Word: vaticans
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Ever since Pope Alexander Ill's decree of 1179, the College of Cardinals has alone had the power to choose new popes. Vatican Council II, however, reasserted the authority of all bishops -whether cardinals or not-in helping to govern the church. In 1973 and 1974 Pope Paul VI broadly hinted he might go further and admit a few ordinary bishops to the conclave that elects a pope. But last week, when Paul-frail but vigorous at age 78-released the rules for choosing his successor, the cardinals-only tradition survived intact...
...learned agonies spent in a footless cause." The author also brings rich life to less dramatic episodes: his long, detailed accounts of the journeys over trackless desert and plateau develop a hypnotic rhythm of their own. Even minor ecclesiastical skirmishes are brilliantly employed-Lamy's exasperation with Vatican bureaucracy simultaneously reveals his ego and his humility: "The Roman piano, piano does not suit the bishop of the Navajos...
Other Catholics did not agree. As the case went to trial last week, Vatican Radio broadcast an interview with Corrado Manni, a physician at Rome's Catholic University who specializes in resuscitation. He remarked that a decision to remove the respirator that is keeping Karen Quinlan alive would be "extremely dangerous," and his fellow doctors must not accept even an indirect form of euthanasia (mercy killing), "which renounces therapy." The Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano then published a similar commentary by one of its staff members, Father Gino Concetti. He wrote: "It is impossible to support the claim...
...this then the Vatican view? Father Trapasso's diocesan authorities insisted that both comments were merely private opinions, an accurate statement since only unsigned editorials in L'Osservatore are used to reflect papal thinking. In Rome, one theology professor fumed, "Concetti is no moral theologian, and what he wrote is stupid." Said Father Sean O'Riordan, a moral theologian at Rome's Alphonsianum College: "Concetti's article is clearly contrary to the teachings of Pope Pius XII and the unanimous moral tradition existing for centuries...
Most painful for Franco, perhaps, was the displeasure demonstrated by the Vatican. Pope Paul VI denounced the executions as "murderous repression" -language exceedingly rare for the Holy See to direct toward any state and especially Spain, with which it has long maintained very strong ties...