The presented work focuses on the topic of priests of selected Christian Churches, and their potential possibility to live in marriage. In order to view pastors comprehensively, it is essential to define who a priest is, how it is possible to become one, how to terminate this status, what the rights, duties and punishments for the priests are and what hierarchy each Church has. A historical overview of the priests' celibacy in the history of the Church and specifically in Czech history is also included in the diploma paper, as well as theology of celibacy. Roman-Catholic Church, Orthodox Church in the Czech Lands and Slovakia and Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren are selected for the purpose of this work.

The present study explores how the guiding principles and aspirations of the II Vatican Council concerning the theological status and significance of the laity and their involvement in the apostolic mission of God come to fruition in the `movement church' within the Roman Catholic Church of Hungary. The restoration of the lay status and function, distorted through the centuries in the Roman Catholic Church worldwide, is a crucial and indispensable task of the Roman Catholic Church if she wants to fulfil her prophetic, pastoral and holistic mission. This is indispensable for the Church to become what she really is, the eschatological people of God. Two revival movements in the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary are studied: the Bokor Movement and the Roman Catholic Charismatic Movement from the perspective of the role of the laity. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th. (Missiology)

This thesis examines the missionary work of the Italian Capuchin Lorenzo da Brindisi. Renowned in his own day as a preacher, Bible scholar, missionary, chaplain, and diplomat, as well as vicar general of his Order, Lorenzo led the first organised, papally-commissioned Capuchin mission among the non-Catholics of Bohemia in the Holy Roman Empire from 1599 to 1602, and returned there, again under papal mandate, from 1606 to 1613. This thesis examines Lorenzo’s evangelistic and polemical activities in Central Europe in order to shed light on some of the ways the Capuchins laboured in religiously divided territories to confirm Catholics in their faith and to win over heretics. The introduction explains, principally, the thesis’s purpose and the historiographical background. Chapter one provides a brief biographical sketch of Lorenzo’s life followed by details of his afterlife. Chapter two examines his leading role in establishing the Capuchins’ new Commissariate of Bohemia-Austria-Styria in 1600, and specifically its first three friaries in Prague, Vienna, and Graz. Chapter three treats his preaching against heresy. Chapter four focuses on how Lorenzo, while in Prague, involved himself directly in theological disputations with two different Lutheran preachers. The first dispute, with Polykarp Leyser, took place in July 1607, and dealt with good works and justification. The second, with a Lutheran whose name is not known for certain, and which occurred in August 1610, concerned Catholic veneration of the Virgin Mary. Chapter five analyses the Lutheranismi hypotyposis, Lorenzo’s literary refutation of Lutheranism following additional contact with Polykarp Leyser in 1607. The conclusion considers briefly the effectiveness of Lorenzo’s apostolate and closes with a review of the thesis as a whole.

The dissertation deals with the historical activities of the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy of St. Charles Borromeo in České Budějovice between the years 1850 - 1956. The thesis is especially based on the study of archival materials. Each chapter comprehensively describes the history of the three branches where the religious Sisters performed their activities. The branches are listed in chronological order of when they were established in the city. A public hospital is mentioned first, followed by an institutional complex of orphanages and schools at the former Vienna gate, and the group is concluded with an asylum for elderly people in need established in 1888. Particular attention is paid to the circumstances concerning the establishment of each branch, its background, ordinary and extraordinary days that were mostly mentioned in local chronicles; and two local superiors who had a major impact on the development and character of the community are also mentioned in the dissertation. Besides the observation of the beginnings and subsequent unprecedented development of community activities within the city frame, the text also includes an independent final chapter focused on events associated with the definitive end after the year 1948. Orientation in the topic and logical sequence of...

This Master's thesis named "Approaches of Czech Churches towards Euthanasia" studies the topic of euthanasia through position papers of four selected churches active in the Czech Republic. The four examined churches are Roman Catholic Church, Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, and Czechoslovak Hussite Church whereas documents published by ecumenical panels are studied as well. The goal of the thesis is to create a statement overview of these four churches. First, the work introduces the topic itself, explains basic terms and development of different approaches. Second, it analyses position papers of examined churches which are subsequently compared in order to find the aspects which are common to the all four churches.

Au sein de l’Église catholique, les critères d’appartenance à une Église sui iuris ont évolué dans l’histoire du droit canonique notamment à l’occasion de la promulgation encore récente du code latin de 1983 et du code des canons des Églises orientales de 1990. Le droit positif témoigne du souci du législateur de privilégier désormais l’objectivité du critère, sans empêcher qu’interviennent des éléments d’appréciation liés à la volonté des personnes qui souhaitent changer de rite par exemple à l’occasion de leur mariage. La loi et la praxis du Saint Siège manifestent cette recherche difficile d’un équilibre entre un déterminisme objectif de l’appartenance rituelle et une liberté subjective de choisir son rite ou d’en changer. Mais, les mutations sociales et structurelles ecclésiales récentes, caractérisées par la multiplication de structures ecclésiastiques à caractère personnel dans le monde latin, qui font droit à la volonté subjective des fidèles et l’augmentation importante du nombre des catholiques orientaux en diaspora, conduisent à s’interroger sur la pertinence de privilégier le critère territorial par rapport au critère personnel des structures ecclésiales orientales. Sauf à les condamner à la marginalité, voire à la disparition, il convient désormais de réfléchir sur le lien institutionnel qui unit les Églises de droit propre à leurs fidèles. Le poids de l’histoire, celui des relations avec les autres Églises orientales orthodoxes et enfin celui de la tradition canonique doivent être à la fois intégrés et dépassés pour ne pas enfermer les Églises orientales catholiques dans une logique mortifère. / Within the Catholic Church, the criteria for belonging to a sui iuris Church have evolved throughout the history of Canon Law, particularly after the fairly recent promulgation of the Latin Code in 1983 and of the Code of the Canons of the Eastern Churches in 1990. Positive Law is proof of the care the legislator now takes to give priority to the objectivity of the criteria, whilst not preventing other elements to be taken into account, such as the desire of people who wish to change the rite, for example in the case of their marriage. Holy See law and Praxis are a witness to this difficult search for a balance between an objective determinism concerning adherence to the ritual and a subjective freedom to choose one’s rite or to modify it. However, society and Church structures have changed in recent years, changes which are characterized by the multiplication of ecclesiastical structures with a personal character in the Latin world, giving the Faithful the right to have their own personal wishes; and a growing number of Eastern Church members in Diaspora. This has led us to reconsider whether it is now at all pertinent to favour territorial criteria as opposed to personal ones in Eastern Church structures. Unless we wish to condemn them to a marginal position or even to disappear altogether, we must now reflect carefully on the institutional link between the Sui Iuris Churches and their Faithful. The weight of History, of the link with the other Eastern Orthodox Churches, and of the tradition of Canon Law must be simultaneously integrated and transcended if Eastern Catholic Churches are not to be trapped within a death-inducing logic.

Cette thèse porte sur les initiatives et les stratégies de recherches de solutions politiques au conflit nord-irlandais, engagées par les gouvernements britanniques et irlandais depuis les années 1970. L’enjeu est d’expliquer les possibilités de solutions en privilégiant l’angle d’approche de sortie du conflit, adopté par Londres, Belfast et Dublin. L’espoir de paix en Irlande du Nord s’amorce avec le cessez-le-feu de l’IRA de 1994 qui marque un tournant dans l’histoire du conflit. Dès lors, la recherche d’une issue est engagée dans la voie du compromis [partage des pouvoirs entre la minorité catholique et la majorité protestante et lutte contre les systèmes de discrimination et d’inégalités]. Avec l’engagement de ce processus de paix et l’implication de l’Union européenne, à travers des programmes de paix et de réconciliation va émerger un désir de réconciliation intercommunautaire [entre catholiques et protestants]. L’examen de l’Accord de paix du Vendredi Saint de 1998 a révélé que l’expérience nord-irlandaise fournit un mode opératoire de négociation de sortie du conflit par un compromis suis generis. Cette configuration de la paix multidimensionnelle est devenue une métaphore européenne sur les principes de prévention et de règlement des conflits. L’émergence d’un « paradigme » nord-irlandais constitue l’objet de cette étude sur les formes de mobilisation pour la paix et la prévention des conflits dans l’Union européenne. / This thesis deals with political initiatives and efforts to achieve solutions to the Northern Irish conflict, by examining policies instituted by the British and Irish Governments since the 1970s. The purpose is to explain how possible solutions to the conflict were envisioned by focusing on differing approaches to conflict resolution as adopted by London, Belfast and Dublin. The hope for peace in Northern Ireland is interconnected with the ceasefire of the IRA in 1994 that marks a turning point in the history of the conflict. Therefore, the quest for a peaceful outcome involved engagement in the path of the compromise and power sharing between the Catholic minority and the Protestant majority as well as the fight against discrimination and inequality. With the commitment of this peace process, the involvement of the European Union through peace and reconciliation programmes helped to foster a desire for inter-community reconciliation. The examination of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 reveals that the Northern Ireland experience provides a procedure to negotiate the end of the conflict by sui generis compromise. This multidimensional approach and configuration of peace process has become a European metaphor for conflict prevention and resolution principles. The object of this study is consequently to show the emergence of a Northern Irish « paradigm » that can provide the basis for forms of mobilization for peace and conflict prevention in the European Union.

The present study explores how the guiding principles and aspirations of the II Vatican Council concerning the theological status and significance of the laity and their involvement in the apostolic mission of God come to fruition in the `movement church' within the Roman Catholic Church of Hungary. The restoration of the lay status and function, distorted through the centuries in the Roman Catholic Church worldwide, is a crucial and indispensable task of the Roman Catholic Church if she wants to fulfil her prophetic, pastoral and holistic mission. This is indispensable for the Church to become what she really is, the eschatological people of God. Two revival movements in the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary are studied: the Bokor Movement and the Roman Catholic Charismatic Movement from the perspective of the role of the laity. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th. (Missiology)

The thesis is aimed on the role of seniors in the society of the west type with the stress on the society in the Czech Republic. In the theoretical part there is discussed the problematic of active life-conception in old years as the important condition of social health of both senior-ladies and senior-men. In next section there are presented myths having the base in the oldness and there are outlined the possibilities that seniors have in this area in the Czech Republic. Further, in the work there are discussed main problems that seniors have in recent society preferring youthfulness and sexual activity.In the practical part of the thesis there are presented some significant results of the research ``Senior-women in Roman Catholic Church{\crqq} that surveys the active life-conception, life style and life-contentment of its members older than sixty five years. There is discussed the influence of dissimilarities having the base in the difference in education or social status of senior-women or whether they live in the city or in a small village.

As the topic for my diploma thesis I{\crq}ve chosen The Persecution of the Zlín-district-bound Roman Catholic Church by the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia in 1948 {--} 1960 from the Viewpoint of Archival Documents. I{\crq}ve set up two goals for this thesis. The primary goal of this work is to map the fates of each church organization, institution and order that were present in then Gottwaldov {--} Zlín district. The secondary goal, which serves as a complement to the primary one, is to show a fracture of the anti-church measurements, which the Gottwaldov-district-bound church was struck by, and the attitude of clergymen as well as that of laics towards them. The thesis is divided into several thematic fields, which depict individual areas of local church{\crq}s prosecution.