Word: italian
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Even anticlerical observers in Rome admit, rather glumly, that John Paul has galvanized Italian Catholics, especially the young. Says Cesare Pagani, Bishop of Città di Castello: "The arrival of Pope Wojtyla has turned our youth upside down. They are taking over the leadership of the young again to advance not only the ecclesiastical but the civil life of our country...
Most modern Popes have been Bishop of Rome in name only. As the first non-Italian in Peter's Chair in 455 years, John Paul plunged forth from the Apostolic Palace to learn his new turf. Each Sunday he visits a different parish and, in preparation, summons the parish priest to brief him. What is the street layout? How did the people vote in the last election? What are their problems? After one visit, he invited the parish priest back to the Vatican for supper and an evening of sipping the priest's homemade wine...
...striking contrast to the cheering and dancing of past election nights, the crowd in front of the Italian Communist Party (P.C.I.) headquarters in Rome was as somber as a cortege. As Party Boss Enrico Berlinguer stepped dejectedly out onto the balcony, there was only a desultory round of applause. His message could not have been less triumphant: Berlinguer acknowledged what he called an "appreciable variation with respect to our exceptional advances of 1976." When someone dutifully unfurled the red hammer-and-sickle flag from the balcony, a disgusted voice piped up loudly from the crowd: "Leave it at half-mast...
...reduced its strength in the 630-seat Chamber of Deputies to 201. It was the first national election setback experienced by the P.C.I, in postwar history. The Christian Democrats, who overconfidently expected to score significant gains, could hardly brag about their own performance. The party that has dominated every Italian government since 1946 slipped fractionally from 38.7% to 38.3% of the popular vote and lost one seat in the lower house for a new total...
...governed for a decade after 1963. But Socialist Leader Craxi has not yet agreed to go along, and would be sure to drive a hard bargain in tortuous negotiations. Thus the likely immediate prospect seemed to be a minority Christian Democratic "seaside Cabinet" for the summer interim. Certainly, disillusioned Italian voters appeared to want a holiday from wrangling, inconclusive politics: at the polls a record 1.7 million blank ballots gave birth to what wags called the new "Abstentionist Party...