Word: vatican
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Shortly after Pope Benedict XVI's election, a Vatican Cardinal close to the Pontiff predicted that a Holy Land pilgrimage would be the first or second trip on the new papal itinerary. "It will happen soon," the Cardinal told me privately. "He very badly wants...
...Hajdas and about 50 other parishioners in this northern Berkshires town seized the church of St. Stanislaus Kostka to protest plans to shut it down. They say they'll keep their vigil until their appeal is heard by the Vatican--or until the Diocese of Springfield, which oversees Adams' churches, has them forcibly removed...
...such injustice." Borré, 70, a Rome-born, Jesuit-educated former energy executive, started the council to advise churches facing closure after his own parish in Charlestown, Mass., was shut in 2004. Borré has been involved in the Boston vigils from the beginning and is leading their appeal before the Vatican Supreme Court. In the case of St. Stanislaus Kostka, he sat in his car in front of the bishop's house to hand-deliver the parishioners' letter of intent...
...celebration of the birth of the Lord is at our doorstep ..." Thus began Pope Benedict XVI in his annual pre-Christmas address to top Vatican officials. But rather than a pro forma holiday wish of good tidings, the pontiff delivered his latest heavy-hitting discourse on everything from ecology to ecumenism, with carefully chosen citations from past Popes and even Friedrich Nietzsche. The topic that most grabbed press attention came about halfway through the 30-minute long address: transsexuals...
...Critics of the Church hierarchy see such pronouncements as proof of Catholicism's unhealthy "obsession" with sexual matters. In his book Sex and Heaven, Catholic writer John Portmann argues that the Vatican has made having "correct sex" the singular virtue for achieving salvation. In just the past month, the Vatican has announced its opposition to a United Nations proposal to protect gays from being criminalized and punished by governments for their orientation, and released a doctrinal office document reinforcing the Church's opposition to assisted fertility and stem cell research...