Word: popes
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Pope Issues "Gospel of Life...
...Pope John Paul II issued his Evangelium Vitae, or "Gospel of Life," a sweeping encyclical letter, in which he not unexpectedly denounced abortion, euthanasia and the "culture of death." He also condemned the widespread imposition of the death penalty, saying it should be used only in "cases of absolute necessity," which he said are "very rare, if not practically nonexistent." Conscience itself, John Paul wrote, has been "darkened ... by such widespread conditioning...
They apply criteria established in the 1700s by Pope Benedict XIV: among them, that the disease was serious; that there was objective proof of its existence; that other treatments failed; and that the cure was rapid and lasting. Any one can be a stumbling block. Pain, explains Ensoli, means little: "Someone might say he feels bad, but how do you measure that?" Leukemia remissions are not considered until they have lasted a decade. A cure attributable to human effort, however prayed for, is insufficient. "Sometimes we have cases that you could call exceptional, but that's not enough." says Ensoli...
...several other clerics in the Vatican's "medical conference" give to a case if it survives their scrutiny. It then passes to a panel of theologians, who must determine whether the inexplicable resulted from prayer. If so, the miracle is usually approved by a caucus of Cardinals and the Pope...
...POPE Vatican fails to exclude pro-choice Catholics from U.N. conference...