Word: pope
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...already be measured in Rome. A generally supportive Vatican hierarchy was caught off guard by both the timing and substance of the boss's unilateral olive branch to a group that has shown little good will toward Rome ever since the four bishops were consecrated in open defiance of Pope John Paul II, the act that had prompted their 1988 excommunication. Among several loyal Pope backers inside the Roman Curia, none of whom wanted to be identified, there was widespread consternation about the entire episode - and major uncertainty about what happens next. "The way it was just dropped...
...publication of the papal decree, which was released just three days after the airing of a Swedish television interview of Williamson, where the British-born Bishop declared that Nazi gas chambers didn't exist and Jewish deaths during World War II did not exceed 300,000. The Pope and several of his deputies have spent the past week reiterating the Vatican's clear, longstanding line on both the historical facts of the Holocaust and the warm papal sentiments toward and theological connection with the Jewish people. There is little doubt that the repair work, like that done with Muslims after...
...Catholic hierarchy could be more lasting. Regensburg was a question of a speech largely directed toward the outside world; and while some still criticize the poorly chosen language, others believe it gave much needed impetus to a more frank discussion about Islam. It was, in any case, the "professor Pope" playing to his strengths...
...undoing the excommunication of an unrepentant group that was long considered in schism with Rome is troubling in ecclesiastical terms. The Pope has shaken the foundations of his own Church, apparently without much consultation from those who run its day-to-day affairs (both in Rome and around the world). Indeed, Benedict made an end-run around the famously imposing Vatican bureaucracy, including the key offices of liturgy, doctrine and inter-faith relations that would have wanted to weigh in with their concerns under normal procedures. Several top Curia officials contacted by TIME this week declined comment, and there...
...long process of reconciliation - including the thorny issue of the Lefebvrites' recognition of Vatican II (interfaith dialogue, religious freedom, et al.). It will ultimately fall to these same Vatican offices shut out from the original decision to work out the details. It may turn out that the Pope has introduced into the already difficult work of Church unity a problem that simply cannot be resolved...