Word: navarro
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...discussed it every day," recalls Navarro. "There were real security questions -- not just for the Pope but for the people. But he wanted to go very badly." Less than a week before the trip, the Vatican received a veiled threat from Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader. "His message was full of trickery," says Navarro. "He told us in effect, 'I have no problem with the trip, but what if the Muslims attempted an assassination and blamed us?' " John Paul sent a personal envoy to Karadzic to get him to repeat the same thing to his face. He did. That...
...goal, says his spokesman and intimate adviser Joaquin Navarro-Valls, is nothing less than the establishment of a completely Christian alternative to the humanistic philosophies of the 20th century -- Marxism, structuralism, the atheistic ideas of the post-Enlightenment. "They were simply among the tools of the age. Wojtyla said no, we have something new, we don't have to copy. Let us humbly build a new sociology, a new anthropology, that is based on something genuinely Christian." The Pope, says his spokesman, believes he has at least laid the groundwork for this task...
...says Navarro, the papal spokesman and confidant: "If you say, 'Holy Father, did you enjoy your lunch?' he will say yes. But if you ask him what he just ate, he couldn't tell you." John Paul is often too engrossed in talk and thought to pay attention to food. Amid intense conversation, he may push his plate away and fiddle with the cutlery, eyes closed, while concentrating on the speaker's words. He listens and responds. At lunch one day, some of the Pope's advisers started talking about the violence of the Serbs in Bosnia. The Pope interjected...
John Paul's dissatisfaction with some of the church's traditional priestly operatives -- like the Jesuits, whom he perceived until recently as becoming too liberal -- has led him to encourage lay Catholic movements such as Opus Dei. (Papal spokesman Navarro is a member.) He has declared this controversial organization a personal prelature, which means that it is exempt from the jurisdiction of local bishops and reports directly to Rome. The Pope has also given warm encouragement to a new religious order, the Legionaries of Christ, which some conservatives see as a replacement for the Jesuits of old. Members...
...Dolomites, the Pope, determined to reach a cross planted on a peak far ahead, walked so far that his aides became worn out and could go no farther. He agreed that all his staff could rest and wait for him, but he insisted that the fit and trim Joaquin Navarro continue with him. It took another three hours to reach the cross. The Pope was dressed in hiking togs -- one of those rare moments when he has been seen publicly in mufti. On the way up, they passed a group of German hikers descending the slope. John Paul greeted...