This book provides a key analysis of the development of the Catholic Church in Taiwan, and considers the challenges it faces in contemporary times. It examines how the 1949 revolution in Mainland China brought a great number of Chinese intellectuals to Taiwan and provided the Taiwan Catholic Church with valuable human asset for theological and liturgical indigenization. This volume considers different aspects of the development of the Taiwan Catholic Church in the context of indigenization, and examines how the multi-faceted aspects of Catholicism in the Taiwan Catholic Church are revealed through history, philosophy, social science, linguistics, music and literature.

Be Opened! The Catholic Church and Deaf Culture offers readers a people’s history of deafness and sign language in the Catholic Church. Paying ample attention to the vocation stories of deaf priests and pastoral workers, Portolano traces the transformation of the Deaf Catholic community from passive recipients of mercy to an active language minority making contributions in today’s globally diverse church. Background chapters familiarize readers with early misunderstandings about deaf people in the church and in broader society, along with social and religious issues facing deaf people throughout history. A series of connected narratives demonstrate the strong Catholic foundations of deaf education in sign language, including sixteenth-century monastic schools for deaf children and nineteenth-century French education in sign language as a missionary endeavor. The author explains how nineteenth-century schools for deaf children, especially those founded by orders of religious sisters, established small communities of Deaf Catholics around the globe. A series of portraits illustrates the work of pioneering missionaries in several different countries—“apostles to the Deaf”—who helped to establish and develop deaf culture in these communities through adult religious education and the sacraments in sign language. In several chapters focused on the twentieth century, the author describes key events that sparked a modern transformation in Deaf Catholic culture. As linguists began to recognize sign languages as true human languages, deaf people borrowed the practices of Civil Rights activists to gain equality both as citizens and as members of the church. At the same time, deaf people drew inspiration and cultural validation from key documents of Vatican II, and leadership of the Deaf Catholic community began to come from the deaf community rather than to it through missionaries. Many challenges remain, but this book clearly presents Deaf Catholic culture as an important and highly visible embodiment of Catholic heritage.

How did the present authority structures within the Church come into existence? How, if at all, can we justify their existence? What form of authority should exist in the Church? These and other related questions exercise the minds of many Christians in these days when the very notion of authority is questioned, but debate about them is perhaps nowhere more lively than within the ranks of Roman Catholicism. This book offers an important contribution to such debate within that church. Leading Catholic theologians from both sides of the Atlantic take up the key issues: analysing the concept of authority and governance; examining the history of authority within the Roman Catholic church; discussing who should have a say in future developments; exploring ecumenical dimensions, with particular reference to Anglicanism and the Orthodox churches; and suggesting the kind of reforms that might be prudent, as well as ways in which such reforms might be brought about. The book will prove of interest to many Roman Catholics, but given the ecumenical impact of many of the issues explored, it is likely to exert a wide appeal far beyond the confines of that church.

Roman Catholicism stands at a crossroads, a classic "best of time, worst of times" moment. On the one hand, the Catholic Church remains by far the largest branch of the worldwide Christian family, and is growing at a remarkable clip. Yet the Church has also been rocked by a series of scandals related to the sexual abuse of minors by clergy, and, even more devastating, the cover-up by the Church hierarchy. The Church has enormous residual strength and exciting future prospects, but it also faces steep internal and external challenges. The author offers an authoritative and accessible guide to the past, present, and future of the Church.

How does the Catholic Church exist in the historical context of the world? The course, The Catholic Church, ideal as a one-semester course for eleventh- and twelfth-grade students, explores the developments, people, and events that have shaped the Church. Each chapter focuses on one time period. Using personal vignettes and special readings to make the history more personal and specific, the text engages teens in seeing the full historical dimension of the Catholic Church. Full-color, original illustrations, photographs, charts, cartoons, timelines, and maps acquaint students with people, places, and movements that are important to the history of the Church. Study aids include review questions after each section and activities in the margins of the text to personalize the material.

This volume offers a collection of essays, by internationally known scholars, on the Ukrainian-Canadian Metropolitan Maxim Hermaniuk and the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church during the Second Vatican Council. A number of essays describe the historical context of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church during and after the Council. Other essays focus on Met. Hermaniuk's contributions during the Council, from his speeches on episcopal collegiality, ecumenism and the importance of the Eastern Christian Churches, to his work on the various conciliar commissions. Concluding sections of the volume then assess Hermaniuk's efforts to promote the reception of the Council in his church. These essays critically engage and comment upon The Second Vatican Council Diaries of Met. Maxim Hermaniuk, C.Ss.R. (1960-1965), Eastern Christian Studies 15 (Leuven: Peeters, 2012). Two appendices include Met. Hermaniuk's commentary on Orientalium ecclesiarum, plus an essay on the participation of the Ukrainian bishops at the Council.

This history of the Catholic church tells the story of the 2,000-year relationship between Jesus and the believers who have followed him. It is a story of people -- peasants and popes, saints and heretics, martyrs and apostates -- and how the faith has been passed down throughout the ages, generation to generation. The information is concise yet insightful, rendering a complete and accurate portrait of this centuries-old institution.