Word: xvi
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...reported that Pope Benedict XVI may reaffirm a ban on homosexuals entering the seminary [Oct. 3]. The Pope may be intent on a "thorough cleaning up of the priesthood." But given the Roman Catholic Church's history of sexual abuse of children by the clergy, why has it taken so long to act? Can it be that aberrant behavior is finally costing the church big money...
...longer appears a question of if, but how the Vatican will try to restrict homosexuals from joining the priesthood. As 256 of the world's bishops gathered in Rome for a three-week synod--the first under Pope Benedict XVI--details filtered out to the Italian press that something a bit less draconian than a blanket ban was in the works. A long-shelved document providing specific admission instructions to seminaries is expected to be issued in November. The "instruction" from the Congregation for Catholic Education would add some teeth to a long-standing but often loosely enforced...
...Vatican. In the wake of the sexual-abuse scandal among U.S. clergy--in which some 80% of the victims were boys--the church seemed poised to carry out a blanket ban on admitting homosexuals, even celibate gays, to its seminaries. Italian newspapers, however, are now reporting that Pope Benedict XVI had signed a somewhat less extreme "instruction." (See accompanying story.) But while awaiting that edict, the psychologists like Plante, who (among other things) help determine whether prospective seminarians are gay, have been drawn into a debate about that particular aspect of their job. Predominantly Catholic but not necessarily ordained, most...
...we’re back to square one, catering to people who are sure that evolution and the existence of God are mutually exclusive—a view with which many religious authorities disagree (Pope Benedict XVI might be a good example), let alone scientists. People, of course, can believe whatever they want, and it shouldn’t be of any particular concern to us—except when they interfere with the educational process by calling something science that simply isn’t science...
...papacy makes for strange dinner companions: Word this week that Pope Benedict XVI dined for two hours with dissident theologian Hans K?ng may be difficult for many conservative Catholics to digest. K?ng, who had long been denied his request for an audience with John Paul II, is widely viewed as a kind of "anti-Ratzinger" because of the sharp contrast between his liberal views on doctrine and those of the fellow German theologian who would eventually become pope. In fact, then-Cardinal Ratzinger had a role in stripping K?ng of the right to teach Catholic theology in 1979, because...