Word: vatican
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Peter's Square from the last conclave which ended on Oct. 16, 1978. Having just bid farewell to the photogenic figure who helped launch his career, Giansanti, now 48, recalls with a lump in his throat that it was John Paul himself who assured him that his own Vatican career was really just beginning...
Daily reports from the scene in Vatican City The New Bishop of Rome Ratzinger Gets a Cold Top 10 Papal Candidates The Conclave's Length Cardinals Do Lunch Chasing Italian Cardinals Reading the Silence The Return of Cardinal...
...This unity presents an opportunity for the next Pope. John Paul II's great unfulfilled desire was to visit China and re-establish diplomatic relations with Beijing, giving the Vatican a direct link to China's Catholics and a greater ability to object to government repression. In return, China would demand that the Holy See break off its ties with Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province. In secret negotiations over the past decade, papal representatives cleared most obstacles to this kind of understanding, but one major sticking point has remained: the Pope's right to name bishops...
...Beijing and the Holy See were close to a deal in 2000, but it was derailed by the sanctioned church, which deliberately offended Rome by elevating four bishops without first informing the Vatican. The Vatican retaliated by canonizing Christians killed during the Boxer Rebellion at the turn of the 20th century. The Pope later mended fences by apologizing for the Church's mistakes in China over the past four centuries, and last week, Beijing's Foreign Ministry expressed "sadness" at his passing. But the two sides haven't gone back to the negotiating table. "The Chinese side," says Joseph...
...whole, though, local Catholic leaders are enjoying more contact with Rome than ever before. According to the Vatican, all but about 10 of China's 70 official bishops have been recognized by the Pope. Even those who remain unrecognized?usually for past criticism of the Vatican?may still perform legitimate baptisms, hear confessions, and offer other religious services. Nor does the Vatican object when underground bishops come in from the cold and join the official church. "The official church in China is still a church, and its religious practices are valid," a Vatican official told TIME...