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Ecclesiastical Latin

Ecclesiastical Latin

Ecclesiastical Latin, sometimes called "Church Latin," is the Latin language as used in documents of the Roman Catholic Church and in the Latin liturgies of the Catholic Church. The dogmatic definitions of the first seven General Councils were given in Greek, and even in Rome Greek was at first the language of the liturgy and the language in which the first Popes wrote. Clearly, the Holy See is not obliged to have Latin as its official language and, in theory, could change its practice. However, this is unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future. As a language no longer in common use (a "dead" language, though some would dispute the exactness of this description), Latin has the advantage that the meaning of its words is no longer subject to change from century to century. This helps to ensure theological precision and to safeguard orthodoxy. Accordingly, Pope John Paul II reaffirmed the importance of Latin for the Church and in particular for those doing ecclesiastical studies. Especially since the Second Vatican Council, Latin is no longer the exclusive language of the liturgy of the Roman and Ambrosian rites of the Catholic Church – by 1913 the Catholic Encyclopedia was already commenting on beginnings of the replacement of Latin by vernacular languages – but official liturgical texts are still produced in Latin, thus providing a clear single point of reference for translations into all languages. The same holds for the official texts of canon law. Since Latin ceased to be an everyday language even among scholars, papal documents and the like have for some centuries usually been drafted in a modern language, but the authoritative text, the one published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, is generally in Latin, even if this text becomes available only later. The Catechism of the Catholic Church was drafted in French and appeared first in that language. But five years later, when the Latin text appeared, the French text had to be corrected in line with the Latin version. Occasionally, the official texts are in a modern language. Two of the best known are Tra le sollecitudini [http://www.adoremus.org/MotuProprio.html] (1903) by Pope Pius X, in Italian, and Mit brennender Sorge (1937) by Pope Pius XI, in German. The rule now in force on the use of Latin in the eucharistic liturgy of the Roman rite is: "Mass is celebrated either in Latin or in another language, provided that liturgical texts are used which have been approved according to the norm of law. Except in the case of celebrations of the Mass that are scheduled by the ecclesiastical authorities to take place in the language of the people, Priests are always and everywhere permitted to celebrate Mass in Latin" (Redemptionis Sacramentum, 112).[http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20040423_redemptionis-sacramentum_en.html] Ecclesiastical Latin is not a different language from classical Latin. Study of the language of Cicero and Virgil is quite sufficient for understanding Church Latin. However, those interested only in ecclesiastical texts may prefer to limit the time they devote to ancient authors, whose vocabulary covers matters that, though of importance in that period, are unlikely to be dealt with in Church documents. Ecclesiastical Latin is in most countries pronounced[http://community.middlebury.edu/~harris/LatinBackground/Pronunciation.html] as is traditional in Rome, giving the letters the value they have in modern Italian, but without distinguishing between open and close "e" and "o". However, ecclesiastics in some countries follow slightly different traditions. For instance, in Slavic countries and in German-speaking ones the letter "c" before the front vowels "e" and "i" is commonly given the value represented in English by "ts", and "g" in all positions is pronounced hard, never as English "j". (See also Latin regional pronunciation.) The complete text of the Bible in Latin can be found at [http://www.vatican.va/archive/bible/nova_vulgata/documents/nova-vulgata_index_lt.html Nova Vulgata - Bibliorum Sacrorum Editio]. A [http://faculty.acu.edu/~goebeld/vulgata/newtest/vnt.htm site] of more uncertain permanence gives, side by side, the Vulgate Latin text of the New Testament and the King James English translation. Considering the topic, it is a bit odd that the link compares the Vulgate to the Protestant King James edition, when a side-by-side comparison to the earlier, theologically closer (Catholic) Rheims English translation would have been more fitting. A Vatican institution, the [http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/institutions_connected/latinitas/documents/index_lt.htm Latinitas Foundation], exists to promote the use of Latin not only in Church documents but in all facets of modern life. Among its initiatives has been the publication of the 15,000-word Lexicon Recentis Latinitatis (Dictionary of Recent Latin), which indicates Latin terms to use in referring to a bicycle (birota), a cigarette (fistula nicotiana), a computer (instrumentum computatorium), a cowboy (armentarius), a motel (deversorium autocineticum), shampoo (capitilavium), a strike (operistitium), a terrorist (tromocrates), a trademark (ergasterii nota), an unemployed person (invite otiosus), a waltz (chorea Vindobonensis), and even a miniskirt (tunicula minima) and hot pants (brevissimae bracae femineae). Some 600 such terms can be seen on [http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/institutions_connected/latinitas/documents/rc_latinitas_20040601_lexicon_it.html a page] of the Vatican website (note, the Lexicon Recentis Latinitatis is only published in Italian-Latin translation). [http://www.vatican.va]

External links

- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09019a.htm Ecclesiastical Latin] (article in [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/ Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)])
- [http://www.adoremus.org/VeterumSapientia.html Veterum Sapientia] by Pope John XXIII, 1962
- [http://home.earthlink.net/~thesaurus/thesaurus/Popes.html What the Church says on the Latin Language]
- [http://www.traditio.com/tradlib/latneces.txt The Necessity of Latin] (a collection of quotes from Popes, councils, and saints)
- [http://www.breviary.net/ Latin-English pre-Vatican-II Breviary]
- [http://www.catholicliturgy.com/index.cfm/FuseAction/TextContents/Index/4/SubIndex/67/TextIndex/9 Ordo Missae of the 1970 Roman Missal], Latin and English texts, rubrics in English only Text resources
- The New Missal Latin by Edmund J. Baumeister, S.M., Ph.D. Published by St. Mary's Publishing Company, P.O. Box 134, St. Mary's, KS 66536-0134, USA
- A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin by John F. Collins, (Catholic University of America Press, 1985) ISBN 0-8132-0667-7. A learner's first textbook, comparable in style, layout, and coverage to Wheelock's Latin, but featuring text selections from the liturgy and the Vulgate: unlike Wheelock, it also contains translation and composition exercises. Category:Latin language

Latin

Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. It gained great importance as the formal language of the Roman Empire. All Romance languages, those being most notably Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian, are descended from Latin, and many words based on Latin are found in other modern languages such as English. The Latin alphabet, derived from the Greek, remains the most widely-used alphabet in the world. It is said that 80 percent of scholarly English words are derived from Latin (in a large number of cases by way of French). Moreover, in the Western world, Latin was a lingua franca, the learned language for scientific and political affairs, for more than a thousand years, being eventually replaced by French in the 18th century and English in the late 19th. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the formal language of the Roman Catholic Church to this day, and thus the official national language of the Vatican. The Church used Latin as its primary liturgical language until the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. Latin is also still used (drawing heavily on Greek roots) to furnish the names used in the scientific classification of living things. The modern study of Latin, along with Greek, is known as Classics.

Main features

Latin is a synthetic inflectional language: affixes (which usually encode more than one grammatical category) are attached to fixed stems to express gender, number, and case in adjectives, nouns, and pronouns, which is called declension; and person, number, tense, voice, mood, and aspect in verbs, which is called conjugation. There are five declensions (declinationes) of nouns and four conjugations of verbs. There are six noun cases: #nominative (used as the subject of the verb or the predicate nominative), #genitive (used to indicate relation or possession, often represented by the English of or the addition of s to a noun), #dative (used of the indirect object of the verb, often represented by the English to or for), #accusative (used of the direct object of the verb, or object of the preposition in some cases), #ablative (separation, source, cause, or instrument, often represented by the English by, with, from), #vocative (used of the person or thing being addressed). In addition, some nouns have a locative case used to express location (otherwise expressed by the ablative with a preposition such as in), but this survival from Proto-Indo-European is found only in the names of lakes, cities, towns, small islands, and a few other words related to locations, such as "house", "ground", and "countryside". Latin itself, being a very old language, is far closer to Proto-Indo-European than are most modern Western European languages; it has, in fact, about the same relationship with PIE as modern Italian or French has to Latin. There are six general tenses in Latin (technically they are tense/aspect/mood complexes). The indicative mood can be used with all of them. The subjunctive mood, however, has only present, imperfect, perfect, and pluperfect tenses. These tenses in the subjunctive mood do not completely correlate in meaning to the tenses in the indicative. The following examples are of the first conjugation verb "laudare" ("to praise") in the indicative mood and the active voice:
Primary sequence tenses
# present (laudo, "I praise") # imperfect (laudabam, "I was praising") # future (laudabo, "I shall praise," "I will praise")
Secondary sequence tenses
# perfect (laudavi, "I praised", "I have praised") # pluperfect (laudaveram, "I had praised") # future perfect (laudavero, "I shall have praised," "I will have praised") The future perfect tense can also imply a normal future idea (like in "When I will have run...") and so may also sometimes be included in the primary sequence.
Latin and Romance
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Latin evolved into the various Romance languages. These were for many centuries only spoken languages, Latin still being used for writing. For example, Latin was the official language of Portugal until 1296 when it was replaced by Portuguese. The Romance languages evolved from Vulgar Latin, the spoken language of common usage, which in turn evolved from an older speech which also produced the formal classical standard. Latin and Romance differ (for example) in that Romance had distinctive stress, whereas Latin had distinctive length of vowels. In Italian and Sardo logudorese, there is distinctive length of consonants and stress, in Spanish only distinctive stress, and in French even stress is no longer distinctive. Another major distinction between Romance and Latin is that all Romance languages, excluding Romanian, have lost their case endings in most words except for some pronouns. Romanian retains a direct case (nominative/accusative), an indirect case (dative/genitive), and vocative. In Italy, Latin is still compulsory in secondary schools as Liceo Classico and Liceo Scientifico which are usually attended by people who aim to the highest level of education. In Liceo Classico Ancient Greek is a compulsory subject.
Latin and English
See Latin influence in English for a more complete exposition. English grammar is independent of Latin grammar, though prescriptive grammarians in English have been heavily influenced by Latin. Attempts to make English grammar follow Latin rules — such as the prohibition against the split infinitive — have not worked successfully in regular usage. However, as many as half the words in English were derived from Latin, including many words of Greek origin first adopted by the Romans, not to mention the thousands of French, hundreds of Spanish, Portuguese and Italian words of Latin origin that have also enriched English. During the 16th and on through the 18th century English writers created huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek roots. These words were dubbed "inkhorn" or "inkpot" words (as if they had spilled from a pot of ink). Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, but some remain. Imbibe, extrapolate, dormant and inebriation are all inkhorn terms carved from Latin words. In fact, the word etymology is derived from the Greek word etymologia, meaning "true sense of the word." Latin was once taught in many of the schools in Britain with academic leanings - perhaps 25% of the total [http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/T/teachem2/thennow/]. However, the requirement for it was gradually abandoned in the professions such as the law and medicine, and then, from around the late 1960s, for admission to university. After the introduction of the Modern Language GCSE in the 1980s, it was gradually replaced by other languages, although it is now being taught by more schools along with other classical languages.
Latin education
The linguistic element of Latin courses offered in high schools or secondary schools, and in universities, is primarily geared toward an ability to translate Latin texts into modern languages, rather than using it in oral communication. As such, the skill of reading is heavily emphasized, whereas speaking and listening skills are barely touched upon. However, there is a growing movement, sometimes known as the Living Latin movement, whose supporters believe that Latin can, or should, be taught in the same way that modern "living" languages are taught, that is, as a means of both spoken and written communication. One of the most interesting aspects of such an approach is that it assists speculative insight into how many of the ancient authors spoke and incorporated sounds of the language stylistically; without understanding how the language is meant to be heard it is very difficult to identify patterns in Latin poetry. Institutions offering Living Latin instruction include the Vatican and the University of Kentucky. In Britain the Classical Association encourages this approach, and there has been something of a vogue for books describing the adventures of a mouse called Minimus. In the United States there is a thriving competitive organization for high school Latin students, the National Junior Classical League (the second-largest youth organization in the world after the Boy Scouts), backed up by the Senior Classical League for college students. Many would-be international auxiliary languages have been heavily influenced by Latin, and the moderately successful Interlingua considers itself to be the modernized and simplified version of the language (le latino moderne international e simplificate). Latin translations of modern literature such as Paddington Bear, Winnie the Pooh, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Le Petit Prince, Max und Moritz, and The Cat in the Hat have also helped boost interest in the language.
See also

About the Latin language

- Latin grammar
- Latin spelling and pronunciation
- Latin declension
- Latin conjugation
- Latin alphabet
- List of Latin words with English derivatives
- Latin verbs with English derivatives
- Latin nouns with English derivatives
- ablative absolute
- Word order in Latin
About the Latin literary heritage

- Latin literature
- Romance languages
- Loeb Classical Library
- List of Latin phrases
- List of Latin proverbs
- Brocard
- List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names
- List of Latin place names in Europe
- Carmen Possum
Other related topics

- Roman Empire
- Internationalism
References

- Bennett, Charles E. Latin Grammar (Allyn and Bacon, Chicago, 1908)
- N. Vincent: "Latin", in The Romance Languages, M. Harris and N. Vincent, eds., (Oxford Univ. Press. 1990), ISBN 0195208293
- Waquet, Françoise, Latin, or the Empire of a Sign: From the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Centuries (Verso, 2003) ISBN 1859844022; translated from the French by John Howe.
- Wheelock, Frederic. Latin: An Introduction (Collins, 6th ed., 2005) ISBN 0060784237
External links

- [http://www.jambell.com/latin.html Latin Phrases for after dinner conversation (Thanks to Elaine Poole)]
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=lat Ethnologue report for Latin]
- [http://forumromanum.org/literature/index.html Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum] is a comprehensive webography of Latin texts and their translations.
- [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ The Perseus Project] has many useful pages for the study of classical languages and literatures, including [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/resolveform?lang=Latin an interactive Latin dictionary].
- [http://lysy2.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/words.exe words by William whitaker] is a dictionary program online capable of looking up various word forms.
- [http://retiarius.org/ Retiarius.Org] includes a Latin text search engine.
- [http://www.nd.edu/~archives/latgramm.htm Latin-English dictionary and Latin grammar from U of Notre Dame]
- [http://latin-language.co.uk/ Latin language] History of Latin language, Latin texts with English translation and a collection of dictionaries.
- [http://augustinus.eresmas.net/scl/ Societas Circulorum Latinorum] gathers together Latin Circles all over the world.
- [http://www.learnlatin.tk LearnLatin.tk] - Free online course in Latin
- [http://www.latintests.net/ LatinTests.net] - Lets Latin learners test their grammar and vocabulary with self-checking quizzes.
- [http://thelatinlibrary.com/ The Latin Library] contains many Latin etexts
- [http://www.textkit.com/ Textkit] has Latin textbooks and etexts.
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Latin-english/ Latin–English Dictionary]: from Webster's Rosetta Edition.
- [http://www.language-reference.com/ Language reference] Cross-foreign-language lexicon powered by its own search engine. All cross combinations between Latin and French, German, Italian, Spanish.
- [http://comp.uark.edu/~mreynold/rhetor.html Rhetor by Gabriel Harvey] was originally published in 1577 and never again reprinted.
- [http://freewebs.com/omniamundamundis omniamundamundis] Latin hypertexts from fourteen ancient Roman authors.
- [http://www.saltspring.com/capewest/pron.htm Pronunciation of Biological Latin, Including Taxonomic Names of Plants and Animals]
- [http://www.yleradio1.fi/nuntii Nuntii Latini (News in Latin)], written and spoken (RealAudio) news in latin. Weekly review of world news in Classical Latin, the only international broadcast of its kind in the world, produced by YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company.
- [http://www.tranexp.com:2000/InterTran?url=http%3A%2F%2F&type=text&text=Replace%20Me&from=eng&to=ltt InterTran Latin], Translate from Latin to ENGLISH or vice versa.
- [http://www.latinvulgate.com Latin Vulgate] The Latin and English of the Old & New Testaments in parallel, along with the Complete Sayings of Jesus in parallel Latin and English. Category:Classical languages Category:Ancient languages Category:Fusional languages Category:Languages of Italy Category:Languages of Vatican City als:Latein zh-min-nan:Latin-gí ko:라틴어 ja:ラテン語 simple:Latin language th:ภาษาละติน

Liturgy

From the Greek word λειτουργια, which can be transliterated as "leitourgia," meaning "the work of the people," a liturgy comprises a prescribed religious ceremony, according to the traditions of a particular religion; it may refer to, or include, an elaborate formal ritual (such as the Catholic Mass), or a daily activity such as the Muslim Salats (see Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, p.582-3). The unprogrammed meeting of Quakers in The United States is an example of a non-liturgical service because there is no minister or structured order of events. Methods of dress, preparation of food, application of cosmetics or other hygienic practices are all considered liturgic activities of various religions. In the Christian church, liturgical churches are those that use a well-defined liturgy, where many of the words and music used are identical each time the service is conducted. Most Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran churches are liturgical while most others are not. Non-liturgical churches usually do follow a common worship sequence from one service to the next, but identical elements are few.

Source

- Bowker, John, ed. (1997) Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192139657.
- [http://www.quakerinfo.org/beliefs.html "What Do Quakers Believe?"]. Quaker Information Center, Philadelphia, PA, 2004.

External link

- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09306a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia article] Category:Religious behaviour and experience ja:典礼

Catholic

Catholic (literally meaning: according to (kata-) the whole (holos) or more generally "universal" in Greek) is a Christian religious term with a number of meanings:
- The term can refer to the notion that all Christians are part of one Church, regardless of denominational divisions. This "universal" interpretation is often used to understand the phrase "one holy catholic and apostolic Church" in the Nicene Creed, the phrase "the catholic faith" in the Athanasian Creed, and the phrase "holy catholic church" in the Apostles' Creed.
- It can refer to the members, beliefs, and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. Though many identify Roman Catholicism exclusively with the Latin Rite, its variety is seen in its more than twenty particular Churches or Rites, all in full communion with the Pope, and also in its liturgical rites, of which the Roman Rite is only one.
- It can be used to refer to those Christian Churches which maintain that their Episcopate can be traced directly back to the Apostles, and that they are therefore part of a broad catholic (or universal) body of believers. Among those who regard themselves as Catholic but not Roman Catholic are members of the various Eastern Orthodox Churches (such as the Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox), the Oriental Orthodox, Anglo-Catholics (also known as High Anglicans), the Old, Ancient and Liberal Catholic Churches, and the Lutherans (though the latter prefer the lower-case "c"). The various Churches that regard themselves as part of a broad Catholic Church are distinguished by their use of the Nicene Creed, in which believers acknowledge the "one holy catholic and apostolic Church." The Nicene Creed is of course also used by the Roman Catholic Church.
- It can mean the one Church founded by Christ through Peter the Apostle, according to Matthew 16:18-19: "And I tell you, you are Cephas (which means rock), and on this rock I will build my Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’" Early Christians, such as Saint Ignatius of Antioch (who was martyred in about 110, used the term to describe the whole Church - the word's literal meaning is universal or whole - as opposed to the local Church, and excluding adherents of sects or heretical groups. Methodists and Presbyterians believe their denominations owe their origins to the Apostles and the early Church, but do not claim descent from ancient Church structures such as the episcopate. Neither of these Churches, however, denies that they are a part of the catholic (meaning universal) Church.

Present-day usage

While the term is usually associated with the Roman Catholic Church, whose over one billion adherents are about half of the estimated 2.1 billion Christians, other Christian denominations also lay claim to the term "catholic", including the Eastern Orthodox Church and those Protestant Churches possessing an episcopate (bishops). In countries that have been traditionally Protestant, Catholic will often be included in the official name of a particular parish church, school, hospice or other institution belonging to the Roman Catholic Church, to distinguish it from those of other denominations. For example, the name "St. Mark's Catholic Church" makes it clear that it is not an Episcopal or Lutheran church. This usage of the term "Catholic" has a long history. A millennium before the Protestant Reformation, Saint Augustine wrote: :"In the Catholic Church, there are many other things which most justly keep me in her bosom. The consent of peoples and nations keeps me in the Church; so does her authority, inaugurated by miracles, nourished by hope, enlarged by love, established by age. The succession of priests keeps me, beginning from the very seat of the Apostle Peter, to whom the Lord, after His resurrection, gave it in charge to feed His sheep (Jn 21:15-19), down to the present episcopate. :"And so, lastly, does the very name of Catholic, which, not without reason, amid so many heresies, the Church has thus retained; so that, though all heretics wish to be called Catholics, yet when a stranger asks where the Catholic Church meets, no heretic will venture to point to his own chapel or house. :"Such then in number and importance are the precious ties belonging to the Christian name which keep a believer in the Catholic Church, as it is right they should ... With you, where there is none of these things to attract or keep me... No one shall move me from the faith which binds my mind with ties so many and so strong to the Christian religion... For my part, I should not believe the gospel except as moved by the authority of the Catholic Church." : — St. Augustine (AD 354–430): Against the Epistle of Manichaeus called Fundamental, chapter 4: Proofs of the Catholic Faith[http://www.ccel.org/pager.cgi?&file=fathers/NPNF1-04/augustine/bk_fundamental/bk1.html&from=CHAP4&up=] Earlier still, St Cyril of Jerusalem (circa 315-386) urged those he was instructing in the Christian faith: "If ever thou art sojourning in cities, inquire not simply where the Lord's House is (for the other sects of the profane also attempt to call their own dens houses of the Lord), nor merely where the Church is, but where is the Catholic Church. For this is the peculiar name of this Holy Church, the mother of us all, which is the spouse of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God" (Catechetical Lectures, XVIII, 26).[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/310118.htm] Those who apply the term "Catholic Church" to all Christians indiscriminately find it objectionable that a term that they see as designating the whole Church as an invisible entity should be used to refer to one communion only. However, the Roman Catholic Church, which normally refers to itself simply as the Catholic Church, publishing in 1992 a "Catechism of the Catholic Church", can basically be traced historically to the original Catholic or universal Church, from which various groups broke away over the centuries. It holds that there can be no such thing as the Church as an "invisible entity" only. Since the Reformation in the sixteenth century, Protestants (those who protest) have sought to restore a more primitive expression of the Church, with goals and beliefs that they believe to be more consonant with the early Church, based primarily on Scriptural texts. However, there was a more than a millennium between the "early Church" and the "Reformation", during which both Scripture and Christian teaching were maintained. As well as the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Oriental Orthodox Churches all see themselves as the "one holy catholic and apostolic Church" of the Nicene Creed. Others too who do not recognize the primacy of the Bishop of Rome and rank him only as an equal among Patriarchs, such as the Patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch, use the term Catholic to distinguish their own position from a Calvinist or Puritan form of Protestantism. They include "High Church" Anglicans, known also as "Anglo-Catholics". Although the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches in general do not view the Anglican Churches as truly "Catholic", Anglicans themselves claim to have all the qualifications needed to be Catholic.

Catholic Epistles

"Catholic Epistles" is another term for the General Epistles of the Christian New Testament in the Bible, which were addressed not to a particular city but to all in general. It is thus, strictly speaking, not an ecclesiastical term, being employed in the original broad sense of the Greek word from which "catholic" is derived. The epistles in question are [http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/index.htm#james James]; [http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/index.htm#1peter First] and [http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/index.htm#2peter Second Peter]; [http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/index.htm#1john First], [http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/2john/2john.htm Second], and [http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/3john/3john.htm Third John]and [http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/jude/jude.htm Jude].

Capitalization

Capitalization is no sure guide to denominational affiliation. It may indicate formal affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church or it may not. Capitalization may merely indicate a wish to stress the holy and solemn nature of the spiritual body of believers and a desire for all Christians to be one. It would be anachronistic to attribute significance to capitalization or lack of capitalization in printings of texts dating from before the last few centuries or in translations of those texts, since the originals were written in unmixed majuscule or minuscule letters. Translations even of modern texts into English often follow the usage of the original language. For instance, since French normally capitalizes only the first word of the title of an entity, the adjective "catholique", following the noun "Église", has a lower-case initial. Texts in Latin generally follow this usage, not the English practice.

Avoidance of usage

Some Protestant Christian Churches avoid using the term completely. The Orthodox Churches share some of the concerns about Roman Catholic claims, but disagree with Protestants about the nature of the Church as one body. For some, to use the word "Catholic" at all is to appear to give credence to papal claims.

External links

- [http://www.vatican.va The Holy See] the official Vatican web site
- [http://www.catholicfiles.com/ Catholic Files] free Catholic downloads
- [http://www.catholic.com Catholic Answers] Catholics Answers
- [http://www.thecatholicguide.com TheCatholic Guide] The Catholic Guide
- [http://www.catholicity.com CatholiCity] free catholic CDs and books
- [http://catholicapologeticsofamerica.blogspot.com Catholic Apologetics of America]
- [http://www.catholicexchange.com/ Catholic Exchange] non-profit charity
- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/ Catholic Encyclopedia]
- [http://www.newadvent.org/summa/ Summa Theologica]
- [http://www.fisheaters.com Fish Eaters: The Whys and Hows of Traditional Catholicism]
- [http://www.malach.org Polish Catholic service Malach - service of Głogów city]
- [http://www.scripturecatholic.com/ Scripture Catholic; Defending Roman Catholicism with its Sacred Scriptures]
- [http://www.mycatholic.com myCatholic.com] — A customizable Catholic web portal.
- [http://www.americancatholic.org/UpdateYourFaith/default.asp Catholic Church FAQs from American Catholic]
- [http://www.stblogsparish.com/bloglist.html Catholic Blogs & Resources] Category:Roman Catholic Church Category:Christianity Category:Anglicanism ko:카톨릭 ja:カトリック教会

Ecumenical council

: See also General Council (disambiguation) In Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, an ecumenical council or general council is a meeting of the bishops of the whole church convened to discuss and settle matters of Church doctrine and practice. The word is from Greek Οικουμένη (oikumene), which literally means "inhabited", i.e. all places that are being inhabited by live beings, therefore "World-wide" or "General". "The whole church" is construed by most Eastern Orthodox Christians as including all Eastern Orthodox jurisdictions in full communion with each other. This does not include the Roman Catholic Church. While a few Orthodox would see a council as fully ecumenical only if it included all the ancient patriarchates, including Rome, this is not mainstream Orthodox opinion. Similarly, Roman Catholics take the whole church to mean "only" those in full communion with the (Roman) Catholic church. Again, some Catholics would see it necessary to include the Eastern Churches in an ecumenical council, in the full and proper sense. As Pope John Paul II often put it, the Church needs to breathe "with two lungs." More local meetings are sometimes called "synods", but the distinction between a synod and a council is not hard and fast. However, both churches do recognize the validity of all of the early councils before the Great Schism, with the exception of the Fourth Council of Constantinople, which Catholics hold to be the council of 869–870 and Orthodox the subsequent council of 879–880. The Greek word "synod" (σύνοδος) derives from "syn" (together) and "odos" (road, way), therefore a synod is the coming together of several people sharing a common element, in this case the Christian bishops.

Council documents

Church councils were, from the beginning, bureaucratic exercises. Written documents were circulated, speeches made and responded to, votes taken, and final documents published and distributed. A large part of what we know about the beliefs of heresies comes from the documents quoted in councils in order to be refuted, or indeed only from the deductions based on the refutations. For all councils Canons (Greek κανονες (kanones), "rules" or "rulings") were published and survive. In some cases other documentation survives as well. Study of the canons of church councils is the foundation of the development of canon law, especially the reconciling of seemingly contradictory canons or the determination of priority between them. Canons consist of doctrinal statements and disciplinary measures — most Church councils and local synods dealt with immediate disciplinary concerns as well as major difficulties of doctrine. Eastern Orthodoxy typically views the purely doctrinal canons as dogmatic and applicable to the entire church at all times, while the disciplinary canons are the application of those dogmas in a particular time and place; these canons may or may not be applicable in other situations.

List of ecumenical councils

Councils #1 to #7

- 1. First Council of Nicaea, (325); repudiated Arianism, adopted the Nicene Creed. This and all subsequent councils are not recognized by nontrinitarian churches: Arians, Unitarians, and Jehovah's Witnesses et al.
- 2. First Council of Constantinople, (381); revised the Nicene Creed into present form used in the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches and prohibited any further alteration of the Creed without the assent of an Ecumenical Council.
- 3. Council of Ephesus, (431); repudiated Nestorianism, proclaimed the Virgin Mary as the Mother of God (Greek, Η Θεοτόκος;). This and all following councils are not recognized by Assyrian Church.
- 4. Council of Chalcedon, (451); repudiated the Eutychian doctrine of monophysitism, described and delineated the two natures of Christ, human and divine; adopted the Chalcedonian Creed. This and all following councils are not recognized by Oriental Orthodox Communion.
- 5. Second Council of Constantinople, (553); reaffirmed decisions and doctrines explicated by previous Councils, condemned new Arian, Nestorian, and Monophysite writings.
- 6. Third Council of Constantinople, (680–681); repudiated Monothelitism, affirmed that Christ had both human and Divine wills.
- Quinisext Council (= Fifth and Sixth) or Council in Trullo, (692); mostly an administrative council that raised some local canons to ecumenical status and established principles of clerical discipline. It is not considered to be a full-fledged council in its own right because it did not determine matters of doctrine. This council is accepted by the Eastern Orthodox Church as a part of VI ecumenical council, but that is rejected by Roman Catholics.
- 7. Second Council of Nicaea, (787); restoration of the veneration of Icons and end of the first Iconoclasm

Councils #8 and #9

#8 and #9 for Catholics

- 8 (cor). Fourth Council of Constantinople, (869–870) Deposed patriarch Saint Photius of Constantinople. This deposition has not been accepted by the Eastern Orthodox Church. This and all subsequent councils are not recognized by Eastern Orthodox Church. Originally, Rome considered the Fourth Council of Constantinople to be the council held in 879–880, which restored Photius, abrogated the council of 869–870, and anathematized additions to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (thus condemning the Filioque), but later repudiated that council in favor of the one held in 869–870.
- 9 (cor). First Council of the Lateran, (1123), which ended the Investiture Controversy by confirming the Concordat of Worms (1122).

#8 and #9 for some Eastern Orthodox

The next two are regarded as ecumenical by some in the Orthodox Church but not by other Eastern Orthodox Christians, who instead consider them to be important local councils.
- 8 (eo). Fourth Council of Constantinople, (879–880); restored St. Photius to his See in Constantinople and anathematized any who altered the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. This council was at first accepted as ecumenical by the West but later repudiated in favor of a previous council which deposed Photius.
- 9 (eo). Fifth Council of Constantinople, (1341–1351); affirmed hesychastic theology according to St. Gregory Palamas and condemned the Westernized philosopher Barlaam of Calabria.

Councils #10 to #21 (Councils of Rome)

- 10. Second Council of the Lateran, (1139) - mostly repeated First Council of the Lateran. Clerical marriages declared invalid, clerical dress regulated, attacks on clerics punished by excommunication
- 11. Third Council of the Lateran, (1179) - limited papal electees to the cardinals alone, condemned simony, forbade the promotion of anyone to the episcopate before the age of thirty.
- 12. Fourth Council of the Lateran, (1215) - dealt with transubstantiation, papal primacy and conduct of clergy. Also said Jews and Muslims should wear a special dress to enable them to be distinguished from Christians.
- 13. First Council of Lyons, (1245) - set a red hat for cardinals, and a levy for the Holy Land
- 14. Second Council of Lyons, (1274)
- 15. Council of Vienne, (1311–1312) - Disbanded Knights Templar
- Council of Pisa, (1409) is not officially recognized because was not called by a pope.
- 16. Council of Constance, (1414–1418)
- Council of Siena, (1423–1424) is the high point of conciliarism, emphasizing the leadership of the bishops gathered in council.
- 17. Council of Basel, Ferrara and Florence, (1431–1445); reconciliation with the Orthodox Church, which, however, was not accepted in following years by the Christian East. In this council, other unions were achieved with various Eastern Churches as well.
- 18. Fifth Council of the Lateran, (1512–1517); attempted reform of the Church.
- 19. Council of Trent, (1545–1563, discontinuously); response to the challenges of Calvinism and Lutheranism; imposition of uniformity in liturgy in the Roman Rite (the "Tridentine Mass").
- 20. First Vatican Council, 1870; clarification of the doctrine of papal infallibility
- 21. Second Vatican Council, (1962–1965); renewal of the Roman liturgy "according to the pristine norm of the Fathers"; pastoral decrees on the nature of the Church and its relation to the modern world; restoration of a theology of communion; promotion of Scripture and biblical studies; ecumenical progress towards reconciliation with other Churches.

Acceptance of the councils

Mormonism: accept none

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rejects the early ecumenical councils for what they see as misguided human attempts without divine assistance to decide matters of doctrine as though doctrine were to be handed down by democratic debate or politics rather than by revelation. That convening such councils was even considered is evidence enough to them that the original Christian church had fallen into apostasy and was no longer directly led by divine authority. They see the calling of such councils, for example, by an unbaptized (let alone unordained) Roman Emperor as preposterous and assert that the emperors used the councils to exercise their influence to shape and institute Christianity to their liking.

Nontrinitarian churches: accept none

The first and subsequent councils are not recognized by nontrinitarian churches: Arians, Unitarians, and Jehovah's Witnesses et al.

The Assyrian Church: accept #1, and #2

The Assyrian Church of the East only accepts the First Council of Nicaea and the First Council of Constantinople.

Oriental Orthodoxy: accept #1, #2, and #3

The Oriental Orthodox Communion only accepts Nicaea I, Constantinople I and the Council of Ephesus.

Protestantism: accept #1-#7 with reservations

Many Protestants (especially those belonging to the magisterial traditions, such as Lutheranism and Anglicanism) accept the teachings of the first seven councils, but do not ascribe to the councils themselves the same authority as Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox do. Some Protestants, including some fundamentalist and nontrintitarian churches, condemn the ecumenical councils for other reasons. Independency or congregationalism among Protestants involves the rejection of any governmental structure or binding authority above local congregations; conformity to the decisions of these councils is therefore considered purely voluntary and the councils are to be considered binding only insofar as those doctrines are derived from the Scriptures. Many of these churches reject the idea that anyone other than the authors of Scripture can directly lead other Christians by original divine authority; after the New Testament, they assert, the doors of revelation were closed. They consider new doctrines not derived from the sealed canon of Scripture to be both impossible and unnecessary, whether proposed by church councils or by more recent prophets. Supporters of the councils contend that the councils did not create new doctrines but merely elucidated doctrines already in Scripture that had gone unrecognized.

Eastern Orthodoxy: accept #1-#7; some also accept #8(eo), #9(eo)

As far as some Eastern Orthodox are concerned, since the Seventh Ecumenical Council there has been no synod or council of the same scope as any of the Ecumenical councils. Local meetings of hierarchs have been called "pan-Orthodox", but these have invariably been simply meetings of local hierarchs of whatever Eastern Orthodox jurisdictions are party to a specific local matter. From this point of view, there has been no fully "pan-Orthodox" (Ecumenical) council since 787. Unfortunately, the use of the term "pan-Orthodox" is confusing to those not within Eastern Orthodoxy, and it leads to mistaken impressions that these are ersatz ecumenical councils rather than purely local councils to which nearby Orthodox hierarchs, regardless of jurisdiction, are invited. Others, including 20th century theologians Metropolitan Hierotheos (Vlachos) of Nafpaktos, Fr. John S. Romanides, and Fr. George Metallinos (all of whom refer repeatedly to the "Eighth and Ninth Ecumenical Councils"), Fr. George Dragas, and the 1848 Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs (which refers explicitly to the "Eighth Ecumenical Council" and was signed by the patriarchs of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria as well as the Holy Synods of the first three), regard other synods beyond the Seventh Ecumenical Council as being ecumenical. Those who regard these councils as ecumenical often characterize the limitation of Ecumenical Councils to only seven to be the result of Jesuit influence in Russia, part of the so-called "Western Captivity of Orthodoxy."

Roman Catholicism: accept #1-#7, #8(cor), #9(cor), #10-#21

Both the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches recognize seven councils in the early years of the church, but Catholics also recognize fourteen councils called in later years by the Pope, whose authority the Eastern Orthodox deny as they consider Rome to currently be in schism. The status of these councils in the face of a Catholic-Orthodox reconciliation would depend upon whether one accepts Roman Catholic ecclesiology (papal primacy) or Orthodox ecclesiology (collegiality of autocephalous churches). In the former case, the additional councils would be granted the status of Ecumenical. In the latter case, they would be considered to be local synodal decisions with no authority among the other autocephalous churches. The first seven councils were called by the emperor (first the Christian Roman Emperors and later the so-called Byzantine Emperors, i.e., the Roman Emperors with the capital in the East). Most historians agree that the emperors called the councils to force the Christian bishops to resolve divisive issues and reach consensus. They hoped that maintaining unity in the Church would help maintain unity in the Empire. The relationship of the Papacy to the validity of these councils is the ground of much controversy between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Churches and to historians.

Relations between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy

In the past few decades, many Roman Catholic theologians and even Popes have spoken of the first seven councils as ecumenical in some sort of "full and proper sense", enjoying the acceptance of both East and West. Moreover, Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical Ut Unum Sint ("That they may be one"), invited other Christians to discuss how the primacy of the Bishop of Rome should be appropriately exercised from now on; he says that the future may be a better guide than the past. In this way, the Bishop of Rome is allowing for the development of an ecclesiology that would be acceptable to both East and West, would allow for reconciliation of Catholic and Orthodox Churches, and would provide a common understanding of the authority of councils called ecumenical. The mutual excommunications of 1054 between the Pope of Rome and the Patriarch of Constantinople were lifted in 1965 by their successors at that time. Moreover, the 1054 "Great Schism" took place when the Bishop of Rome was dead; Orthodox and Catholics in many places continued to recognize each other as members of the universal Church for generations. In fact, the Churches drifted apart over time, becoming clearly separated only after the looting of Constantinople by Crusaders, the deposition of the Patriarch of Constantinople, and the creation of a "Latin Patriarchate" in hostile opposition to the Orthodox Patriarch in the thirteenth century. As these Churches today work towards reconciliation, the restoration of full communion will also take time. A generally accepted Orthodox perspective on the ecumenical councils will be complemented by some equally agreed upon understanding of the primacy of the Roman Pope, as the successor of Peter. Similarly, on November 11, 1994 at meeting of Mar Dinkha IV, Patriarch of Babylon, Selucia-Ctesiphon and all of the East (Chicago, Illinois), leader of the Assyrian or "Nestorian" church, and the Roman Catholic Pope John Paul II at the Vatican, a Common Christological Declaration was signed, bridging a schism dating from the Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus. The separation of the Coptic Church from the one holy catholic and apostolic Church after the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon was addressed in a "Common Declaration of Pope Paul VI and of the Pope of Alexandria Shenouda III" at the Vatican on May 10, 1973 and in an "Agreed Statement" prepared by the "Joint Commision of the Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches" at Anba Bishoy Monastery in Wadi El-Natroun, Egypt on June 24, 1989.

External links

- [http://www.piar.hu/councils/~index.htm All Catholic Church Ecumenical Councils - All the Decrees]
- [http://www.geocities.com/trvalentine/orthodox/8-9synods.html The Eighth and Ninth Ecumenical Councils] Category:Eastern Orthodoxy Category:Oriental Orthodoxy
- ko:공의회 ja:公会議

Greek language

Greek (Greek Ελληνικά, IPA – "Hellenic") is an Indo-European language with a documented history of 3,500 years. Today, it is spoken by 15 million people in Greece, Cyprus, the former Yugoslavia, particularly The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania and Turkey. There are also many Greek emigrant communities around the world, such as those in Melbourne, Australia which is the third-largest Greek-populated city in the world, after Athens and Thessaloniki. Greek has been written in the Greek alphabet, the first true alphabet, since the 9th century B.C. and before that, in Linear B and the Cypriot syllabaries. Greek literature has a long and rich tradition.

History

This article does not cover the reconstructed history of Greek prior to the use of writing. For more information, see main article on Proto-Greek language. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan Peninsula since the 2nd millennium BC. The earliest evidence of this is found in the Linear B tablets dating from 1500 BC. The later Greek alphabet (q.v.) is unrelated to Linear B, and was derived from the Phoenician alphabet (abjad); with minor modifications, it is still used today. Greek is conventionally divided into the following periods:
- Mycenean Greek: the language of the Mycenean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 16th century BC onwards.
- Classical Greek (also known as Ancient Greek): In its various dialects was the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman empire. Classical Greek fell into disuse in western Europe in the Middle Ages, but remained known in the Byzantine world, and was reintroduced to the rest of Europe with the Fall of Constantinople and Greek migration to Italy.
- Hellenistic Greek (also known as Koine Greek): The fusion of various ancient Greek dialects with Attic (the dialect of Athens) resulted in the creation of the first common Greek dialect, which gradually turned into one of the world's first international languages. Koine Greek can be initially traced within the armies and conquered territories of Alexander the Great, but after the Hellenistic colonisation of the known world, it was spoken from Egypt to the fringes of India. After the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial diglossy of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. Through Koine Greek it is also traced the origin of Christianity, as the Apostles used it to preach in Greece and the Greek-speaking world. It is also known as the Alexandrian dialect, Post-Classical Greek or even New Testament Greek (after its most famous work of literature).
- Medieval Greek: The continuation of Hellenistic Greek during medieval Greek history as the official and vernacular (if not the literary nor the ecclesiastic) language of the Byzantine Empire, and continued to be used until, and after the fall of that Empire in the 15th century. Also known as Byzantine Greek.
- Modern Greek: Stemming independently from Koine Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the late Byzantine period (as early as 11th century). Two main forms of the language have been in use since the end of the medieval Greek period: Dhimotikí (Δημοτική), the Demotic (vernacular) language, and Katharévousa (Καθαρεύουσα), an imitation of classical Greek, which was used for literary, juridic, and scientific purposes during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Demotic Greek is now the official language of the modern Greek state, and the most widely spoken by Greeks today. It has been claimed that an "educated" speaker of the modern language can understand an ancient text, but this is surely as much a function of education as of the similarity of the languages. Still, Koinē , the version of Greek used to write the New Testament and the Septuagint, is relatively easy to understand for modern speakers. Greek words have been widely borrowed into the European languages: astronomy, democracy, philosophy, thespian, etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as a basis for coinages: anthropology, photography, isomer, biomechanics etc. and form, with Latin words, the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary. See English words of Greek origin, and List of Greek words with English derivatives.

Classification

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient languages which were probably most closely related to it, Ancient Macedonian language (which may be regarded as a dialect of Greek) and Phrygian, are not well enough documented to permit detailed comparison. Among living languages, Armenian seems to be the most closely related to it.

Geographic distribution

Modern Greek is spoken by about 15 million people mainly in Greece and Cyprus. There are also Greek-speaking populations in Georgia, Ukraine, Egypt, Turkey, Albania, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Southern Italy. The language is spoken also in many other countries where Greeks have settled, including Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States.

Official status

Greek is the official language of Greece where it is spoken by about 99.5% of the population. It is also, alongside Turkish, the official language of Cyprus. Due to the membership of Greece and Cyprus, Greek is one of the 20 official languages of the European Union.

Phonology

This section generally describes the post-Classic phonology of the Greek language. :All phonetic transcriptions in this section use the International Phonetic Alphabet

Vowel sounds

Greek has 5 vowel sounds, all phonemic:

Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II (Latin: Ioannes Paulus PP. II), born Karol Józef Wojtyła (May 18, 1920 – April 2, 2005) reigned as pope of the Catholic Church for almost 27 years, from 16 October 1978, making his the second-longest pontificate (or the third-longest, as enumerated by Roman Catholic tradition). On 13 May 2005, Pope Benedict XVI, John Paul II's successor, waived the five year waiting period for a cause for beatification to be opened. The official process for beatification began in the Diocese of Rome on June 28, 2005. [http://opportunities.typepad.com/news/2005/06/pope_john_paul_.html] He was the first non-Italian pope since the 16th century. His early reign was marked by his opposition to Communism, and he is often credited as one of the forces which brought about the fall of the Soviet Union. In other domains, his concern for the poor, the weak and those who suffer, and his stances on warfare, violence, capital punishment, evolution, world debt forgiveness combined with his willingness to visit Socialist nations, and his strong relationships with leaders of non Catholic Churches and non Christian faiths were considered by some to be proof that he was "liberal". His affirmation of the long-standing Christian doctrine that abortion, homosexual sex, and contraception are immoral, his continuing the tradition of ordaining only men to the priesthood, teaching that divorced persons could not remarry without a declaration of nullity, that valid sacramental marriage exists between one man and one woman, emphasizing the benefits of retaining the discipline of mandatory priestly celibacy, and his opposition to secularism are hailed by some as proof that he was "conservative". His being claimed by both liberals and conservative shows that political labels are not easily assigned to this pope. During his reign, the pope travelled extensively, visiting over 100 countries, more than any of his predecessors. He canonized more people than all popes before him put together. He was Pope during a period in which Catholicism's influence declined in developed countries but expanded in the Third World. Pope John Paul II was extremely popular worldwide, attracting the largest crowds in history (at times attracting crowds of over one million people in a single venue [over four million people at the World Youth Day in Manila), and being respected by many even outside of the Catholic Church, despite strident criticism from some quarters. John Paul II was fluent in numerous languages: his native Polish, Italian, French, German, English, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, and Latin. In the late 1990s, he was diagnosed as having Parkinson's disease. On 2 April 2005 at 9:37 pm Vatican Time, Pope John Paul II died while a vast crowd kept vigil on St Peter's Square. Millions of people flocked to Rome to pay their respects to the body and for his funeral. The last years of his reign had been marked by his fight against the various diseases ailing him, provoking some concerns that he should abdicate, but in retrospect his determination was widely seen as an exemplary display of courage.

Overview

St Peter's Square The man from Poland will be remembered as the "people's Pope." Respected around the world by both Christians and non-Christians the reach of Pope John Paul II extended across the globe. His papacy is remembered by his tireless ecumenical approach to accommodate other Christian bodies as well as to forge a better understanding with the Islamic world. At his funeral, many non-Christian faiths were represented, including representatives from Judaism, Islam and Buddhism. John Paul II emphasized what he called the "universal call to holiness" and attempted to define the Catholic Church's role in the modern world. He spoke out against ideologies and politics of communism, feminism, imperialism, relativism, materialism, fascism (including Nazism), racism and unrestrained capitalism. In many ways, he fought against oppression, secularism and poverty. Although he was on friendly terms with many Western heads of state and leading citizens, he reserved a special opprobrium for what he believed to be the corrosive spiritual effects of modern Western consumerism and the concomitant widespread secular and hedonistic orientation of Western populations. John Paul II affirmed traditional Catholic teachings by opposing abortion, contraception, capital punishment, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, euthanasia, and war. He also defended traditional teachings on marriage and gender roles by opposing divorce, same-sex marriage and the ordination of women. His conservative views were sometimes criticized as regressive. John Paul II called upon followers to vote according to Catholic teachings, and suggested that politicians who strayed be denied the Eucharist. John Paul II became known as the "Pilgrim Pope" for travelling greater distances than had all his predecessors combined. According to John Paul II, the trips symbolized bridge-building efforts (in keeping with his title as Pontifex Maximus, literally Master Bridge-Builder) between nations and religions, attempting to remove divisions created through history. He beatified 1,340 people, more people than any previous pope. The Vatican asserts he canonized more people than the combined tally of his predecessors during the last five centuries, and from a far greater variety of cultures. Whether he had canonized more saints than all previous popes put together, as is sometimes also claimed, is difficult to prove, as the records of many early canonizations are incomplete, missing, or inaccurate. However, it is known that his abolition of the office of Promotor Fidei ("Promoter of the Faith" and the origin of the term Devil's Advocate) streamlined the process. He has been criticized by many for doing this. Pope John Paul II died on 2 April 2005 after a long fight against Parkinson's disease and other illnesses. Immediately after his death, many of his followers demanded that he be elevated to sainthood as soon as possible, shouting "Santo Subito" (meaning "Saint immediately" in Italian). Both L'Osservatore Romano and Pope Benedict XVI, Pope John Paul II's successor, referred to John Paul II as "Great". John Paul II was succeeded by the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger of Germany, the former head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith who had led the Funeral Mass for John Paul II.

Biography

Early life

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Karol Józef Wojtyła was born on 18 May 1920 in Wadowice in southern Poland. His mother, Emilia Kaczorowska, died in 1929, when he was just aged 9 and his father supported him so that he could study. His youth was marked by intensive contacts with the then thriving Jewish community of Wadowice; there is evidence that young Karol's mother was of Jewish extraction. Karol enrolled at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He worked as a volunteer librarian and did compulsory military training in the Academic Legion. In his youth he was an athlete, actor and playwright and he learned as many as eleven languages during his lifetime, including Latin, Greek, Spanish, French, Italian, German, English, and of course his native Polish. He also had some facility with Russian. During the Second World War academics of the Jagiellonian University were arrested and the university suppressed. All able-bodied males had to have a job. He variously worked as a messenger for a restaurant and a manual labourer in a limestone quarry.

Church career

Second World War Second World War In 1942 he entered the underground seminary run by the Archbishop of Kraków, Cardinal Sapieha. Karol Wojtyła was ordained a priest on 1 November 1946. Not long after, he was sent to study theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, commonly known as the Angelicum, where he earned a licentiate and later a doctorate in sacred theology. This doctorate, the first of two, was based on the Latin dissertation Doctrina de fide apud S. Ioannem a Cruce (The Doctrine of Faith According to Saint John of the Cross). Even though his doctoral work was unanimously approved in June of 1948, he was denied the degree because he could not afford to print the text of his dissertation (an Angelicum rule). In December of that year, a revised text of his dissertation was approved by the theological faculty of Jagiellonian University in Kraków, and Wojtyła was finally awarded the degree. He earned a second doctorate, based on an evaluation of the possibility of founding a Catholic ethic on the ethical system of phenomenologist Max Scheler (An Evaluation of the Possibility of Constructing a Christian Ethics on the Basis of the System of Max Scheler), in 1954. As was the case with the first degree, he was not granted the degree upon earning it. This time, the faculty at Jagiellonian University was forbidden by communist authorities from granting the degree. In conjunction with his habilitation at Catholic University of Lublin, Poland, he finally obtained the doctorate in philosophy in 1957 from that institution, where he assumed the Chair of Ethics in 1958. On 4 July 1958 Pope Pius XII named him titular bishop of Ombi and auxiliary to Archbishop Baziak, apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Kraków. Karol Wojtyła found himself at 38 the youngest bishop in Poland. In 1962 Bishop Wojtyła took part in the Second Vatican Council, and in December 1963 Pope Paul VI appointed him Archbishop of Kraków. Paul VI elevated him to cardinal in 1967.

A Pope from Poland

In August 1978 following Paul's death, he voted in the Papal Conclave that elected Pope John Paul I, who at 65 was considered young by papal standards. However John Paul I was in poor health and he died after only 33 days as pope, thereby precipitating another conclave.Pope John Paul I.]] Voting in the second conclave was divided between two particularly strong candidates: Giuseppe Cardinal Siri, the Archbishop of Genoa; and Giovanni Cardinal Benelli, the Archbishop of Florence and a close associate of Pope John Paul I. In early ballots, Benelli came within nine votes of victory. However Wojtyła secured election as a compromise candidate, in part through the support of Franz Cardinal König and others who had previously supported Cardinal Siri. He became the 264th Pope according to the Vatican (265th according to sources that count Pope Stephen II). At only 58 years of age, he was the youngest pope elected since Pope Pius IX in 1846. Like his immediate predecessor, Pope John Paul II dispensed with the traditional Papal coronation and instead received ecclesiastical investiture with the simplified Papal inauguration.

Assassination attempts

On 13 May 1981 John Paul II was shot and critically wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca, a Turkish gunman, as he entered St. Peter's Square to address an audience. Ağca was eventually sentenced to life imprisonment. Two days after Christmas 1983, John Paul II visited the prison where his would-be assassin was being held. The two spoke privately for some time. John Paul II said, "What we talked about will have to remain a secret between him and me. I spoke to him as a brother whom I have pardoned and who has my complete trust." Another assassination attempt took place on 12 May 1982, just a day before the anniversary of the last attempt on his life, in Fatima, Portugal when a man tried to stab John Paul II with a bayonet, but was stopped by security guards. The assailant, an ultraconservative Spanish priest named Juan María Fernández y Krohn, reportedly opposed the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and called the pope an agent of Moscow. He served a six-year sentence, and was expelled from Portugal afterwards.

Health

When he first entered the papacy in 1978, John Paul II was an avid sportsman, enjoying hiking and swimming. In addition, John Paul II travelled extensively after becoming pope; at the time, the 58-year old was extremely healthy and active. In 1981, though, John Paul II's health suffered a major blow after the first failed assassination attempt. The bullet-wound caused severe bleeding, and the Pope's blood pressure dropped. In addition, a colostomy was also performed. He nevertheless maintained an impressive physical condition throughout the 1980s. Starting about 1992, John Paul II's health slowly declined. He began to suffer from an increasingly slurred speech and difficulty in hearing. In addition, the Pope rarely walked in public. Though not officially confirmed by the Vatican until 2003, most experts agreed that the frail pontiff suffered from Parkinson's Disease. In February 2005 John Paul II was taken to the hospital with an inflammation of the larynx, the result of influenza. Though later released from the hospital, he was taken back later that month after difficulty breathing. A tracheotomy was performed, limiting the pope's speaking abilities. In March of 2005, speculation was high that the Pope was near-death; this was confirmed by the Vatican days before John Paul II passed away.

Death

On 31 March 2005 the Pope developed a very high fever, but was neither rushed to the hospital, nor offered life support, apparently, in accordance with his wishes to die in the Vatican. Later that day Vatican sources announced that John Paul II had been given the Anointing of the Sick by his friend and secretary Archbishop Stanisław Dziwisz. During the final days of the Pope's life, the lights were kept burning through the night where he lay in the Papal apartment on the top floor of the Apostolic Palace. Thousands of people rushed to the Vatican, filling St Peter's Square and beyond, and held vigil for two days. At about 15:30 CEST, John Paul II spoke his final words, "Let me go to the house of the Father", to his aides in his native Polish and fell into a coma about four hours later. He died in his private apartments, at 21:37 CEST (19:37 UTC) on 2 April, 46 days short of his 85th birthday. Already, the vigil of the Second Sunday of Easter, that is, Divine Mercy Sunday, was being commemorated. A crowd of over two million within Vatican City, over one billion Catholics world-wide, and many non-Catholics mourned John Paul II. The Poles were particularly devastated by his death. The public viewing of his body in St. Peter's Basilica drew over four million people to Vatican City and was one of the largest pilgrimages in the history of Christianity. Many world leaders expressed their condolences and ordered flags in their countries lowered to half-mast. Numerous countries with a Catholic majority, and even some with only a small Catholic population, declared mourning for John Paul II.

Last Words

Pope John Paul II's last words before his death were "let me go to the house of the Father", according to documents released by the Vatican.

Funeral

history of Christianity The death of Pope John Paul II set into motion rituals and traditions dating back to medieval times. The Rite of Visitation took place from 4 April through 22:00 CET (20:00 UTC) on 7 April at St. Peter's Basilica. On 8 April the Mass of Requiem was conducted by the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Joseph Ratzinger, who would become the next pope. It has been estimated to have been the largest attended funeral of all time. John Paul II was interred in the grottoes under the basilica, the Tomb of the Popes. He was lowered into the tomb that had been occupied by the remains of Blessed Pope John XXIII, but which had been empty since his remains had been moved into the main body of the basilica after his beatification by John Paul II in 2003.

John Paul "The Great"

Since the death of John Paul II, a number of clergy at the Vatican have been referring to the late pontiff as "John Paul the Great"—only the fourth pope to be so acclaimed, and the first since the first millennium. His successor, Pope Benedict XVI, referred to him as "the great Pope John Paul II" in his first address from the loggia of St Peter's Church. Pope Benedict has continued to refer to John Paul II as "the Great." At the 2005 World Youth Day in Germany, Pope Benedict, speaking in Polish, John Paul's native language, said, "As the great Pope John Paul II would say: keep the flame of faith alive in your lives and your people." The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera even called him "the Greatest." Scholars of canon law say that there is no official process for declaring a pope "Great"; the title establishes itself through popular, and continued, usage. The three popes who today commonly are known as "Great" are Leo I, who reigned from 440–461 and persuaded Attila the Hun to withdraw from Rome; Gregory I, 590–604, after whom the Gregorian Chant is named; and Nicholas I, 858–867, who also withstood a siege of Rome (in this case from Carolingian Christians, over a dispute regarding marriage annulment). Historically, the title "the Great" has been given only to the first pope (or sovereign) in a line bearing a name. John Paul II would, by this criterion, be unlikely to be dubbed "the Great." However, there are exceptions. For example, Alexander the Great, was also Alexander III. The fact that, until John Paul II, no popes after the first, have received this title is likely more a function of the fact that so few popes have been acclaimed "the Great" at all, and as such this is not a title that is limited to only the first pope of a given name.

Beatification

annulment On 13 May 2005 Benedict XVI made his first promulgation of the beatification process choosing to honour his predecessor, John Paul II. Normally five years pass before the beatification process begins for a person after his or her death but due to the popularity of John Paul II—devotees chanted "Santo subito!" ("Saint now!") during the late pontiff's funeral—Benedict XVI waived the custom and officially styled the late pope with the title given to all those being scrutinized in the beatification process, Servant of God.

Life's work

Teachings

As pope, John Paul II's most important role was to teach people about Roman Catholic Christianity. He wrote a number of important documents that many observers believe will have long-lasting influence on the Church. A notable achievement of John Paul II was the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which became an international bestseller. Its purpose, according to the Pope's Apostolic Constitution Fidei Depositum was to be "a statement of the Church's faith and of Catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium." His first encyclical letters focused on the Triune God; the very first was on Jesus the Redeemer ("Redemptor Hominis"). In his Apostolic Letter At the beginning of the third millennium (Novo Millennio Ineunte), he emphasized the importance of "starting afresh from Christ": "No, we shall not be saved by a formula but by a Person." In what he calls a "program for all times," he placed "sanctity" as the single most important priority of all pastoral activities in the entire Catholic Church. Thus, he canonized many saints around the world as exemplars for his vision and he supported the prelature of Opus Dei, whose aim is to spread the message of the universal call to holiness and the sanctification of secular activities, which he said is a "great ideal." universal call to holiness In The Splendour of the Truth (Veritatis Splendor) he emphasized the dependence of man on God and his law ("Without the Creator, the creature disappears") and the "dependence of freedom on the truth". He warned that man "giving himself over to relativism and skepticism, goes off in search of an illusory freedom apart from truth itself". John Paul II also wrote extensively about workers and the social doctrine of the Church, which he discussed in three encyclicals. Through his encyclicals, John Paul also talked about the dignity of women and the importance of the family for the future of mankind. Other important documents include The Gospel of Life (Evangelium Vitae), where he issued unprecedented teachings on moral matters like on murder, euthanasia and abortion, statements which, according to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, were "infallible", Faith and Reason (Fides et Ratio), and Orientale Lumen (Light of the East). John Paul II, who was present and very influential at the Vatican II (1962-65), affirmed the teachings of that Council and did much to implement them. Nevertheless, his critics often wished aloud that he would embrace the so-called "progressive" agenda that some hoped would evolve as a result of the Council. John Paul II continued to declare that contraception, abortion, and homosexual acts were gravely sinful, and, with Cardinal Ratzinger (future Pope Benedict XVI), opposed Liberation theology. He exalted marital sexual intercourse as a sacramental act that was, in every instance, profaned by contraception, abortion, divorce followed by a second marriage, and homosexual acts. He also rejected calls to break with the constant tradition of the Church by ordaining women to the priesthood. In addition, John Paul II chose not to end the discipline of mandatory priestly celibacy, although he did encourage married clergymen of other Christian traditions who later became Catholic to be ordained as Catholic priests. In fact, the Council did not advocate "progressive" changes in these areas, and condemned abortion as an "unspeakable crime". John Paul II, as a writer of philosophical and theological thought, was characterized by his explorations in phenomenology. He is also known for his development of the theology of the body.

Pastoral trips

theology of the body During his pontificate, Pope John Paul II made 104 foreign trips, more than all previous popes put together. In total he logged more than 1.1 million km (725,000 miles). He consistently attracted large crowds on his travels, some amongst the largest ever assembled in human history. While some of his trips (such as to the United States and the Holy Land) were to places previously visited by Pope Paul VI (the first pope to travel widely), many others were to places that no pope had ever visited before. All these travels were paid by the money of the countries he visited and not by the Vatican. Pope Paul VI One of John Paul II's earliest official visits was to Poland, in June 1979. In 1982 he became the first reigning pope to travel to the United Kingdom, where he met Queen Elizabeth II, the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Throughout his trips, he stressed his devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary through visits to various shrines to the Virgin Mary, notably Knock in Ireland,