Word: rome
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...leader of the world's 70 million strong Anglican Church. But his rule is neither monarchical nor absolute, since he is appointed by the Queen (or King) of England, and considered "first among equals" of Anglican primates. This fundamental difference in authority was on full display this week in Rome, where an embattled Williams came to meet Benedict and mark 40 years of Anglican-Catholic dialogue...
...accompanied by his wife and two children, timed his trip to mark the 40th anniversary of a historic meeting between Archbishop Michael Ramsey and Pope Paul VI. On that first formal encounter between the heads of the two Churches since England's King Henry VIII broke with Rome in the 16th century, the Pope gave Ramsey the ring that symbolizes his papal authority. Williams was wearing that same ring in his meeting with Benedict. And these days, he might wish he had his own symbol of absolute power to wield back at home...
...always stressed-- by saying, "Certainly there are also elements that can favor peace." When he met with moderate German Muslims in the city of Cologne that August, Benedict delivered a fairly blunt warning that "those who instigate and plan these attacks evidently wish to poison our relations." In Rome, he removed Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, a relatively dovish Islam expert, as head of the Vatican's office on interreligious dialogue and replaced an ongoing study of Christian violence during the Crusades with one on Islamic violence today. And he has stepped up the Vatican's insistence on reciprocity--demanding the same...
...remains unclear whether Benedict was deliberately trying to raise the temperature. Many analysts, especially in Rome, think he knew exactly what he was saying and regard the Islamic section of the 35-min. speech as a brave and eloquent warning of Islam's inherent violence and of a faithless West's inability to offer moral response. Yet Benedict's argument was slapdash and flawed. His sage, Ibn Hazm, turned out to have belonged to a school with no current adherents, and although reason's primacy is debated in Islam, it is very much part of the culture that developed algebra...
...behavior of the extremists seemed, at least to some, to prove his point. No editorialist could express frustration with him for initiating the row without condemning the subsequent carnage--and a good many decided his only fault was in speaking truth. Says a high-ranking Western diplomat in Rome: "It was time to let the rabbit out of the can, and he did. I admire his courage. Part of the Koran lends itself to being shanghaied by terrorists, and he can do what politicians can't." In late October, Benedict received a different kind of validation in an open "Your...