the quest for meaning channels the basic questions of classic theism while advancing new ones. First, I will propose a different historical reconstruction of the “meaning of life,” tracing its origin back to the medieval sensus and its use in Biblical hermeneutics. Second, I will show that existentialism and phenomenology are the heirs of this legacy, and their use of the “meaning of life” is mostly positive. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI adopted this expression under their influence. Finally, I will argue that the theistic quest for the “meaning of life” addresses classic questions such as happiness and the purpose of human life in the universe, and raises new questions regarding the individual purpose, the history of salvation, and the narrative of life.

During his pontificate (1978‒2005), John Paul II always approached cinema in a positive way, different from the reluctance that, generally speaking and with nuances, the Catholic Church initially manifested towards it. Aware of the powerful influence the film medium has as agent of socialization and culturalization, John Paul II poses the ethical challenge of using film’s great potential to promote man and society. Analysing extensively Pope Wojtyła’s statements on cinema, this article identifies and systematically presents their main ethical ideas. John Paul II expresses a positive vision of the cinematographic medium. His teaching combines respect and admiration with critical analysis, trust with warnings, the defense of freedom with the call to social responsibility for film industry professionals as well as for viewers. The results of this first systematic research on John Paul II’s magisterium may open the way to future studies on the relationship between cinema and society, also on the links between the transcendentals of being (beauty, truth, goodness) and the artistic, socio-cultural and industrial approaches to cinema.

The following article is one of the voices in the debate about the universality of priestly celibacy. It attempts to track the development of the theological and personalist arguments for celibacy contained in the most significant documents of the Magisterium of the Church. A special emphasis has been put on contemporary texts, issued after the Second Vatican Council. This choice has been caused by two major reasons. First, post-conciliar documents introduce a new quality to the argument of the universality of celibacy. Second, they have a far bigger impact on the discipline of the Church than previous texts.

The entire history of Europe and the awareness of a common identity formed in its course are clearly and deeply marked by Christianity and indicate a close relationship between the Church and Europe. Both in the West and in the East, the Church desires to contribute to the European Union. It feels responsible for the shape of the Old Continent and is convinced that it can also make an important contribution to the establishment of new institutional forms. In the age of pluralism and respect for all religious beliefs it is unacceptable that a tendency to discriminate against any religion should come to the fore. Since the European Union engages in dialogue with political parties, trade unions and representatives of various religions, it would be incomprehensible if the same attitude was not displayed towards Christianity. Above all, one must not ignore the transcendent dimension possessed by each human being. Indifference to this dimension may lead to tragic consequences and the European continent has seen plenty of those painful examples throughout its history. From the beginning of his pontificate, John Paul II expressed a great interest in European affairs. He showed Europeans a vision of unity in diversity, creative fidelity to Christian origins, in freedom, truth and solidarity.

Objective/Context: in recent decades, religion has established itself as one of the most potent instruments to activate political aspirations. The classical paradigms of secularization failed in their predictions, and religion has neither been confined to the private sphere nor has it disappeared from public space. This article looks at how faith is made visible in a particular way and claims its seat in the public discourse. Methodology: the article engages with its objective starting from the analysis of primary sources—ecclesiastic documents, press reports, and references from Spanish Public Administration—and the methods developed around the study of social movements and the cultural history of the political milieu. Originality: the paper focuses on Pope John Paul II’s trip to Spain in October and November of 1982. A few days before his arrival, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (psoe) had won the general elections by a vast absolute majority. For the first time after General Franco’s death, a nominally left-wing party took over the government’s control. In that context, the Papal visit had great political relevance: significant media and political opposition against that new government came together around John Paul II. Conclusions: through the trips of the Vatican State’s head, the Catholic Church mobilizes Catholics in the streets, which transforms the crowds turning out to accompany the Pope into actual marches in which religious recognition mixes with political demands. The trip analyzed in this article, whose logic echoed in multiple spaces during the Papacy of John Paul II, shows us an institution of a marked transnational character capable of acting as an authentic political agent.

J.R.R. Tolkien is recognized as one of the great literary creators of fantastic worlds. The English author added to his literary work a reflection on the role of the fantasy writer in his theory of sub-creation. This literary theory –exhibited mainly in his essay ‘On Fairy-Stories’ and in his letters– is based on the author's own cosmovision, clearly influenced by his Catholicism, and contemplates literary creation as an analogy of divine creation. This article deals with the Christian foundation present in the idea of participation in Creation that we find in Tolkien's theory of sub-creation. It proposes an overview of the main theological questions that support this participation, taking especially into account the contribution that John Paul II makes on this issue in his ‘Letter to Artists’.