Word: vaticans
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...What's more, after his return to Rome, word came over the weekend that Benedict's pick to take over the Vatican office for the clergy, Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, had opened the door to a future discussion on celibacy in the priesthood. This came just weeks after the Pope held a meeting with Vatican cardinals that explicitly reaffirmed the Roman Church's longstanding ban on married clergy...
...Although the modern papacy has its script, Pope John Paul II showed that moving the world means sometimes letting yourself be moved. Benedict's late decision to accept an invitation to the Blue Mosque meant Vatican aides and their Muslim hosts would need to work out in advance the basic details of the encounter. Several hours beforehand, word had spread that last Thursday's televised visit would include a moment for silent prayer or reflection. Still, when Istanbul's top cleric, Mustafa Cagrici, told the Pope it was time for a "moment of serenity," Benedict looked for an instant...
...watershed in a papacy that just two months earlier had nearly drowned in a speech critical of Islam. Benedict, long doubtful of different faiths praying together, got lost in the moment. Don't expect such papal adventures to happen often in the future, but as an old Italian Vatican hand put it last week: "Traveling changes people...
...Turkey trip will be hailed as a great success of Vatican diplomacy, and the Holy See's new Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, can take a chunk of the credit. The softer tones on Islam, the visit to the mosque, openly warm exchanges with Benedict's Orthodox counterpart, the Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I - and no major glitches - means the Pope returns to Rome with a new dose of what he sorely needed when he left: consensus. The Regensburg speech, and the risk it might incite violence, divided many Catholics - even those who may have instinctively agreed with...
...Gestures: The gradual reversal over the past week of Benedict's original opposition (as a Cardinal in 2004) to Turkey's eventual entry into the European Union - alluded to both by Vatican officials and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan - was symbolically sealed like a gift on Thursday with the Pope's joint declaration with the Orthodox Patriarch that referred "positively" to European Union expansion. Notably the two Christian leaders cited the singular priority of religious freedom for any joining E.U. members...