MODERN CHURCH

a) Discovery of America
b) Renaissance
c) Protestant Reform
d) Council of Trento
e) Splendor of the Mystic
f) Splendor of the Missions
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a) Discovery of America

SS: Spanish's    PP: Portugueses    IR: Irish    FR: French    EE: English’s    IT: Italians
JJ: jesuits    FF: Franciscans    DD: Dominicans    CC: Carmelites

b) Renaissance

        Trying to recover positive elements from the Ancient Age, which had been lost in the Medieval Age, the European society invented a new age that they called Renaissance.

        These new ideas were also thought of inside the church. Attempts for rebirth of the old customs and tastes of the Ancient Church were some examples.

        In Holland the famous devotio moderna, which was based on the philosophy of Erasmus of Rotterdam and on Thomas of Kempis’ gospel meditations, flourished.

        In Italy the art of Da Vinci, Bernini and Michel Angelo were led to top splendor. They were all united by the charitable life of the Swedish queen, Christine.

        In France the scholastic science of St. Thomas Aquinas in the University of Sorbonne-Paris took root.

        In Spain Cardinal Cisneros and the Catholic kings restored the study of old literature in the Universities of Salamanca and Alcala. They also spread Christianity to the "newly-discovered" countries.

        It was only in Germany that Church renewal became impossible. It became unworkable because of Martin Luther.

c) Protestant Reform

c.1) Luther

        He was a young German Augustinian monk who experienced a crisis of scruples. Luther could not understand the flaws of the Church’s members. After leaving his ninety-five famous theses at Cathedral of Wittenberg’s door, Luther began his "protests" against the pope, stating that:

-the Church can’t forgive our trespasses,
-the Church can’t receive money.

c.2) Followers of Luther

        They took advantage of Luther’s protests which were actually sincere in the beginning by adding fuel to the fire. Calvin, Zwingli and other deformed religious people began propagating hatred and curses against the pope across the northern European continent. They used Luther’s original theses: "faith alone, scriptures alone" as an excuse for destroying Catholic tradition and the benevolent assistance being handed out by Catholics. All of them declared that:

-people can do anything that they want and it won’t matter,
-the gospel can be interpreted in any way that a person pleases.

        Emperor Charles V in Liege and Koln, and the European Empire in 1521’s Diet of Worms condemned Luther’s theses.

d) The Council of Trent

d.1) External Expectation

        In spite of the religious divisions created by Luther around northern Europe and his succeeding challenges against the Catholic world, the Church reacted as it had never done before. "This is not a dirty mirror, but a broken one" St. Therese of Avila said.

        The Council of Trent (1545-1563) and its main fruit, the Peace of Westphalia, (1648) which happened after the 100 years of war between protestants and Catholics and was behind the definitive distribution of kingdoms (Protestants would occupy the north of the Rhine while the south would be for Catholics), made all of these possible.

d.2) Inner Reformation

        In the midst of sessions, strikes and school works, old structures and positions of the Church were fully revamped by the active members of the Council of Trent which included 4 papal ambassadors, 150 bishops, 19 foreign ambassadors and general abbots. The revamp was done in order to respond correctly to the challenges of Protestants.

        This inner reformation started the majesty of the gospel, a new hierarchical structure, a deeper ecclesiastical science, and the missions’ splendor around the world.

e) Splendor of the Mystic

        This was the true soul of the Counter-Reformation, the catholic spiritual display of thousands of anonymous Christians who struggled against the Lutheran campaign that was in the way of holiness. It’s good to emphasize:

-St. Ignatius of Loyola. A Spanish Jesuit, he was the founder of the Society of Jesus. After studying at the University of Paris, he taught spiritual training across Old Europe, and recruited several young people in order to spiritually rebuild the souls in the Old and New World;

-St. Therese of Avila. A Spanish Carmelite, she, with St. John of the Cross, was the main force behind the spiritual renewal of all religious congregations. Therese of Jesus had been considered the highest mystical person in history because of her deep relationship with God;

-St. Catherine of Siena. An Italian Dominican, she was the priests and Roman clergies’ main source of inspiration when it came to leading a spiritual life. She insisted that observance of high dignity should be practiced by the religious around the world;

-St. Bridget of Sweden. After being renounced the Swedish throne due to her non-acceptance of Protestantism, Bridget dedicated her life in keeping the sick and most needy people around the European continent.

f) Splendor of the Missions

        At the same time that Europe was reviving its own structures, the discovery of America in 1492 opened new and unusual roads in order to make way for external evangelization. Europe exerted great effort while Spain and the different congregations did everything that they could possibly do.

f.1) In America

        The Franciscan priests preached in United States and Canada while establishing the cities of San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Saint Louis and the main capitals of California, Arizona, Florida and Quebec. In Central America, the cities of San Juan of Puerto Rico, San Jose of Costa Rica, and El Salvador etc. were also founded. In South America, the Jesuit fathers converted people to Christianity. They founded universities and cultural centers in Lima, Buenos Aires, Asunción and Santiago of Chile, too.

f.2) In Africa

        The most beautiful continent was evangelized primarily by French and Belgian missioners. These missionaries were martyred in the north and Muslim areas. A lot of schools and hospitals were created in the poorest places, most of which belonging to central and south Africa.

f.3) In Asia

        Saint Francis Xavier, a Spanish Jesuit and patron of the modern missions, proclaimed the gospel across all Africa, India, southern Asian islands (e.g. Indonesia, Micronesia, Malaysia…), the Far East, Japan and China. Oceania was attended by British and Irish monks. Tibet and Asian mountains witnessed the missions done by the Italian Jesuit fathers, Ricci and Nobilli, who used acculturation methods. The Philippines became the most important Catholic country in Asia.

 

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