Word: pontiffs
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Benedict XVI's maiden papal voyage began today with cheering pilgrims and a retinue of reporters and bishops and bodyguards following his every step. Looming over the German pontiff's emotional homecoming, though, is Pope John Paul II and his imposing legacy of global outreach. John Paul not only racked up the miles-104 foreign trips during his 26-year papacy-he also had a natural gift for leaving both spiritual and political footprints almost anywhere he touched down (and kissed the ground): subtly undermining the Communist regime with emotional sermons in his native Poland; challenging breakaway priests of Latin...
...Ratzinger presided over for 24 years before being elected Pope in April. A onetime Ratzinger student, Schönborn said his mentor had encouraged him last year to speak out on evolution. Though the two haven't discussed the subject since Ratzinger became Pope, Schönborn believes the Pontiff wants these issues publicized. Given a Europe the Austrian describes as "Christphobic," however, convincing even the faithful to doubt Darwin may be a policy that needs time to evolve...
...audience. As Benedict began weaving his way through the crowds in his unshielded Pope-mobile, everyone leapt atop his own chair, and shouts of “Papa!” filled the arena. I, too, craned my neck to see the face of Rome’s infallible pontiff...
...spiritual ties with the important African church. The ranks of Catholics on the continent tripled between 1950 and 1970, and now grow by 2 million per year. (Current total: an estimated 77 million out of the more than 200 million Christians in Africa.) In line with his strategy, the Pontiff had few kind words for the West, and even offered one apology: "Men belonging to Christian nations did not always act [as Christians], and we ask our African brothers who suffered so much, for example because of the slave trade, for forgiveness...
...humanity." Before returning to Rome this week, the Pope for the first time was to accept an invitation from the head of an Islamic state, King Hassan II of Morocco, to deliver an unprecedented speech to 60,000 Muslim youths gathered in Casablanca for the Pan-Islamic Games. The Pontiff hoped that this appearance would encourage the forces of toleration within Islam, and that his latest tour would help prevent the militant brand of the rival faith from spreading in black Africa, where so much of Christianity's future hope lies. --By Richard N. Ostling. Reported by Erik Amfitheatrof with...