Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation
This month on the Confessional Corner, we take a look at the Roman response to the Reformation. Most people want to make everything in the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation revolve around the Council of Trent (1545-1563). However, reforms were beginning in the Roman Church in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. This led to the Councils of Constance (1415), Florence (1449), and the Fifth Lateran Council (1512-1517).
We will also take a look at one of the great figures in the Catholic Counter-Reformation, Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556). He founded the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits, as they are commonly known, which strove to increase spirituality, education and social justice throughout the world. The Jesuits are still a major faction in the Roman Catholic Church as Pope Francis I is the first Jesuit pope.