Word: vatican
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...fishing and manufacturing city of Wuxi. As in 40 other Roman Catholic parishes in China, the local church is being rededicated after having been shut down for more than a decade. But because Chinese Catholics have been cut off from liturgical changes brought about by the Second Vatican Council, the crowd of 3,000 parishioners celebrates the Mass in Latin. The ceremony ends outside in true Chinese style with a crackling flare of fireworks lighting up the night...
There are far fewer Catholics than Protestants in China, and their situation is complicated. Of the 41 Catholic bishops in the country, only eight were appointed by the Vatican. The remaining 33 were elected by priests in China without papal approval, and are bishops of the government-approved Chinese Catholic Church, known as the Catholic Patriotic Association. There is one notable exception to this schismatic situation: Bishop Dominic Tang, 73, a Jesuit trained in Portugal and Spain. Even though Tang was appointed by the Vatican, remains loyal to the Pope and has so far refused to join the Patriotic Association...
...Church has never really been able to overcome this charge. The Vatican often scolds right-wing extremism but always seems to go after the left with a vengeance. Pius XII denounced Nazism but excommunicated all Catholic Communists. John Paul II upbraids the dictators of Brazil and the Philippines for their unfeeling attitude toward the poor but warns that nothing can be achieved through revolution or "the lie that is Marxism." At the same time, the Protestant fundamentalist penchant for ultraconservative politics sends frightened liberals scurrying away toward skepticism. Liberalism and Christianity, it seems, have become opposing forces...
Despite all of the objections that have been raised against him, Kung has remained a staunch defender of Christianity. The Church, however, does not think much of his approach. The Vatican's Holy Office has declared Kung a heretic and has forbidden him from teaching Catholic theology, ostensibly for his questioning of the infallibility of the Church. Indeed, in Does God Exist? Kung questions and then denounces the Holy Office, the Index of Forbidden Books, the Immaculate Conception, papal infallibility, and Paul VI's condemnation of birth control and homosexuality. He belongs to the liberal Catholic tradition that Plus...
...child, formally converting and changing his first name (from Aaron) at age 14. He studied theology at the Sorbonne, served as a university chaplain, and has been Bishop of Orleans since 1979. In fact, it was not Lustiger's religious background that raised a few eyebrows at the Vatican; it was his Polish origins. Groused one Curia member: "Is the Pope going to pack the episcopate with Poles...