The Picture of Love Marriage Preparation Program for Engaged Couples explores the joys and challenges of living out the Sacrament of Matrimony with special focus on the importance of inviting Jesus to be the center of marriage and family life. Originally released in 2002, Picture of Love is an officially sanctioned and proven Marriage Preparation Program, currently used in Catholic parishes and dioceses across the nation. The newly revised 2017 version of Picture of Love has received the imprimatur of Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The Picture of Love Program includes: * A Leader's Manual with complete instructions and resources for facilitating the session(s) and special reflection questions to help the presenting team share their story. * Participant Workbooks that assist engaged couples in learning new concepts and sharing their thoughts and feelings with their fiancee/fiance. * Interactive activities for engaged couples such as personal reflection, journaling, couple sharing time, role-playing and group exercises. * Practical resources and tools to help the engaged couples to continue to grow in their relationship. The Picture of Love Topics include: Sacrament of Matrimony Family of Origin Couple Communication and Conflict Resolution Finances, Budgeting, and Money Management Married Intimacy Dreams, Goals, and Decision Making Marriage and Family Spirituality Natural Family Planning Ecumenical and Interfaith Marriages Cohabitation Based on Amoris Laetitia, over twenty years of evaluations by engaged couples, and the changing influences on marriage and family life in today's world, the following topics are addressed in the 2017-revised edition: * The impact of today's technology on couple and family relationships and the importance of recognizing the benefits while honestly addressing the challenges. * The growing use of Pornography and its' impact on married intimacy. * Theology of the Body as the intimate communion of life and love * The importance of making Jesus the center of marriage and family life through daily scripture, prayer and service.

THE FREEHOF INSTITUTE OF PROGRESSIVE HALAKHAH The Freehof Institute of Progressive Halakhah is a creative research center devoted to studying and defining the progressive character of the halakhah in accordance with the principles and theology of Reform Judaism. It seeks to establish the ideological basis of Progressive halakhah, and its application to daily life. The Institute fosters serious studies, and helps scholars in various portions of the world to work together for a common cause. It provides an ongoing forum through symposia, and publications including the quarterly newsletter, HalakhaH, published under the editorship of Walter Jacob, in the United States. The foremost halakhic scholars in the Reform, Liberal, and Progressive rabbinate along with some Conservative and Orthodox colleagues as well as university professors serve on our Academic Council.

This volume deals with the problem of State and Church in the Middle Ages from a new angle. It not only shows how and why the medieval popes pursued a policy of world domination, but also discloses the ideas by which the papal monarchs were primarily influenced.

Documenting an audacious Franco-German movement for moral disarmament, instigated in 1921 by war veteran and French Catholic politician Marc Sangnier, in this transnational study Gearoid Barry examines the European resonance of Sangnier's Peace Congresses and their political and religious ecumenism within France in the era of two World Wars.

Sexuality and spirituality are two of the most powerful and creative forces we experience as human beings. This work examines how men of Roman Catholic background have come to understand and integrate their homosexuality into daily life.

Homosexuality is still a topic immersed in myth and mystery. As well as providing accurate information about intimate aspects of gay men's lives such as coping with HIV and practicing safer sex, " Gay Catholics Down Under" seeks to raise awareness about spiritual issues for gay men. Each story told provides a unique perspective of what it means to be of Catholic background in Australasia and attracted to men. Several of those interviewed spoke of having no role models and of the isolation growing up not knowing of other gay people. A final chapter reviews the psychosexual implications of the study, including a model of integration of sexual and religious identification, and implications for the gay community and the Church.

Which events created the mindset and prepared the policy of the later-to-be Pope Pius XII? This study takes into account the recently declassified documents in the Vatican Archives dealing with the Catholic Church's policy regarding Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, strongly defined by Nuncio in Germany and, then, Cardinal State Secretary Eugenio Pacelli (later to become Pope Pius XII). It broadens its view to cover also the Vatican's stance towards other European dictatorships of that time, such as Fascist Italy, Franquist Spain, Salazar's Portugal, and the Dollfuss regime in Austria.

Barnett traces the Christian critique of the Church and its history in Protestant (English) and Catholic (Italian) thought from the Reformation to the Enlightenment. More than 150 years of bitter polemic between the two great confessions and their religious dissidents produced an unprecedented, comparative historical and sociological anticlericalism. In the last decades of the 17th century, English dissenting thought was pregnant with a critique of the Church, which came to be termed the "Deist" view of Church history: by 1700 the cornerstone of high "Enlightenment anticlerical thought" was in ascent. This work is intended for departments of history (courses in early modern European history, intellectual history), religious studies and philosophy.

One of the principal buzzwords of the Second Vatican Council (1963-65), along with collegiality, co-responsibility, full participation, and aggiornamento, was dialogue. This is a history of how the practices of dialogue have actually worked or failed to work at every level of the church over the past forty years. Beginning at the most basic level, that of the parish, the book moves up the ecclesiastical ladder from parish councils, to diocesan synods, to the (Roman) synod of bishops. The book moves laterally as well to include ecumenical and interreligious dialogues. A chapter is devoted to the fractious Call to Action Conference, initiated by the U.S. bishops in 1976; another to the new inclusive style of drafting pastoral letters by the U.S. bishops - "The Challenge of Peace" (1983), "Economic Justice for All" (1986), and the never approved pastoral on women ("Partners in the Mystery of Redemption"). A further chapter is devoted to Cardinal Bernardin's Catholic Common Ground Initiative, which is still going on, though it was initially publicly attacked by four U.S. cardinals. Finally, there is a chapter on what was perhaps the most radical and far-reaching exercise of dialogue of all, namely, the dialogical and democratic processes by which women religious revised their constitutions. This is a cautionary tale, filled with thick description of advances and retreats. In a curious way, the book is a sequel to the multi-volume "History of the Second Vatican Council", edited by Giuseppe Alberigo and Joseph Komonchak If those volumes tell us what transpired at the council, Hinze's volume tells us what happened when the council fathers went home and all the good ideas of the council were either put into effect or left to gather dust in the dead-letter bin. Vatican Council II is an ongoing experiment, and "Practices of Dialogue" is a series of reports from the labs.

Canon Sheehan's writings provide valuable insight into Ireland's difficult process of cultural reconstruction after independence. This astute observer of Irish society was pessimistic about the future of religion. Though himself a man of European culture, he made a case for the isolationism to become reality under the Free State. It is a case which today is easily scorned - but his works allow us to understand why it could command such support, and to appreciate its relative historical justification.

The purpose of this book is to provide student affairs professionals who work at Catholic colleges and universities a tool for reflection and dialogue on difficult issues they face on their campuses. It is intended to be used in staff development sessions, in training sessions with student leaders and resident assistants, and in master's level student affairs preparation programs at Catholic colleges and universities. This book is the next step in a series of projects that began in the early 1990s after the publication by the Vatican of the apostolic constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae. This book is a collection of case studies that focus on particular issues related to Catholic identity that are faced by student affairs professionals who work at Catholic colleges and universities. By its very nature, the focus on the difficult issues we face is a limitation. The editors in no way wish to imply that Catholic identity is only about problems. Previous research and experience clearly indicates those who work at Catholic institutions understand and embrace the opportunities that this environment provides for them. But as Schaller and Boyle (2006) indicated, there is a need for dialogue around the difficult issues that we face. The editors believe that a book of case studies is particularly helpful because it allows a staff to discuss problems at fictionalized universities and then ask themselves, "What would we do here?" The editors solicited cases using a mailing list provided by the Association for Student Affairs at Catholic Colleges and Universities (ASACCU); thus, the cases included in this book represent the real concerns of those practicing in the field. Some of the cases that are included are true stories of situations that actually happened, some are fictional, and some are hybrid stories based on actual events but changed to illustrate an issue. To protect the privacy of those who were kind enough to share their difficult issues with their colleagues, the names of case contributors are listed at the beginning of the book in alphabetical order, rather than being listed with the cases they contributed.

This new volume of essays examines the relationship between Catholicism and homosexuality. Why did so many literary Modernists embrace Catholicism? What is their relationship between historical homophobia and contemporary struggles between the Church and the homosexual? Moving from the Gothic to the late Twentieth-century, from Britain to America and France, "Catholic Figures, Queer Narratives" interrogates what is queer about Catholicism and what is modern about homosexuality. The result is a radical revision of the sacred - in life and art, the body and devotion.