Word: papal
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...fate may offer insights but no real parallels, even though Cardinal Ratzinger held the same position in Munich as Law held in Boston. Law was a very high Prince of the Church when the Boston scandal broke, but Ratzinger is now the Supreme Pontiff. No one should expect a papal resignation - indeed, both as Vatican Cardinal and as Pontiff, Benedict has been more responsive than many of his colleagues on clergy sex abuse. Still, the Church's history of silence is galling to the faithful. Law's reticence to speak up and take full responsibility only deepened the pain...
...what happened back then, and he shouldn't be part of it now," a Vatican insider tells TIME. "He should offer the greatest silence possible, not because he doesn't care about the abuse but because it would involve him in scandal and undermine his magisterium" - that is, his papal teaching authority. Indeed, the officials at the Vatican have characterized the German revelations as a targeted campaign to discredit the Church as a whole...
...Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger condemned the "wall of silence" within the Catholic hierarchy, accusing the church of hiding behind a 2001 Vatican directive that called for cases of abuse to be investigated internally before going to state authorities. "This directive makes clear that even serious abuse allegations fall under papal confidentiality and thus should not be forwarded on outside the church," she said. (See "The Pope's Sex Abuse Challenge...
Cahill’s unexpected turn from papal encyclicals to sexual slang characterized an address that asked students to examine what religious tradition has to say about the sexual realities of college...
...left-wing Italian terrorist organization the Red Brigades. (He was in fact a Turkish nationalist named Mehmet Ali Agca, who last week was released from prison.) Also, beyond the self-flagellation, John Paul sought to move closer to God by sleeping on the hard floor of his papal bedroom. The physical suffering he inflicted on himself may in fact help propel him to sainthood faster than anyone before...