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The Reverend Dr. Antonio Spadaro | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | July 6, 1966 |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Education | University of Messina Pontifical Gregorian University |
| Occupation(s) | Official of the Holy See and Vatican City State |
| Organization | Society of Jesus |
| Title | Editor of La Civiltà Cattolica |
| Term | 1 October 2011 — present |
| Predecessor | Gianpaolo Salvini |
| Successor | incumbent |
Antonio Spadaro, SJ (born 6 July 1966) is an Italian Jesuit priest, journalist and writer.
Spadaro has been the editor in chief of the Jesuit-affiliated journal La Civiltà Cattolica since 2011. He is also a consultor to both the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Secretariat for Communications (previously known as the Pontifical Council for Social Communications).
He is described as being very close to Pope Francis, who is also a Jesuit. [1] [2] The pope named him as the incoming secretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education in September 2023.
| This article's "criticism" or "controversy" section may compromise the article's neutrality .(December 2024) |
In July 2017, Spadaro co-wrote, an article entitled "Evangelical Fundamentalism and Catholic Integralism," in which he and Argentine Presbyterian Marcelo Figueroa made criticized the supporters of United States president Donald Trump. The article was approved by the Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and published in the Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica. [3] Sparado and Figueroa described American political life as Manichaean and said the Trump administration was responsible for promoting an "apocalyptic geopolitics", comparing American conservative Christians to ISIS. [4] [5] Spadaro also criticized American Catholics who supported the conservative movement and Trump in particular.
Spadaro later published an article in which he criticized Trump advisor Steve Bannon for his ideological ties to Calvinist theologian Rousas John Rushdoony. [2] He also singled out Church Militant for "shocking rhetoric." Spadaro said that American Catholics and Protestants both promoted an "ecumenism of conflict" over abortion, same-sex marriage, and religious education in schools that also included a "xenophobic and Islamophobic vision", transforming it into an intolerant "ecumenism of hate." [6] The article also criticized conservatives for being uncritical of militarism, capitalism and the arms industry and for disregarding the environment. [1]
While praised by publications such as the National Catholic Reporter [7] and Commonweal , [8] Spadaro was rebuffed by P.J. Smith in First Things: "Indeed, the liberal atomization that Spadaro and Figueroa want to exalt is one of the central problems with modernity that Francis dissects brilliantly in Laudato si'. Francis teaches us in that encyclical that 'it cannot be emphasized enough how everything is interconnected.'" [9] The retired Archbishop of Philadelphia, Charles J. Chaput, described Spadaro's first article as "an exercise in dumbing down" and accused Spadaro and Figueroa of being "willfully ignorant" of the battle faced by American Catholics and Evangelical Protestants. [10] Chaput said, "It's an especially odd kind of surprise when believers are attacked by their co-religionists merely for fighting for what their Churches have always held to be true." [11] [12]
In politics, integralism, integrationism or integrism is an interpretation of Catholic social teaching that argues the principle that the Catholic faith should be the basis of public law and public policy within civil society, wherever the preponderance of Catholics within that society makes this possible. Integralism is anti-pluralist, seeking the Catholic faith to be dominant in civil and religious matters. Integralists uphold the 1864 definition of Pope Pius IX in Quanta cura that the religious neutrality of the civil power cannot be embraced as an ideal situation and the doctrine of Leo XIII in Immortale Dei on the religious obligations of states. In December 1965, the Second Vatican Council approved and Pope Paul VI promulgated the document Dignitatis humanae–the Council's "Declaration on Religious Freedom"–which states that it "leaves untouched traditional Catholic doctrine on the moral duty of men and societies toward the true religion and toward the one Church of Christ". However, they have simultaneously declared "that the human person has a right to religious freedom," a move that some traditionalist Catholics such as Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the founder of the Society of St. Pius X, have argued is at odds with previous doctrinal pronouncements.
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La Civiltà Cattolica is a periodical published by the Jesuits in Rome, Italy. It has been published continuously since 1850 and is among the oldest of Catholic Italian periodicals. All of the journal's articles are the collective responsibility of the entire "college" of the magazine's writers even if published under a single author's name. It is the only one to be directly revised by the Secretariat of State of the Holy See and to receive its approval before being published.
James J. Martin is an American Jesuit priest, writer, editor-at-large of America magazine and the founder of Outreach.
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Federico Lombardi is an Italian Catholic priest and the former director of the Holy See Press Office. He succeeded Joaquín Navarro-Valls and was succeeded by Greg Burke.
Matteo Liberatore, SJ was an Italian Jesuit philosopher, theologian, and writer. He helped popularize the Jesuit periodical Civiltà Cattolica in close collaboration with the papacy in the last half of the 19th century.
Nuno da Silva Gonçalves, S.J. is a Portuguese Catholic priest and member of the Jesuits. On September 1, 2016 he succeeded François-Xavier Dumortier as rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. In October 2023, he succeeded Antonio Spadaro as editor of the Jesuit periodical La Civiltà Cattolica. He is the first non-Italian to hold this post.
The 15th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, commonly referred to as the Synod on Young People, is a Roman Catholic synod that took place 3–28 October 2018 and had as its theme "Young People, Faith, and Vocational Discernment". Its aim was to "accompany young people on their way of life towards maturity so that, through a process of discernment, they can discover their life project and realize it with joy, opening the encounter with God and with men, and actively participating in the building up of the Church and society".
Arturo Marcelino Sosa Abascal is a Venezuelan Catholic priest who serves as the 31st and present superior general of the Society of Jesus. He was elected by the Society's 36th General Congregation on 14 October 2016, succeeding Adolfo Nicolás. He is the first person born in Latin America to lead the Jesuits.
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Media related to Antonio Spadaro at Wikimedia Commons
