Word: pius
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...four decades Ted Kennedy remained the nation's most prominent Roman Catholic politician, as well as brother of America's first and only Catholic President. Ted Kennedy received his first Communion directly from Pope Pius XII, and his marriage in 1958 was performed by Cardinal Francis Spellman, the influential Archbishop of New York. His mother Rose once reportedly said that she'd dreamed that her youngest son would become a priest rather than a politician, destined to ultimately rise to bishop status. (See pictures of Pope Benedict XVI visiting America...
When Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication of four bishops from an ultra-conservative movement in January, even his admirers worried that he was taking the proverbial lid off Pandora's box. The group known as the Society of St. Pius X had, after all, operated a separate ministry since 1988, when its founder, the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, ordained his own bishops in open defiance of Pope John Paul II. Two decades of schism were bound to feed both unorthodox ideas and an autonomous chain of authority...
...ordaining bishop could be excommunicated. The Vatican released a statement Wednesday that the ordinations "must be considered illegitimate," though no mention was made of excommunication. The brief note from the Holy See also referred to the Pope's letter to bishops in March that outlined how the Pius X followers are still largely operating outside of official church auspices and must now enter discussions with the Vatican's doctrinal office to confront outstanding differences. (Check out the problems Benedict XVI faced after trying to reconcile with the Lefebvrites...
...January, when Pope Benedict XVI reversed the 1988 excommunication of four bishops of an ultra-traditionalist Catholic group called the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), he probably knew it would ignite a firestorm. The church has significant unresolved problems with the society, among them its gross disobedience to the previous Pope. Benedict was determined to try to end a schism with a movement that exhibits a fervent piety he shares and is trying to encourage in Europe, where SSPX is strongest. But almost simultaneous with the Pope's announcement, a Swedish-TV interview surfaced in which SSPX bishop Richard...
...fully back into the fold. In his first public comments since Benedict lifted the excommunication of the four bishops in January, Vatican doctrinal chief Cardinal William Levada tells TIME that important, and potentially insurmountable, differences still separate the Vatican and the group known as the Society of St. Pius X. Pointing to the Pope's letter last month to the world's bishops that addressed the controversy, Levada says the removal of the excommunication was a "gesture of mercy ... [and] invitation to a dialogue." But as matters currently stand, Levada says, "the Society lacks canonical status to exercise ministry...