Word: popes
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Cardinal wields immense clout in the hierarchy -- beginning at the top. The Pope and Ratzinger are, says one mid-ranking Vatican official, "two pieces of a puzzle. Without one, the other is not complete." Others point out an obvious primacy. Asked whether the Cardinal in practice was the undisputed No. 2 under the Pontiff, one insider in the Holy See responds, "Intellectually and theologically...
...wouldn't be surprised if someday he's looked upon as one of the great saints of our time," says Joseph Fessio, an American Jesuit and a former student. However, as the Pope's conservative eminence grise, the Cardinal is also one of the most despised men in Catholicism. Critics decry his hard-line ways and his apostasy from the seeming liberalism of his youth. They call the German-born prelate "Panzer Kardinal" and conjure up images of Huns and German despots. "He is very sweet -- and very dangerous," the Swiss theologian Hans Kung says. Ratzinger helped force Kung...
...After Pope Paul VI named him Archbishop of Munich in 1977, Ratzinger found an ally in a fellow Cardinal who shared his view of the church as the bulwark against barbaric atheism and dehumanizing secularism: Karol Wojtyla, the Archbishop of Cracow and the future John Paul II. Both were members of the worldwide Synod of Bishops -- an advisory council to the Pope. In 1980, two years after his accession, John Paul asked Ratzinger to join him in Rome. The Pontiff was turned down -- twice. Finally Ratzinger laid out his conditions. He would come only if he could continue to speak...
Ratzinger's views resonate through the Pope's recent encyclical The Splendor of Truth, which sharply defined right and wrong. It also sought to instill a militant obedience in Catholics. Treating religion as a matter of mere emotion, says Ratzinger, has created a crisis in moral values for all societies. "It is essential to have common ground that can be attested to in moral and religious matters." The church's teachings, therefore, have to be unbending, Ratzinger believes. "Everyone, thank God, is free to decide whether or not he is able and willing to subscribe to the Catholic faith with...
Today the Cardinal, who is into his third five-year term at the Congregation, is the longest-serving major official in John Paul's Vatican. Might he be elected Pope one day? Vatican watchers say no: he is too controversial, and his brief record in pastoral work -- as Archbishop of Munich -- is at best spotty. Meanwhile, his health, while good today, has been precarious in the past. In September 1991 he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage that affected his left field of vision. Then in August 1992 he fell against a radiator and was knocked unconscious, bleeding profusely. "Thank God, there...