The Catholic Biblical Federation (CBF) is a worldwide "fellowship" of administratively independent Catholic Bible associations and other organizations committed to biblical-pastoral ministries in 126 countries. It exists primarily to promote and coordinate the work of translating, producing, and disseminating Bibles among Catholic laity for devotional purposes.
The Federation also encourages the formation of small study groups for Bible reading as well as the creation of educational tools for use in these settings. First organized under the name The World Catholic Federation for the Biblical Apostolate in 1969, the Federation shorted its name in 1990 at its fourth Plenary Assembly held in Colombia. With the support of Cardinal Augustino Bea, its establishment was made possible by several provisions concerning lay access to Bibles that were contained in Second Vatican Council documents, especially Dei verbum .
That document called for "easy access" to the Bible for "all the Christian faithful" and opened the way to cooperation with the Interconfessional United Bible Societies, particularly in the work of translation. In 1972 the Federation moved its headquarters from Rome to Stuttgart and in 1986 began publishing the quarterly Bulletin DEI VERBUM. In 2009 the General Seceretariat was moved from Stuttgart to Sankt Ottilien in Germany.
Every six years the Federation holds a Plenary Assembly. The first was held in Austria in 1972 and the most recent from 19 to 23 June 2015 in Nemi. In 1985 the Federation adopted its Constitution which was approved by Rome in accordance with the norms of Canon Law. The Constitution was revised to its present form at the fifth Plenary Assembly held in Hong Kong in 1996 and approved by Rome the following year. The last revision was voted during the Plenary Assembly in Nemi.
The Plenary Assembly is the highest decision-making authority within the Federation and is presided over by the General Secretary and an Executive Committee. The General Secretary is elected by the Executive Committee for a six-year renewable term. The Executive Committee consists of three ex officio members, including the General Secretary, as well as six voting members. Of this latter group members are drawn from each of the Federation's four sub-regions: Africa, the Americas, Asia/Oceania, and Europe/the Middle East. Jan J. Stefanów SVD has been General Secretary since January 2014. The appointment of Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila as its President was confirmed by the Vatican on March 5, 2015.
The First Vatican Council was convoked by Pope Pius IX on 29 June 1868, after a period of planning and preparation that began on 6 December 1864. This, the twentieth ecumenical council of the Catholic Church, held three centuries after the Council of Trent, opened on 8 December 1869 and adjourned on 20 October 1870. Unlike the five earlier general councils held in Rome, which met in the Lateran Basilica and are known as Lateran councils, it met in the Vatican Basilica, hence its name. Its best-known decision is its definition of papal infallibility.
The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, addressed relations between the Catholic Church and the modern world. The Council, through the Holy See, was formally opened without invoking infallibility under the pontificate of Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962, and was closed, though not declared an infallible council, under Pope Paul VI on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December 1965.
Dei verbum, the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, was promulgated by Pope Paul VI on 18 November 1965, following approval by the assembled bishops by a vote of 2,344 to 6. It is one of the principal documents of the Second Vatican Council, indeed their very foundation in the view of one of the leading Council Fathers, Bishop Christopher Butler. The phrase "Dei verbum" is Latin for "Word of God" and is taken from the first line of the document, as is customary for titles of major Catholic documents.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is a catechism promulgated for the Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II in 1992. It sums up, in book form, the beliefs of the Catholic faithful.
The New American Bible (NAB) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1970. The 1986 Revised NAB is the basis of the revised Lectionary, and it is the only translation approved for use at Mass in the Catholic dioceses of the United States and the Philippines, and the 1970 first edition is also an approved Bible translation by the Episcopal Church in the United States.
The Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1966. In 1965, the Catholic Biblical Association adapted, under the editorship of Bernard Orchard OSB and Reginald C. Fuller, the Revised Standard Version (RSV) for Catholic use. It contains the deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament placed in the traditional order of the Vulgate. The editors' stated aim for the RSV Catholic Edition was "to make the minimum number of alterations, and to change only what seemed absolutely necessary in the light of Catholic tradition."
"The Jerusalem Bible" is an English translation of the Bible published in 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd. As a Catholic Bible, it includes 73 books: the 39 books shared with the Hebrew Bible, along with the seven deuterocanonical books as the Old Testament, and the 27 books shared by all Christians as the New Testament. It also contains copious footnotes and introductions.
Biblical infallibility is the belief that what the Bible says regarding matters of faith and Christian practice is wholly useful and true. It is the "belief that the Bible is completely trustworthy as a guide to salvation and the life of faith and will not fail to accomplish its purpose."
In Christian communities, Bible study is the study of the Bible by ordinary people as a personal religious or spiritual practice. Some denominations may call this devotion or devotional acts; however in other denominations devotion has other meanings. Bible study in this sense is distinct from biblical studies, which is a formal academic discipline.
The Nova Vulgata, also called the Neo-Vulgate, the New Latin Vulgate or the New Vulgate, is the official Classical Latin translation of the original-language texts of the Bible from modern critical editions published by the Holy See for use in the contemporary Roman rite. It was completed in 1979, and was promulgated the same year by John Paul II in Scripturarum thesaurus. A second, revised, edition was promulgated in 1986, again by John Paul II. It is the official Latin text of the Catholic Church.
Carlo Maria Martini was an Italian Jesuit and cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was Archbishop of Milan from 1980 to 2002 and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1983. A towering intellectual figure of the Roman Catholic Church, Martini was the liberal contender for the Papacy in the 2005 conclave, following the death of Pope John Paul II. According to highly placed Vatican sources, Martini received more votes in the first round than Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the conservative candidate: 40 to 38. Ratzinger ended up with more votes in subsequent rounds and was elected Pope Benedict XVI.
Covenantal theology is a distinctive approach to Catholic biblical theology stemming from the mid-twentieth century recovery of Patristic methods of interpreting scripture by scholars such as Henri de Lubac. This recovery was given further impetus by Dei verbum, the Second Vatican Council's "Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation", and consolidated in the section on scripture Catechism of the Catholic Church. These developments gave rise to an approach that emphasizes the "four senses" of scripture within a framework that structures salvation history via the biblical covenants, in combination with the techniques of modern biblical scholarship.
The Pontifical Biblical Commission is a body established within the Roman Curia to ensure the proper interpretation and defense of Sacred Scripture.
A Catholic Bible is a Christian Bible that includes the whole 73-book canon recognized by the Catholic Church, including the deuterocanonical books.
Catholic ecumenical councils include 21 councils over a period of some 1900 years, which met for the purpose of defining doctrine, reaffirming truths of the Faith, and extirpating heresy. While definitions changed throughout history, in today's Catholic understanding ecumenical councils are assemblies of patriarchs, cardinals, residing bishops, abbots, male heads of religious orders and other juridical persons, nominated by the pope. Participation is limited to these persons, who cannot delegate their voting rights. Council decisions, to be valid, are approved by the popes.
The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) is a pontifical council whose origins are associated with the Second Vatican Council which met intermittently from 1962 to 1965.
Verbum Domini is a post-synodal apostolic exhortation issued by Pope Benedict XVI which deals with how the Catholic church should approach the Bible. He issued it following the XII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which had met in October 2008 to discuss "The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church." Verbum Domini is dated September 30, 2010, for the Feast of St. Jerome, the patron saint of Biblical studies.
Einheitsübersetzung (EÜ) is a German translation of the Bible for liturgical use in Roman Catholic worship. It is published by the Katholisches Bibelwerk and was compiled from 1962 to 1980 by Catholic theologians with contributions from Evangelical theologians. Collaboration was done on the New Testament and the Psalms. The Evangelical side withdrew support from a project revising the Einheitsübersetzung in 2005.
In the Catholic Church, the Synod of Bishops, considered as an advisory body for the pope, is one of the ways in which the bishops render cooperative assistance to him in exercising his office. It is described in the 1983 Code of Canon Law as "a group of bishops who have been chosen from different regions of the world and meet together at fixed times to foster closer unity between the Roman Pontiff and bishops, to assist the Roman Pontiff with their counsel in the preservation and growth of faith and morals and in the observance and strengthening of ecclesiastical discipline, and to consider questions pertaining to the activity of the Church in the world."
The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors is an institution within the Roman Curia of the Catholic Church instituted by Pope Francis on 22 March 2014. The commission received its statutes on 8 May 2015 as part of the Catholic Church's efforts to deal with the scandal of sex abuse of minors. Its singular purpose is to propose initiatives that could protect children from pedophiles in the church. It is headed by Boston's Cardinal Archbishop, Sean P. O'Malley, O.F.M. Cap., who was selected by Pope Francis for this task; earlier O'Malley had been sent to Boston to correct troubles relating to the issue under his predecessor, Bernard Cardinal Law. The creation of the commission was announced in 2013 after Francis was criticized by victims' groups who questioned his understanding of the full scope of the problem. Following a slow start, the commission has, as of 2015, begun meeting with bishops and sponsoring training for church staff worldwide. The most significant proposal of the commission, the creation of an in-house Vatican tribunal to judge cases of bishops who are accused of failing to protect victims, was approved by Francis but has not been implemented.
