Word: popes
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...need look no further than yesterday's Boston Globe, however, to see that the pope's message of universal morality will be embraced by many who fear an encroaching secularism. In a speech delivered to a Catholic group earlier this month and reprinted in the Focus section of the Globe, Massachusetts State Senator William M. Bulger attacked the "fiery evangelists of the Age of Aquarius who would have us 'do our thing'--whatever it might be." Bulger further warns that Catholicism is under attack and that "the teachings of our church are ridiculed in every form of communication...
Reception of this latest papal encyclical will be divided. Nothing new in that piece of news--except that the very nature of the edict would preclude such division. If the pope was hoping to stifle the issues of authority raised twenty five years ago by Humanae Vitae, he may have only sparked a new surge of active dissension...
...Pope John Paul II will not be led into temptation, and if his latest and most important encyclical has its way, he hopes to deliver his church from evil. For years the Pontiff has been aware that contemporary liberal morality has deeply influenced the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church's 980 million members. And he will have none of it. In his 179-page Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth), he argues that good is clearly distinct from evil, that morality is not situational, that right is right and wrong is really wrong, and that the church...
...want to know what the Pope does in the evenings?" asks a middle- ranking member of the Vatican bureaucracy. "This is what he does. He thinks about these things." Six years ago, the Pontiff announced his intention to set down in encyclical form his reflections on the nature of good and evil. Encyclicals are authoritative declarations of the church's teaching, warnings of new problems, and guides to parishes across the world. John Paul's task seemed so daunting to some and so useless to others that the Pope was the unwilling recipient of almost constant, contradictory advice from...
...years ago, a draft was circulated to a select group of theological philosophers for comment, with the understanding that the Pontiff thought his work was nearly completed. The draft caused so much internal -- and not always well-concealed -- debate that the Pope took it back and overhauled it. Of the final product, a Vatican insider says, "What he has written is a masterpiece. But it is far too dense to be transmitted to most people...