Word: vaticans
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Although most lay Catholics are accepting of married priests, Fichter writes, the Vatican skittishly restricts their contact with ordinary U.S. parishioners. Most of the 43 work in such careers as teaching or chaplaincies and perform regular parish work only on temporary weekend assignments. That means that a priest's wife and children do not live in a regular parish rectory and usually do not attend the church where he celebrates Mass. Nonetheless, when families do mingle with parishioners, said one wife, "people get used to you after a while...
Laboa then stepped up the pressure. He told Noriega, quietly but forcefully, that no country would give him refuge. (That was not entirely accurate; Cuba might have been willing, but Washington had told the Vatican that sending him there would be unacceptable.) The monsignor pointed out that the troops surrounding the embassy made an escape from the building impossible. Noriega was told he had only two choices: to walk out and surrender to the Americans or to let Laboa arrange for him to be delivered to the new Panamanian government. Asked Noriega: Did it really matter...
...never came to that. On Jan. 2 Noriega learned of a suggestion by Vice President Ricardo Arias Calderon that the Vatican embassy staff might temporarily leave the building, set up shop in a Roman Catholic high school across the avenue, and leave Noriega on his own. The general asked Laboa if the proposal was real. Yes, he was assured, it was. Was there a way for him to escape arrest through some diplomatic arrangement? Noriega asked. Laboa shook his head...
After the eleven-day standoff outside the Vatican embassy in Panama City, Noriega's surrender to American authorities, which George Bush had defined as a chief goal of the invasion of Panama, triumphantly clinched the gamble the President took by ordering U.S. troops into combat. With Noriega in handcuffs, Panamanians celebrating in the streets and U.S. casualties relatively low, Republican Party chairman Lee Atwater probably had it right when he called the outcome a political jackpot for Bush...
Noriega began his legal counterattack the day he arrived in Florida by refusing to enter a plea at his arraignment in U.S. district court. Dressed in a fresh uniform that was sent to him at the Vatican embassy by his mistress Vicky Amado, the general used headphones to follow the proceedings in Spanish. Defense attorney Frank A. Rubino argued that his client was immune from prosecution because he was a political prisoner who had been brought to the U.S illegally...