Browsing by Subject "Priests"
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Item Built upon the Tower of Babel : language policy and the clergy in Bourbon Mexico(2016-05) Zakaib, Susan Blue; Deans-Smith, Susan, 1953-; Twinam, Ann; Butler, Matthew; Garrard-Burnett, Virginia; McDonough, KellyThis dissertation provides the first in-depth analysis of the “Bourbon language reforms”—a series of royal and ecclesiastical policies aimed at spreading the Spanish language in New Spain (now Mexico), enacted primarily between the 1750s and 1770s under the rule of the Bourbon dynasty. The limited scholarship on these reforms has assumed that a monolithic Bourbon state sought to mold a monolingual, Spanish-speaking empire. It has also suggested that creoles (American-born Spaniards), mendicants (Franciscan, Dominican and Augustinian friars), indigenous peoples, or some combination thereof responded by uniformly opposing the Bourbon state’s oppressive measures. I challenge both of these arguments by analyzing the central Mexican Catholic Church’s “language regime”—not only official policies, but also their historical context, and predominant ideologies about indigenous languages and their speakers—between 1700 and 1821. I demonstrate that indigenous languages were deeply integrated into the inner workings of the Church—not only its religious services, but also its bureaucracy and hierarchy. Native language competency helped to determine clerics’ career paths, forge socioeconomic hierarchies within the Church, and shape political disputes between warring royal and ecclesiastical factions. This key role of native languages in the Church helped induce the Bourbon language reforms. In spite of the reform effort, however, native languages continued to play a critical role in ecclesiastical administration through the end of the colonial period. This was due in large part to the fact that the Bourbon state did not seek uniformly to eradicate these languages; indeed, royal and ecclesiastical authorities could not even agree on precisely what their language policy should entail. Few priests (creole or not) felt the need to resist a reform effort that was contradictory, piecemeal, and of limited consequence for the Church. Contrary to many scholars’ assumptions, these findings indicate that modern Mexico’s linguistic inequality is not a persistent vestige of colonial policy. Instead, 18th-century language policy was only an early step in a centuries-long process leading to today’s particular brand of linguistic discrimination.Item The personality and occupational profiles of Roman Catholic priests and women who seek to become Roman Catholic priests: a test of the Holland model of vocational choice(Texas Tech University, 1986-05) Celmer, VirginiaThis investigation was undertaken in hopes of answering several general questions as well as testing specific hypotheses. It was hoped that the results would increase and update the body of knowledge about Roman Catholic priests in America: who are these men? what common personality profile do they generate? what are their strengths, their weaknesses? what types of occupations do they prefer, do they reject? is any new information in this study significantly different from that generated in previous studies? This study also was designed to contribute significantly to the information available about women desirous of ordination as Roman Catholic priests: who are these women who seek a goal seemingly never attainable? what type of personality profile do they have? what are their assets, their liabilities? what are their occupational preferences? are they occupationally frustrated? how are they coping with that frustration? This investigation was designed to contribute a comparative analysis of already-ordained men and women who were academically (if not also experientially) prepared for ordination to priesthood but barred for reasons of gender. As far as can be ascertained by this researcher, no simultaneous study using the same measures on these two groups of men and women has yet been undertaken.Item Welfare and Conversion: The Catholic Church in African American Communities in the South, 1884-1939(2012-02-14) Collopy, WilliamThe dissertation argues that Catholicism's theology and sacramentalism constituted the foundation of a ministry that from Reconstruction through the 1930s extended the religion's reach in the U.S. beyond its historical loci of numerical strength and influence to African American communities in the South. The dissertation draws on decrees of the Council of Trent, papal encyclicals, pastoral letters, theological treatises, and Catholic interpretation of Judeo-Christian scripture to demonstrate that the Church's beliefs manifestly shaped its African American ministry. The dissertation illuminates a missiology that employed uniquely Catholic sacral elements in a framework designed to assist the faithful in living a virtuous life and attaining salvation. Within the temporal sphere, education functioned as the centerpiece of the Church's missionary effort, and the dissertation demonstrates the capacity of Catholic educational initiatives to advance African Americans socially and spiritually. The study assesses the efficacy of different educational methodologies and concludes that the Church prescribed industrial education for both white and African American students and, wherever and to the extent possible, simultaneously provided instruction in classical, non-vocational subjects. The dissertation establishes the centrality of priests and religious sisters to the work of evangelization in its various forms. Focusing on three American orders of sisters, and four orders of priests with European roots, the study concludes that the efforts of these women and men had a salutary effect on the lives of African Americans in the South. While both priests and sisters served as spiritual guides and counselors, priests functioned mainly as ministers of the Church's sacred rights while the sisters crafted and managed the work of education. Although the Church Universal received its direction from the Vatican, the dissertation argues that American bishops, faced with the realities of the Jim Crow South, demonstrated a lesser commitment to the African American apostolate than the Holy See decreed. The work of priests and sisters at the local level, on the other hand, more clearly reflected the course that Rome expected the American Church to follow.