Word: vaticaners
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...comma will change in the doctrine." That is not the battle cry of some Vatican mossback but a matter-of-fact assessment by Andrea Riccardi, the well- connected founder of the Catholic social-justice group Comunità di Sant'Egidio. Among the major conclave topics, John Paul's conservative stance on faith-and-morals issues is least likely to be debated. That is unsurprising, since he made that stance clear in thousands of pages of explanation and appointed 113 of the electors. Says Catholic University's Ferme: "I don't think there is a shadow of a doubt among the Cardinals...
...excesses of the Crusades indicated his understanding that Islam is both one of Catholicism's great competitors and, in many places, its next-door neighbor. Sept. 11 was perhaps the first great issue that the Pope, by then physically weakened, addressed in a less than aggressive manner, and the Vatican sense of urgency regarding Islam's various faces, although as keen as the rest of the world's, remains papally undefined. "It's the 800-lb. gorilla sitting in the room," says a well-placed Vatican source. "It's huge and expanding, has violent elements, so what will...
Until recently, the conventional wisdom had it that the most plausible papabile to respond to such challenges was FRANCIS CARDINAL ARINZE, former head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and a native of Nigeria, where Christianity and Islam come into contentious conflict. But his long service in the Vatican bureaucracy, or Curia ("He's more Curial than African" goes a typical comment), and his recent transfer to another department have dimmed his prospects. Some electors may side with Bologna's former ARCHBISHOP GIACOMO CARDINAL BIFFI, who has suggested that non-Catholic immigration to Italy should be limited. But theirs...
...that they loved him, the late Pontiff's bishops did not thrive under him. The language of the Second Vatican Council had seemed to promise greater "collegiality" between bishops and the Pope (whose office for centuries was less powerful than now). But John Paul did not see it that way. He applied theological litmus tests for bishops' appointments and required national bishops' conferences to clear statements on doctrine with the Vatican. "Even conservative Cardinals of large archdioceses have been unhappy with the way the Curia has interfered with their authority," says McBrien. "They want a Pope who will respect that...
...funny--or, rather, somber--thing happened during John Paul's hard final days. Vatican handicappers realized that there is a downside to an old Pope and a short papacy. A Vatican official who watched several electors view John Paul's body says, "The look in their eyes said the unstated, [that] the last thing we'd want is a decrepit [Pontiff]." Now fans of the interim solution have reluctantly had to return to regarding the full spectrum of Cardinal options...