Word: romane
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
TIME's story said,"The Roman Catholic Church's own record in the religious-mayhem department is hardly pristine," suggesting that the church has no business criticizing jihadist Islam. But right now Muslims are free to practice their faith in Christian-dominated nations, while non-Muslims in predominantly Islamic countries are severely, sometimes violently, restricted. The Pope is to be commended, not sneered at, for sticking his neck out for the sake of interfaith dialogue based on doctrine, reason and truth...
Catholics Roman Catholicism requires priestly celibacy, so sexual orientation had seemed moot. But last year the Vatican told seminaries to reject those with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies...
...left with such wan and infrequent holidays today? The answer, simply put, is that in one historical setting after another, traditional celebrations were deliberately suppressed. The ancient Roman élite slaughtered worshippers of Dionysus with as much zeal as when, in later years, they went after Christians. Reformation Protestants criminalized carnival. Wahhabist Muslims, the ideological antecedents of al-Qaeda, battled ecstatic Sufism...
Once pearls were considered far more valuable than diamonds, since only 1 in 10,000 oysters may contain a round natural pearl. In Roman times, pearls were so sought after and expensive that Julius Caesar barred women below a certain rank from wearing them. It wasn't until Kokichi Mikimoto, founder of Mikimoto pearls, successfully cultured pearls in the early 1900s that they could be easily matched and made into necklaces (before that, it could take up to 10 years to find enough matching pearls to make a strand). It was Coco Chanel who exploited the discovery of cultured pearls...
...statement saying that the current policy stands. Now Hummes, the Brazilian Cardinal about to take over the Congregation for the Clergy, has reopened it again. We can't know if Hummes - who on Monday clarified that the issue was not an immediate priority - was still a bit naive to Roman customs. But it is evidence of a more open intellectual climate under Benedict. And so with Ratzinger, who was perhaps the best-known modern Cardinal to become Pope, there is another bit of well-worn Roman wisdom to ponder: every papacy - like creation itself - is a work in progress...