Word: pontiff
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Winding up a strenuous summer at Castel Gandolfo, Pope Pius XII set off a flurry of concern with reports that he had suffered a return of the hiccup attacks that had endangered his life last winter. But last week, the 78-year-old Pontiff allayed anxiety by maintaining a fast-paced work schedule that included two mass audiences, two special audiences and a 15-minute speech, in addition to his regular routine. In an audience with a group of doctors, the Pope said that he was not yet fully recovered, but must keep to his tasks. As he spoke...
Priests should particularly ask themselves, the Pontiff wrote, how many of their parishioners are practicing Roman Catholics. "True, all believe more or less after a fashion," he went on. "Very many have been baptized and have made their first Communion also; they have been married in the Church and they want to have, in God's good time, the last sacraments and a Church burial. But it is undeniable that outside a group, more or less numerous, of fervent Catholics, you have the simply well-disposed, the indifferent and even the hostile...
Papal Carpetbagging. Lucrezia's big trouble was her family. Her father, Rodrigo Borgia, a crafty, sensual and deceptively charming Spaniard, got himself elected Pope in 1492 as Alexander VI. Alexander was an unashamedly worldly pontiff who made no effort to conceal Lucrezia and his seven other bastard children - indeed, thought nothing was too good for them. For eleven years, in one of history's most painstaking carpetbagging expeditions, he virtually turned the papacy and its pos sessions into a family preserve...
...When St. Pius V (1566-72) was canonized. Ascetic Pius V, a friar of the Dominican order, and Inquisitor General for all of Christendom before he became Pope, is chiefly remembered by historians as the Pontiff who made the break between Rome and the Church of England irrevocable by excommunicating Queen Elizabeth...
Excellent and panoramic your chronicle . . . Missing was what Protestant visitors to the Vatican did when granted an audience with His Holiness. I was third in the line when the Pontiff entered (exactly as you depicted) and the Roman Catholics present bent . . . and kissed the ring. Others just stood like statues ... I was struck with the Pope's quiet, humble manner, and as he gave his blessing, I gave him a hearty Protestant handshake...