Word: benedicts
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...lengthy investigation process; and canonization, the pope's formal recognition that a person is truly a saint. In each case the argument for sainthood would be rebutted by a Devil's Advocate, a person appointed by the Church to argue against the case for sainthood. Before becoming pontiff, Pope Benedict XIV was one of the foremost Devil's Advocates of the 18th century. It wasn't until 1983 that a revised Code of Canon Law was published that included reforms to the canonization process begun in 1913. Under Pope John Paul II the procedures for investigating and recognizing a saint...
...Pope Benedict XVI canonized four new saints to the Catholic liturgy: 19th-Century Italian priest Gaetano Errico; Mary Bernard (Verena) Bütler, a Swiss nun and missionary in Latin America who died in 1924; Alfonsa of the Immaculate Conception, a nun who who died in 1946 and is the first named female saint from India; and Narcisa de Jesús Martillo Morán, a pious laywoman from Ecuador who died in 1869. In the Catholic faith, only God can make a saint; these four are among those who "have emerged as individuals who can light...
...Benedict's own German heritage and forced service in the Nazi military as a teenager have made his rapport with Jews of keen interest. Like John Paul II, the current Pope appears to have a particularly warm rapport with Jewish leaders, and repeatedly refers to the theological and historical bonds from the Old Testament. The Pope has set aside time for visits to synagogues on several foreign trips, and even extensively cited an American rabbi in his book last year about Jesus...
Still, several issues have arisen over the past three years that have caused friction. Benedict's visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 2006 was much appreciated, but less so the speech he gave there, which referred to the Nazis as a "ring of criminals," roundly absolving the German people as simply victims of their leaders. Another decision last year to promote the old Latin rite liturgy, which includes a Good Friday prayer that calls for the conversion of the Jews, was also widely criticized by Jewish leaders...
...undeniable that John Paul II, who referred to Jews as Christians' "older brothers" and was the first Pope to visit a synagogue, has built a bridge in Catholic-Jewish relations that remains solid. Benedict appreciates the importance of that bridge, but he has also shown a tendency to forge ahead with what he thinks is right for his church. In diplomatic terms, perhaps the cause for sainthood for a still controversial Nazi-era pontiff could use a somewhat longer "period of reflection." And maybe a Pope from another country. - With reporting by Francesco Peloso / Rome