Mokslo ir tikėjimo dialogai. Tiltai. Priedas: Mokslo darbai

2020 m. Lietuvoje paskelbti šventojo popiežiaus Jono Pauliaus II metais, kurie skirti 100-osioms jo gimimo metinėms. Prisiminta jo pastoracinė kelionė į Lietuvą 1993 m. Tai buvo išties įsimintinos dienos. Studijuoti į Romą išvykau 1991 m., Lietuvai atkūrus nepriklausomybę. Tada katalikui Romoje matyti Šventojo Tėvo asmenį iš arti buvo didžiulė nuostaba. Italijos televizija transliuodavo popiežiaus keliones į svetimus kraštus, buvo įdomu stebėti gyvą, nuoširdų bendravimą su šv. Petro įpėdiniu. Šis popiežius bene pirmasis atnaujino tokią praktiką. Iki tol popiežiai paprastai gyvendavo ir veikdavo apsiribodami Vatikano rūmais. Ir štai 1993 m. jis atvyko į Lietuvą. Tarsi viskas jau matyta, išjausta, bet mūsų krašte buvo naujovių: dialogas su kitomis konfesijomis, mūsų „šiaurietiško emocinio šaltumo“ priėmimas, palyginti mažos žmonių minios, santūrus popiežiaus ir vyskupų santykis. Vis tiek tai buvo šventė. Šis vizitas buvo labiau galutinio išsivadavimo iš komunizmo priespaudos simbolis. Mano asmeniniu įsitikinimu, daug labiau pasisekusi popiežiškoji kelionė buvo popiežiaus Pranciškaus prieš keletą metų: visai kita nuotaika, kitos gairės ir kiti rezultatai. 2018 m. popiežiaus Pranciškaus vizitas – tai tikėjimo sustiprinimas.

The article analyzes the theme of the Trinity of God in the encyclicals of John Paul II. St. Pope John Paul II was one of those supreme pastors of the Catholic Church who, during a sufficiently long time of his pontificate (27 years), time wrote many encyclicals, apostolic exhortations, and other Church documents. They fought relentlessly for human rights, against the so-called “realism of socialism”, against communism, against liberal theology. He spoke out against abortion and euthanasia, against “wild capitalism” and liberalism. He spoke out against the women’s priesthood and allowing Catholic priests to marry. So, let’s say his teaching doctrine was conservative but balanced. He saw the signs of the time perfectly and was able to read them. This essentially gave one of the most peaceful times in every sense to the entire Catholic Church. He wrote a total of 14 encyclicals in which he touched on the theme of the Trinity of God in one way or another. It could not be otherwise, because in Christianity, to speak of God means to speak of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. One of the first encyclicals in which the Pope explored the doctrine of the Trinity of God in detail was Redemtor Hominis (1979). This theme was further developed in the encyclicals Dives in misericordia (1980), Dominum et vivificantem (1986). The Pope has always presented the teaching of the Trinity of God in a historical context of how the dogma of the Trinity has been perceived and accepted or rejected from early Christian times to the present day, clearly reflected in the sources of the Christian faith: Scripture, the Bible, the Church Fathers and its traditional official teaching – Magisterium. In dealing with these topics, the encyclical concluded with a pastoral call for the Church to evangelize believers and the world.

The article analyses John Paul II’s activities and ideas in the light of his attitude towards the family. Some of his informal and formal writings and their familistic themes are therefore discussed. The analysis shows that even before the beginning of the pontificate, there was a distinct focus on the marriage and family, which was revealed both in his practical pastoral work and in the themes of his educational, theological, philosophical and fictional writings. After becoming Pope, John Paul II continued to maintain this priority and devoted much of his written and unwritten activities to the pastoral care and current affairs of the family, detailing the tasks of the family in the society and the church, and highlighting its social and theological foundations. Through his teaching, he formed the concept of the family as a “civilization of love” encompassing different generations, which becomes especially relevant in today’s sociocultural context experiencing the consequences of pathological individualism.

In this article we will try to answer the question – what is the meaning of human corporeality? What is its meaning and significance in the life of a particular person? We will analyze and rely on the cycle of John Paul II’s catechesis about the creation of man and woman and the significance of human love, more commonly known as “the theology of the body”. We will rely on the theological understanding of human corporeality of the Roman Catholic Church and will try to answer the question: is it possible to be happy living here on earth? We will ask the question: how do our corporeality and the perception of the limitations of our corporeality affects the understanding of our happiness? Is it possible to have a recipe for a happy life while knowing of man’s tendencies to choose a life through the experience of the body, which can theologically be called as humiliating the human existence itself? We will analyze some models of thinking patterns that despise the human body. The Biblical narrative – recorded in the Book of Genesis – about the creation of the man and the woman will serve to answer to the fundamental questions related to the perception of human corporeality and its destination.

In the modern technologized XXI century, the man, surrounded by advancing medicine and improving conditions of life, stumbles upon the disease and the suffering it causes. In such a world full of disease and pain, the Church shows care for the sick in various spiritual ways. On February 11, 1992 St Pope John Paul II officially introduced the annual commemoration of the World Day of the Sick, when the Catholic Church celebrates the liturgy of Our Lady of Lourdes. The World Day of the Sick was first commemorated on 11 February, 1993. John Paul II pronounced thirteen world days of the sick (1993–2005) and addressed them with special letters-messages. Also, John Paul II introduced the tradition of celebrating the World Day of the Sick every year in an important shrine dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary of a chosen country. The choice of such shrines dedicated to Mary reveals that the Church is attentive to all suffering physically and spiritually, that the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary is called upon in the prayers for health for the sick, and the Mother Mary of Jesus is shown to those caring for the sick as an example of the perfect love of God and neighbour. This article reviews the places of commemoration of the day of the sick associated with the Blessed Virgin Mary in the letters of Pope John Paul II. Discussing the marianism of the places of commemoration of the world days of the sick, the care of Pope John Paul II for the sick and those who perform the service of love for the sick is revealed.

In the 1960s, when the Second Vatican Council and the Moscow Patriarchate invited Christian churches to develop closer ecumenical relationships, the first signs of ecumenism appeared in Lithuania. In 1965, the first ecumenical service was held in the Šilutė Lutheran Church, which was attended by representatives of four denominations. Such ecumenical relations soon became a common phenomenon in Soviet Lithuania. The article analyzes the origins of the ecumenical movement and its development in Lithuania, as well as the reaction of the Commissioner of the Council of Religious Affairs in Moscow for Lithuania to this new religious phenomenon.

The idea of human reason’s positivist self-limitation is used by Benedict XVI and others to characterize an aspect of the long-lasting intellectual situation of Western technological-scientific civilization. Liberating human reason from its positivist self-limitation requires, in general, an overcoming of the historical process of Natural Science’s drifting away from Philosophy. In the case of Physics, it requires a point where both physics and philosophy have to deal together with the same problem. This paper first identifies a problem caused by specific reductionisms in Physics. These reductionisms cause certain deformations of physical knowledge, which in turn makes it desirable for physicists to dispose of an assessment of them. The paper then proposes specific steps in philosophically assessing these reductionisms. Such an assessment in turn is based on common experiential knowledge which is not restricted by any reductionisms. That excludes experiments and, thus, cannot be done with physical means, but only with philosophical ones. All this already constitutes a grain of sand of human reason’s liberation from its positivist self-limitation. It is not any imposition from outside physics, but a desideratum from inside physics. The second purpose of this paper is to briefly present the main ideas of that assessment. Implementing its consequences would bring about an epistemological mindset in Physics as a whole that is open to natural theology. Furthermore, it is suited to mitigate, or even eliminate, a certain quasi-contradiction in a physicist’s mind and professional work. To show that is the third purpose of this paper. Precisely these two issues offer a certain flanking aid to, though not a part of, the Evangelization. More specifically, that flanking aid consists in offering the epistemological mindset of Natural Realism and can be circumscribed by four aspects: the first is a general corroboration of the stance that Natural Realism is the true form of man’s relationship to reality; the second is a sort of contemplative mindset; the third is the elimination or the mitigating of the quasi contradiction referred to in the preceeding paragraph, and which can be called ‘unity of life’. The fourth aspect is a ripe fruit of the three aforementioned: an uncommon quietness and serenity of the spirit.

Self-leadership as self-directed leadership is based on the values of the whole person according to all his/her natural needs to strive not only for their sociobiological satisfaction, but also for God, a spirituality, nobility, higher meaning based on incomparable ideals. The pursuit of values is aided by following leaders, including clergy as moral authorities. This is especially necessary from a point of view of the special psychological experiences in the maritime business. The moral and business authority of the leader is valid for employees as the most important psychological support for their activities. Transcendental motivation is noble and very practical in all cases of professional and personal life. Ideally, becoming a leader is based on authentic following God as the great Leader. There are many opportunities to strengthen the self-leadership of maritime business participants on the basis of secular values. The difference is that parents, brothers or sisters, a friend, a clergyman, TV shows, and movies are more involved in the formation of sociocentric values. Parents, wife, familiar seafarer, teachers, board leaders or leaders in a port company, clergyman, TV shows, films, and NGOs are the most significant moral authorities for the transcendent values of maritime business participants.