Word: xii
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...happened, John made himself into a conscientious and accomplished diplomat. But he never particularly liked the work, and it gave him a huge distaste for the Vatican court as it existed under the long-reigning Pius XII (1939-58). He found it artificial and impersonal -- and undemocratic. He wanted to bring into the running of the church the thousands of bishops, hundreds of thousands of priests and the countless millions of ordinary Catholics throughout the world. Hence, in 1959, only a year after he became Pope, he summoned the Second Vatican Council. He compared the idea to a flinging open...
...possible canonization of POPE PIUS XII, which the Vatican has been investigating for over 25 years, is drawing fire from a Jewish leader. Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, says Pius XII (who reigned from 1939 to '58) was publicly silent during the Holocaust. Hier also says a letter he obtained from a Vatican official indicates that the nomination is moving forward. Father John Pawlikowski of the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago says outrage is premature: "The process is a long one, and any major decisions could be years away." Look for the issue to spark discussions...
...fathoming the ultimate origins of matter and energy, which will always come under the realm of religion. George Coyne, a Jesuit astrophysicist who directs the Vatican Observatory, warns against reducing science to religion, or vice versa. For instance, when the Big Bang theory was brand new, Pope Pius XII wrote that "scientists are beginning to find the finger of God in the creation of the universe." Coyne thinks the Pope was wrong to "take a scientific conclusion and interpret it in favor of supporting a theological doctrine." Working scientists "don't need God for our scientific understanding of the universe...
...about homosexuality are particularly relevant to modern American society. They're certainly no more relevant than his ideas about slavery: "A slave is a particular species of property..." (The Politics, Chapter VIII) Or his ideas about women: "the male is by nature superior to the female..." (The Politics, Chapter XII...
...accommodationists review the history of innovation. In the '50s, when artificial insemination with donor semen was introduced, many ethicists said it separated procreation from marriage in a destructive way. Pope Pius XII, who denounced artificial insemination even from husband to wife, declared, "To reduce the cohabitation of married persons and the conjugal act to a mere organic function for the transmission of the germ of life would be to convert the domestic hearth, sanctuary of the family, into nothing more than a biological laboratory." When Louise Brown, the first test-tube baby, was born in England in July 1978, alarmists...