Word: paule
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...American context, the fierce dispute over abortion now concerns whether traditional Jewish and Christian teaching should be incorporated into secular law. Catholics themselves are divided. Many Catholic Congressmen oppose abortion personally but want no constitutional amendment to control it. But for John Paul, activism is essential on human rights. "If a person's right to life is violated at the moment in which he is first conceived in his mother's womb," he has said, "an indirect blow is struck also at the whole of the moral order." He urged the cheering crowd in Washington to "demand that...
Divorce. In Washington, John Paul spoke out for the "indissolubility" of marriage and warned against "the fear of making permanent commitments [which] can change the mutual love of husband and wife into two loves of self-two loves existing side by side, until they end in separation." Eastern Orthodox and Protestants have allowed divorce, at the very least in the case of adultery, citing the statement of Jesus Christ in Matthew 5: 32. But for centuries Roman Catholicism has held to stricter parallel verses in Mark and Luke. Its doctrine holds that a divorced spouse who remarries lives...
...number of U.S. dioceses and parishes do quietly permit remarried Catholics to receive Communion, but official policy remains against it. Regarding the related matter of annulments, John Paul is reported to take a dim view of those now granted in the U.S. on markedly liberal grounds...
Women's Role. It was during his U.S. visit that John Paul spoke for the first time against the ordination of women as priests. He did not elaborate on his reasons, but pure tradition is one of them. The Catholic Church (like the Eastern Orthodox churches) has never ordained women. Reacting against the decision of some Anglican churches to do so, the Vatican in 1977 issued a decree stating that the policy on women is an act "in fidelity to the example of the Lord." That means in effect that if Jesus had wanted women priests he would have...
Celibacy of the Clergy. The rule that Catholic priests may not marry is quite clearly not a matter of doctrine but of discipline. Any Pope is free to change it. In his Holy Week letter to the priests of the world, as in his U.S. remarks, John Paul has firmly indicated that he does not intend to be the Pope to do so. In addition, the celibacy vow binds a man in perpetuity, he says. The candidate who feels a vocation has a long time to decide and must be sure before saying yes. After that he must keep...