CONTEMPORARY CHURCH

a) Contemporary Geography
b) Social Revolution
c) Industrial Revolution
d) Independence’s Wars
e) I y II World Wars
f) Age of the Information
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a) Contemporary Geography

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

--- Capitalism (1800-……)  --- Nazism (1936-1945)   --- Communism (1917-1989)  --- Islam (2001-…….)

b) Social Revolution

b.1) French Revolution

        It happened in Paris on 14th July 1789 with the storming of the Bastille. It was the response done by the insurgents who were against the constant economic crisis and the distant relationships between farmers and bourgeoisies during the reign of Louis XVI of France.

        Since the storming of the Bastille, anarchy became the new queen of the streets. A coalition of atheists, masons and illustrated philosophers were destroying all the old social structures. France became a lost ball in the high weeds because of the chaos and the bloody Jacobin’s executions.

b.2) Historical repercussions

        In spite of the calm and peace won in streets by Colonel Napoleon, Republican anxieties had created an irrevocable hole in the heart of the society. The slogan "we are all equal" was created and until now, it continues creating great absence of power and stability that hinders people to live in a normal public society.

b.3) The Church’s position

        Inside France, the Church suffered from the hatred of atheists. 24,000 out of 29,000 priests were killed or exiled, many ecclesiastical buildings and parishes were set on fire and all documents inside parishes were stolen… Faith was replaced with human race worship, mass celebrations were replaced with parties, and old temples were closed and opened only for dialogues. The new republican age changed the traditional days in official calendars. The days of the week which was officially seven was replaced with only six.

        Outside France, the Church used its intelligence and put into gear a true social revolution through the following: Catholic Medias (L’Avenir, L’Univers…), Catholic Youth’s Associations (Catholic Action…), new education’s methods (Syllabus…), children’s camps and respect towards nature (Scouts…)… all of them became vehicles towards a real, true and respectful social revolution.

c) Industrial Revolution

c.1) English Industrialization

        It began in England during the year 1800. It was caused by the discovery of electricity and petroleum and the invention of the steam engine. It was believed to be the beginning of the new age and the fast growth of the industrialized world.

        Factories, finances, machines… replaced the old manual and familiar labor. Technology and capital became prevalent among the working class. The railway narrowed the distance between capitalism and socialism. Moral depravation fell at the bottom.

c.2) Rerum Novarum

        This was the encyclical letter sent by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 stating the new problems created by the Industrial Revolution. It tried to establish a new relationship between material and spiritual order.

        RN means the inauguration of the catholic social thought, and among other things, RN headed the following:

-founding of the union trade,
-fixes the states’ fields,
-workers’ involvement,
-legal protection of private family life.

        RN was a new landmark in the history of relationships between the Church and State, Church and lab oral work, Church and family… in the context of a new industrial world.

c.3) Economic doctrine of the Church

        It was followed by the succeeding pontiffs until Leo XIII. The Church tried including the main articles of Ethics in the economic field in order to conserve a concrete hierarchical order of moral values:

-men’s needs and satisfactions,
-people’s peaceful development,
-the right to have a good job and a private property,
-the justice in the lab oral market,
-the respect and collaboration with state rules.

d) Independence Wars

d.1) European Colonialism

        Europe had had thousands of colonies around the world. England had established dozens of colonies in North America and in Middle East and Oceania. Spain had hundreds of them in South and Central America; France in Africa and Antilles; Portugal in Indian Ocean and Far East. To replace the Indians, European colonizers even began importing slaves from Africa to America and Asia. Many religious voices bravely campaigned against their practice to protect the Indian’s rights.

d.2) Revolutionary Wars

        It started with the Independence of the United States of America in 1789 and ended with the Independence of the Philippines in 1898. Arduous battles took place in order to establish new national states. National constitutions, national leaders and politicians, became the new points of reference. In Russia, China and the poorest countries of Asia and the world, the Communist Ideology or Communism started its existence in 1917.

d.3) Council Vatican I

        Pius IX’s definition of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary happened in 1854, following the petition of the world’s clergy. This definition, and the succeeding apparitions of the Virgin in Lourdes and Fatima, meant the beginning of a new age inside the Church. This new Church mentality built the new Vatican City State and the first Vatican Council (1870), declaring the Pope’s faultlessness.

e) I-II World Wars

e.1) German Nazism

        It took place in Germany in 1931. It coincided with Hitler’s possession of power and his ideas about the Arian race and the mismanaged economic and scientific developments in Germany. Duplicating surplus and prospects, Hitler converted Germany to a warlike power. Then, he began initiating battles against the European countries and exterminating Russian and Jewish people. His madness for power gave way to total war, even in Asia, Africa and United States.

e.2) Consequences and results

        Some of the results of World War II were the death of 50 million people, millions of emigrants and broken families, destroyed towns, pessimism and collective hatred.

e.3) Christian Reconstruction

        Christian faith and the assistance of generous and anonymous Christians were the main factors that helped in the rebuilding of Europe. Just in Rome, the Vatican saved the lives of more than 860,000 war refugees. But will be the three European leaders, Konrard Adenauer (German), Robert Schurman (French) and Alcide de Gasperi (Italian), two of them in canonization’s process, the new fathers of the new Europe that today we can join. The European flag, designed by Arsène Heitz and copied from Strasbourg’s Cathedral’s stained glass, represented the victory of the Virgin Mary, who was portrayed in the book of Revelation as immaculate in blue and with twelve stars, against Evil.

        Mutilated soldiers, humiliated prisoners, orphaned children, raped mothers and members of broken families started living normal lives, little by little, and from them a new world order was created.

f) New age of the Information

f.1) North American liberalism

        It was born in United States at the end of World War II. Coinciding with the fall of Nazism, two new powers arose. These two new powers would show the new two poles of the new world order:

-Soviet Union, based in the common-union of resources and people. It adhered to the ideology of the uniformity of classes;
-United States, based on unlimited personal and economic growth. It adhered to the well-being of the society.

        The Fall of Communism took place in 1989 because of inner crisis and the destruction of the Wall of Berlin. Because of this, the United States seized the opportunity and colonized all the countries that it could take over.

f.2) New technologies

        They were embraced on 20th July 1969, the historical day when man first walked on the moon. After that moment, new horizons and new human desires are continuously being reached and satisfied until now. Technological and informational advances flowed into the new world. Changes happened fast because of readily available information while subjectivity fell below communication channels.

f.3) Christian Ethics

        It tries to defend the primacy of life and human being on top of the goals and successes achieved by new technologies. It provides a sense of reason to all human activities by remembering that finding happiness and eternal luck is the ultimate objective of men. To summarize, Christian Ethics values:

-the rights of human life,
-the dignity of human beings,
-the primacy of family,
-the freedom of thought.

 

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