Word: churches
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...ideas in Rome," says a close friend. Moreover, "he was certain that the Bishops' Synod in October would be too restricted to provide an adequate forum for such issues, and he considered it his duty as a Christian leader to speak out." Says Suenens himself: "Perhaps if more church leaders had spoken out in the 15th century, Luther and the Protestants would not have had to break away...
...Suenens had formulated his views on churchly change in a book called The Gospel to Every Creature, in which he first described such ideas as co-responsibility of laity, priests and hierarchy in the church. In 1962, as a newly elevated cardinal, he counseled Pope John XXIII on the preparations for Vatican II, and later acted as one of the council's four moderators. Pope John selected him as a special emissary to the U.N. to present the now famous papal peace encyclical, Pacem in Terns. After John died, Suenens worked closely with his good friend Paul...
...liberal European cardinals who flew to Rome to argue against an earlier, even more conservative version. Later he pleaded unsuccessfully against the issuance of Humanae Vitae as well. When Suenens went back earlier this year to oppose new powers for papal nuncios and press for urgent reforms in church administration, resentful conservatives fought back so bitterly that he left Rome in disgust...
Suenens maintains a careful orthodoxy of language and purpose. He has little patience with ultraliberal Catholics who challenge basic church doctrines. "If you don't believe in the Holy Spirit or Resurrection or life after death," Suenens explained to TIME'S Robert Kroon in Brussels, "you should leave the church. I don't see the modern church as a sort of spiritual Red Cross organization." But he also insists that something must be done, and soon, to stop "this hemorrhage of priests. The part-time priest, married or not, could be a first step. The world...
Suenens' major influence ranges far beyond Belgium. Across Europe and North America, Catholic progressives look on his measured criticism as a vital necessity to church reform. At 65, Suenens considers himself too old to be Pope, but he has clearly developed a constituency and career of his own as leader of a loyal opposition within the church. "We haven't heard the last from him," says one of his few close friends in the Vatican. "He is only getting started...