Word: pontiff
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...soil to begin his long-awaited eleven-day, 17,000-mile pastoral journey.* Said John Paul on his arrival: "I come as a pilgrim, a pilgrim in the cause of justice and peace and human solidarity, striving to build up the one human family." But the Polish-born Pontiff had also come to listen, and to respond carefully to the divergent voices of the American religious melting pot -- Catholic and non-Catholic alike -- that were raised as he arrived...
Most official meetings with a Pope are choreographed sessions during which practiced formalities and prepared formulations eliminate any chance of missteps. But last week at Castel Gandolfo, his summer residence outside Rome, John Paul II held a remarkably open, unrehearsed exchange with Jewish leaders, the first by a Pontiff in modern times. By every account, the warm 75-minute encounter went well beyond smoothing ruffled feathers and gave substantive promise of uplifting the troubled relationship between Roman Catholics and Jews...
Those developments set the stage for Castel Gandolfo, where the nine Jewish representatives began by reciting Psalm 113 in Hebrew, after which John Paul and Willebrands prayed in Latin; everyone joined in a final "Alleluia." The Pope then listened to criticism of his Waldheim meeting without responding. The Pontiff expressed awareness that "the existence of Israel is central" to Jews, said a joint communique, and he "affirmed the importance of the proposed document on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism...
...talks had some light moments. Rabbi Alexander Schindler, leader of Reform Judaism in the U.S., told the Pontiff that in 1979 he had lifted a child above the crowd when John Paul visited New York City, saying, "Remember for the rest of your life that it was a rabbi who helped you see the Pope." But for all the warmth, what some were already calling the historic "Castel Gandolfo meeting" has not healed all the old wounds. To ensure that this visit will be remembered past his lifetime, the Pope who saw the rabbis has merely begun what promises...
American Catholicism -- huge, wealthy and influential -- is crucial to John Paul' s campaign to restore church discipline. But a TIME poll shows that most Catholics, while respecting their Pontiff, disagree with him on a number of key moral issues. -- Cities that will be host to the visit agonize about logistical problems, protests and tacky commercialism. See RELIGION...