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  • Notes and Comments
  • Raymond A. Mentzer

Call for Papers, American Catholic Historical Association, Chicago, January 2012

In keeping with the American Historical Association’s theme of “Communities and Networks,” the American Catholic Historical Association seeks panels that explore the various dimensions of Catholicism in its engagement with society and culture. The 2012 ACHA annual meeting in Chicago provides scholars with the opportunity to reflect on a range of topics from transnational to local such as Catholic progressivism, the importance of material culture, and the changing role of the laity in relation to the institutional church. Topics regarding lay-directed reforms, the impact of religious sexual misconduct, the downsizing of Roman Catholic churches and schools, and the decline of religious orders have profound consequences for the direction of Catholic life and culture. ACHA welcomes panels of historians, architects, educators, journalists, and archivists interested in exploring how Catholic communities and networks have functioned in a pluralistic society. Graduate students are particularly encouraged to submit proposals. Proposals should be emailed to the 2012 ACHA program committee: Malachy R. McCarthy at mccarthym@claretians.org, Ellen Skerrett at ellenskerrett@gmail.com, and Larissa Juliet Taylor at ljtaylor@colby.edu. The deadline for ACHA individual or session proposals is May 15, 2011.

Missionary Museum of Propaganda Fide

On December 9, 2010, a new museum opened in Rome near Piazza di Spagna on the main floor of the palace of the Congregation for the Evangelization of the Peoples that was begun by Gianlorenzo Bernini in 1643 and completed by his rival, Francesco Borromini, in 1664. A slideshow on monitors projects some of the 10,000 pictures from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries depicting the locations, conditions, and communities in which missionaries have worked over the centuries. A picture gallery displays many seventeenth- and eighteenth-century engravings, tempera-on-silk panels, and other items. The library, which was constructed in 1637 by Cardinal Antonio Barberini to serve the needs of the twenty-four future missionaries who lodged and studied in the palace, features a coffered wooden ceiling and contains portraits of some of the more illustrious students of the college. On large wooden tables in the library are displayed historic documents and books printed in non-European languages on the polyglot press housed in the palace. Two chapels also are part of the museum: one in which Blessed John [End Page 410] Henry Newman said his first Mass and the other, the Chapel of the Magi. It was built between 1662 and 1664 by Borromini, who had demolished the earlier elliptical chapel designed by Bernini to make room for his own creamcolored, curved-wall construction. The museum is open on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 2:30 to 6:00 pm; the entrance fee is €6 for students and €8 for others.

Ukrainian Research Tools

The new guidebook Arkhivna ukraïnika v Kanadi: dovoidnyk (Archival Ucrainica in Canada: A Guide) lists Ukrainian and Ukrainian-Canadian holdings in Canadian archival repositories. Among the collections surveyed are those of the Ukrainian Catholic Church of Canada and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada. The book provides accession numbers, size, dates of acquisition, and detailed descriptions of the contents of the documents listed. It is available from the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta. Also sponsored by the institute is the research program “Sanctuary: The Spiritual Documentation Project” that photographs Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox and Russian Orthodox churches (their furnishings and images) and cemeteries (individual tombstones) in an effort to preserve a vanishing spiritual heritage.

Lectures and Conferences

The Istituto per le scienze religiose in Bologna is sponsoring the following events: the exhibition “Videomostra Cristiani d’Italia” (March 16 to June 2, 2001); the seminar “Un cardinale francese a Roma: Eugène Tisserant (1884–1972)” (presenter Étienne Fouilloux, April 13, 2011); the lecture “Elementi di sinodalità nella Vita Constantini: ricezione ed elaborazione” (presenter Davide Dainese, April 27–30, 2011, in Perugia); the conference “Pacem in Terris” (organizer Alberto Melloni, May 29 to June 1, 2011, in Jerusalem); the seminar “Umanesimo spirituale cristiano tra Medioevo ed età moderna” (presenter Roberto Osculati, May 30, 2011); the seminar “Dossetti” (presenter Giovanni Bianchi, June 3, 2011); and the conference “La diplomatica e...

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