Page layout

concluding section

Worldbook Encyclopedia ends its article on Catholic Church with a section called "The Church Today" and discussed John Paul II's activities at length. The last paragraph of this section is a discussion of modern challenges facing the church.
Encyclopedia Americana ends its article on Catholic Church with and extensive discussion of John Paul II's activities.

Jesuits

Both Worldbook and E.Americana mention the ban of Jesuits but not Chinese Rites Controversy. Worldbook cites several reasons for the ban and the effect it caused "severe setback in Catholic education and missionary activity".

Catholic education

Encyclopedia Americana discusses the activities of the Church as great length devoting several pages each to missions and Catholic education. These sections were each as long as the history section.
Worldbook's comments on Africa were "the church eventually spread throughout the continent. Today, Africa has the fastest growing Catholic population in the world." I noted this under Catholic education because according to Froehle's book, Catholic schools in Africa outnumber parishes 3-1 - it said because of the great need for education there. I think we should include this in Catholic institutions section and perhaps expand that section since greater emphasis is placed on them by the encyclopedia Americana.

Reformation

Encyclopedia Americana does not gloss over the great spiritual writers like Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Philip Neri discussing how they contributed to church reform.
Encyclopedia Americana notes secular rulers involvment "helped and hindered" Catholic Reformation - discusses Edict of Nantes and its revocation.

Spiritual revival and philosophical movements

EAmericana notes spiritual revival in Catholicism popularized by writers like St. Francis de Sales, St. Vincent de Paul and then discusses spiritual excesses of Jansenism adn birth of new thought that looked to science adn modern philosophy for answers. This marked a decline in the influence of the Church that i think our article should also include. The article then goes into detail about the various schools of thought that evolved like Gallicanism and such that presented a challenge to the Church.

WWII

Interestingly, Encyclopedia Americana has three pages each on Catholic education history and missionary history but devotes only this to World War II:
From page 37 Encyclopedia Americana 1998 volume 6 "Relations with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini were often strained, however, and the Pope condemned government interference with the Church in Italy, as well as in Germany where Adolf Hitler had come to power in 1933. Both countries dissolved Catholic political parties. In Spain the Church was sympathetic to the 1936 revolt of Francisco Franco, though Basques and other Catholics supported the Republicans. Pius XI maintained a cautious reserve throughout the war but strongly criticized destruction of church property and the murder of priests and nuns ....(discusses Pius XI's doctrines on marriage)... Pius XII (reigned 1939-1958) was a diplomat who tried to prevent, and then to mediate, world war II, but he has been criticized for not taking more direct action. His reign was notable for the far-ranging statments he made on a variety of topics of contemporary concern .... In the post war years Catholic political parties revived in Europe, and Christian Democracy became a strong force in Germany, Italy, and France."

Spanish Civil War

Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations (2001 Gale Group) summarizes the Spanish Civil War with a one paragraph summary of the political structures of each opposing side which never mentions the Church as being part of either side.
Here's the quote from that encyclopedia page 452 volume 5 "...for the next two and a half years, until 31 March 1939, Spain was ravaged by civil war. The two contending parties were the Republicans, made up partly of democrats and partly of anti-democratic left wing groups and the rebels (Nationalists), who favored teh establishment of a right wing dictatorship. Almost from the beginning, a number of foreign countries intervened. Germany and Italy furnished manpower and armamments to the Nationalists, while the USSR, Czeckoslovakia, and Mexico supported the Republicans. Finally, the Republicans were defeated, and Gen. Franco formed a corporative state. Under the Franco regime, Spain gave aid to the Axis powers in World War II but was itself a nonbelligerent."
Encyclopedia Americana Volume 6 (1998 Grolier) "In Spain the Church was sympathetic to the 1936 revolt of Francisco Franco, though Basques and other Catholics supported the Republicans. Pius XI maintained a cautious reserve throughout the war but strongly criticized destruction of church property and the murder of priests and nuns"
From Distant Drum: Reflections on the Spanish Civil War edited by Philip Toynbee (1976 David McKay Company) section by Peter Kemp page 68 "I was also deeply shocked by accounts in those same newspaper dispatches of the widespread and indiscriminate massacres in Republican territory of 'enemies of the people' - the clergy and others whose position or means renedered them objects of suspicion or mere envy. I was not a Roman Catholic, but it seemed to me that Christian values, law and order, and the security of my own country (England) would alike be threatened by a Republican victory."
From Distant Drum(same book as above) section by Hugh Thomas "The king also himself was forced to withdraw and leae the coutnry, and a Republican regime was introduced. For two years it attempted a wide range of progressive reforms - in Catalonia, in the Church, in the army, in education adn on the land .....The Right, stunned by the demise of the dictatorship and teh disappearance of te king, quickly recovered their coherence and energy in opposition to the government's somewhat hasty anti-clerical legislation."
From New Catholic Encyclopedia (Catholic University of America and Thomas Gale publishing) volume 13 page 395-396 "In the first decades of the 20th century, popular manifestations of Catholiccism alternated with persecution by anti-clerical governments. After the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera (1923-30) brought years of religious peace, the Republic was installed in 1931. Its fanatic character quickly appeared in the burning of convents in Madrid, Malaga, and elsewhere (May 1931). A discriminatory constitution was voted into law, the Jesuits were dissolved, the cardinal primate of Toledo was expelled, adn the state confiscated all church goods. A Catholic reaction in 1933 under Jose Maria Gil Robles was annulled in Feb 1936 by revolutionary forces who began a regime of anarchy adn terror. The National Movement begun on July 18, 1936, under General Francisco Franco was designed to remedy the political and social situation created by the Republic. Begun as a military insurrection to restore legality adn order, it evolved into the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). For many it also became a religious war in defense of Catholicism and the Church, as teh episcopate solemnly declared in a common letter in 1937. In response, violent religious persecutions were sytematically carried out. Under Jose Giral (July 20-Oct 4, 1936) 2600 secular priests (12 bishops), 1200 religious and 100 nuns were murdered. Under Largo Caballero, the "Spanish Lenin" (Oct 4, 1936-May 18 1937) 1400 priests, 1130 religious, and 150 nuns were murdered. Countless laymen died simply because they were Catholics; to carry a religious object (crucifix, medal, rosary) was reason enough to be killed. By the end of the war 6832 clerics (4184 secular, 2365 religious, and 283 nuns) were dead, called genuine martyrs by Pius XI. Meanwhile a clandestine ecclesiastical and religious life was organized. Mass was celebrated, the sacraments administered, and mutual aid provided, in areas such as teh Diocese of Madrid and Barcelona, with an extraordinary precision adn organization. The common letter of the episcopate noted, in 1937: "The Church, altogether peaceful in nature and neither desiring nor participating in the war, could not be indifferent in the struggle ... one side seeks to suppress God, whose work the church is to do in this world, and works great harm to the Church in persons, things, and rights, such as probably no institution in history has suffered. The other side, despite human deficiencies, is the force seeking to preserve the old life, 'Spanish and Christian'. Accordingly, Catholic forces joined Francos National Movement...."

I think the Catholic Encyclopedia article is interesting in that it goes into greater detail. It clearly tells the story of the harm done to innocent people and why the Church sided with Franco. I think our article could benefit from including this although maybe whatever we can fit into a sentence or two. NancyHeise ^talk 21:12, 26 February 2010 (UTC)