Word: church
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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During a bitterly cold January week, penniless women and children stream into a Catholic church in the northeastern Iowa town of Postville that has served as their refuge since May 12, when 389 workers were arrested during an immigration raid at the Agriprocessors Inc. meatpacking plant. The women are among 26 former Agriprocessors workers, most from Guatemala and Mexico, charged with immigration violations and fighting deportation. Released on humanitarian grounds but required to wear electronic ankle bracelets, the women, as well as about 59 children, now depend on the community, especially St. Bridget's church, which operates a Hispanic ministry...
Relations had long been chilly between the one-billion strong Roman Catholic Church and the largest Orthodox Church (which claims 110 million adherents though perhaps less than 5% are regular churchgoers). There was little hope for major reconciliation during the 26-year reign of Pope John Paul II, a Polish native who was seen by Russian religious leaders as a threat for poaching faithful in its sphere of influence...
Cyril, 62, the Metroplitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, was elected overwhelmingly on Tuesday as the new head of the Russian Orthodox Church. He arrives at the top job in Moscow with a very long and public resume. He served for nearly two decades as head of the Church's office of external affairs, a kind of roaming secretary of state, the Russian church's ambassador on the world's religious chessboard. (See pictures of the Pope in France...
Cyril, who'd been serving as interim head of the Church since the Dec. 5 death of Patriarch Alexy II, was particularly adept at keeping warm relations with both Kremlin insiders and religious counterparts outside of Russia. His many contacts with the West, including a meeting in 2007 with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican, helped earn Cyril a reputation as a pragmatic reformer who favored moving his Church closer to Catholicism after a millennium-long schism...
...opening questions of the new reign in Moscow is whether attempts to pull off that unprecedented Pope-meets-Patriarch summit gets put on the fast track. Benedict sent his best wishes Wednesday, notably long and gushing in his stated desire to move the two Churches closer. "May the Almighty bless your efforts to maintain Communion among the Orthodox Churches and to seek that fullness of Communion which is the goal of Catholic-Orthodox collaboration and dialogue," the Pope wrote. "I assure Your Holiness of my spiritual closeness and of the Catholic Church's commitment to cooperate with the Russian Orthodox...