In the new issue Verba Theologica (1/2025) can you find these studies:
The great event of this spring was the departure of Pope Francis to the Father and the beginning of the pontificate of his successor, Robert Prevost, who chose the name Leo XIV. Pope Francis has left behind a legacy of great courage and openness to today's society, which has won for the Church the approval of many people, even those who stand outside it. It is as if he wanted to repay, at least in part, the debt of the conciliar setting of sixty years ago, when the Church became more urgently aware that the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties of the people of today, especially the poor and all those who suffer, are at the same time her joys, hopes, sorrows and anxieties (Gaudium et spes 1, 1965).
The election of the new Pope has revealed some interesting untold facts. For the second time in a row, the Pope is not a European, but a "man of South America." Apparently, Europe is tired and exhausted, lacking motivation, enthusiasm, and new themes. It is a legitimate phenomenon. If one sets the tone for centuries, one day they get exhausted and need to catch a breath. It is good, however, that the Church is no longer just a European affair, and that it has many hotbeds of new energy that are opening up when the previous ones have been emptied. From these hotbeds come new themes and inspirations that Europe could not formulate at the moment. And it is these shifts to "new places of the Spirit" that make the Church relevant and capable of responding to people's lives, to their joys and hopes, to their sorrows and anxieties. I trust that Pope Leo will continue in Francis' attentiveness and sensitivity to all human longing for fulfillment.
In this issue, our journal offers six articles. The first, by the Slovak philosopher Martin Škára, deals with the connection between the physics of the Eucharist and transubstantiation. When the biblical message ("this is my body"), where the functional completely overlaps with the existential, becomes since the Middle Ages a matter of philosophical speculation, it can lead us to unusual conclusions in which we can hardly find continuity with the original biblical intent and mode of expression anymore. In the 17th century, Descartes grappled with this question, and we have the opportunity to see how he succeeded.
Ján Kotlarčík discusses the powerful theological concept of sensus fidei, which played a significant role at the Second Vatican Council. His article clearly highlights the fact that the whole people of God is to participate actively in the formulation and propagation of the faith, since every believer participates in the prophetic office of Christ by the very fact that he or she lives responsibly and reflects his or her life in relation to the One who is at once present in and transcends him or her.
The third article is an interesting combination of the work of an ecclesiastical and civil lawyer in the persons of Juraj Jurica and Martin Vernarský. Their topic is not only a symbiosis of theology and law, but also a current question of the female form of diaconal ministry, which has been revived again by the ongoing synodal process in the Church. The authors reflect on whether it is possible, on the basis of the law of equality, to consider the reintroduction of the ancient practice of ordaining women to the aforementioned ministry.
In his Bible study, Patrik Peter Vnučko seeks to highlight the relationship of sacrifice and joy in Philippians. Through a careful biblical exegesis of selected verses, he concludes by offering a summary of the use of the terms sacrifice and joy. The joy referred to is not the fleeting banality of the moment, but it is the joy of the Lord in which one can experience assurance in spite of all the pitfalls and threats of the moment.
A hundred years ago, the Church tended to fight modernity and to perceive the technical achievements of the times ambivalently or completely negatively. In his study, Michal Černý presents the attitude of recent popes, especially Pope Francis, towards modern technology. In his encyclicals, the Pope underlines the need for spiritual literacy so that people today, when using modern technologies, could create a proper macro and micro-ethical framework.
Edita Príhodová's contribution evaluates the poetry of Janko Silan who represents the Slovak Catholic Modern. Already in the 1940s, together with Ladislav Hanus, this poet took a critical stance towards the form of Catholic culture, which was closing in on itself and waging cultural wars with the then secular society. Spiritual creation, however, is not meant to be like a barricaded soldier, but as a meaningful and livable offering to people of today.
The present issue of our journal also includes a translation of a text by the eminent Italian academic, historian, and theologian Massimo Faggioli, which is timely not only for its treatment of synodality, but also because it evaluates the attitudes of Pope Francis during his pontificate.
Finally, I would like to recall the death in January of the Apostolic Exarch of the Greek Catholic Church, Bishop Ladislav Hučko (1948-2025), who was also the founder of our journal Verba Theologica. I would like to thank him in memoriam on behalf of the former and current editorial board, because by founding this periodical he opened the space of theological research and mutual sharing as a prerequisite of honest academic work and contribution to society.
Vladimír Juhás
