Word: parishes
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Saturday morning. a few parishioners of bustling and growing St. Joseph Catholic Church in suburban Baltimore, Maryland, gather in a member's living room to discuss their Roman Catholic faith. The people from St. Joe's, a parish of 10,000, speak reverentially about Pope John Paul II. He is a familiar figure to them, and at last they may be able to catch a glimpse of him in person. A long and rich history hovers in the background. Founded as a colonial refuge for English Catholics in 1634, Maryland later served as headquarters of the first diocese...
...parishioners, to be sure, express mild disagreement with positions that John Paul, hewing to church doctrine, has emphasized during his 17 years as Pontiff. The ban on women in the priesthood prompts a brief debate. Joseph Lewis, 64, a retired Westinghouse engineer and chair of the St. Joseph parish council, suggests that the omission of women from the ranks of the Apostles may have been historical rather than theological: "You've got to put yourself back to A.D. 25 to interpret the Jewish religion and the Roman Empire. Could you picture Christ choosing women Apostles? There's a different frame...
Sally Capozzi, 63, a widow and a member of the parish council, isn't buying this historical relativism: "Christ is God, and he knew what would happen in the future." Kevin Coyle, 35, a student at nearby Towson State University, disagrees with Sally's argument that women were not intended by Christ for the priesthood: "I look at other faiths and think, Why is the Roman Catholic Church different? I support women's rights. If women can hold other jobs and are intelligent and capable, why hold them back...
...drift of the conversation tugs participants away from the shores of dispute and toward the flow of shared satisfactions in their Catholic faith. Jerry Trees, 56, a financial consultant and chair of the parish pro-life committee, says, "Rome presents the truth, the repository of faith with a history of 2,000 years, and puts things in perspective." Francis Pugh, parish council vice chair and a counsel in the state attorney general's office, offers with a laugh his view of salvation and eternal life: "I have this image that when we go to heaven we'll be greeted with...
Warburg Professor of Economics Emeritus John Kenneth Galbraith yesterday spoke against Republican Congress at the First Parish Church at the Cambridge Earth Day Festival...