Word: pontiff
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Paul II has been unyielding in his determination to restore certainty in church teaching, and lately he has turned his attention toward America. Perhaps the greatest burden of this simmering dispute has fallen on the 253 active bishops in the U.S., who are caught between the will of their Pontiff | and the insistent expectations of their freewheeling flocks...
Despite that ideal, the Pope's audience was aware that Assisi symbolically went well beyond the ceremonial friendship accorded other faiths by any previous Pontiff. The assemblage included not only monotheists but believers in creeds once labeled "heathen" and "pagan" by a church that for centuries had preached unambiguously that there was no salvation outside its walls. The astonishing variety of the invited group also raised suspicions among some Christians that Assisi represented a heretical step toward syncretism, the amalgamation of various conflicting religions. For this reason, U.S. Fundamentalist Gadfly Carl McIntire branded the meeting the "greatest single abomination...
Much of Augustine's energy as a bishop was spent resisting heretics and schismatics, which led him to insist on the hierarchical church as the authoritative teacher and sole channel of salvation. Though this view later buttressed papal powers, Augustine defied Pope Zosimus when the Pontiff tolerated Pelagius, whose theology was so optimistic that humanity scarcely seemed to need a Saviour...
...movement clearly enjoys favor where it matters most. Pope John Paul II has come to rely on lay groups -- notably the secretive, highly disciplined Opus Dei -- to promote Christian values in a society that he finds increasingly materialistic. The Pontiff, who first came across C.L. while he was a bishop in Poland, made an appearance at the 1982 Rimini Meeting to give the crowd his special blessing. He still receives delegates from the organization in special audiences...
...Rome will give even broader church approval to lay activity like C.L.'s. The International Synod of Bishops, which meets every three years to advise the Pope on church teaching and practice, has set the role of the laity for its 1987 agenda. When the debates end, the Pontiff, who customarily issues a document summarizing the synod's conclusions and giving his own teaching, will establish more specific guidelines for lay action in reforming society...