Dialog Teologic XXVII/54 (2024)

Dialog Teologic XXVII/54 (2024)
170 p., 17×24, ISSN 1453-8075, 25 lei.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/NYEQ3911

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Cristian BÎRNAT
Dialog 54-1 Bîrnat Justification in the New Testament writings
Recognizing our sinful nature, the New Testament presents justification as a divine act of grace. Through faith in Christ, we are freed from the bondage of sin and receive a new life, a gift that we can never earn or deserve. This article is structured in three parts, as it emerges from the New Testament writings: in the first part, we will dwell first on the Gospels. Then we will present at length the Apostle Paul’s conception of justification. And finally, we will place alongside the doctrine of Saint Paul and the one emphasized in the Letter of St. James the Apostle.

Gabriel-Iulian ROBU
L’idolo, l’icona e la donazione nella visione di Jean-Luc Marion
The approach with which Marion approaches Thomas’s Aquinas theology at the beginning of his phenomenological journey bears the imprint of Heidegger’s critique of onto-theology, but also of his personal hostility to the conceptual idolatry and atheism manifested in Nietzsche’s philosophy. What Marion contrasts with the conceptual idol is the icon and iconic thought. If the idol comes from looking at it, the icon looks at us, calls forth the vision, letting the visible become saturated with the Invisible. According to Marion, conceptual idolatry still seems a dangerous temptation in our times. Metaphysical categories, concepts can function as idols if they are generated by thought as objects appropriate to ‘God’ on the basis of its divine founding function.

Ionut Eremia IMBRISCA
L’apostolo Paolo: un buon “compagno di viaggio” per Martini
In this article, I would like to present how Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini considered the Apostle Paul a good ‘travel companion’, to come closer to Christ and to live with Him, in facing trials and on the way to the magis. The experience of weakness leads Paul to a greater trust in the presence of the Lord who works with the power of grace in his life and consoles him in tribulations and suffering. By walking the path of weakness, Paul grows in the awareness of his participation in Christ’s death and resurrection. The difficulties that Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini experiences in his life lead him to greater trust in God to the point of abandoning himself in the hands of the Lord, as he is increasingly aware that power comes from the hands of God.

Valerian Sergiu TOPALĂ
Libre arbitre et déterminisme. Un plaidoyer pour le libertarisme agent-causal
In this article we aim to offer a plea for agent-causal libertarianism. This topic will be addressed in the context of the contemporary debate on free will and determinism. The importance of this millennial philosophical-scientific debate is obvious. If our constitution includes a physical nature, like the other elements of material Universe, then it too appears to be governed by the same physical laws. In this case, if the world is deterministic, “(i) all the laws of nature have this feature—they always specify a unique outcome for a given set of initial conditions—and (ii) everything that happens in the Universe falls under some laws of nature or other” Therefore, if this were the case, it seems that we do not possess the freedom we believe we have when we think that we could have done differently in the past, that our present choices are real, and that the future is still open. Since the world was characterized by certain conditions in the distant past, there seems to be only one way it can be today, tomorrow, and forever. Everything in this world seems to be already established, so that our freedom is, at best, an illusion. The illusion becomes even greater when certain findings in neuroscience seem to confirm it. If that were the case, then the stakes of this debate are ones of the highest possible, because by implication, with the illusion of freedom, everything becomes an illusion. Without freedom of the will, not only moral responsibility (with justice systems, religion etc.) and epistemic responsibility become an illusion, but even rationality itself, with all its deliberative and analytical processes, and with it, the knowledge of truth, the possibility of correcting errors of thought and finally the agent itself. The implications are catastrophic for such a world, since in it there is no room for good and evil, truth and falsehood, wisdom and folly, merit and demerit. With the listing of the implications, of which some are more or less aware, the schism among philosophers and scientists also begins. Our article attempts to provide a plea for agent-causal libertarianism in response to these problems. In doing so, we will first provide a classification of libertarianism in order to frame, define, and distinguish the libertarianism we defend. We will then highlight the incompatibility of agent-causal libertarianism with both determinism and other perspectives that promote event-type causation. Also, to clarify our position and introduce our arguments for the plea, we will compare compatibilism with our perspective. Finally, we will present six arguments in favor of agent-causal libertarianism. In this final section, in the part devoted to the objections to the second argument and the responses to the objections, we will also enter into dialogue with some experiments in neuroscience and experimental studies in the cognitive sciences.

Laurențiu TURBUC
Verso una Chiesa vulnerabile? Riflessioni su una categoria fondamentale
The concept of “vulnerability” has gained increasing relevance across multiple disciplines, becoming a key framework for understanding the human condition in all its complexity. This paper explores the etymological and semantic roots of the term before briefly examining its significance from anthropological, philosophical, and biblical perspectives. It analyzes how vulnerability is not merely a state of fragility but also a resource that strengthens relationships and mutual responsibility. The reflection extends to moral theology and canon law, particularly concerning the issue of “vulnerable adults” and the Church’s response to abuse. Finally, it proposes an ecclesiology of vulnerability as a key to authentic ecclesial renewal, capable of overcoming clericalist tendencies and fostering a more welcoming, transparent, and just community.

Gabriel-Iulian ROBU
Sursum corda – la speranza e la fede negli scritti di Andrei Pleșu
According to the Romanian writer Andrei Pleșu, the attitude demanded of Christian faith is one of both hope and audacity, fortified by an awareness of the transcendence of the One who is semper maior. Ethically and aspirationally, we are called to strive for the impossible, with the certainty that in this noble endeavor, we are guided and upheld by a higher authority, God. In this dynamic struggle of hope and faith – charged with vitality and tension – God Himself accompanies us. He challenges us, elevates us, tests us, and sustains us, all within the scope of a singular and harmonious plan of salvation. In this journey, sursum corda is not merely a moral imperative or a call to adopt an optimistic view of life. In the life of faith, “lift up your hearts” is rather „an axiom of cognitive effort, a profound methodological principle”.

Fabian DOBOȘ
Storia della residenza della Diocesi Romano-Cattolica di Bacău (1607-1818)
The article explores the history of the Diocese of Bacău and its bishop’s residence. A marble monument, located in the north-western part of the city of Bacău, and built in 2000 by the Diocese of Iași, summarizes – with its references – the historical memory of the existence of the Diocese of Bacău and serves as the starting point for this historical study. The beginnings and almost the entire existence of the Diocese of Bacău are linked to the monastery of the Franciscan Observants Friars of Șumuleu-Ciuc. Their church became the cathedral of the diocese and the monastery the residence for the bishop.
The bishops who led the Moldavian diocese – most of them of Polish origin – had a difficult life for various reasons: conflicts with the Franciscans of Șumuleu-Ciuc, political circumstances, the poverty of the country, Turkish incursions, and even the floods of 1676, which caused the destruction of the cathedral and monastery. Four of the bishops – Bernardino Quirini, Gerolamo Arsengo, Valerianus Łubieniecki and Marco Bandini – were buried in the cathedral of the city of Bacău. Unfortunately, nothing remains of the old cathedral, nor of the cemetery that was once around the church. However, various civil and religious documents of the time allow us to reconstruct the history of the Diocese of Bacău and to weave, even with unique details, the picture of the life of the Catholic community in Moldavia at that time.

Lucian PĂULEȚ
„The Church—The Mystical Body of Christ: Friend or Enemy? On Scandals in the Church”
This article deals with the problem of scandals in the Church; however, it does not treat about individual scandals in the Church, no matter how appalling they may be, but about the scandal of scandals: the Church herself is holy but also sinful at the same time. This is not a new topic in ecclesiology, yet in recent studies on this paradox, or scandal of the Church, there are divergent points of view. Charles Journet, André de Bovis, Yves Congar, Karl Rahner, Gustave Martelet, and Hans Küng have studied the problem. Despite the divergences, there is a general agreement on several points. This article will show that two points of them are the most important: first, sin cannot be attributed to the Church as such. That is, the subject who sins is not the whole Church but a person or a group of persons. Secondly, the Church, in its constitutive and formal principles, is holy despite the sinfulness of her members. On the institutional level, the Church’s response to sin is through reforms, through which the Church returns to her initial task: holiness. On a personal level, it is helpful to realize that, in spite of the human mistakes of the Church’s members, she is more than a community made of sinners; she is a presence of God, grace, forgiveness, and charity.

 

 

 

 

Dialog Teologic XXVII/53 (2024)

Dialog Teologic XXVII/53 (2024)
144 p., 17×24, ISSN 1453-8075, 25 lei.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/RIGU9318

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Tarciziu-Hristofor Şerban
La pauvreté dans la Bible (I): D’un état de fait vers une législation de solidarité
This article covert from a biblical point of view a social problem of permanent interest: poverty, seen as a state of precariousness caused by the multiple causes, some involuntary (the state of people left without support – widows, orphans, those with disabilities –, victims of natural disasters, immigrants, etc.) or voluntary (greed of peers, indifference of institutions empowered to watch over the observance of citizens’ rights, etc.) that led to it. It is, however, a scandal in a society that holds a theological view that God is a Father to all members of the People, from which it implicitly follows that the latter are brothers. However, such a scandal generated positions of some of those responsible, most often under pressure from prophets. These positions gradually led to the drafting of legislative codes designed to regulate scandalous social situations. When even these regulations did not eradicate poverty, then the vision of a new, messianic project was born. This project, which has as protagonist a descendant of King David, proposes a new vision (which I will develop in a later article) foreshadowed in several prophetic texts with a messianic theme.

Valerian Sergiu Topală
Neo-Thomistic Organicism, A Scientific-Metaphysical Perspective on Human Nature
This article offers an alternative solution to the perennial philosophical problem of human nature. The view proposed is “Neo-Thomistic Organicism”, a form of dualism, of the hylomorphist type, that does not subscribe both to the extreme characteristics of Cartesian dualism, and to complementarian non-reductionist physicalist views. Our optic integrates the scientific elements of a form of biological vitalism and both shares Aristotelian-Thomist metaphysics, and alienates from Thomas Aquinas in crucial points. In this sense, our perspective is constituted as a scientific-metaphysical understanding regarding human nature, in general, and regarding the soul-body relationship, in particular. The novelty brought by our article does not lie in a completely new perspective, but in some of the morelandian modifications made to classical Thomism and in the holistic approach to the subject that integrates the relevant scientific discoveries in the field of biology and neuroscience. In opposition to Moreland, on the question of individuation, this article is proposing a hybrid approach to how substances and bare particulars possess properties. To achieve its purpose, our analytical approach will begin by offering an exposition of Thomas Aquinas treatise on human nature as it is registered in Summa Theologica, Ia, qq. 75-89, especially to outline, on this basis, some of the fundamental points in which we differ from classical Thomism. This will be followed by a presentation of our perspective, of the morelandian type, and its compatibility with scientific research in biology and neurology. Next, in order to further clarify our position, we will turn to a comparison between the morelandian perspective and complementarian naturalist-physicalist conceptions of human nature, especially of substance. At the end of this comparison we will outline the objections to the morelandian view that distinguish us from it. Finally, we will offer a response to the causal pairing physicalist objection.

Kiss Endre
Il peccato e la riconciliazione nel documento conciliare Gaudium et Spes
How does the pastoral constitution of Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes, present the theme of sin and reconciliation? We will seek to answer how the discourse on sin, reconciliation and the sacrament of penance fits into this precise point of the search for the defence of the freedom of the person, the profound truth of the self. In this context, the Synod, even if it does not devote a specific study to the subject, defines sin as an evil freely committed before God and against God, an evil that alienates man from the Father, from himself, from others, from creation. At the same time, however, says the Synod, from the moment of creation in the image and likeness of God, man always feels this distance from the Creator and also the need to return. God, who creates man out of love and charity, always approaches the sinner with mercy and calls him to repentance, to a full return to the Father’s house.

Petru Ciobanu
Alexandru Theodor Cisar – The martyr pastor
The article is dedicated to one of the most representative figures of the Catholic Church in Romania, Archbishop Alexandru Theodor Cisar, and briefly presents the life of this Catholic hierarch until the establishment of the communist regime in Romania. Most of the study presents the persecution to which he was systematically subjected by the communists, our aim being to justify the title of the article: the martyr Pastor.

Cristian BÎRNAT
Justification in the Old Testament
The term „justification” is a fundamental concept in Pauline theol­ogy, which took the term righteousness from the Old Testament. By righteous­ness and justification, the Old Testament means the divine evaluation of human conduct; as such, these concepts are concerned not so much with an ideal of human perfection as with the realization of personal choices in accordance with God’s plan and will. Righteousness is only that which JHWH has found to be so. Man becomes righteous only when he fulfills God’s will. This article is structured in three parts: in the first part, justification is briefly analysed from a dogmatic-theological point of view. The second section focuses on the Old Testament term justice, the background from which the Apostle Paul—and later the whole of Catholic theology—drew inspiration to define the concept of justification. Finally, in a third section, the key concepts in the Old Testament for the doctrine of justification are presented.

Stefania FALASCA
Il programma di pontificato e il magistero di Giovanni Paolo I alla luce delle carte d’archivio: i sei «vogliamo» e la via ecumenica
Can we speak of novelty regarding the magisterium of a pope, more than forty-five years after his death? Yes, if we are talking about John Paul I, a pontiff who adopted a colloquial style in his speeches, who often modified the written text, or even renounced it in order to speak off the cuff. With the help of transcripts of archive television recordings, the magisterium of John Paul I has been reconstructed and published as he delivered it, along with the pontiff’s personal notes, written in a notebook and in the pontificate agenda. The teaching of John Paul I is presented here, therefore, in its authenticity, particularity and integrity.

Gabriel-Iulian ROBU
Le tappe della critica dell’onto-teo-logia. gli inizi, Jean-Luc Marion e la Radical Orthodoxy
Jean-Luc Marion develops Heidegger’s ideas and his critical approach to onto-theology, including the thought of Thomas Aquinas. At the beginning of this article, we present this topic, which does not seem to lack relevance. Since the critics of ontology refer to Heidegger as a follower or protester, and on the other hand, since we intend to show that the name Thomas Aquinas gives to God does not reproduce the onto-theological determination of metaphysics, we intend to identify the connection between these two sides of the question, as well as to investigate, to some extent, the level of actual knowledge Heidegger had of Aquinas’s thought. In the second part of the article, we do not overlook the merit of the current called Radical Orthodoxy: questioning and renewing the vision of classic themes of theology, such as those of ritual, liturgy, theological language, political theology, the role of Augustine and Thomas, and the theme of authority.

Ionut Eremia IMBRISCA
La debolezza è la mia forza: meditazioni su 2Cor
The correlation between weakness and strength starts from the meditations on the Second Letter to the Corinthians given by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini to a group of Jesuits. Cardinal Martini chose this letter, noting how well the Apostle Paul manages to live through difficult moments in con¬frontation with the community of Corinth. We analyze how Cardinal Martini explains the fact that the power of God is revealed in weakness (cf. 2Cor 12,1-10). Some considerations and reflections capable to indicate the way towards a solid and secure ministry will conclude our analysis.

 

Dialog Teologic XXVI/52 (2023)

Dialog Teologic XXVI/52 (2023)
168 p., 17×24, ISSN 1453-8075, 25 lei.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/ACUF9391

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Lucian Farcaş
Die soziale Sünde als Hauptursache des relationalen Elends
Social sin is emerging as a new category in the hamartology of the last 30 years. The search for an exact definition of this concept cannot be carried out simply, and its results are modest. The understanding of structural sin takes place in the context of an image of the human being who understands man as an ethically capable person in relation to his sociality and speaks of him as such. Social sin must be distinguished from collective guilt and linked to social misery. Social sin is seen as a structural rejection of a responsibility for the future.

Gabriel Hălănduţ
La via dell’uomo oltre le mura. Un’ermeneutica dell’interiorità imposta dal coraggio della libertà
What is human’s right place on this earth? Nonetheless, is there such a place? Through a simple hermeneutic exercise applied to monastic life since the beginnings of the Church, I tried to show in this article that there is no definitive answer to these questions. It is easily affirmed that the life of the spiritual man is rather a continuous path, a continuous dialectical movement between liberation from the cave of shadows, towards the light of an epistemological truth, and the return to the cave of one’s own interiority, where the redeeming Truth resides. It can also be seen how human life cannot be separated according to different fields of study, but that it is a unique whole. Philosophy and theology, reason and faith, are parts of the same path.

Ionut Eremia Imbrisca
Nella debolezza il Cardinale Carlo Maria Martini sperimenta di più la fiducia in Dio
Many people see weakness as synonymous with failure and humiliation, linking it to a deep sense of worthlessness. Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini contradicts this thinking, stating that God’s love makes itself felt above all in weakness. It is precisely in our weaknesses that God manifests his help and love for humanity in an eminent way. The experiences that Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini experiences in his life (on a personal level, in his ministry, in his relationship with the Church, in his illness and old age) lead him to a greater trust in God to the point of abandoning himself into the Lord’s hands, as he is increasingly aware that power comes from God’s hands.

Petru Ciobanu
Rimessione della censura dell’aborto nei codici di diritto canonico della Chiesa cattolica
The value of the great gift of life has always been cherished and defended by the Church. Throughout the centuries, basing herself on Holy Scripture, she has condemned every form of violence directed against life, punishing such crimes with sanctions and penalties. Among these, abortion is considered one of the most serious offences, and the Church punishes it with the highest penalty: excommunication, a punishment included in the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the 1983 Code of Canon Law and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. But being both mother and teacher, the Church not only punishes but, following Christ’s example, forgives sins and censures. She does so even in the case of abortion, and this article presents the absolution of abortion censure in the three law codes of the Catholic Church.

Ramona Ciobanu
The Social Control Of Drug Users without Criminal Behaviour
The text attempts to provide a theoretical perspective on social control, with references to a number of theories and concepts from the sociological literature, expressed through events and situations in social life. The aim is to show the usefulness of different forms of social control for drug users without criminal behaviour, attempting to use a range of sociological theoretical concepts and perspectives combined with psychological, legal, ethological and criminological information.
The article is focused on how sociologists analyse social control from the perspective of offending behaviour, with a particular focus on drug user behaviour and the implications of control behaviour for drug users without offending behaviour. We will also highlight how social control theories are represented in modern society, highlighting their importance to the study of delinquent or criminal behaviour and how they may or may not apply to drug users without delinquent, criminal behaviour.

Maximilian Pal
Il mistero dell’incarnazione e redenzione nel pensiero e negli scritti di sant’Anselmo di Canterbury
The mystery of the incarnation of the Word of God and of redemption are analyzed by Saint Anselm in three important works: De Incarnatione Verbi (1094), Cur Deus homo (1098) and Meditatio redemptionis humanae (1099-1100). In this article, after analyzing some aspects of the work De Incarnatione Verbi, our study will focus on Anselm’s work Cur Deus homo, in which we will highlight some controversies that appeared in the 19th century, respectively in the 20th century in order to reach a synthetic perspective structured on several levels. Before concluding the present study, we will make a short presentation of Meditatio redemptionis humanae which confirms that Saint Anselm through intellectus fidei presents us an overall vision of the mystery of redemption in which clear logic and deep prayer converge.

Lucian Păuleţ
Yves Congar’s Vision on the Role of the Holy Spirit Regarding the Unity of the Church in his Late Writings
This article is the last of a series of three studies on the role of the Spirit regarding the ecclesial unity in Yves Congar’s theological thought. It presents Congar’s understanding of the Spirit as co-institutor of the Church together with Christ. In his early writings, Congar understood the Spirit as the soul of the Church which animated the structures founded by Christ. In his middle career, Congar developed a more nuanced role of the Spirit. However, throughout this time, the ecclesiological model used by Congar was Christological. In this article, one can see how Congar moved from those models toward a communion model of the Church in which the Spirit brings about and stimulates diversity in the Church. This novelty in Congar’s thought is, however, in continuity with his early thought.
More important is the overall conclusion at the end of these three studies that that ecclesiology and pneumatology developed and influenced mutually throughout Congar’s career (beginning in 1937 with his Chrétiens désunis/ Divided Christendom and not only in 1953 when he publishes “The Holy Spirit and the Apostolic College, Promoters of the Work of Christ”).

Gabriel-Iulian Robu
Denominare Dio con una terminologia post-ontoteologica. Da Martin Heidegger a Jean-Luc Marion
The approach with which Marion approaches the theology and philosophy of Aquinas at the beginning of her phenomenological journey manifestly bears the imprint of Heidegger’s critique of ontotheology, but also of his personal hostility to conceptual idolatry and “regional” atheism. If in his first writings, Marion criticizes the hermeneutical choices of Thomas Aquinas, later, the French philosopher elaborates a kind of retraction. We thought it necessary to mention a little the moments of Marion’s long journey, to understand in context his retraction regarding the initial perspective, with respect to Thomas’s thought, to indicate a certain convergence between Marion and Thomas Aquinas. In some ways, the first Marion’s perspective is close to Heidegger’s. According to what Marion says, the God of onto-theology appears at the moment in which the metaphysician gives a name to the divine, and then puts the sign of equivalence between the revealed God and the definition of the divine found by the metaphysician himself. This is the case of the moral God in Kant, a God who is referred to as a necessary moral foundation. This prevarication can also be glimpsed in the definition of God as causa sui.

Ştefan Lupu
„La cattolicità aperta”, quale apertura dogmatica e spirituale delle Chiese cristiane, nella visione del teologo ortodosso Dumitru Staniloae
In this study, I intend to present, firstly, the ecumenical vision of the Romanian Orthodox theologian Dumitru Stăniloae about the open catholicity [sobornicity] as a dogmatic and spiritual openness of the Christian Churches that aims to find their unity and, secondly, about Eucharistic intercommunion. At the base of this open catholicity there is the fact that in Holy Scripture we notice a diversity of traditions and connotations, diversity that comes from the diversity of God’s actions in the history of salvation. Having the intention to overcome the dogmatic differences that separate the Churches and to reach full Eucharistic communion, many people have fallen into an easy enthusiasm, thinking that the differences can be overcome with the warmth of love, or in a diplomatic spirit, achieving a compromise between divergent positions. The result of these two trends, which are based on a different ecclesiological conception, is known by the term eucharistic intercommunion. According to Stăniloae, intercommunion is not full eucharistic communion and, therefore, the groups that intend to be in intercommunion cannot be in total communion, as, instead, Eucharistic communion is conceived.

Iosif Iacob
The Meaning of Sacraments as “Signs of Faith” – Reciprocity between faith and sacraments
God, through the Church, enters into a personal dialogue with man out of his desire to save him. This dialogue is carried out in different ways and on the basis of certain criteria. One of these is sacramental reality. The sacraments are an embodiment of divine action that fully realizes the mystery of salvation. In 2020, a document of the International Theological Commission was published entitled: „Reciprocity between faith and sacraments in sacramental economy”. Here it is reaffirmed that in the principle of sacramentality lies the essence of faith. This principle represents the very nature of Christian revelation, namely, the dialogical response of the believer and of the Christian community, in such a way that there is no authentic sacramental celebration without faith. Theological study has always linked the doctrine of the sacraments and their celebration to the gift of faith that the believer receives from God solely on the basis of the merits of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, Christ, in giving birth to the sacraments, also confers on them the ontological power that works inwardly in the human being. This gives the believer a certain spiritual experience that enables him to live and act as a person of faith. It is therefore important to understand the relationship between faith and the sacraments, starting from the meaning of the notion of faith.

 

Dialog Teologic XXVI/51 (2023)

Dialog Teologic XXVI/51 (2023)
172 p., 17×24, ISSN 1453-8075, 25 lei.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/MCCD6433

Cumpără online de la Librăria Sapientia
Vizualizează online Dialog 51.

 

Ionut Eremia Imbrisca
Il dono di Dio nella vita del Cardinale Carlo Maria Martini
In the first part of the book Night Conversations in Jerusalem, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini emphasises the fact that throughout his life, God has guided him. He gave him a good path and placed many people at his side, who instructed and supported him and needed him. Thus he felt more and more loved and accepted by God. Starting from this statement we have tried to identify Martini’s path by retracing the most significant stages of his life (the child, the Jesuit, the professor, the pastor and the elderly man) his personal encounter with people and realities that led him to the awareness of being increasingly loved and accepted by God.

Lucian Farcaş
Die Problematik des relationalen Elends in sittlicher Sicht
For a moral-theological encounter with the issue of suffering, there is necessary to make a distinction within suffering. A distinction is made between pain and misery and the moral role of man. Liberation Theology dealt with the situation of contextual misery. This theology offers new possibilities for analyzing suffering from the perspective of the kingdom of God and identifying resources to combat it. The points of view of liberation theology caused dynamic discussions and arguments in society and the Church: initially they were partially rejected, later, however, accepted. This issue of social misery is also the focus of moral theology.

Gabriel Hălănduţ
Il ruolo escatologico del mito. Una lettura di Fedone
The existence of humans on Earth is one of the most researched topics in the whole history of the world. Very often we can see that the solutions proposed by religion, philosophy or literature should consider what is popular at a particular time in history.
However, in this Digital Age, where the virtual reality is becoming an actual reality, we can see how the return to the literature of Antiquity, even to a myth, proves to be a solution when confronted with those deep existential questions regarding the immortality of the soul and the afterlife. In the ‘Phaedo’, Plato is not ashamed to return to the myth that philosophy at the time prided itself on overcoming.

Eduard Giurgi
Peace in the world conditioned by the peace in the heart: a closer look at Pacem in terris
In a war-torn world it is essential to seek the key to peace. Pope John XXIII has presented this key in his papal magisterium. The aim of this essay is to present this key as found in the encyclical Pacem in terris. The way in which this key is presented in this paper is as follows: first the historical context in which the encyclical was written is presented, i.e., the risk of nuclear war involving the USA and the Soviet Union, and the situation of the new states in the early 1960s, then each part of the encyclical is analyzed. In this presentation it is emphasized that there are four pillars which sustain the whole edifice of a society: truth, justice, love and freedom. These pillars belong to the natural law, which is inscribed in the human heart of every person. Also, it is stressed that the notion of the person is central to the encyclical and as a consequence, the encyclical draws the rights and duties of the human being from the very fact that he/she is a person. There can be no peace in the world if the four pillars abovementioned are not respected as well as the rights and duties which belong to every human being. Additionally, peace cannot be achieved if we do not take into account that we are human persons, constituted of body and soul, and as such we cannot reach happiness if we do not take care of the harmonious development of our body and soul. Finally, peace can be achieved if we do not forget to ask Jesus, the Prince of Peace, to grant us this gift, he promised us.

Fabian Pitreţi
Il processo del bene. Tra l’etica, la morale e la politica nel pensiero di Paul Ricoeur
The contribution of this article aims to offer a synthetic overview of Paul Ricoeur’s thought in the ethical-political field, in particular on the theme of «good». In this sense, starting from the distinction made by the french philosopher between the concepts of “morality” and “ethics” and even more so from his subordination of morality to ethics, we want to try to highlight the relationship that is being established between ethics and morality and between laws and ethical-moral values, therefore how the good should be understood. Therefore, retracing some central paragraphs of the essays if like another and Ethics and morality, we will try to highlight the Ricoeurian perspective on the question of the good and also to offer possible paths of interpretation to understand the process and value of the good.

Tarciziu Grădinaru
L’uomo creato ad immagine di Dio e ricreato attraverso la kenosi del Figlio
Sacred Scripture is the main advocate and defender of human dignity. Man’s dignity derives precisely from the fact that a ‘piece’ of God has been placed in him, the ‘image and likeness’ of God has been impregnated in him (Gen 1,26-27). Sin comes between man and God, depriving man of the glory he should have had in God’s company. Through kenosis, the Logos takes on human nature with which he performs the work of salvation so that man sees in the glorified Son the archetype according to which he was created. Christ incarnate and glorified has recreated man, has deified him. The kenosis of the eternal Logos materialised in the incarnation was not only a way through which man was able to see the perfect prototype after which he was created, but also became a model to be followed in living life on this earth.

Ramona Ciobanu
Current challenges of the modern family – alcohol consumption and violent behaviour
The text aims to provide a theoretical perspective on the relationship between alcohol consumption and violent behaviour in the modern family. The aim is to demonstrate the necessity of involving family members in the recovery process of the alcohol dependent person, with or without violent behaviour, both initially and along the way, even if the effects of such an approach are sometimes extremely difficult to deal with.
In this article I will focus on how sociologists and anthropologists analyse the family as a distinct social group, with a particular focus on the differences between the behaviour of traditional family members and modern family members as specified in the literature. I will also highlight how substance use behaviour developed in the modern family is influenced or not by the involvement of family members in the helping process and what would be the consequences on the modern family environment when in particular alcohol consumption leads to violent behaviour.
The article deals with the subject of substance use, with a particular focus on alcohol dependence in a theoretical scientific manner to which specific elements from the author’s practical experience are “added”.

Lucian Păuleţ
Yves Congar’s Vision of the Role of the Holy Spirit Regarding the Unity of the Church: 1953-1971
This article is a follow-up of a previous study: “The Holy Spirit as the Principle of Ecclesial Unity in Yves Congar’s Early Writings,” which concluded that “Congar never understood unity as uniformity, but after 1946-1947, he became increasingly attentive to diversity and even defined the visible unity of the Church as communion”. It was only natural to continue the research on the same topic with the subsequent writings of Congar. Therefore, this article presents how Congar’s vision on the role of the Holy Spirit regarding the unity of the Church developed between 1952 and 1971. Which are some of his discoveries on the topic? Which are the factors that contributed to the development of his thinking during this period of time? Did his overall vision of the Church change?—these are some of the main questions that this article will try to answer.
“Le Saint-Esprit et le Corps apostolique, réalisateurs de l’oeuvre du Christ” (1952) opened a period when Congar emphasized a certain freedom of the Spirit with regard to the institutions of the Church (not with regard to the mission of Christ). This period included for Congar a discovery of diversity in the Church, the charisms of the Spirit, the status and role of the faithful, of the relation of the Church to the world, the rediscovery of the eastern tradition, the beginnings of a rediscovery of the Reform, a wide awareness of the modern ‘secular’ world. In Congar’s words, this was for him a period of “a mass sortie from the ghetto, which could also be called an emergence from the era of Constantine or of the Counter-Reformation with its largely polemical outlook.”

Gabriel-Iulian Robu
Il nome di dio, tra metafisica, fenomenologia e teologia. La prospettiva di Jean-Luc Marion e l’influsso di Edmund Husserl
This article presents the evaluation that Marion makes of the onto- theological determination of metaphysics and of conceptual idolatry, and the resolution that is proposed through the phenomenology of the gift. The new name of God, in the logic of this phenomenology of Marion, no longer starts from the language of being, esse, but from gift and love. “Love purifies our heart from every idol, since it alone is given and said as the name of God and yet it alone occurs in the experience of this world”. God is a Gift, is donation; he is Love, and his revelation is the saturated phenomenon par excellence which shows the impossibility of impossibility by God. In past times the dialogue of theology with other sciences and atheists was partly supported by arguments provided by classical metaphysics. The cry of triumph of nihilism calls for the very end of this metaphysics and the death of its God (Nietzsche). By what name, then, do we call God after “the death of God”, in today’s philosophical background? Also, if God is really God, how can he die? Only a God who is only a “god” can die. If metaphysics has come to its end, who will assume his task and duty? These are some questions which, following Marion’s and Husserl’s indications, we will briefly try to answer, after a short presentation of the status quaestionis.

Ştefan Lupu
Il principio della sinodalità nella prospettiva ecumenica secondo il teologo ortodosso Dumitru Staniloae
The Romanian Orthodox theologian Dumitru Stăniloae stated that the main task of the next ecumenical synod should be the reunification of the Christian Churches and that this union should be done under the emblem of Orthodoxy. Until that happy event, a long road of preparation and rapprochement between the Christian Churches is needed. Inspired by this deep conviction, he wanted to offer his own contribution, not only by studying the doctrine of the other Christian Churches and bringing to the knowledge of the faithful of the Romanian Orthodox Church the results obtained by the ecumenical dialogue, but also by presenting solutions, from the Orthodox perspective, to the problems raised by this dialogue. In this study I intend to present the contribution offered by this Romanian theologian to the cause of Christian unity. After a brief presentation of the ecumenical relations achieved by the Romanian Orthodox Church in this century, we will present, in the second part, the principles which, according to him, should guide the progressive rapprochement of the Christian Churches.

Dialog Teologic XXV/50 (2022)

Dialog Teologic XXV/50 (2022)
158 p., 17×24, ISSN 1453-8075, 25 lei.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/NSGG5713

Cumpără online de la Libraria Sapientia
Vizualizează onlineDialog 50.

Iulian Faraoanu
Valori della perfezione e della vita comunitaria nel Discorso della Montagna (Mt 5)

This paper focuses to a biblical analysis into the relevance of the fundamental values of Gospel in relation to the community. The Sermon on the Mount in Mt 5 refers to unmatched values. Values are those that refer to God: trust in God, listening to the Word, walking on the paths drawn by God’s Law. But deep spiritual values have applicability in concrete life, where they are cultivated: justice, peace, kindness. By far the supreme value is love with its expressions in concrete existence.
The scope is the field of human community, where relationships play a fundamental role. Biblical man lives from relationships: the relationship with God, the relationship with his fellow men and the relationship with nature. The same applies to Matthew, an evangelist attentive to the sphere of relationships.

Lucian Farcaş
Strukturwandel und christliche Aufgaben

The transformative processes in the field of social structures foreground have people as subjects, who act on a personal level, while structures of human action are treated indirectly on a secondary level as objects to be transformed. In a first part of this article the author presents the personal dimension of Christian engagement with the duty to acquire new mentalities. Next, there is presented the community dimension of social involvement in order to change the structures in different spaces of moral action. The third part shows the social engagement both in one’s own space and in the action spaces of others. A greater efficiency in order to transform the structures can be achieved through coordinated programs at the inter-systemic but also inter-structural level.

Gabriel Hălănduţ
Teodicea kantiana. Un processo a Dio e il trionfo della sincerità

The question of the status of God and the role he occupies in the general organization of the world or in the life of man is an ancient one. From Antiquity, when Plato tries to defend the gods from the various accusations brought against them, until Leibniz’s famous Theodicy, philosophers have used their reason in a trial defending God. Apparently, the possibility of such a kind of discourse comes to be suspended by Kant’s critique of the tribunal of reason. However, the very process in which the classic arguments of God’s existence are analyzed, instead of becoming the end point of a road, becomes another kind of theodicy. The intention of this article is to highlight how the category of sincerity (Aufrichtigkeit) brings with it a new hermeneutical key to Kantian writings.

Ionut Eremia Imbrişcă
La debolezza di Paolo e la grazia di Dio nella Seconda Lettera ai Corinzi

The experience of his own weakness leads Paul to a greater trust in the presence of the Lord who works with the power of grace in his life and consoles him in tribulations and suffering. By walking the path of weakness, Paul grows in the awareness of his participation in Christ’s death and resurrection. The synthesis of the theology of the cross, which we find in Paul’s letters, shows how God acts in his life through weaknesses and leads the apostle to express his trust in the God of consolation and mercy.

Lucian Păuleţ
Tradition and traditions: From a Model of the Church to a Model of Society – A Response to Challenges in the Black Sea Region

It is a common perception that some of the most conservative institutions in the world are the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. As some say: In 2.000 years, the Church has not changed anything. On the one hand, the statement is true as regards the Tradition of the Church, that is, all that was handed on by the Apostles and contributes toward the holiness of life and increase in faith of the peoples of God (Dei Verbum 8). On the other hand, there is a growth in the understanding of the realities and the words which have been handed down (Dei Verbum 8). In other words, the Church remains the same as regards her essence (this is preserved by Tradition), while she needs to change as regards her historical forms of life (these are traditions).
This conference will show the distinction between Tradition and traditions according to Yves Congar, one of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century. His thesis is that the Church must preserve Tradition and reform traditions. To accomplish this goal, that is a true reform within Church without schisms, Congar proposes four conditions for an authentic reform.
This conference claims that this model of reform in the Church can be transferred to the present societies in the Black Sea Region. Mutatis mutandis, the four conditions of true reform are applicable to modern societies. Thus, distinguishing between Tradition and traditions, each society can preserve what is essential to its’ own identity and ethos, while accepting the changes suggested by the present and future situations of life.

Fabian Pitreţi
La nozione di identità narrativa in Paul Ricoeur. Una possibile soluzione al dramma della ricerca del sé

The theme of the article concerns the question of identity, in particular the notion of narrative identity discussed by Paul Ricoer in Time and Narrative and in Oneself as Another. The topic, therefore, specifically concerns the field of philosophical anthropology and the philosophy of language with an important reference to the question of narrativity. Briefly, the central question that the article deals with concerns Paul Ricoeur’s intuition between what we are and the story that each of us builds to distill a narrative thread and therefore to give meaning to our lives. In other words, the notion of narrative identity represents a paradigm which, on the one hand, understands and explains the stability of human identity but which also recognizes and gives a theoretical foundation to a change of perspective and interpretation of ourselves; therefore, on what we are and on the world in which we live, an identity and a perception of self no longer idem but always in motion, i.e. ipse, exactly like the narrative thread of a story.

Marius Sabău
Dimensions of faith in the life of St. Therese of Lisieux

In the history of the Church there are many examples of true and strong faith in Jesus Christ. Amidst them there is St. Therese of Lisieux. Despite her short life, her example of faith went long down in history. But before the history of her faith and spirituality, there is the history of their growth. In this paper there is pointed the long road from a childhood mind toward a pillar of faith. It begins with a troubled childhood marked by the loss of parents. Then follows the sensitive period of a teenager fearing especially of being abandoned, continuing with youth, a time of growing and developing not only a strong faith, but also a fiery love for God. These stages, step by step, lead to a maturity of faith, a maturity that she achieves at a very young age, considering the fact that she was only 24 years old when she died.

Florin Ursa, Lucian Dîncă
Conduct lacking ethical integrity. Discrimination and harassment of teachers by students in universities. Bullying and cyberbullying

The rules governing behaviour based on the values of good, moral-immoral, honest, sincerity, accountability, fairness, characterized by a high degree of interiorization, imposed by both his own conscience and the pressure of the attitude of others within the group of students , is moral. The code of ethics as well as the moral conduct concept signifies the ethics of the profession and establishes the right behaviour of the collective. Bullying in the workplace is a pattern of abusive behaviour, causing both physical and mental harm if it has a repetitive and persistent nature. The cyber bullying of the teachers by the students is still at the start, the latter can challenge the teacher authority by using digital media and therefore an anti-cyber map needs to be adopted. Universities must continue to develop an ethical environment and ethical practices at the institutional level to claim an ethical behaviour at the individual level, as well as the need to promote a culture of academic integrity in universities.

Stefan Lupu
L’autorità, la coscienza comune e l’infallibilità della Chiesa, nella visione di Dumitru Staniloae

This article presents the vision of the Romanian Orthodox theologian Dumitru Stăniloae about the authority, the common sense, and the infallibility of the Church. According to the Romanian theologian, the authority of the Church results from its quality as the mystical body of Christ in the Holy Spirit and refers to the ability to know and preserve without alteration the revealed truth, as well the ability to interpret authentically the Holy Scripture and Tradition. From the fact that the Church is the mystical body of Christ in the Holy Spirit results, apart from the ability to know, preserve and interpret the truth, also the common sense of the believers, that is, the common responsibility for the faith of each and every one, before God and the Church. In the Orthodox conception, infallibility refers to the ability of the Church to preserve without error the apostolic faith, that is, the authentic understanding of Revelation. This capacity of the Church results from the fact that, thanks to the gift of the Holy Spirit, it immutably experiences the fullness of life in Christ. The infallibility of the Church is exercised in respect of the revelation contained in Scripture and in Tradition and consists in the ability to remain in the truth and in the humility to submit to it, without adding anything, but teaching only what is contained in it.

Iosif Iacob
The meaning of the canonical form of the celebration of marriage since the Second Vatican Council and CIC 1983

The matrimonial agreement is the form through which the institution of marriage and family is born. Both, the Church and the state are called to contribute to the elaboration of those specific conditions by which the notion of the marriage covenant is consolidated and clarified. The form of the marriage celebration is one of the aspects that generated and generates deep analyses and positions in front of what is and represents the way of manifesting the agreement, as well as its role. The crisis of the institution of marriage, the diversity of forms of conjugal union as well as the effects that derive from them, create the specific environment for an analysis and debate that questions the role and function of the canonical form in achieving that conjugal union that is based on the free act, the consent of the bride and groom as the will of the spouses to live together with the requirement to be transformed into a formal act, a legal expression by which the accord of the spouses fulfils all the normative aspects with a view to legal validity and implicitly with a view to the birth of the marriage. In this sense, the pre-conciliar, conciliar and post-conciliar debates reach a unitary expression in the vision of the 1983 Code of Canon Law.

Dialog Teologic XXV/49 (2022)

Dialog Teologic XXV/49 (2022)
180 p., 17×24, ISSN 1453-8075, 25 lei.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/LVTY2161

Cumpără online de la Libraria Sapientia
Vizualizează online Dialog 49.

Petru Ciobanu
L’aborto nel magistero pontificio contemporaneo da Pio XI a Francesco

Abortion has been an important subject for pontifical teaching since the early days of the Church, and has always been condemned, while the right to life of every person, including those in the womb, has been stressed from the moment of conception. In this article, interventions on abortion and the right to life by contemporary Roman pontiffs, from Pius XI to Pope Francis, are presented.

Teofil Ciucheş
Sapienza e potenza di Dio in Gregorio di Nissa. Prospettive teologiche e implicazioni spirituali per la vita cristiana

The Christological titles «Wisdom» and «Power of God» occupy a relevant significance in the theological thought of Gregory of Nyssa. The breadth of his reflections upon these matters ranges from: consideration upon the eternal character of the Divine Properties regarding the unity and equality of the Divine Persons in the Trinity, unto the Christological significance (and implications) of the Divine Attributes in the creative act of Creation. Furthermore, this research will indicate the approach that Gregory proposes in teaching these two aspects for the Christian life. The thread running through this study will allows us to observe that, for the Nyssien-minded, the faithful interpretation of Sacred Scripture is always closely connected with both theological reflection and with the spiritual life.

Fabian Doboş
La beata Paolina Maria Jaricot (1799-1862) ed i cattolici della Moldavia

This Article deals with Pauline-Marie Jaricot. A nineteenth-century French Christian who contributed significantly to the building of the Universal Church through the history of man. She lived her faith in an exemplary manner. It is she who founded the Association “Propagation de la Foi”. The founding of this association marks today 200 years of existence. It was meant to support, both spiritual and financial, the evangelization missions of the Church. Pauline-Marie Jaricot was born in Lyon in 1799, and the years that followed have increased her life of faith through various experiences, both in spirit and missionary zeal. Her efforts for missions were not isolated but increased.
Thus, in 1822 the Association “Propagation de la Foi” appears. The actions of this association support a missionary spirituality, material solidarity, and an international network. Among its beneficiaries, throughout history, was the Roman-Catholic Diocese of Iasi. The Catholics of Moldova have started to be supported since the nineteenth century.

Lucian Farcaş
Christlicher Einsatz zum Wandel der Strukturen: politische und kirchliche Einstellungen

From the theological-ethical point of view, we can begin by asserting that it is possible to transform the social structures wounded by sin for a positive purpose. However, that process takes place in complicated conditions of relations between people and the social edifice. In the first part, there are described two historical experiences regarding transformation: the communist revolution and the Church positions in social fields. Then, after these two points, the author outlined the model of a unitary transformation of social structures. Without a concrete specification, this article has in the background the situation of the Romanian society.

Eduard Giurgi
The Importance of the Teaching of Gaudium et spes for the Introduction of Dolus as a Ground for Marriage Nullity in the 1983 Code of Canon Law

The present essay is aimed to highlight the impact of the teaching of Vatican II, through the pastoral constitution Gaudium et spes, on the introduction of a new ground for marriage nullity, namely, dolus. In order to reach this aim, the essay provides a short presentation of the teaching of the 1917 Code of Canon Law. The essay emphasizes that in this code was stressed more the procreative end of matrimonial consent and less the importance of matrimonial love in giving consent. The 1917 Code of Canon Law had the advantage of offering juridic clarity on marriage, yet the disadvantage was that the legislation was very much removed from experience of most married members of the Church. To this disadvantage the personalist view of some theologians and canonists was to give equal importance to procreative end of marriage and to matrimonial love. The personalist proposal was accepted and included in the teaching of the Council of Vatican II, more precisely, in the pastoral constitution Gaudium et spes. The council eliminates the hierarchical ordering on the ends of marriage and it teaches that both ends are equally important for a valid marriage. The council stresses the importance of the love between the man and the woman for a valid matrimonial consent. The teaching of the council led to the introduction of a new ground for marriage nullity in the 1983 Code of Canon Law. In fact, according to the teaching of the council, the consent consists in the mutual giving and accepting of the spouses. When one of them is deprived of knowledge of an important quality of the other party by dolus, the mutual giving and accepting in consent is incomplete or truncated. Also, the partnership of life and love about which the council teaches is seriously disturbed in such a case. As a consequence, it was necessary to be introduced this new ground for marriage nullity in the 1983 Code of Canon Law.

Ionuţ Eremia Imbrişcă
Forza nella debolezza in 2Cor 12,1-10

The topic of weakness often emerges in Paul’s letters; in the Second Letter to the Corinthians, however, it is presented as a “confession”. Our analysis will begin with a description of Corinth and, above all, with an examination of the relationship that Paul had with the Christian community founded in this place and to which he addressed two of his letters. The introduction to the Second Letter to the Corinthians will help us, later, to approach the topic of the apostle’s weakness, a concept that is “confessed” to the Corinthians and which reaches its climax with the statement “for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10).

Gabriel-Iulian Robu
Il modello fondativo-contestuale di teologia fondamentale in un’epoca visiva

In this article we intend to find some ideas for an iconic thought in the context of contemporary “visual” culture. Starting from the distinction between the idol and the icon made by Marion and from her perspective on the iconic function of the concepts and the name of God, we will present some traits and gains of the iconic thought, following the orientations of the foundational-contextual model of the School Lateran. The method followed in this path places us within the Lateran School of Fundamental Theology. This model affirms that today is also the opportune moment to put the message of Revelation (the founding moment) in relation to the contemporary context (the contextual moment) in a sacramental horizon. The positive moment, the auditus fidei, is combined with the interpretative-contextual one, auditus temporis, on the way to a reliable intellectus Revelationis in today’s visual culture.

Florin Ursa, Lucian Dîncă
Evangelization through the media. The Holy Trinity in the Shack 2017

In the new, modern post-secular society, the Catholic Church wants its evangelization mission to be extended by the media. The most recommended form of evangelization is the direct one, face to face, but nowadays so that the biblical message of the Christ to be also reach by the young people, who spend most of their time on social media, Internet, TV, films, etc. One of the most popular media is the internet, where all the information is just a click away. The Catholic Church through the Vatican II Council wishes to become involved and encourages the involvement of clergy and believers in supporting Christian film actors and producers, Christian TV and radio stations. One of the messages that the church wants to send to the world is the mystery of the Holy Trinity. This mystery is one of faith in the living God, unique in being and intermingled in persons: God the Father (the Creator), God the Son (the Redeemer) and God the Holy Spirit. The use of cinema in the transmission of Church messages must be done with caution and well documented. Through the analysis of the movie The Shack 2017, the mystery of the Holy Trinity is revealed to the cinefiles a part as a Christian teaching in accordance with the Catholic Church’s teaching and another apart as Christian teaching intertwined with new teachings (New Age).

Ştefan LUPU
I ministeri ecclesiastici che assicurano la vita sinodale della Chiesa, nella visione di Dumitru Staniloae

n the point of view of the Romanian Orthodox theologian Dumitru Stăniloae, the synodal unity of the Church is ensured by the ecclesiastical hierarchy, a hierarchy that is divided into a sacramental hierarchy and a jurisdictional hierarchy. The sacramental hierarchy has its origin in the sacrament of Priesthood and includes three fundamental degrees: the episcopate, the presbyterate and the diaconate. From these three fundamental degrees derives the jurisdictional hierarchy which, in addition to some administrative tasks, has the mission of preserving the communion between the members of the sacramental hierarchy. The theological principles on which the synodality of the hierarchy is based are three: the principle of communion, the principle of the transcendent origin of the ecclesiastical ministry and the principle of complementarity between the episcopal synodality and the general synodality of the Church.

Iosif Iacob
Marriage as a divine and human reality in the vision of the Second Vatican Council

The institution of marriage and the family it is one of the social and ecclesial realities, difficult to stick in its full meaning. It, as a natural reality, involves the whole life of man, of each man, both as a right and as a possibility. In his great redemptive plan, God, through Jesus Christ, in the New Law established by the sacrifice of love to the ultimate sacrifice, assigns a saving dimension to natural marriage. This new dimension makes marriage a supernatural and profoundly human reality, anchored in social realities in a continuous becoming. The current situation that the Church is experiencing in the pastoral field through the different choices that believers make regarding the sacrament of marriage invites us to deepen and analyze all the aspects that affect the choice of the type of marital union.
All these motivations makes us to take in consideration the different spheres of human existence as well with visions of living life to see the way marriage as a natural and sacramental reality, involving every human being, presents itself to contemporary society in all its complexity, or in what way society’s problems come to be reflected and also involves the institution of marriage.

Dialog Teologic XXIV/48 (2021)

Dialog Teologic XXIV/48 (2021)
125 p., 17×24, ISSN 1453-8075, 25 lei.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/RMOI6677

Cumpără online de la Libraria Sapientia

Vizualizează online Dialog 48.

Gabriel-Iulian Robu
La Iglesia, la fe y la realidad de la crisis

The Church, Holy, catholic and apostolic, built on the unbreakable foundation of the Apostles, faithfully transmits the truth that has been entrusted to her and the richness of the deposit of faith that she has preserved intact throughout time. This truth is infallibly transmitted. If there is this authentic transmission of revealed truth, why is there still a crisis of faith in the lives of believers? Where do crises come from? Are crises of faith beneficial? Is the Church going through moments of crisis? Why does God allow moments of crisis in the lives of his loved ones? Speaking of the crisis as a phenomenon that can have both positive and negative effects, depending on how it is managed, we can intuit that the most appropriate attitude to go through the crisis is hope. With this in mind, I ended my article by referring to the Pope’s audience on September 20, 2017: do not give up on the night, remember that the first enemy to defeat is not outside of you: it is within. Therefore, do not give space to bitter, dark thoughts. This world is the first miracle that God made; He placed in our hands the grace of new wonders. This is our hope in the moments of crisis: God never disappoints. Hope is the attitude with which we go through times of crisis, hope and trust in God. We know that with God everything is possible, and that where our strength is weakened, His grace comes to our aid.

Ionuţ Eremia Imbrişcă
Per amore di Cristo Paolo affrontò con coraggio tutte le prove nel suo ministero apostolico

Many times in his letters, Paul testifies how he experienced at every step the reality of his own weakness during the apostolic ministry. In the sufferings, difficulties, persecutions and pastoral failures, Paul reflected on his own weakness and on the grace he received from God that helped him to live peacefully in the midst of the storms of his life. In his own lived weakness, Paul experienced that God did not abandon him, did not leave him alone, but precisely in that precise difficult context, he perceived how weakness became support and strength for him. The tribulations experienced by Paul could have had led him to despair and abandonment. But, on the contrary, in his life, the tribulations led him to be aware of the presence and grace of God.

Ştefana Goţia
Discernment and relativity of moral codes

In this article I will present an analysis of axiological anticipatory discernment, I will insist on some limits of particular moral codes and possible main lines of efficiency of moral codes, with permanent reference to a universal moral code. This reporting is a useful mechanism in the analysis and the way of discerning the current social dilemmas, because, for a good social functioning, it is necessary to have a deep understanding and responsible assumptions of the codes, contexts and ethical infrastructures to which we refer.

Iulian Faraoanu
Funzione e ruolo delle porte nella Nuova Gerusalemme di Ap 21

The internal description of the gates of New Jerusalem in Ap 21 focuses the concepts of the opening and universalism. The idea of a continuous opening reveals a change in the function of the gates and suggests a symbolic interpretation. The image of gates always open expresses total acceptance and willingness to receive the incessant flow of the nations that will enter the eschatological Jerusalem. At the same time, their non-closure means the absence of obstacles or barriers for entry into the holy city. This is the way to universalism. Actually, in the new heavenly Jerusalem enter the nations and their kings, emphasizing the universality of the holy city, in which everyone has the right to enter to enjoy the goods eschatological. The human component, the goods that nations bring, is added to the divine component of the city filled with the splendor and divine glory.

Petru Ciobanu
Non licere nascentem nocere: Cristianesimo del primo millennio contro l’aborto

This article is a review of the learning against abortion in the works of the Church Fathers, starting from the Apostolic and Apologetic Fathers till the golden age of patristics, both in the East and in the West. Another point is dedicated to the conciliar magisterium of the first Christian millennium, which condemns homicide, including abortion. The third part of the study refers to the Byzantine legislation, so that at the end some provisions of the legislation of the barbarian peoples are presented.

Michail Iulian Echert
The Paradox of being Christian in Globalized Society

Globalization, a phenomenon that initially manifested itself on the economic level, then on the social and cultural one, contributed decisively to the formation of this consciousness by bringing states closer together and strengthening their relations. Thus, we are dealing with an increase in interdependence, of the interaction between peoples around the world (economic, financial, military, tourism, educational) which has subsequently evolved into an accentuated interdependence between people. The Church is called to watch over these problems and to help the states, through the light of the gospel, to solve the truth. Even if some forces manifest themselves against the Church’s position in the contemporary world, the values that the Church proposes can help to develop another, more humane globalization that defends human dignity and promotes the progress of people. The Church received the mandate from Christ to carry on her loving work, understanding the salvation brought by Christ as a transformation of the social, political, and economic order. Thanks to the assistance of the Holy Spirit, the Church recognizes God’s plan that encompasses the entire human race and that envisions the union of all, in the paschal mystery of Christ, in the Kingdom of God, proclaimed as the sign of Christ’s reign over the entire universe. The mission of the Church is to fulfil the mandate of proclaiming the Kingdom of God and to anticipate its presence amid the community, leading the entire creation to its fulfilment in the Kingdom of God. The Church cannot remain indifferent to the problems faced by people’s families; therefore, it cannot provide a more telling proof of its solidarity, respect and love for the whole family of people than by establishing with it is a dialogue about these various issues.

Iosif Iacob
Il vincolo matrimoniale, sacramento di una vita perfetta nell’amore e santità secondo la visione Del Concilio Vaticano II

The form of life by which the secular man finds the fullness of his purpose is that offered by the sacrament of marriage and family life. In this environment he is called to collaborate in order to realize the kingdom of God; here he is given the opportunity to be an image of Christ in the world. In the marital bond, the spouses, through the mission they have towards each other and together towards the children, prove a particular vocation that, by virtue of the sacrament of marriage, is a symbol of mutual love between Christ and the Church, love in which lies the impulse of a continuous and mutual perfection. Thus, the vocation to a holy life, materialized in the act of mutual dedication and love within the matrimonial covenant, represents the essence of the sacrament of marriage and of a life lived in the fullness of the human and Christian values proposed by the Church through the teaching of the Second Vatican Council that does not lose its actuality, especially in the context of a global crisis on the identity and mission of the family that arises through the matrimonial covenant.

Lucian Farcaş
Perspektiven der sozialen Umkehr im Prozess des Wertewandels

A study that is focussed on the conversion from the social sin and on the transformation of the social structures affected by sin must take into account not only the strictly religious and ecclesial field, but also the phenomena in social- community life. According to the way in which the paradigm of the change of values in the society is interpreted and to the consequences that result from it on the realization and organization of life on a personal and social level, in this paper at first it is described a mostly optimistic thesis. In a second step, it is presented a thesis with rather pessimistic tendencies. Finally, a realistic thesis is analyzed, which emphasizes the ambivalence of changing values and highlights the significance of the synthesis of values for a good direction of life in modern society.

Ştefan Lupu
L’unità e la cattolicità sinodale della Chiesa Universale nella visione di Dumitru Staniloae

The relationship between the local Church and the universal Church was treated by Staniloae in the light of the traditional ecclesiological vision on the Church unity and synodal catholicity. Referring to the characteristic features of this synodal universality of the Church, Staniloae emphasizes, firstly, the ecclesial integrity of the local Church, an integrity that derives from the integral presence of the Holy Spirit in it, from the profession of apostolic faith and from the communion with the universal Church. The second aspect that characterizes the universality of the Church refers to the unity of all Christian communities in the same apostolic faith, a faith that is constituted not only by doctrine, but also by the sacraments celebrated by the hierarchy. The third aspect concerns the possibility of excommunication of a local Church if it departs from the integrity of the apostolic faith. Finally, the fourth aspect of the universality of the Church affirms the equal dignity of all local Churches.

Tarciziu-Hristofor Şerban
Le témoignage chrétien comme « événement de parole », selon Claude Geffré

In response to Pope Benedict XVI’s invitation to engage in an in-depth reflection on the transmission of the faith today, the Saint Joseph Institute of Romano-Catholic Theology in Iasi organized, on October 26, 2012, an International Symposium entitled „The Transmission of the Faith”. Among the various interventions, this article proposed (in the form of a lecture) an analysis of the meaning of the expressions witness – testimony – to testify, their theological content when it comes to the transmission of the Easter faith and the characteristic elements of testifying to this faith for our days. Throughout this work I have been considering the reflections of Claude Geffré proposed in his book entitled Le christianisme au risque de l’interprétation (the second edition, Cerf, Paris, 1988), in particular those of the chapter entitled „The Resurrection of Christ as an interpretative testimony”, pp. 107-127.

Dialog Teologic XXIV/47 (2021)

Dialog Teologic XXIV/47 (2021)
169 p., 17×24, ISSN 1453-8075, 25 lei.

Cumpără online de la Libraria Sapientia

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/DUDO3012
Vizualizează online Dialog 47.

Eremia-Ionuţ Imbrişcă
L’esperienza di Paolo sulla strada di Damasco

The following article is entitled Saint Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus. Saint Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus, where he meets the Risen Christ, will be presented, in my article, from the inside (the testimony of Paul expressed in his letters) to the outside (saint Luke’s account in Acts: especially Acts 9:1-19a; with references also to the other two stories of Luke on the same event: Acts 22:1-21 and Acts 26:9-23). In order to analyze Paul’s testimony on the road to Damascus as it is presented in his letters we will focus on the First Letter to the Corinthians (1Cor 15:3-11), the Letter to the Galatians (Gal 1:13-17) and the Letter to the Philippians (Phil 3:1-14). My presentation will start with a brief presentation of Paul and will conclude with a look at the missionary activity of the Apostle, culminating with his martyrdom. In this article, I would like to emphasize how Paul’s “strength” meets the one of God, capable of transforming him.

Gabriel-Iulian Robu
La misión de los Doce Apóstoles y la obra de evangelización de la Iglesia

My present intervention is divided into two parts: the first part, the mission of the Twelve Apostles and in the second part, the continuation of this mission into the work of evangelization of the Church today. Every missionary work is born from the mission of the Son of God and imitates it. Just as the Son, who was rich in glory and power, emptied himself, impoverished himself to enrich us, so the missionary service implies deprivation, abandonment of a guaranteed state, descending among the poor to enrich them with the most precious knowledge: the knowledge of Christ. This was the work of the Apostles too. The Church is called to do the same: to be missionary and evangelizer. The Second Vatican Council reminded us of this task. For two thousand years, but still today, more than half a century after the council, the Church is supporting an ongoing missionary and evangelizing self-conversion. And it’s not just about converting structures. Structural reforms do not by themselves change people’s behavior. So, what could be the key? Possibly, that each of us to have an evangelized interior, and then our works will be evangelizing.

Iosif Tamaş
The beginnings of christian philosophy: “Fides et ratio”, Chapter IV

In the twentieth year of his pontificate, on September 14, 1998, on the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Pope John Paul II reads the Encyclical Letter on the Relationships between Faith and Reason “Fides et ratio”. The concept of “Christian philosophy” takes on meaning and receives new contributions to the definition of the phrase. Chapter IV of the Encyclical Letter emphasizes the significant stages of the encounter between faith and reason, the drama of the separation between the two, and the eternal novelty of St. Thomas’ thought. Christian philosophy can only be a realistic philosophy, and as philosophy approaches moderate realism, it is Christian. A philosophy of the self has nothing to do with the Christian philosophy. Many consider philosophy to be something indifferent to Christianity and to Christians; they do not want to understand that the meaning and fate of Christianity stands or falls with the philosophy that adopts it; and because apart from Thomism, the other philosophies do not agree with Christianity, without compromise on one side or the other, they say: not only in reality, but also in theory, Thomism is Christian philosophy; the others are more or less philosophical, because they are more or less Christian. The “dark cloud” of mystery that separates believers from unbelievers will help to develop a balanced and communicable level of understanding Christian philosophy, useful to both. In this first part we will focus on: the presence of St. Paul in Athens; the cautious attitude of Christians towards gnosis; the role of Saint Irenaeus and Tertullian.

Maricel Irinel Mititelu
Il contributo della „Nuova ermeneutica” alla teologia del kerigma

From seven billion people on our planet, only two billion are Christians and, from these, a majority are unpracticing Christians. As Pope John Paul II was writing in 1990, “The mission of Christ the Redeemer, which is entrusted to the Church, is still very far from completion” (Redemptoris Missio, 1). Considering all this reality, in the last century we have witnessed a revival of the kerygma in the field of theological research, both theoretical and practical. In the coming articles, we wish to present, in chronological order, the steps through which kerygma became the guiding figure of the renewal of the evangelization in the twentieth century. This article presents the contribution of “The New Hermeneutic” to the kerygma.

Cristian Barta
Significati ecclesiologici del martirio nella Chiesa Romena Unita con Roma, Greco-Cattolica, ai tempi del comunismo

Ecclesiological significations of the martyrdom in the Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic, during communism. This article is intended to analyze the martyrdom of the Romanian United Church to present its ecclesiological significations relevant not only for its own local ecclesiological reality but for the whole Catholic Church. The reflection we propose shall follow the theological implications of three aspects identifiable in the situation of the Romanian United Church during the communist persecution: the relationship between martyrdom, Eucharist and the Kingdom of God; the martyrdom of the entire Greek – Catholic synod of Bishops in Romania; the attempt to annihilate an entire local church of the Catholic Church.

Petru Ciobanu
Tra accettazione e condanna: l’aborto nell’Antichità

This article presents how abortion was received in the ancient world. As can be deduced from the title itself, this “crime”, as perceived by Christianity, was accepted, if we refer to the Greco-Roman world, including philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, as it was the state’s interest that should be put above the life value or the Stoics, who did not attribute any rights to the embryo, considering it a component part of the mother. Despite these views, there were others who opposed abortion, including among the great physicians of antiquity, among Roman poets or jurists, but even in this case it was not the life of the foetus that was defended, but, in general, the rights of the pater familias. An attitude of condemnation of abortion, from the same perspective, we notice in the Holy Scripture, in which only a single text explicitly refers to abortion (Ex 21, 22-25). However, as St. John Paul II states, the condemnation of abortion is implicitly included in the commandment “Do not kill”. In addition, there are numerous biblical texts that emphasize the value of the unborn life as a work of God. Also, there are provided attitudes towards abortion in the extra-biblical Judaism, apocryphal writings, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and other laws of Ancient Orient.

Fabian Doboş
Le risorse finanziarie della Diocesi di Jassy al tempo del vescovo Domenico Jaquet, OFM Conv. (1895-1903)

The present study presents briefly the main economic problems the Diocese of Iasi, which was founded on June 27, 1884, had been facing. At the end of the nineteenth century, the rapid increase of the number of Catholics led the diocese leaders to build new larger churches and enlarge the old ones. In this sense, the second bishop of Iaşi, Mons. Dominic Jaquet, a Swiss native, has sought funding in various Western countries. This bishop also took close care of the good progress of the Catholic schools within the diocese of Iaşi (the diocesan and Franciscan seminary, the Cipariu Institute, the Primary School of Iaşi, etc.). In order to cover all these expenses, Bishop Jaquet asked for financial help from both his church superiors and civil authorities. Thus, if the main financial support came from the superiors of the Congregation De Propaganda Fide in Rome, other aid for Catholics in Moldova came from France, through the Association Propagation de la Foi, which had its headquarters in Lyon. Also, the help of the Catholics from the diocese of Iaşi came both from the Romanian government and the one from Vienna.

Ştefan Lupu
Il fondamento e la natura della sinodalità ecclesiale nella teologia di Dumitru Staniloae

In the vision of the Orthodox theologian Dumitru Stăniloae, ecclesial synodality has a double foundation: natural and theological, and manifests itself as a communion in the Holy Spirit. The natural foundation of ecclesial synodality consists in the fact that humanity was created as a “whole,” identical in being, but different in its constituents. The theological foundation of ecclesial synodality results from the dogma of the Holy Trinity and from the creation of man in the image and likeness of God. Reffering to the nature of ecclesial synodality, Staniloae states that this is the full actualization of natural synodality in Christ and in Church, that is, the “healthy balance” between the unity of human nature and the diversity of persons. The organic and symphonic unity of the Church mystical body, is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, ecclesial synodality is an expression of the organic unity of the mystical Body of Christ and manifests itself as a communion in the Holy Spirit.

Iulian Faraoanu
Novità e preziostà nel simbolismo dei dodici fondamenti della nuova Gerusalemme (Ap 21)

The 12 foundations of the new Jerusalem are added to the 12 gates of the holy city which descends from heaven. The foundations are associated with the 12 apostles, a reference to the newssnes of the people of God. From a simbolic point of view, the foundations are 12 precious stones (Rev 21: 19-20). The precious stones were a sign of the eschatological restoration of the people of God. The same precious stones that abound in the new Jerusalem could create a contrast with the traffic of precious materials in Babylon (the Roman Empire). But the aspect on which we insist in Rev 21 is the preciousness of the people before God together with the exaltation of newsness. The new Jerusalem that will descend from heaven in eschatology is the new, perfect, unique, and unitary people of God, founded on the twelve apostles.

Lucian Păuleţ
The Holy Spirit Makes the Church One by Making her Catholic, Apostolic, and Holy According to Yves Congar’s Latest Vision

Yves Congar’s scholars agree that there is “no “Copernican turn” in his ecclesiological itinerary. While this is true, nonetheless, there is also significant evolution in his ecclesiology. One of the reasons of this progress is due to Congar’s continuously evolving understanding of the role of the Holy Spirit in the Church. Therefore, this article shows Congar’s later pneumatological ecclesiology with regard to the four notes of the Church which are contained in each other. Thus, Congar moved from a mainly Christological position to a more pneumatological one, in three directions. First, if catholicity was comprehended as the capacity of the Church to assimilate in its unity all the values of the world (in the first Christological model), now the Holy Spirit is the principle that stimulates diversity and guarantees the Church’s unity (in the second model). For Congar, the Spirit stimulates and resolves the fruitful tension between the universal and particular (churches). Ecclesial unity and pluralism are both necessary—pluralism in unity and unity without uniformity.
Second, for Congar, apostolicity means the continuity between the Alpha and the Omega of the Church, and the Holy Spirit is the principle of this substantial identity throughout history. Therefore, the Holy Spirit keeps the Church one by making her apostolic. In turn, apostolicity means that the unity of the Church is original and eschatological.
Third, the Holy Spirit purifies and sanctifies the Church by giving her new life. Doing so, the Spirit makes the Church the bride of Christ, his mystical body. It can be concluded that, sanctifying the Church, the Holy Spirit makes her one because he makes her “one flesh” with her bridegroom, Christ.

Dialog Teologic XXIII/46 (2020)

Dialog Teologic XXIII/46 (2020)
81 p., 17×24, ISSN 1453-8075, 15 lei.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.53438/BYGE6643

Cumpără online de la Libraria Sapientia
Vizualizează online Dialog 46.

Eremia-Ionuţ Imbrişcă
La direzione spirituale come relazione di aiuto
This article, entitled The spiritual direction as a relationship based on offering help highlights the task of the Spiritual Director, who walks alongside the seminarian, aiding him in the art of discernment. This ongoing process is always under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who works through the gifts of the Spiritual Director and the seminarian. In this article, we will begin with the fact that, in order to accompany someone in spiritual growth it is necessary to engage well in a period of discernment. Both spiritual direction and discernment bear fruit under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Petru Ciobanu
Incurrunt in excommunicationem: brief history of canonic punishment of abortion
According to the 1983 Code of Canon Right, the person guilty of abortion, followed by the effect, automatically falls into the excommunication latae sententiae given to the bishop. This article sets out the penalties for this crime, which the Second Vatican Council called an “abominable crime” (GS 51). The punishments based on the Holy Scripture are reviewed, then those provided by the councils of the first millennium and those proposed by the patristic teaching, and then, to analyze the penitential manuals and Byzantine right, following the presentation of abortion punishments in medieval jurisprudence and pontifical teaching until the codification of canon right. At the end, the text shows the punishments prescribed by the codes of canon right – that of 1917, that of 1983 and that of the Eastern Churches –, ending with an incursion into Orthodox law.

Leon Pişta
Der mariologische Ansatz von Joseph Ratzinger
In diesem Artikel wird es den mariologischen Ansatz von Joseph Ratzinger analysiert. Dessen erster Teil skizziert drei methodische Aspekte, die für eine redliche Auslegung der Enzyklika „Redemptoris Mater“ von Papst Johannes Paul II. wichtig sind. Nach der Skizzierung dieser drei methodischen Aspekte werden drei inhaltliche Schwerpunkte der Enzyklika präsentiert. Der zweite Teil des Artikels analysiert das Buch „Die Tochter Zion“ von Joseph Ratzinger. Hier werden die drei großen Mariendogmen ausgelegt, und zwar: Maria, Jungfrau und Gottesmutter, ihr Freisein von der Erbsünde und die Aufnahme des Leibes und der Seele Marias in die himmlische Herrlichkeit.

Ciprian Fechetă
Christian Creationism and Scientific Evolutionism
The question regarding the origin of man is one of the oldest ones. But it came again at the surface of wondering with the anthropological revolution caused by Charles Darwin in the 19th century with his evolutionary theory about natural selection. Nowadays, after more than one century, after the scientific crisis, after the Intelligent design debate, on calmer water, the truth about creationism, evolutionism and their relationship seem clearer. But before assuming a certain position concerning those two it is needed a process of understanding the roots of such visions, their intentions, and their consequences.

Gabriel-Iulian Robu
Cristo, fenomeno saturo, secondo Jean-Luc Marion

The four types of saturated phenomena, the event according to the quantity, the idol according to the quality, the flesh according to the relationship, and according to the modality, are all involved in the embodied in the Revelation of the christic Gestalt, as expressed by H.U. von Balthasar. Christ manifests himself as an event, as an idol (which causes glare), as the flesh (suffering and joyful) and as a face. Deepening the meaning of the keyword “saturated phenomenon” could be a great step forward to explore the specific hermeneutics of Jean-Luc Marion. Marion has always insisted that the saturated phenomenon comes by itself, without preparation and without prediction. The aspect that makes it so excessive is precisely the way it arrives, as a total surprise. The Crucifix, the Icon par excellence, saturates the expectations of every gaze and directs it towards an Other, as even in the moment of abandonment it refers to the invisible Father of whom it is the visible image. Unlike the reassuring relationship with the idol designed by the human gaze, the abandonment to faith is at first detachment of man from God, and then places him in a true relationship of communion with God.

Dialog Teologic XXIII/45 (2020)

Dialog Teologic XXIII/45 (2020)
78 p., 17×24, ISSN 1453-8075, 15 lei.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/XNJN3777

Cumpără online de la Libraria Sapientia
Vizualizează online Dialog 45.

Vasile Petrişor
La preghiera nella prima esperienza cristiana di Sant’Agostino
The present article is meant to analyze and value the first Christian experience of Saint Augustine, the one that the bishop of Hippona lived in the bosom of his family and in the midst of community of Tagaste. It will be amazing and surprising to find out, according to Augustine’s testimony, how profound were the foundations of the Christian faith planted in his soul by his mother, Saint Monica. Even the so-called «conversion», sealed with the baptism received in Milan, it’s nothing but a return to the Church and the faith from childhood. It came as a consequence of a long road of retrieval after Augustin has overcome many prejudgments and difficulties of an intellectual and moral nature.

Pius-Petru Iancu
La formazione iniziale del sacerdote nella Chiesa di oggi: il modello, l’analisi della situazione, le sfide e i protagonisti
The formation of seminarians in today’s socio-cultural and religious context is not an easy task. To be able to identify with Christ, «the good shepherd», and to live pastoral charity, the seminarian must make a deep and troubled itinerary formation. This is why we highlight the model of formation of future priests: Christ, the good shepherd, and the Supreme Sacerdote. The final objective of the formation is to form in the young seminarians the feelings of the Son of God. This task has some implications in the path: to form a man of faith and a prophet, a pastor, and a preacher of the Gospel for the cultures. This is why, with a critical look, we try to analyze the situation in which the young man of nowadays finds himself, underlining his resources and concerns, as well as the various problematic aspects. In the last part, we would discuss the mission of the various protagonists in the work of the formation of future priests.

Petru Ciobanu
Defensor vitae: San Giovanni Paolo II contro l’aborto
The pontificate of John Paul II has remained in the history of mankind and of the Church as an important one from many points of view, known for his contribution to the construction of a more human world, closer to God. The intention of this study is to show that Pope Wojtyła was a true defensor vitae – a great defender of life –, having numerous interventions in favour of life, especially unborn life, life from the womb and threatened one, what the Second Vatican Council called an “abominable crime”, that is abortion. The article presents these interventions being structured in three parts, the milestone being the Encyclical Evangelium vitae of March 25, 1995.

Michail Iulian Echert
Climate change – a global problem with a global answer
Climate change is characterized by a fundamental transformation of the terrestrial system. It involves a variety of effects upon many sectors that influence the climate. These effects have increased in numbers and intensity over the past decades. The irresponsible exploitation of natural resources and excessive pollution through industry contribute to disasters that have a great impact on the environment. In the context of climate change, the direction of international cooperation must be orientated towards a sharing of responsibility between countries, that are called to protect the natural climate system for the welfare of presents and future generations. Hence, the negotiations regarding climate changes must focus on equitability to create concrete conditions for just and proper action. A significative target of international cooperation is growing the capacity of developing states to recognize their responsibility for adaptation and attenuation of gas emissions. This support concretizes thorough developing adaptations strategies, national plans and actions and an openness for international collaboration: understanding the common responsibility, the industrialized countries are called to contribute through financial and technologic support helping emerging countries to fight against climate change.
The solution to climate change lies in collaboration and solidarity, and Pope Francis also emphasizes this in his writings. An integral ecology is needed that does not separate the human from the natural plane, and this vision is one of the great contributions of the encyclical Laudato si’. Integral ecology is not just a moral principle, but a way of seeing and deepening the interdependence between man and nature.