Word: pontiff
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Mercedes-Benz limousine, quietly bade farewell to Vatican aides and boarded an Alitalia DC-10. Once again the Pope was airborne, setting forth this time on a strenuous twelve-day "pilgrimage of hope" to Latin America. Arriving at Caracas' Simon Bolivar Airport under a warm afternoon sun, the Pontiff, his white robe flapping in the soft Caribbean breezes, was greeted by Venezuelan President Jaime Lusinchi. Waving to the crowd, the Pope traveled in his converted Land Rover Popemobile along a twisting hillside road into the capital...
Indeed, one of the most enduring images of this pontificate is surely the white-garbed figure of John Paul descending from an aircraft, his arms spread wide, the familiar smile bestowed on a welcoming crowd. In his six years as Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, he covered 210,000 miles during the 24 foreign voyages prior to his current trip. No other religious leader has ever traveled so extensively or been seen in person by so many millions of people. No previous Pope, moreover, has placed such a determined emphasis on the unifying message that John Paul...
...talk, the Pontiff declared that sex "ceases to be an act of love" whenever artificial birth control is used. That idea appeared hi a book that he wrote in 1960, when he was a bishop, but is new to papal teaching. John Paul also stresses that acceptable natural methods of birth control can be an "abuse" if practiced for "unworthy reasons." Pope Pius XII, in a 1951 speech, said that Catholic couples could use the natural, or rhythm, method for serious "medical, eugenic, economic and social" reasons. John Paul shows little enthusiasm for promoting even these methods...
...laywomen key staff positions but also at one time mused openly about the theoretical possibility of women priests; that may be one reason he is now looked on with disquiet by some Vatican officials. When Pope John Paul II tried to dampen dissident U.S. theologians, Weakland remarked that the Pontiff "probably doesn't quite understand the American approach to pluralism...
...shooting of Pope John Paul II was the result of a conspiracy. The most spectacular assertion in a secret, 1,243-page report submitted to Italian authorities last week by Judge Ilario Martella was that a second would-be assassin, besides Turkish Terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca, fired at the Pontiff in St. Peter's Square. According to Martella, the second gunman was Oral Celik, 25, a Turk described as Agca's closest friend, who has not been seen since the day of the shooting. Agca told Martella that Celik was with him in the square that...