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Most official meetings with a Pope are choreographed sessions during which practiced formalities and prepared formulations eliminate any chance of missteps. But last week at Castel Gandolfo, his summer residence outside Rome, John Paul II held a remarkably open, unrehearsed exchange with Jewish leaders, the first by a Pontiff in modern times. By every account, the warm 75-minute encounter went well beyond smoothing ruffled feathers and gave substantive promise of uplifting the troubled relationship between Roman Catholics and Jews...
Vatican efforts to make amends included a public letter by the Pope on the anguish of the Holocaust. The process picked up at a vigorous working session in Rome the day before the papal meeting. Nine delegates of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations and nine Catholic representatives, mostly from the Vatican's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, met for six hours. After explaining the Waldheim audience by simply restating the Holy See's position, the church team, headed by Johannes Cardinal Willebrands, took strategic steps to improve relations...
Liberal U.S. Catholics who favor more individual autonomy reacted angrily. In California, Dominican Father Matthew Fox, a theologian whose unconventional writings have been scrutinized by Vatican doctrinal overseers, snaps that the "church is committing suicide." Americans living in Rome who have been in the U.S. recently have been stunned by the general opposition among clergy...
...well as priests and sisters involved in the local, day-to-day operation of the American church. Despite the concern of some conservative Catholics, there is little indication that the Pope is worried about the involvement of bishops and theologians in the antinuclear campaign and other social issues. But Rome has many other worries, particularly a growing personnel shortage, which could radically change the way the church's work is done...
With charity in mind, Father Giuseppe Federici, a parish priest in Latina, 37 miles southeast of Rome, opened the doors of his church to about 50 East European refugees camped outside last month. Within three days, however, their numbers had burgeoned to almost 600. It took a month for Italian authorities to find new lodgings for the refugees...