Word: pontiff
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...exemplar of priestly discipline and self-giving, and of Christian virtue in a century of inhumanity. Saints are usually not proclaimed till at least 50 years after the process begins. Kolbe reached beatification, the next-to-last step, in 1971, as Paul VI became the first Pontiff to perform such a ceremony personally. After beatification, the church must normally document two miracles resulting from prayers to the candidate to intercede with God. John Paul removed the need for that by proclaiming Kolbe not only a "confessor" but a martyr, a Christian who died for his faith. As it happened there...
...before the scandal broke. After taking a degree in canon law at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian 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...
...Pontiff had hoped to attend last week's ceremonies, but Polish authorities cited continuing unrest as an excuse for postponing the papal visit at least until next year. John Paul's absence was symbolized by a conspicuously empty seat on the monastery's dais. From his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, meanwhile, the Pope celebrated the Black Madonna's anniversary with a special Mass at which he declared that the Polish "state can be truly strong only with the support of society." But he added that national reconciliation could come only through dialogue, not opposition...
...fervor for many Argentines in the hours before the Pope's arrival. The patriotic euphoria of the early weeks of the war was all but submerged in a vast national outpouring of piety and sheer excitement over the Pope's visit, the first ever made by a Pontiff to Argentina...
Nothing seems likely to keep this Pontiff within Vatican gates. A possible third papal trip this year is under discussion: to Poland. John Paul ardently wants to attend the 600th anniversary of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, even if martial law is still in force when he arrives, just as he wanted to go to Britain despite the supposedly insurmountable diplomatic problems. Last week Archbishop Herbert Bednorz of Katowice stirred speculation by telling 200,000 pilgrims at a shrine in Poland that the Pope wants the internment centers closed, but if they are not closed when he visits, he will...