Word: vatican
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Cozzens and others have argued that the Church should consider making celibacy a voluntary discipline for priests. Because it is a rule and not an unchangeable dogma, the celibacy requirement could be altered or rescinded by the Vatican if it chose to do so. Earlier this year, advocates of celibacy reform got a surprising boost from then-outgoing Cardinal Edward Egan of New York, who told a Catholic radio host that the celibacy question was "a perfectly legitimate discussion." He suggested that celibacy might not be a reasonable expectation in every locale. "I am not so sure it wouldn...
...those prohibited by law from attending public school with the headscarves they wear everywhere else? Why is no one ranting about nuns' habits being "degrading" (as Gerin called the burqa), just as no one lashed out at creeping extremism when then-First Lady Bernadette Chirac covered her head during Vatican visits...
...first big problem emerged immediately after Benedict's surprise gesture of rapprochement when it turned out that one of the four bishops brought back into the fold, British-born Richard Williamson, was a vocal Holocaust denier. That required weeks of Vatican damage control. But another clash is brewing that may seem less explosive to the outside world but is actually more problematic for long-term church relations. For the Society is now preparing to openly defy the Holy See again. The group has announced that on June 27, three new priests and three deacons will be ordained at its seminary...
Lefebvre's successor, Monsignor Bernard Fellay, has defended the new ordinations, noting that his group and the Catholic Church as a whole need new priests. But Gerhard Müller, the bishop of Regensburg, the official Catholic diocese with oversight of the German ordinations, recently stated that without Vatican permission the new priests and the ordaining bishop could be excommunicated. The Vatican released a statement Wednesday that the ordinations "must be considered illegitimate," though no mention was made of excommunication. The brief note from the Holy See also referred to the Pope's letter to bishops in March that outlined...
...question of who's in charge. In this specific case, the Lefebvrites want to decide who becomes a priest of the Catholic Church, an authority that for centuries has rested solely in the hands of local bishops, who derive their authority from the Pope himself. One senior Vatican official says that the Pope's unilaterally reaching out to the Society, even with many outstanding issues unresolved, has emboldened rather than humbled the breakaway flock. "They thought all concessions had to come from Holy See," he says. "But they are [now] going to have to admit their own obedience to authority...