Digital Commons Network^™

Keeping Faith: A Qualitative Study On Religiosity Among Young Catholics In Ireland, Michael A. Clements

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Ireland is a country that is well-known for its Catholic heritage. Despite its global perception as a Catholic country, the Emerald Isle has experienced rapid secularization within the last 30 years, during which rates of Church attendance and Catholic self-identification have fallen dramatically. Likewise, the legalization of abortion, gay marriage, and divorce, concepts contrary to Catholic teaching, further reflect the island's departure from Catholic Orthodoxy. Should the Catholic religion have a future in Ireland, it will lie in the hands of its devout youth: a demographic with relatively little representation in the literature.

Using a hybrid interview and survey format, …

Redefining The Roles Of Women And Sexual Ethics In The Roman Catholic Church, Kenneth Nauert

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The Second Vatican Council was one of the most seminal councils in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, and had far reaching and engaging effects on the wider universal institution. One of the most important outcomes of Vatican II was not the reforming of orthopraxy, but the dialogue that developed within the Church regarding specific issues, two of which are the transforming dynamic of women’s roles in Church life and of Catholic sexual ethics. The decades following Vatican II became a new era of religious dialogue amongst Catholic scholars and theologians, which established new discussions on women’s ordination and …