Word: vatican
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...sunlight streamed through abstract stained-glass windows in the Vatican's ultramodern audience hall, Pope John Paul II told 7,000 pilgrims last week that the practice and attitude of contraception were "harmful to man's interior spiritual culture." Roman Catholic couples, said he, must make a true spiritual evaluation of their sexual relations and express "mature availability to fatherhood and motherhood...
...refugees from Central America, and advocated equal rights for homosexuals. He not only gave nuns and laywomen key staff positions but also at one time mused openly about the theoretical possibility of women priests; that may be one reason he is now looked on with disquiet by some Vatican officials. When Pope John Paul II tried to dampen dissident U.S. theologians, Weakland remarked that the Pontiff "probably doesn't quite understand the American approach to pluralism...
Ecumenical complications also loom large, a fact that worries Archbishop Runcie. Since 1970, Anglicans and Roman Catholics have been discussing reunification, while for decades Anglicans and Orthodox churches have also discussed closer ties. But in 1975, the Vatican, forewarning the Anglicans in effect, declared that the all-male priesthood was "an unbroken tradition" that is "based on Christ's example" and "considered to conform to God's plan for his church." If those words allow any leeway, the Eastern Orthodox Church allows none, holding that priesthood for women is impossible. The result: while one long-sought liberal reform...
Fearing that the tragic news might spark street demonstrations and clashes with police, church leaders and Solidarity activists appealed for calm. During his weekly audience at the Vatican, Pope John Paul II urged his countrymen not to disturb "the great moral eloquence of this death." Former Solidarity Leader Lech Walesa asked Poles to observe "the silence of mourning." Said he: "They wanted to kill, and they killed not only a man, not only a Pole, not only a priest. They wanted to kill the hope that it is possible in Poland to avoid violence in political life...
...film in Martella's possession was shot by a Vatican camera crew and for unknown reasons was not shown at Agca's July 1981 trial. According to Martel la's report, the footage clearly shows the explosion of two shots coming from Agca's gun, and the film's sound track contains two reports from his 9-mm Browning automatic pistol. Martella says that as many as 20 witnesses reported they heard three shots. In addition, he cites a previously undisclosed portion of Agca's confession in which he recalls that "if I found...