Word: justinian
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WHEN the leaders of world Communism pay state visits to the fraternal Rumanian Socialist Republic, they are often startled to find President Nicolae Ceauşescu flanked by bearded dignitaries in sumptuous clerical robes -usually Patriarch Justinian, the primate of the Rumanian Orthodox Church and Dr. Moses Rosen, the Chief Rabbi of Bucharest. Such affronts to the militantly atheist ideology of Communism have been frequent occurrences since Ceauşescu came to power in 1965. High-ranking prelates are now elected to the Rumanian National Assembly. Some members of the Rumanian Communist Party's Central Committee regularly attend Easter...
...with Rome, but practice the Byzantine rite. The Uniate Church was outlawed, its five bishops and most of its parish priests arrested. Many died in prison. In a second spasm of repression in 1958-60, hundreds of Orthodox priests, monks and lay members were flung into prison. Even Patriarch Justinian was briefly placed under house arrest...
...ranking clergyman to the lowliest parish priest must all satisfy the authorities in order to remain in place. This means that prelates are frequently required to promote policies considered to be in the Rumanian national interest. In grimmer days, pulpits were often used as platforms for political exhortation. Patriarch Justinian dutifully denounced the 1956 Hungarian revolt, and Chief Rabbi Rosen likewise excoriated NATO for arming West Germany. Nowadays, the clergy tends to have more innocuous, often worthy, obligations, such as raising money abroad for the victims of last spring's disastrous Rumanian floods...
...alas and thank God, are never strictly practical. Until people are known by numbers alone, the great city will continue to exist. F. Scott Fitzgerald was speaking of Manhattan, but he might just as well have been talking of London or Paris-or Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon or Justinian's Constantinople. Looking at it from afar, he said, was always to see it "in its first wild promise of all the mystery and beauty in the world...
Divorces have been difficult to obtain in Italy since ancient times. Ac cording to legend, Romulus authorized them for Roman men for only three wifely misdeeds: adultery, child poisoning, or changing the lock on the bed room door. The Emperor Justinian was seemingly easier. He allowed divorce by mutual consent, but there was a catch-22. The divorcees were expected to take a lifelong vow of chastity. Caesar dallied with Cleopatra on the Nile but could never marry her, presuming he had wanted to, because there was Calpurnia back at home, and she was above suspicion and therefore un-divorceable...