Word: vaticans
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Last January the Vatican issued a new declaration on sexual ethics, deploring the "unbridled exaltation of sex" and specifically condemning premarital sex, masturbation and homosexuality. The statement exasperated many U.S. Catholics. Asks Theologian Daniel Maguire of Marquette University: "Is it not past time to declare a moratorium on the discussion of masturbation in church ethics?" Tom Cordera, a 21-year-old biology student in Ames, Iowa, recalls his reaction on hearing of the document: "I got the feeling I wanted to call Pope Paul up on the phone and say, 'Paul, where are you?' " Irene Prendergast...
...furor stirred up by the most visible reform inspired by Vatican II - the modernizing of the rites of worship, most notably the Mass - seems to have largely died down. In the years following the council, the language of the liturgy became English, not Latin; baroque high altars gave way to simple tables; members of what had once jokingly been called "the church of silence" were urged to sing hymns - and often Protestant ones at that (a familiar favorite these days: Luther's A Mighty Fortress Is Our God). Instead of incense and plain chant, parish churches now offered folk...
Communion with Protestants is becoming more common, although the Vatican allows it only under special circumstances, and bishops frown on casual intercommunion. At St. Thomas Aquinas parish in Ames, some of the town's many Protestants show up occasionally at Communion and are not turned away ("So many of them believe as we do," explains Pastor James Supple). Last Easter the Catholic and Episcopal chaplains at an Eastern university assisted a Lutheran minister in celebrating the midnight Eucharist-in a Dutch Reformed church. Catholics are generally enjoying a new freedom to attend Protestant and Jewish services. "In Oklahoma...
...longer. In matters of faith as well as morals, Catholics seem to be making up their own minds. The Greeley study, for example, shows that only 37% of U.S. Catholics fully accept the doctrine of the infallibility of the Pope-a dogma solemnly defined by the First Vatican Council...
...instigator of these changes-all of which were in the spirit of Vatican decrees-was the parish's new pastor, Father Frederic Harrer, now 56. Nonetheless, the new look, especially the crucifix, jolted St. Ignatius' parishioners, many of them policemen, firemen and other civil servants. Some simply quit attending Mass. "I see a lot of faces not around any more" says one parishioner. But most of those who remained came to accept-even favor-the new church interior and other innovations. "When all the changes started I was kind of confused and disillusioned at times," says Public School...