Word: rome
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Roncalli was born in the first ridge of mountains east of Lake Como, and looked to the great Renaissance city of Bergamo, not Rome, as his capital. He thought of himself all his life as Bergamese. Donizetti was his favorite composer; he got another Bergamese, Giacomo Manzu, to design one of the great bronze doors of St. Peter's, and he liked to surround himself, as Pope, with Bergamese clergy...
...over the world, but particularly in the Americas and Europe, discipline became shaky or even broke down. Thousands of priests gave up their vocations and married. Nuns took to feminism. Quasi heresies like Liberation Theology became the mode. Some hierarchies, such as the Dutch, virtually broke free of Rome. The Vatican began to allow annulments of marriage by the thousands -- amounting to a Catholic sanction of divorce. Its finances were out of control. By the time Paul died in 1978, the church was in its worst crisis since the Protestant Reformation...
Again unlike John, John Paul did not wait for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: he acted himself, quickly and purposefully. This sometimes meant summoning and hectoring an entire hierarchy, as in the case of the Dutch bishops. More usually it involved inviting to Rome difficult or disobedient bishops for a quiet but firm admonition -- "an awesome experience," as one of them put it to me, "a premonition of being received by St. Peter at the Last Trump." John Paul has also taken more trouble than any of his recent predecessors to ensure that all new bishops appointed are loyal...
...years now, Karol Wojtyla -- once actor, then priest, then Archbishop and Cardinal -- has been Pope John Paul II, the Supreme Pontiff, Bishop of Rome, leader of a church of nearly 1 billion souls. "It's curious," an Italian Archbishop once said, "you'd think he had always been Pope." And yet to understand the man and his papacy, one must look not only to the Vatican, from which he issues spiritual guidelines, but also to the almost mystical Poland he holds in his heart. Indeed, though the Pope's corner bedroom on the third floor of the Vatican's Apostolic...
Europe: James O. Jackson London: Barry Hillenbrand Paris: Thomas Sancton Brussels: Jay Branegan Bonn: Bruce van Voorst Central Europe: James L. Graff Moscow: John Kohan, Sally B. Donnelly Rome: Greg Burke Istanbul: James Wilde Jerusalem: Lisa Beyer Cairo: Dean Fischer Beirut: Lara Marlowe Nairobi: Andrew Purvis Johannesburg: Scott MacLeod New Delhi: Jefferson Penberthy Beijing: Jaime A. FlorCruz Hong Kong: William Dowell Southeast Asia: Frank Gibney Jr. Tokyo: Edward W. Desmond Ottawa: Gavin Scott Latin America: Laura Lopez...