This project examines the history of racism in relation to the Catholic Church. This history amounts to an indictment of the Roman Catholic Church not only as a neutral party in the historical emergence of white supremacy, but a directly linked cause of racism. First, it describes how racism emerged in its modern manifestation in three major dimensions which include the geopolitical, economic, and social. Then, it centers on two general forms of analysis, a cultural analysis, and a philosophical analysis. Drawing on insights from Liberation Theology, various themes are highlighted as they apply to the discussion of race in the U.S. as well as a condemnation of white Christianity. The key argument is that if the good of religion is community, then its opposite is the disintegration of community. In responding to this disintegration, the pastoral proposal suggests that the church's liberative work is the essential work of mission.

Catholic schools are important institutions in the United States educational system. They demand discipline, high academic standards, and religious moral values rooted in Catholic beliefs which are designed to have an impact throughout life (Ciriello, 1998). A critical component in determining school quality lies with the principals' leadership (Sergiovanni, 1997). Principals are critical to successful K-12 schools and must exercise considerable responsibility for establishing collegial learning cultures among the instructional team and stakeholders, including parents, community members, and students. The principal can no longer accomplish such a momentous task alone. Success of today's Catholic relies on the competent and committed performance of many people acting together with common goals. Catholic schools do not mirror those of twenty years ago (Cummings, 2003). Within the past five years, principals in Catholic schools have increasing job responsibilities and expectations. With the implementation of the Los Angeles Archdiocesan Strategic Plan in 2003, Catholic school principals in the Archdiocese must fulfill their primary function as instructional leader, and the additional roles outlined by the plan. Declining enrollment, lack of funds, and a perceived lack of quality, has forced principals to market their school to increase enrollment and solicit substantial funds for the school to remain viable. New roles create a problem for principals lacking training or knowledge in specialized areas. Based on a review of available literature, including (a) distributive leadership, (b) collaborative leadership, (c) shared leadership, and (d) school boards, this study investigated principal perceptions of collaboration and implementation of consultative school boards. This study employed a mixed method research design including a survey, interviews, and a document review of the Los Angeles Archdiocesan Strategic Plan to answer research questions. This study found a leader who needs collaborative leadership skills to lead a quality school involving all stakeholders to assist the school in remaining viable. Principals confirmed a need for greater participation by all stakeholders and assistance in forming consultative school boards. Information gathered contributes to the limited literature on Catholic school leadership, specifically a principals' role in implementing collaborative leadership in Catholic elementary schools through consultative school boards.

This thesis examines the relationship between French female Catholicism during the 17th century and representations of Huron women’s spirituality in Relations des Jésuites. I argue that the nuances of French dévote culture highlight the elevated status of women in Huron indigenous society. These portraits of Huron women by the Jesuits inspired French women to breach the cloister and become missionaries, resulting in newfound religious freedoms for dévotes achieved through imperialistic efforts against the Huron nation.

In 1918, Archbishop Shaw invited the Texas Catholic religious order, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, to New Orleans to manage the St. Louis Cathedral and its filial parish for Southern Italians, St. Mary’s Church. This thesis will look at the personalities and preferentialism that affected this early 20th century transfer of religious power from secular priests to a religious order. Comparing the language used by Archbishop Shaw in correspondence with Oblate Fathers with the language he used with his secular priests will determine that Shaw displayed favoritism in his decision to invite the Oblates. This decision was affected by four primary factors: Shaw’s prior relationship with the Oblates as Bishop of San Antonio, his concerns with archdiocesan finances, his perceived threat of encroaching Protestantism, and politics of discontent amongst his secular clergy. Shaw’s distinct idealistic pragmatism shows the dynamic nature of the institution of the Catholic Church in Louisiana.

The Niles-Merton Songs is a two-opus collection of twenty-two songs by John Jacob Niles setting the poetry of Thomas Merton. The songs are beautiful but contrast from his more popular works in poetry and composition. This project explores reasons why these songs are rarely performed, and gives an overview and analysis of ten selected pieces. The document includes a brief introduction, biographies of Niles and Merton, information detailing Niles’s compositional process, and the technical and artistic requirements for performing the songs, including appropriate age and voice type.

The purpose of this thesis is to understand the way in which religion and politics played a role in the formulation of a cyclical ethos of conflict, focusing in the last and most important civil war of nineteenth-century Colombia: The War of the Thousand Days (1899-1902). A historiographical review was used to understand the interactions between these two structures, and it pointed at a main problem centered in the political use of religion, as well as the transformation of political debate into a matter of political faith. In conclusion, the War of the Thousand days strengthened narratives of vengeance, worsened the situation of the country, and solidified an ethos of conflict in which the State used the Church to legitimize itself against the threats to the status quo of systemic inequality.

This thesis aims to explore the political, social and religious opposition to Liberation Theology in Latin America during the 1960s to 1990s, and the transformation of Christianity. During this period, most Latin American countries underwent social struggles and political repression in which opposition and persecution arose from dictatorial and military governments who labeled those committed to the poor as communists. Liberation Theology emerged as an ecclesial and theological trend committed to the poor, in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s in Latin America. This thesis traces the origins, development, expansion and repression of Liberation Theology. This work maintains that under the Cold War context and the National Security Doctrine, Liberation Theology became a target of political repression because its commitment with the poor placed it as subversive and communist. This research reveals how it was repressed with violence and the promotion of counteracting religious groups, leading to changes in Christianity.

Catholic Action was an international movement that encouraged active promotion of the Catholic faith by ordinary believers. While the idea gained force at a local level in Italy in the early twentieth century, Pope Pius XI gave the philosophy official Church approval in 1931. Catholic Action served as a major intellectual and religious force among American Catholics from the Great Depression until the transformations in Catholicism caused by the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965. The program encouraged American Catholics both to promote the practice of the faith among fellow Church members and to express Catholic teachings in the public realm in order to influence political and economic policy. Because the Church's social teaching articulated strong reservations regarding free-market capitalism, Catholic Action proved compelling to progressives and leftists among the faithful. American Catholic leftists during this era continued a long tradition of social justice activism among Catholic immigrant workers and their descendants. Yet Catholic political mobilization could also serve conservative ends, as when believers gathered in rallies against Hollywood movies or communism. Regardless of whether they engaged in progressive or conservative activism, however, Catholics' organized efforts in the mid-twentieth century fortified their already strong sense of religious identity. This thesis examines two Catholic public figures in Portland, Oregon during the era of Catholic Action: Hall S. Lusk, a lawyer who held many public offices including that of Oregon Supreme Court Justice, and Francis J. Murnane, a leader in the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union. Biographies of the two men demonstrate that the two served as important spokesmen for Catholic principles in mostly non-Catholic Portland. While Lusk viewed Catholic Action as an opportunity to strengthen American Catholics' devotion to the nation, Murnane's version authorized radical dissent against the nation's social and economic structure. An analytical chapter examines how the same Catholic Action philosophy drove the two men in different directions politically but imbued each with a strong sense of Catholic identity. The Conclusion discusses the continued relevance of the study of the Catholic Action period by pointing to the surprising durability of Catholic cultural cohesion throughout American history and to the powerful force that religious faith possesses to inspire activists on both the left and the right.

This thesis discusses six world views concerning development in the Dominican Republic. Catholic and LDS traditions assert that full development is life with God and life with God as a god, respectively. The LDS church has experienced rapid growth in the Dominican Republic, but must deal with less active and illiterate members. The catholic tradition permeates Dominican culture but must deal both with a scarcity of priests and a schism among the clergy.The secular chapter combines many secular views into four, based on lan Mitroff's and Ralph Kilmann's extension of C.G. Jung psychological types. Analytic Scientists have historically dominated secular development and believe that development means amassing specific knowledge. Projects based on the impersonal and the concrete have profited the wealthy while often failing to meet the needs of the poor. Conceptual Theorists seek to amass knowledge across paradigms. Conceptual Humanists desire the enrichment of humanity. Particular Humanists seek to free individuals for self-fulfillment. Persons within all three perspectives have at times ridiculed Analytical Scientists and have offered their own views of how development should be done.To implement programs, people first need to understand their own worldview and then study and/or experience a foreign worldview. Only then will planners be able to implement policies that fit within the foreign society.

Shakespeare's ideas about free will and moral choice, as illustrated in his play Macbeth, may have been influenced by Dante's Inferno. Dante was known to Shakespeare's contemporaries, and therefore most likely to the Bard himself. Current literature has not conclusively addressed this topic, and a focused examination is important, because it offers both an additional perspective on free will in Inferno, and adds to the understanding of free will in Macbeth. Read at face value, Macbeth seems to bear no responsibility for his actions because they were preordained by the fates. Dante believed in free will, and Macbeth bears more than one similarity to his Commedia. Read through a Dantean lens, Macbeth has free will - even if choosing not to exercise it. Through the mere contemplation of the four reasons for not killing Duncan, Macbeth recognizes that he has the choice whether to become a traitor, with the consequences of suffering contrapasso damnation. But Macbeth elects to disregard the wisdom passed down in Dante's Commedia, and knowingly commits a heinously immoral act. Shakespeare uses his predecessor Dante as a tool to advocate for human agency and moral choices in a text that would otherwise be fatalistic. Both then and now, Shakespeare sought to influence his audiences' understanding of their own free will. One first has to believe in possessing free will, in order to use it to make the best possible choices. Dante and Shakespeare reaffirm our possession of free will to help us avoid individual and societal tragedies.