Word: pontiffs
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Even for a country as staunchly Catholic as Spain, the welcome for Pope John Paul II last week was astonishing in its emotional intensity. Beyond the outpouring of affection for the man himself, it was as if Spaniards saw this first visit to their country ever by a sitting Pontiff as a symbol of reconciliation for a young democracy racked by leftist terrorism on the one hand and threatened on the other by disgruntled right-wingers anxious to return to the dictatorial days of Francisco Franco. Only three days before the Pope's white Alitalia 727 touched down...
...Roman Catholic pontiff said his meeting with Felipe Gonzalez, whose Specialist Party wan last week's general election by a landslide, should "remove any doubts--if chief ever were any--about my respect for the country's freely elected leaders...
...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...