Word: papally
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...allegedly gave Soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev a handwritten letter from the Pope, who threatened to "lay down the crown of St. Peter" and return home to join the resistance if the Soviets moved against Poland. After a series of diplomatic shuttles between Moscow, Warsaw and Rome, says NBC, the papal envoy persuaded the Soviets to acquiesce in the Gdansk agreement that gave birth to Solidarity. Exasperated by the Pope's intervention and by his subsequent "plans to send millions of dollars to Solidarity," says Kalb, Brezhnev may have decided to get rid of "this meddlesome priest...
Intriguing though it is, NBC's scenario falls far short of hard proof. A Vatican spokesman denied knowledge of any papal letter to Brezhnev or secret diplomatic mission to Moscow. Although U.S. Senator Alfonse D'Amato last week accused CIA officials of dismissing information he gave them in October 1981 that the Kremlin was involved in the plot to kill the Pope, U.S. intelligence officials told TIME they had no evidence that the Pope was involved in either Solidarity's birth or funding...
...Cardinal Wyszynski, was publicly calling on workers to scale down their demands. And even if such intercession did take place in August 1980, why should the Soviets try to kill the Pope nine months later, when Solidarity was already well established? Finally, if the Soviets were so concerned about papal intervention, why didn't that prevent them from ordering a Polish-executed crackdown last December? In attempting to answer the big question behind the attack on John Paul, NBC has raised dozens more...
...University, Marcinkus joined the Vatican's State Secretariat in 1952 and soon caught the eye of Archbishop Giovanni Battista Montini, who was to become Pope Paul VI in 1963. The new Pontiff made the tall (6 ft. 3 in.), burly American cleric part of an intimate circle of papal advisers. In 1964 the Pontiff selected Marcinkus, a born organizer, to be his advanceman for trips abroad. During the visit of Paul VI to Manila in 1970, the athletic Marcinkus helped to subdue a Bolivian artist disguised as a priest who tried to stab the Pope. Paul...
Bernardin demonstrated his considerable tactical skills over the controversial Call to Action conference in 1976. He won the admiration of the liberal clergy by helping to organize the event. But when delegates attacked papal teachings regarding birth control, celibacy and women priests, Bernardin managed to preserve good relations with conservatives in the Vatican. He had warned them about the likelihood of dissent by the delegates, and steadfastly maintained his support of church policy...