#Catholic popes

[portraitsofsaints]

Pope St. John XXIII

1881-1963

Feast Day: October 11

Patronage: Papal Delegates, Patriachary of Venice, Second Vatican CouncilCanonized 2014

Pope John XXIII, affectionally called “The Good Pope”, was born to a large poor sharecropping family. He graduated from college with a doctorate in theology and was ordained a priest in 1904. In 1914 he was drafted into the Italian army and served as a chaplain and stretcher-bearer. Throughout his career, he worked in many church programs including the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, saved thousands of Jews during WWII, was named “Righteous Gentile”, nuncio in France, and Apostolic delegate to Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey. In 1958 he was unexpectedly elected Pope and in 1962, he called an ecumenical council (Vatican II). He died of stomach cancer in 1963.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

[catholic-saint-tournament]

Super short lesson on what an encyclical is: a special letter from the pope that is meant to be addressed to a wide range of people, on a big social issue of the day. The modern concept of papal encyclicals was kicked off by Leo XIII's Rerum novarum, on work and human labor, in which he decried poor working conditions and defended unions and good wages. Papal encyclicals are foundational to what is known as Catholic social teaching or Catholic social thought, the social justice tradition of the Church.

Rerum novarum

Mater et magistra

Pacem in terris

Populorum progressio

Humanae vitae

Evangelium vitae

Fides et ratio

Deus caritas est

Caritas in veritate

Laudato si'

Fratelli tutti

[ausetkmt]

In a brilliant essay, “Decolonial Theology and Changing the Global Church” on the Berkley Forum, Dr. Debora Tonelli says that “At the end of official colonialism, religion has often been the space in which colonized people have fought to build their new identity.” With regard to Indigenous nations and peoples, I would suggest a slight modification of that concept: “...the religion of the invaders has often been the space in which dominated and colonized peoples, those who have survived the intergenerational onslaught, have fought to build a new identity under an imposed system of domination.

My inspiration for that modification comes from a number of Vatican papal decrees issued by various popes during the fifteenth century (1436, 1452, 1454, 1455, 1456, 1481, 1493, 1506, and 1514). The Latin language of those documents is quite useful. It provides insight into the church-state coalition that served as an engine, so to speak, for establishing a system of domination over distant non-Christian lands during the so-called Age of Discovery.

​Are the Papal Bulls Political Documents of Christian Empire?

While present-day Catholic Church experts tend to say that the language of those papal bulls is not part of official Church teaching, this is beside the point. Years ago, in 1992, Bishop (now Archbishop) Charles J. Chaput told me that the papal bulls I was referring to were “political documents.” I think he meant that they are not based on and do not express official church teachings. 

I understand his use of the phrase “political documents” to mean that those papal decrees expressed the political intention of the popes of the Holy See, an intention to extend the system of domination of Western Christendom to distant lands in a spirit of “Christian empire” (Christiani imperii, in the Latin language of the bulls). This was to be accomplished by “reducing the barbarous nations” (ac barbarae nationes deprimantur) to subjection or domination. 

The more egregious political language of those documents, going back to the Dum Diversas of 1452, expressed the directive to “invade, capture, vanquish, and subdue” non-Christians; “reduce their persons to perpetual slavery”; “take away all their possessions and property”; and “convert” the land, meaning to unlawfully or wrongfully take away that which belongs to another. 

That kind of language provides us with the insight into what happens when free and independent nations and peoples have been invaded and deadly colonial patterns have been brutally imposed on them for generations, in the name of “the state” and Jesus. A resulting system of domination will then become “the space” within which Dr. Tonelli says that colonized people have fought to build “a new identity,” and within which they will perhaps “struggle for independence.” 

However, this “new” identity will be a “colonized” rather than a liberated one. The colonized will then be working toward a form of independence under and subject to the imposed Christian European system of domination. Curiously, Dr. Tonelli’s account does not envision dominated (colonized) nations and peoples working to restore their original free and independent existence, by liberating themselves from the imposed system of Christian empire and domination.

​Dominorum Christianorum: Christian Dominators

During a 2016 meeting with the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, I said to Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, “With respect, I believe there is much of your own history you don’t know. Let me ask you, have you ever actually read the papal bulls” from the fifteenth century? He replied, “No, I must confess.” The point being that most Catholics and even some of the highest Church officials have never studied the Latin language of those Church documents, and certainly not from an Original Nations or Indigenous peoples’ perspective.

A book published by the U.S. Library of Congress, just a few years ago, contains replicas of the papal bull of September 26, 1493, the Dudum Siquidem. That line is taken from the middle of the papal bull dated May 3, 1493, “que sub dominio actuali temporali aliquorum dominorum Christianorum constitute non essent.” This refers to lands discovered and to be discovered in the future “that were not established under the domination of any Christian dominators.”

Whether the intent of domination expressed by that language is part of “official Church teachings” is irrelevant in my view. What is relevant is that, throughout the world, the present-day context and conditions experienced by “Indigenous” nations and peoples is an outgrowth of the patterns of domination and dehumanization expressed in those many documents issued centuries ago by the Holy See. 

In State of the World’s Indigenous People (2009), published by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, there is section titled “The Concept of Indigenous Peoples.” After saying that no specific definition has been “adopted by any United Nations-system body,” an example of a “working definition” is provided. It refers to “Indigenous communities, peoples and nations” which have “a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories.” Terms such as “pre-invasion” and “pre-colonial” suggests a post-invasion and post-colonial period, or, in other words, after the claim of a right of domination has been asserted and maintained.

Furthermore, the international working definition says that Indigenous peoples “consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing on those territories, or parts of them,” which means “now dominating.” It also says that Indigenous communities, peoples, and nations “form at present non-dominant sectors of society...” The opposite of the non-dominant is the dominant, or the dominating states, which are the non-Indigenous. Despite these clear connections, the UN working definition never uses the word domination. Nor does it focus on the fact that the phrase “Indigenous peoples” is accurately interpreted as meaning “dominated peoples.” 

Here’s one thing the Vatican papal bulls are able to teach us: Over a period of more than five centuries, a system of domination (the dominio of the dominorum Christianorum) was globalized by means of the language patterns found in the Vatican papal bulls of the fifteenth century. 

That system now serves as the linguistic and behavioral “space” in which colonized Indigenous peoples, without being aware of it, have been working to build an identity as dominated peoples within the framework of the United Nations, which is an organization of “states” of domination. The question arises: How do we end the global system of domination and its devastating effects on the planet?

[disacurveball]

he saw that he could do possibly the funniest thing imaginable and did it.

“There is an air of faggotry in the Vatican”

[charlesoberonn]

[katabay]

ONCE UPON A TIME, THERE WAS A KNIGHT...

the visual inspiration for this was a combination of Frederic William Burton's Meeting on the Turret Stairs and also Bernardo Cavallino's The vision of St. Dominic receiving the Rosary from the Virgin

this was supposed to be just a one off illustration to get the thoughts out of my system, but then I started thinking about medieval politics and warfare and plagues and a castle and home as both a place of refuge, a prison, and a tomb, so perhaps they will end up as ex voto characters as well.

you may say, hey! that rosary looks like it has too many beads! it's a fifteen decade rosary, probably. dominicans are really into marian devotions. it works out.

also. spiral style stair cases. oh boy. it was that unexpectedly more difficult than I originally thought it would be to draw. the more I think about it, the less I understand them, even though I had a million photos of the stairs in front of me while I was drawing it.

⭐ I have a tip jar (ko-fi)!

⭐ and other places I’m at! bsky / pixiv / pillowfort /cohost / cara.app

[fish-tetris]

thinking about how law was (apparently??) being raised in the one piece catholic church™. thinking about how he specifically refers to the victories of the strawhats as miracles. thinking about how luffy has a god's devil fruit. thinking about law inclining his head and closing his eyes like he's praying towards the end of gear 5 luffy fighting kaido. is this anything.

[flustered-art]

CONCLAVE 2024

I know it isn’t the same but since we don’t have the vape gifs yet I thought maybe this could hold you guys over 🚬

[sleepyghostmp3]

LUCE (Catholic Anime mascot) fan art

[portraitsofsaints]

VenerablePope Pius XII

1876-1958

Feast Day: October 9

Papacy: 1939-1958

Motto: Opus Justitiae Pax

Eugenio Pacelli was born to an Italian family and served the church in many roles including Apostolic Nuncio to Bavaria. His diplomatic style was to be cautious and impartial drafting concordant (a Papal agreement aimed at preserving the Church’s privileges and freedom of action within a country) instead of confrontation. In 1939, he was elected pope and took the name, Pius XII. His papacy, covering the time of WWII and the communist cold war, was tumultuous and controversial. He sought to avoid brutal reprisals, yet saved thousands of Jews. (more than any government) In 1950, he solemnly declared that Mary was assumed into heaven, body, and soul. This is a belief held by the Church from the beginning.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

[catholic-saint-tournament]

Pope John XXIII

Pope JP2

Pope Paul VI

Pope Pius X

oh oh oh oh getting some popes all up in here!!!

I have some OPINIONS about these men! I love John XXIII, thank you for bringing us Vatican 2, my man.

Pope JP2, I like you, I do, but your Theology of the Body really needed more work.

Pope Paul VI, I also like you very much, but I feel you could have listened better at the sessions during the latter half of Vatican 2.

Pope Pius X, I don't know much about you and I'm sorry there are weird sedevacantists who founded a society in your name and continue being weird.

anyway, new saints for our list! everyone will probably need another nomination to make it to the modern bracket!

[mortonsalts]

CONCLAVE (2024) dir. Edward Berger

[mysharona1987]

IDF: “We are the most moral army in the world.”

Guys, you literally bombed a church full of nuns.

[theladyconstellationmain]

"In this age of artificial intelligence, we cannot forget that poetry and love are necessary to save our humanity. No algorithm will ever be able to capture, for example, the nostalgia that all of us feel, whatever our age, and wherever we live, when we recall how we first used a fork to seal the edges of the pies that we helped our mothers or grandmothers to make at home. It was a moment of culinary apprenticeship, somewhere between child-play and adulthood, when we first felt responsible for working and helping one another. Along with the fork, I could also mention thousands of other little things that are a precious part of everyone’s life: a smile we elicited by telling a joke, a picture we sketched in the light of a window, the first game of soccer we played with a rag ball, the worms we collected in a shoebox, a flower we pressed in the pages of a book, our concern for a fledgling bird fallen from its nest, a wish we made in plucking a daisy. All these little things, ordinary in themselves yet extraordinary for us, can never be captured by algorithms. The fork, the joke, the window, the ball, the shoebox, the book, the bird, the flower: all of these live on as precious memories “kept” deep in our heart.

This profound core, present in every man and woman, is not that of the soul, but of the entire person in his or her unique psychosomatic identity. Everything finds its unity in the heart, which can be the dwelling-place of love in all its spiritual, psychic and even physical dimensions. In a word, if love reigns in our heart, we become, in a complete and luminous way, the persons we are meant to be, for every human being is created above all else for love. In the deepest fibre of our being, we were made to love and to be loved."

-Pope Francis Dilexit Nos (2024, 20-21)

[positivefumo]

so a mascot for Catholic church jubilee just dropped

[flowernets]

i cant get out of here even if i wanted to