Word: vaticans
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...permissible "only if the reasons are serious and well-founded, if the manner of the dissent does not question or impugn the teaching authority of the Church and is such as not to give scandal." But the very possibility of dissent is herein assumed, as indeed it was in Vatican II, which affirmed the "primacy of conscience...
...want to know what the Pope does in the evenings?" asks a middle- ranking member of the Vatican bureaucracy. "This is what he does. He thinks about these things." Six years ago, the Pontiff announced his intention to set down in encyclical form his reflections on the nature of good and evil. Encyclicals are authoritative declarations of the church's teaching, warnings of new problems, and guides to parishes across the world. John Paul's task seemed so daunting to some and so useless to others that the Pope was the unwilling recipient of almost constant, contradictory advice from...
...circulated to a select group of theological philosophers for comment, with the understanding that the Pontiff thought his work was nearly completed. The draft caused so much internal -- and not always well-concealed -- debate that the Pope took it back and overhauled it. Of the final product, a Vatican insider says, "What he has written is a masterpiece. But it is far too dense to be transmitted to most people...
Indeed, encyclicals are never page turners, and the Pontiff, a philosopher and onetime professor, tosses around such celestial concepts as "fundamental option," "invincible ignorance," "teleology" and "consequentialism." John Paul also peppers his paper with 184 footnotes, citing for instance the Second Vatican Council, the new Catechism of the Catholic Church (as yet unavailable in English) and Thomas Aquinas, the medieval saint who defined the concept of natural law. The grand finale is a hymn to the Virgin Mary...
...just how will the Pope, the Vatican and the hierarchy around the world enforce these policies? Says the Pope: "The church's pastors have the duty to act in conformity with their apostolic mission, insisting that the right of the faithful to receive Catholic doctrine in its purity and integrity must always be respected." That may be vague enough to keep a semblance of peace in John Paul's immense and diverse church, but it will not drown out the controversies...