Word: benedict
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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After months of intense speculation, Pope Benedict XVI has eased restrictions on the Catholic Church's traditional Latin Mass - a move that could raise controversy both within the Church, and in its interfaith relations, given the fact that the old rites include a Good Friday prayer for the conversion of Jews...
...Tridentine rite - delivered in Latin with the priest usually facing the altar, his back to the congregation - the old Mass (though never banned) had effectively been replaced, following the mid-1960s reforms of the Second Vatican Council, by a liturgy recited in the vernacular. Some Vatican insiders caution that Benedict's new ruling will simply ease restrictions on access to the old liturgy, which has continued to be followed by a small minority of traditionalists. But others predict that the decree could turn into the most explosive internal Church policy of Benedict's papacy, bound to undercut decades of reform...
...Catholic Church has never been a model of candor or transparency. Compare it to the Chinese government, however, and the Vatican can start to look downright forthcoming. In what may be Rome's strongest public push to normalize relations with China, Pope Benedict XVI has sent a 55-page open letter to Chinese Catholics that essentially lays all the Vatican's diplomatic cards on the table. The initial response from Beijing, meanwhile, has been terse and predictably cryptic...
...Benedict writes frankly about his continuing concern that the government in China can sometimes "suffocate" religious freedom, and makes clear that the Church ultimately cannot cede its authority in the standoff over who appoints Catholic bishops. Benedict says that the Pope's prerogative to choose his deputies "touches the very heart of the life of the Church - the guarantee of the unity of the Church and of hierarchical communion." Still, the letter, which was released over the weekend, repeatedly extends olive branches to Beijing. Benedict acknowledges that progress has been made on religious freedom, and on the "delicate" issue...
Months in the making, the letter is seen as the public cornerstone in Benedict's China policy, which may turn out to be more active - and perhaps more fruitful - than his predecessor's. With an estimated 12 million Catholics and a pent-up religiosity, China is seen in the Vatican as a great missionary opportunity. Still, no one in Rome has any illusions that the missive alone can heal the more than half-century rupture that came after the arrival of the Communist regime...