Portal:Catholicism/Biography Archive
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Archive of Selected Biographies items
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January 2007
Portal:Catholicism/Biography Archive/January 2007
February 2007
Portal:Catholicism/Biography Archive/February 2007
March 2007
Portal:Catholicism/Biography Archive/March 2007
April 2007
Portal:Catholicism/Biography Archive/April 2007
May 2007
Pope Benedict XVI (Latin: Benedictus PP. XVI; Italian: Benedetto XVI), born Joseph Alois Ratzinger on April 16, 1927, in Marktl am Inn, Bavaria, Germany is the 265th and reigning Pope, the head of the Catholic Church, and as such, Sovereign of the Vatican City State. He was elected on April 19, 2005, in a papal conclave, celebrated his papal inauguration mass on April 24, 2005, and took possession of his cathedral, the Basilica of St. John Lateran, on May 7, 2005. Pope Benedict XVI has both German and Vatican citizenship. He succeeded Pope John Paul II, who died on April 2, 2005.
One of the best-known Catholic theologians since the 1950s and a prolific author, Benedict XVI is viewed as a defender of traditional Catholic doctrine and values. He served as a professor at various German universities and was a theological consultant at the Second Vatican Council before becoming Archbishop of Munich and Freising and Cardinal. At the time of his election as Pope, Benedict had been Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (curial heads lose their positions upon the death of a pope) and was Dean of the College of Cardinals.
June 2007
Blessed Clemens August Graf von Galen (March 16, 1878 – March 22, 1946) was a German count, Bishop of Münster, and Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. An outspoken critic of the Nazi regime, he issued forceful, public denunciations of the Third Reich's euthanasia programs and persecution of the Catholic Church, making him one of the most visible and unrelenting internal voices of dissent against the Nazis.
He was also known as a German patriot and a fierce anti-Communist who favoured the battle at the Eastern Front against Stalin's regime in the Soviet Union.
Von Galen, further, suffered virtual house arrest from 1941 until the end of the war. The numerically most significant waves of deportations of Jews did not start until late 1942, reaching its height only by the middle or even the end of 1944.
In 1945 he told international press that although he and others had been opposed to Nazism, it was their duty to be loyal to their fatherland and thus consider the Allies their enemies.<ref>It must be noted, that this particularly refers to the Soviet Union, Communism in general and the Allied air raids on German cities.
He spent the rest of his life forcefully condemning Allied crimes during the occupation of Germany and the terror of the expulsion of German civilians from former German territories in the east, annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union.
Unexpectedly, at Christmas 1945 it became known that Pope Pius XII would appoint three new German cardinals, one of them Bishop von Galen, who was made a Cardinal on February 18, 1946. On his journey to Rome, he visited almost every POW camp on his way and told the German Wehrmacht soldiers to be brave and to behave decently, and he smuggled a large number of comforting personal messages to their worried families.
He died a few days after his return from Rome in the St. Franziskus Hospital of Münster. His last words were: Ja, Ja, wie Gott es will. Gott lohne es Euch. Gott schütze das liebe Vaterland. Für ihn weiterarbeiten... oh, Du lieber Heiland! ("Yes, Yes, as God wills it. May God repay it to you. May God protect the dear fatherland. Go on working for him... oh, you dear Savior!") He was buried in the family crypt of the Galen family in the destroyed Cathedral of Münster.
July 2007
Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was the King of England, King of Scots, and King of Ireland from 30 January 1649 (de jure) or 29 May 1660 (de facto) until his death. His father Charles I had been executed in 1649, following the English Civil War; the monarchy was then abolished. In 1660, shortly after Cromwell's death, the monarchy was restored under Charles II. He was popularly known as the "Merry Monarch" in reference to the liveliness and hedonism of his court.
His coronation in England would not be until after Cromwell's death and the monarchy's restoration in May 1660, Charles spending most of the intervening time exiled in France.
Much like his father, Charles II struggled for most of his life in his relations with Parliament, although the tensions between the two never reached the same levels of hostility. He was only able to achieve true success towards the end of his reign, by dispensing with Parliament and ruling alone. The principal conflicts of his reign revolved around a number of interlinked issues in domestic and foreign policy, most of which were related to the conflict between Protestants and Catholics then raging across Europe.
He famously fathered numerous illegitimate children, of whom he acknowledged fourteen, but no legitimate children who lived. Some historians, such as Maurice Ashley, believe that Charles was secretly a Roman Catholic for much of his life like his brother James while others, such as Antonia Fraser, disagree. All that is known for certain is that he had converted to Roman Catholicism by the time of his death.
August 2007
Saint Thomas Aquinas (also Thomas of Aquin, or Aquino; c. 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest in the Order of Preachers, a philosopher and theologian in the scholastic tradition, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Universalis and Doctor Communis. He is the foremost classical proponent of natural theology, and the father of the Thomistic school of philosophy and theology. St. Thomas is held in the Roman Catholic Church to be the model teacher for those studying for the priesthood (Code of Canon Law, Can. 252, §3). The work for which he is best-known is the Summa Theologica. One of the 33 Doctors of the Church, he is considered by many Roman Catholics to be the Church's greatest theologian. Consequently, many institutions of learning have been named after him.
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- "Nihil est in intellectu quod non sit prius in sensu." (Nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the senses) – Aquinas's peripatetic axiom
The philosophy of Aquinas has exerted enormous influence on subsequent Christian theology, especially that of the Roman Catholic Church, extending to Western philosophy in general, where he stands as a vehicle and modifier of Aristotelianism. Philosophically, his most important and enduring work is the Summa Theologica, in which he expounds his systematic theology.
September 2007
Pope Pius XII (Latin: Pius PP. XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (March 2, 1876 – October 9, 1958), reigned as the 260th pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City, from March 2, 1939 until his death.
Before election to the papacy, Pacelli served as secretary of the Department of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, papal nuncio and cardinal secretary of state, in which roles he worked to conclude treaties with European nations, most notably the Reichskonkordat with Germany. His leadership of the Catholic Church during World War II and The Holocaust remains the subject of continued historical controversy. After World War II, he was a vocal supporter of lenient policies toward vanquished nations and a staunch opponent of communism.
Pius is one of few popes in recent history to invoke papal infallibility (as opposed to the more general infallibility of the Church) by issuing an apostolic constitution, Munificentissimus Deus, which defines ex cathedra the dogma of the Assumption of Mary. He also promulgated forty encyclicals, including Humani Generis, which is still relevant to the Church's position on evolution. He also decisively eliminated the Italian majority in the College of Cardinals with the Grand Consistory in 1946. Most sedevacantists regard Pope Pius XII as the last true Pope to occupy the Holy See. His ongoing canonization process progressed to the venerable stage on September 2, 2000 under Pope John Paul II.
October 2007
| Pope John Paul II (Latin: Ioannes Paulus PP. II, Italian: Giovanni Paolo II, Polish: Jan Paweł II) born Audio file "Pl-Karol_Józef_Wojtyła.ogg" not found [ˈkaɾɔl ˈjuzεf vɔi̯ˈtɨwa]; 18 May 1920 – 2 April 2005) reigned as the 264th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and Sovereign of the State of the Vatican City from 16 October 1978, until his death, almost 27 years later, making his the second-longest pontificate in modern times after Pius IX's 31-year reign. He is the only Polish pope, and was the first non-Italian pope since the Dutch Adrian VI in the 1520s. He is one of only four people to have been named to the Time 100 for both the 20th century and for a year in the 21st.
His early reign was marked by his opposition to communism, and he is often credited as one of the forces which contributed to its collapse in Central and Eastern Europe.< In the later part of his pontificate, he was notable for speaking against war, fascism, communism, dictatorship, materialism, abortion, contraception, relativism, unrestrained capitalism, and what he deemed the "culture of death".
John Paul II was Pope during a period in which the Catholic Church's influence declined in developed countries but expanded in the Third World. During his reign, the pope traveled extensively, visiting over 100 countries, more than any of his predecessors. He remains one of the most-traveled world leaders in history. He was fluent in numerous languages.
November 2007
,Mother Teresa (born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (August 26, 1910 – September 5, 1997) was an Albanian Roman Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work. For over forty years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying in Kolkata (Calcutta), India.
As the Missionaries of Charity grew under Mother Teresa's leadership, they expanded their ministry to other countries. By the 1970s she had become internationally famed as a humanitarian and advocate for the poor and helpless, due in part to a documentary, and book, Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge. Following her death she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
On September 10, 1946, Teresa experienced what she later described as "the call within the call" while traveling to the Loreto convent in Darjeeling for her annual retreat. "I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. It was an order. To fail would have been to break the faith." She began her missionary work with the poor in 1948, replacing her traditional Loreto habit with a simple white cotton chira decorated with a blue border and then venturing out into the slums." Initially she started a school in Motijhil; soon she started tending to the needs of the destitute and starving. Her efforts quickly caught the attention of Indian officials, including the Prime Minister, who expressed his appreciation.
December 2007
William Edington (d. October 6, 1366) was an English bishop and administrator. He served as bishop of Winchester from 1346 until his death, keeper of the wardrobe from 1341 to 1344, treasurer from 1344 to 1356, and finally as chancellor from 1356 until he retired from royal administration in 1363. Edington’s reforms of the administration — in particular of royal finances — had wide-ranging consequences, and contributed to the English military efficiency in the early stages of the Hundred Years' War. As bishop of Winchester he was responsible for starting an extensive rebuilding of Winchester Cathedral, and for founding Edington Priory, the church of which still stands today.
In 1341, King Edward III named him keeper of the wardrobe. The king also made him treasurer of the realm. In 1356 he was named chancellor, a post he held until his retirement from the national scene in 1363, possibly for health reasons.
While serving in these positions, Edington also held ecclesiastical benefices. In 1335 Orleton collated him to the rectory of Cheriton, Hampshire, and from 1335 to 1346 he was master of St Cross Hospital in Winchester. He was given the prebend of Leighton Manor (Lincoln), of Netheravon (Salisbury) and of Putston (Hereford). His greatest preferment, however, came with his papal appointment to the see of Winchester in 1345.
