Word: communion
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Which returns us to Catholicism. The Second Vatican Council of 1962-65 set off what religion futurist Richard Cimino calls "an explosion of lay ministry." This, plus a persistent priest shortage, caused some parishes to approximate a female pastorate. Circuit-riding priests would stop by a church to celebrate Communion and hear confession. In between, however, women--church trained and often called pastor--ran the parish. Eventually there were at least 300 such arrangements (some say there were thousands), but after John Paul II's 1994 letter banning further talk of ordaining women, the movement tailed off. The Pope...