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This dissertation attempts to rebuild the American Catholic brand fractured by the priests' sexual abuse scandals, using Isocrates' theory of self-defense and self-representation as found in his Antidosis. The work conceptualizes the Catholic Church as a brand because it is a religious organization with an army of followers, is well-known, and is an indisputable leader in the provision of education, healthcare, and social welfare, thereby playing an important role in the socio-cultural consciousness of many Americans. Built over centuries of service to its members and the country, the Catholic brand from the 1960s to the dawn of the twenty-first century had enjoyed high moral authority as a religious organization that promoted the dignity of the human person and acted as an ethically responsible corporate citizen in American society. However, such moral authority crumbled following the 2002 Boston Globe revelations that for decades the Church's hierarchy in the Archdiocese of Boston had sexually preyed on innocent children and vulnerable members. The result has been a crisis of faith and trust, lasting for over a decade in spite of the Church's efforts to create a safe environment for its children and vulnerable members and to hold predator priests accountable.<br> This dissertation holds the view that, for the Church in America to rebuild its brand and thereby restore its fractured image and reputation, it must adopt a rebranding model based on Isocrates' theory of self-defense and self-representation/characterization. Consistent with the Isocratean rebranding model, the American Catholic Church must embrace its core identity as a model institutional citizen that promotes the dignity of the human person, differentiate and dissociate itself from predator priests and their episcopal supporters, establish goodwill toward stakeholders by setting up monuments to memorialize abuse victims, organizing annual events for victims to tell their stories, holding abusive clergy and irresponsible bishops accountable, allowing the lay faithful to play an active role in priestly formation, being more transparent in its handling of sexual abuse cases, and requiring seminarians and priests to undergo frequent sexual assault and sexual harassment training. Moreover, the ecclesial community must reconcile with victims by honestly confessing its complicity in the tragedy of the abuse and seeking forgiveness. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Communication and Rhetorical Studies / PhD; / Dissertation;

Thesis advisor: Jane E. Regan / Today's Christian communities find themselves situated within a dynamic framework of "otherness" in relationship to society in general, as well as in ecumenical and interreligious contexts. In addition to this complex ad-extra environment, there are also intra-ecclesial tensions within the Catholic community that arise from its own pluralistic reality, hindering the church from being the kind of community it is called to be. Chapter One acknowledges these concerns, and suggests that against such a pluralistic backdrop, the human need for connection and relationality cannot be overvalued. Toward this end, conversation as a means toward building mutuality cannot be overlooked. Indeed, "dialogue" has become a buzzword in religious, business, social and political circles, as people recognize the value of having spaces of meaningful relationship with those "other" than themselves. Yet, a sense of true connection--one that might be more adequately expressed by "conversation" and that supports a mutual movement toward understandings of difference in a spirit of reverence--continues to elude. The impoverished condition of conversation within the church raises questions: why isn't life-giving, intra-ecclesial conversation happening? Why aren't we having meaningful interactions that lead to an expanded sense of honoring the other, and a desire to come together in understanding, reciprocity and mutual support, in view of the church's ministry? Chapter Two suggests that one way to begin addressing the issue of creating space for more effective conversation within a pluralistic church broadly considered, is to look to small faith communities within the church as "communities of practice" in which adult learning can occur. These small faith communities of practice, such as parish councils, faith-sharing groups, ministerial teams, etc., are not merely task-oriented groups, focused on management strategies, business tactics or the mere exercise of democracy in their ways of being together. In an ecclesial context, they are communities intent on being and becoming groups that learn together and create conditions that support a lived adult faith. Because conversation factors largely in adult learning, attending to and valuing conversation in these small faith communities can lead to a "habitus of conversation" that might serve the wider ecclesial community as a whole. To realize such a "habitus of conversation", small faith communities must be supported by inner convictions and shored up by a theological perspective that points toward this stance, a perspective that is capable of upholding a life of koinonia/communio and sustaining it over the long haul required by the hard work of meaningful conversation. The theological lens that grounds such a "habitus of conversation" is a living Trinitarian faith. Exploring the dialogic dynamism of Godself reveals the consequent relationality of the human person made in Imago Dei. The dialogic nature of Godself thus provides a rich theological warrant for the anthropological stance that can support conversation as a theological posture and an educational project. This is the topic of Chapter Three. Chapter Four looks to established dialogical teaching methods as a resource for religious education. Within small faith communities, fostering such a "habitus of conversation" toward the teleos of koinonia/communio is a unique contribution that adult faith formation can offer, providing a concrete locus for enacting a conversational pedagogy that might suggest a model for venues beyond religious education itself, at the service of the broader Catholic Christian community as a whole. With this in mind, Chapter Five concludes the dissertation by addressing pedagogical practices that religious educators can resource as a framework for placing conversation at the center of educating in faith. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:27:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Antonio Carlos Iancoski Portes.pdf: 672134 bytes, checksum: b37830c5c8390962b20c316af6292689 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-08-25 / The present essay has a goal an analytical indenture in History, in the Sixties and Seventies, analyzing the Latin American Catholic Church performance in this period, especially, in the texts and contexts of the general Assemblies of the Medellin and Puebla CELAM. In that time, many worldwide sociocultural manifestations of contesting character were taking place, their mainly characteristic was the dissatisfaction with the reality. At the political scope, idealism, the enthusiasm in the fighting spirit of the people and the anxiety to social transformation, mainly the youth, which adhered more and more to the revolutionary movements were evident. All this social effusion comes to Latin America very strongly. Against that conjuncture, the Catholic Church, as a human institution that is not above History and is taken by it because it s involved by the social, political, cultural and economical aspects of that time, assumed the mission to enlighten these realities using evangelical values. Through a bibliographical research and oral sources we realized that, against the current social effusion, the Catholic Church, fitting into the social reality, supported the communal fights, which were seeking the transformation of the injustice and violent realities that were so evident in Latin America in the period. The Catholic Church stopped being just an observer or a distant advisor about the social problems and became the leading part in the indispensable changes to the Latin America people. Major Ecclesiastic sections, overcoming the ideology of the medieval Christianity and alliances with the elites and constituted powers in behalf of a social order maintenance, assume the communal fights to complete liberation of the people in the continent. The Latin American bishops, in Medellin and Puebla, knew how to realize the society s call and helped in the process of transformation. Interpreting the new signs of the time , the bishops encourage the catholic people to take the responsibility to the evangelical values. Because of this, the documents of Medellin and Puebla Assemblies became efficient instruments that base on the performance of the Christian Catholics in the society. From these, the Catholic Church moves form social place and becomes a special organization place of the communal fights for transformation / O presente trabalho de pesquisa objetivou um recorte analítico na História, a saber, nas décadas de 1960 e 1970, analisando a atuação da Igreja Católica Latino-Americana nesse período, sobretudo, nos textos e contextos das Assembléias Gerais do CELAM de Medellín e Puebla. Fervilhavam, nessa época, em âmbito mundial manifestações sócio-culturais de caráter contestatório, cuja característica mais importante era o inconformismo com a realidade. No âmbito da política era evidente o idealismo, o entusiasmo no espírito de luta do povo e o anseio por transformação social, principalmente da juventude, que aderia em grande escala aos movimentos revolucionários. Toda essa efervescência social chega à América Latina com muita força. Frente àquela conjuntura, a Igreja Católica, enquanto instituição humana que não está acima da História, e é condicionada pela mesma, estando envolvida pelos aspectos sociais, políticos, culturais e econômicos de cada época, assumiu de maneira ímpar a missão de iluminar essas realidades com os valores evangélicos. Por meio de uma pesquisa bibliográfica e fontes orais constatamos que, diante da ebulição social em andamento, a Igreja Católica, inserindo-se na realidade social, colocou-se ao lado das lutas populares que buscavam a transformação das realidades de injustiça e violência em evidência na América Latina naquele período. A Igreja Católica deixou de ser apenas uma observadora e conselheira à distância sobre os problemas sociais e se fez agente e protagonista nas mudanças imprescindíveis para os povos latino-americanos. Grandes setores eclesiásticos, superando a ideologia da cristandade medieval, de alianças com as elites e poderes constituídos em nome da manutenção da ordem social, assumem as lutas populares em vista da libertação integral do ser humano do continente. Os bispos latino-americanos, presentes em Medellín e Puebla, souberam perceber os clamores que surgiam da sociedade e deram respaldo ao processo de transformação. Interpretando os novos sinais dos tempos , os bispos incentivam os cristãos católicos a assumirem seu compromisso com os valores evangélicos. Por isso, os documentos das Assembléias de Medellín e Puebla se tornam instrumentos eficazes que fundamentam a atuação dos cristãos católicos na sociedade. A partir deles a Igreja Católica muda de lugar social e torna-se espaço privilegiado de organização das lutas populares por transformação