Word: vaticans
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Short, pudgy and quick to smile, the Milan leader has few enemies--a miraculous accomplishment in Vatican circles. A moral theologian believed to have helped pen the Pope's seminal 1995 document on bioethics, Tettamanzi has strong conservative credentials. But he has also spoken out against the mistreatment of immigrants and in support of antiglobalization demonstrations. Progressive Catholic groups such as the Community of Sant'Egidio and the archtraditionalist Opus Dei seem to like him equally. He can reach out to the laity as well: the Archbishop showed up at the Monza racetrack last month for a spin...
...could see his prospects fade. Some feel the Cardinals will again look outside Italy, perhaps to Africa or Latin America, where an unabashed Catholicism is booming. And all the talk about his chances could wind up backfiring. "You can't seem to want it too badly," says a veteran Vatican official. Or, in the words of an old Roman dictum, "He who enters the conclave as Pope exits as Cardinal." --By Jeff Israely
...Passion by Mel Gibson has already elicited much comment (Arts, “Scholars Challenge Gibson’s ‘Passion,’” Oct. 17). The criticisms generally focus on two points: the movie does not accept the theological reforms introduced by Vatican II and the movie claims to be an accurate historical reconstruction but in fact is not. But the critics, no less than Gibson, need to exercise care...
Some critics of the film (notably Frank Rich of the New York Times) argue that the Gibson’s Catholicism is out of touch with contemporary Catholic thought, since the Second Vatican Council absolved the Jews of the guilt of murdering Jesus. This criticism is not accurate. All four gospels depict the Jews of the time, or at least various Jewish authorities, as responsible for Jesus’ death. The Gospels state that the Romans actually executed Jesus, but that the Jews put them up to it and are to blame for it. Nothing that was said or done...
...Gibson accepts the gospel accounts as historically accurate, there is nothing in this stance that is inherently anti-Vatican II or anti-Jewish. The fact that virtually all academic scholars of ancient Judaism and ancient Christianity reject the accuracy of the gospel accounts, arguing that the gospel writers have, among much else, substantially exaggerated Jewish complicity in Jesus’ death, is neither here nor there. Gibson, as a believing Christian, has every right to prefer the word of the New Testament over the word of university professors. If Gibson chooses to elaborate the story with non-scriptural scenes that...