Earthly mission : the Catholic Church and world development / Robert Calderisi.

With 1.2 billion members, the Catholic Church is the world's largest organization and perhaps its most controversial. The Church's obstinacy on matters like clerical celibacy, the role of women, birth control, and the child abuse scandal has alienated many Catholics, especially in the West...

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Bibliographic Details
Online Access: Full Text (via ProQuest)
Main Author: Calderisi, Robert
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: New Haven : Yale University Press, 2013.
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Summary:With 1.2 billion members, the Catholic Church is the world's largest organization and perhaps its most controversial. The Church's obstinacy on matters like clerical celibacy, the role of women, birth control, and the child abuse scandal has alienated many Catholics, especially in the West. Yet in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the Church is highly esteemed for its support of education, health, and social justice. In this deeply informed book, Robert Calderisi unravels the paradoxes of the Catholic Church's role in the developing world over the past 60 years. Has the Catholic Church on balance been a force for good? Calderisi weighs the Church's various missteps and poor decisions against its positive contributions, looking back as far as the Spanish Conquest in Latin America and the arrival of missionaries in Africa and Asia. He also looks forward, highlighting difficult issues that threaten to disrupt the Church's future social role. The author's answer to the question he poses will fascinate Catholic and non-Catholic readers alike, providing a wealth of insights into international affairs, development economics, humanitarian concerns, history, and theology.
Physical Description:1 online resource.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:9780300196764
0300196768
1299788211
9781299788213
Language:English.
Source of Description, Etc. Note:Print version record.