Word: priestly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...UNKNOWN POPE. "We have never heard of him here," said James Reuter, a leading Jesuit in the Philippines. But he added, "At least we are thankful it is not some of the others." In Little Rock, Ark., Bishop Andrew J. McDonald heard the news from a priest and was forced to look up Luciani in a church directory. The rapid decision, quipped the bishop, "just shows that the Holy Spirit is quicker than the speed of light...
...around the world: his father was a committed socialist, his mother, as he put it, "a strong and devout" Catholic. Luciani was born, on Oct. 17, 1912, into the working class. In his home town of Forno di Canale in the Dolomite Alps of northeastern Italy, says the parish priest, "the villagers have been forced to work abroad. [Luciani's] father went to Switzer land to make a living." Even tually, the elder Luciani was able to settle down as a glassworker on the small island of Murano in the Venetian lagoon...
...Conversions came quickly. Unlike the parfaits, ordinary believers did not need to abstain from mutton and love; they had only to receive a deathbed absolution. At that point, they were expected to embark on the endura, a suicidal fast that sped them to heaven. A fellow traveler like Parish Priest Pierre Clergue could turn the Cathar teachings upside down: "Since everything is forbidden, everything is allowed." Clergue was rare in his rapacity, but not in taking concubines. Observes Le Roy Ladurie: "At an altitude of 1,300 meters, the rules of priestly celibacy ceased to apply...
Montaillou is rich in flawed humanity. Little Grazide Lizier, the 14-year-old who happily yielded to her cousin the priest, testifies: "In those days it pleased me, and it pleased the priest ... and so I did not think I was sinning, and neither did he. But now, with him, it does not please me any more. And so now, if he knew me carnally, I should think...
...brother Bernard, the corrupt bailiff of the town, were sentenced to prison, there to die soon after. One Cathar-a not-so-perfect parfait given to shady business dealings and fornication-was burned at the stake. Beatrice de Planissoles, the chatelaine, was released along with her latest swain, another priest-but Beatrice was sentenced to wear the yellow cross of repentant heretics. As for the zealous bishop, he went on to become the zealous Pope Benedict XII. Harsh and unbending still, he at last corrected some of the ecclesiastical abuses that had first disturbed the flock long...