Word: italian
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Thoroughly enjoying himself, Felici went on: "... Cardinalem Woj-ty-la."* The crowd froze. "Chi è?"? Who's he? ?Italians asked one another. Possibly an African!? A group of Japanese tourists thought it might be one of their countrymen, though there are no Japanese Cardinals at the moment. An Italian TV announcer uncertainly said, "Polacco" (the Pole), and many viewers thought he had said "Poletti," the name of Rome's vicar general...
Karol Wojtyla. The first Pope from Eastern Europe. The first from Poland, a nation whose fervor for Roman Catholicism has been unsurpassed for a millennium. The first non-Italian elected since 1522 and thus, in a real sense, the first international Pope to lead a global church. And, in the wake of his frail predecessor, the youngest Pope chosen since 1846. The last under-60 Pope, Pius IX, reigned for 32 years. At age 58, Wojtyla is robust and muscular (he was described in the national daily The Australian as "a man built like a rugby front-row forward...
Political observers will of course be watching the new Pope's every move in relation to the Communist nations. But he is not likely to change the general lines set by Pope Paul. In the long run it may be far more significant that the Pope is a non-Italian, and that he has lived in a relatively impoverished land, than that he comes from the Soviet bloc...
...leader without intending to set any political line, indeed without even taking time to weigh the ramifications. To be sure, the election came quickly, on the second day and eighth ballot of voting. Still, because of the implications for relations not only with Moscow but also with the powerful Italian Communist Party, few observers had thought that the normally cautious Cardinals would turn to a Communist country if they wanted to go outside Italy for a Pope...
...Jackson's most offensive remarks were yet to come. At a meeting requested by the administration at 2 o'clock Saturday morning, Jackson claimed he had "new information" that there were still many construction workers at the site--"Irish, Italian, and others of working-class descent" as he put it--for whom the dedication ceremony was the culmination of 18 months hard work. "Think of their reaction," Jackson said; "They will be there in numbers." And here he noted the probability of a riot between hardhats and protesters. He also tried to divide us along racial lines, glancing meaningfully...