Word: rome
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Villa Tevere, the Rome headquarters of Opus Dei, a couple of dozen men convened in a chamber similar to the one in which The Da Vinci Code's Bishop Aringarosa was handed ?20 million in Vatican bonds to set his nefarious plot in motion. From London, Paris, Milan, Madrid, New York City, Lagos and Montreal they had come, to draft a plan against a man they felt posed the most virulent threat to their order: director Ron Howard...
That all changed in 1982. Pope John Paul II, also a creative traditionalist interested in labor and faith, granted Escrivá's wish that Opus be a "personal prelature," a global quasi-diocese, able in some cases to leapfrog local archbishops and deal directly with Rome. Almost simultaneously the Pope publicly constricted the competing, more liberal Jesuit order. A perception that Opus' ecclesiastical power knew no limits peaked with Escrivá's 1992 beatification, a brief (for those days) 17 years after his death. Faultfinders, notes Allen, claimed that the judging panel had been packed and Escrivá's critics blackballed; they viewed...
...founder's premature sainthood to planting conservative minions in governments from Warsaw to Washington. Brown's treatment of the group had seemed to represent an untoppable high-sewage mark--that is, until the movie trailer appeared. Says Juan Manuel Mora, director of Opus Dei's communications department in Rome: "Reading a print version is one thing. Seeing the color images is another...
...American contractors pulled from their home in broad daylight early last month were shown on Islamic websites being beheaded by militants loyal to al-Qaeda kingpin Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi. Their British colleague faced a similar fate. Two Italian women taken four weeks ago were also reportedly executed, though Rome would not confirm the claims. Ten employees of an Iraqi cell-phone company were abducted in Baghdad and Fallujah. That rebels could so easily stage such brazen attacks has left many observers questioning whether the U.S. can possibly bring sanity--to say nothing of stability--to the country...
...year later, in an interview over lunch at Palazzo Grazioli, Berlusconi's private Rome residence, a waiter brought a large porcelain bowl filled with fresh cherries after the meal. Berlusconi offered the fruit to the reporter and each of his own aides, all of whom offered a polite "no grazie." With that, he slowly started to peek in the bowl to pluck out the best cherries for himself. As the conversation continued, so did the search for each new cherry, and all the while Berlusconi pulled the bowl closer and closer until his left arm was practically wrapped around...