Word: theologians
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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...
...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...
...that anyone's human rights can be taken away with the pull of a lever." It seemed more likely that Wichita voters were less interested in restricting the rights of gays than in blocking a community-wide endorsement of a practice they abhor. Sums up University of Chicago Theologian Martin E. Marty: "The American people have had and will continue to have a growing tolerance for homosexual expression. But there is a big difference between a growth in tolerance and a willingness to legislate homosexuality as a normative alternative...