Word: theologian
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...next pontificate, however, many Catholics now appear to be looking for more decisive leadership. "Whoever the Pope is, he'll have to take some stronger positions, even if some are on the 'right,' " says a leader of the left, Spain's lay theologian Enrique Miret Magdalena. If, as many observers argue, this is a time to turn, the question remains: In which direction? The overarching issue in Roman Catholicism today is cohesion, or?to use an old-fashioned term?authority. It is a sign of the difficulties facing the next Pope that Catholic pundits differ widely on how authority should...
...American priests help define the poles. Richard McBrien, a much quoted Boston College theologian, thinks most Catholics with "credentials, intelligence and judgment" are liberals who will be lost to the church if a Pope tries to mollify the conservatives. Only a progressive Pope, he says, will restore the necessary "optimism and confidence." Kenneth Baker, editor of the conservative Homiletic and Pastoral Review, pleads the opposite: "We need a Pope who overcomes the confusion over what it means to be a Catholic. The seminaries are a shambles. We need clear directives about what the church stands for, clear lines for dissent...
Redemptorist Theologian F.X. Murphy, a shrewd observer of papal politics since the Second Vatican Council, singles out two qualities that the new Pope must have: "pazienza e presenza, " the patience to deal with a pluralistic, decentralized church and the commanding presence to lead and guide. Similarly, U.S. Sociologist Father Andrew Greeley, in a detailed "job description" for the next Pontiff, concludes that he should be a "hopeful, holy man, who can smile, delegate responsibility and trust other human beings." If he is, Greeley observes, "it does not matter whether he is progressive or moderate...
...Curia, an unprecedented rapprochement with other faiths. But his no could be emphatic and crucial: no to any genuine sharing of power with his fellow bishops, no to married priests, no to the ordination of women, and no-a still-reverberating no-to artificial birth control. The late Jesuit Theologian John Courtney Murray accurately predicted the tone of Paul's pontificate in the early years of his reign. "From a cerebral point of view," said Murray in 1965, "he is a convinced progressive. But when he starts to reflect on the duties of his office he begins...
...decreed an end to the traditional obligation of abstaining from meat on Fridays. He abolished the notorious Index of Forbidden Books, which had once included the works of John Locke, Victor Hugo and Voltaire. In theological controversy, excommunication and charges of heresy gave way to milder methods. Even Swiss Theologian Hans Küng's celebrated critique of papal infallibility was handled gently: Küng was simply warned not to teach such opinions in the future, but did not have to recant them...