Creating a greater partnership: analysing partnership in the Catholic Church development chain

This paper presents results from a project designed to explore the meaning and function of partnership within the Catholic Church development chain. The geography literature has had little to say about such aid chains, especially those founded on faith-based groups. The relationships between three Catholic Church-based donors - referred to as A, B and C - with development personnel of the diocese of the Abuja Ecclesiastical Province (AEP) as well as other Catholic Church structures in Nigeria were analysed. The aim was to explore the forces behind the relationships and how 'patchy' these relationships were in AEP. Respondents were asked to give each of the donors a score in relation to four questions covering their relationship with the donors. Results suggest that the modus operandi of donor 'A' allows it to be perceived as the 'best' partner, while 'B' was scored less favourably because of a perception that it attempts to act independently of existing structures in Nigeria rather than work through them. There was significant variation between diocese in this regard, as well as between the diocese and other structures of the Church (Provinces, Inter-Provinces and National Secretariat). Thus 'partnership' in the Catholic Church aid chain is a highly complex, contested and 'visioned' term and the development of an analytical framework has to take account of these fundamentals.

Graceful remedies: understanding grace in the Catholic Church's treatment of clerical child sexual abuse

This article examines advocacy of Catholic restorative justice for clerical child sexual abuse from the standpoint of feminist criminological critiques of the use of restorative mediation in sexual offence cases. In particular, it questions the Catholic invocation of grace and forgiveness of survivors of abuse in light of critical feminist concerns about the exploitation of emotions in restorative practices, especially in regard to sexual and other gender-based offences. In the context of sexual abuse, the Catholic appeal to grace has the potential for turning into an extraordinary demand made of victims not only to rehabilitate offenders and the church in the eyes of the community, but also to work towards the spiritual absolution of the abuser. This unique feature of Catholic-oriented restorative justice raises important concerns in terms of feminist critiques of the risk of abuses of power within mediation, and is also incompatible with orthodox restorative justice theory, which, although it advocates a ‘spiritual’ response to crime, is concerned foremost with the rights, needs and experiences of victims.

Father Dietz, the Catholic Church and the 1913 Michigan Copper Strike

Labor Historian Marc Karson has singled out “labor priest” Peter E. Dietz as one of the strongest proponents for the active implementation of the Catholic Church’s 1890’s labor encyclical Rerum Novarum in the daily practice of American Catholics. Biographer Sister Mary Harrita Fox pointed out that in his work, Dietz “was particularly concerned over the role of the church in the copper strike in Upper Michigan.” This “particular concern” should be noted since the 1913 strike was one of the only disputes where Dietz went out of his way to visit and become actively involved. Why the keen interest? This presentation will review the impetus for the huge effort which brought Peter E. Dietz to the Copper Country and solely to that dispute alone, the resulting visit and report that he made concerning the strike, the important role he believed this visit and stance in the Copper Strike had in the future of the Church’s relationship to the US labor movement. The presentation will look at both what Dietz thought would occur as a result of his 1913 trip to the Keweenaw and what actually happened in this pivotal pre-World War One era event. The paper will put Father Peter E. Dietz and the Catholic Church into the larger frame of how religion has been viewed within the history of the Strike.

A select bibliography of the history of the Catholic church in the United States.

Mode of access: Internet.

The Catholic encyclopedia : an international work of reference on the constitution, doctrine, discipline, and history of the Catholic Church /

Vol. [16]: Index.

The Catholic encyclopedia; an international work of reference on the constitution, doctrine, discipline, and history of the Catholic church;

Supplements 1-2 called v. 17-18 (cataloged separately)

England and the Catholic Church under Queen Elizabeth;

"Chronological list of unpublished documents": p. [533]-543.

The Catholic church and the American Negro;

Mode of access: Internet.

The Catholic encyclopedia; an international work of reference on the constitution, doctrine, and history of the Catholic church;

Accompanied by "Index, vol. xvi." (ix, 928 p. illus., (ports.) 26 cm.) Published: New York, The Encyclopedia press, inc. [c1914]

A Catholic dictionary, containing some account of the doctrine, discipline, rites, ceremonies, councils, and religious orders of the Catholic church,

Mode of access: Internet.

The history of Catholic emancipation and the progress of the Catholic church in the British isles (chiefly in England) from 1771 to 1820,

"Commenced as a serial in Catholic progress, and the greater part of this first volume has already appeared in that magazine; many of the first chapters being written under the heading of 'The jubilee of emancipation'."--Pref.

History of religious orders; a compendious and popular sketch of the rise and progress of the principle monastic, canonical, military, mendicant and clerical orders and congregations of the eastern and western churches, together with a brief history of the Catholic church in relation to religious orders.

Mode of access: Internet.

A general history of the Catholic Church: from the commencement of the Christian era until the present time.

"Sketch of the origin and progress of the Catholic church in the United States of America. By Rev. C. I. White, D.D.": v. 4, p. 599-663.