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News & Herald Volume
Serving Catholics in Western North Carolina in the Diocese of Charlotte
7
Number
17
»
January
2,
1998
Synods, Trips and a Consistory: John Paul Presses Ahead to 1998
II
By CINDY WOODEN VATICAN CITY (CNS) — If Pope II wrote down his New Year's
John Paul
resolutions, they might look something like: 1
on
.
Make
pastoral visits to Catholics
With
Preside over regional synods for
Keep
a cane nearby if needed for
walking or for use as a comic prop when
Name
5.
Spend
at least
16
new
at least 15
cardinals.
audience talks about the jubilee and how meaning of time changed once Christ entered the world, giving humanity the opportunity of eternal life.
minutes alone
According to the Pontifical Housewhich arranges papal audiences.
with the head of each U.S. diocese.
Remember to order calendars with more space for writing down appoint-
hold,
ments.
—
6.
Although his health had ob>'ious ups
and downs during 1997, the 77-year-old pope has shown firm resolve to press ahead. His speeches are noticeably shorter than they were two years ago, and his midday breaks on foreign trips are longer, but very few fixed appointments
However, as the pace of synods and other meetings picks up in preparation
—
II
Life-Ending Issues Still Center Stage at Year's End WASHINGTON (CNS) — Assisted suicide
— major U.S. through— and euthanasia kept Hfe-enda
issue
out 1997
ing issues center stage as 1997
came
to
which
In Oregon, first
1994 became
in
jurisdiction to legalize
physician-assisted suicide, a said poor and
ill
new
study
Oregonians are more
likely to consider suicide, while a
new
survey found that a 1997 effort to repeal the '94 law was doomed simply because it
was a repeal. Also in Oregon,
decided not to tor
under
at least a
However, Italian
file
Rome
group involved
who approved
a lethal injection for
assisted suicide law
was
that euthanasia
means
speech to an
in the fight against II
decried the
should be used as a
avoid pain. "In every case (of illness), interventions which are inadequate to the real to
situation or disproportionate to the cal results
medi-
must be avoided, as well as
actions or omissions intended to procure
death in order to eliminate pain," the
local prosecutors charges against a doc-
an unconscious patient in
view
suicide legal
few circumstances.
in a
cancer. Pope John Paul
a close.
the world's
making physician-assisted
1
996,
still
when
the
blocked by
court appeals.
And in a new Gallup Poll, two-thirds of Americans said they would support
pope said Dec. 13. The pope addressed members of the Italian League for the Fight Against Tumors who were on a pilgrimage to the Vatican. In the
Oregon
study, released
See
Issues,
by the
page 8
for the jubilee year, some appointments get pushed back a bit. While 1 998 would be the normal time for each Canadian bishop like his U.S. counterpart to make an "ad limina" visit to Rome, as the old year ended it appeared the Canadians' tete-a-tete with the pope would have to wait until 1999. Vatican officials insist the problem is the pope's schedule and not his stamina, but observers continue to worry about the pope's health. As he did the year before. Pope John Paul took six trips outside of Italy in 1997, logging more than 20,000 miles. Journalists saw a pope who appeared tired and sluggish during much of the
—
—
World Youth Day celebrations in Paris, but the pope was animated as he handled a packed schedule during an October trip
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Vatican and local officials are puton three trips for the first half of 1998: Cuba in January, Nigeria in March and Austria in June. Officials are also busy at the general secretariat of the Synod of Bishops. After personally attending the working sessions of the monthlong Synod of Bishops for America Nov. 16-Dec. 12, the pope is already looking ahead to the opening of the Synod of Bishops for Asia in April and the Synod of Bishops for to
ting the final touches
Pope John Paul met visitors to the Vatican on 45 Wednesdays during 1997 skipping the appointment only when he was out of town and on Christmas Eve. The Vatican said 550,000 people attended the general audiences.
—
Almost as many people 462,000 according to the official report attended one of numerous liturgies cel-
—
ebrated by the pope in the Vatican.
are canceled.
SPIRIT 1998 A dove representing the Holy Spirit is depicted in this stained-glass image. To prepare for the new millennium, Pope John Paul called on the church to reflect on Holy Spirit and the virtue of hope in 1998.
on the celebra-
the
children are present. 4.
his eyes fixed
Holy Year 2000, Pope John Paul started a series of weekly general
tion of the
two other continents. 3.
—
years as pontiff.
at least three continents. 2.
—
Australia, New Zealand and Oceania in the fall. the South Pacific Pope John Paul has two anniversaries to celebrate in the autumn of 1998: On Sept. 28 he will mark 40 years as a bishop and on Oct. 16 he will mark 20
The grand total of nearly 1 .2 million people present at an audience or liturgy does not include the millions of people Pope John Paul greeted in his trips abroad, nor the thousands he met in the more intimate setting of his Sunday visits to parishes in the Diocese of Rome. Sometime in 1998 most bets are Pope on late February or late June John Paul is expected to name at least
—
16
new cardinals. The College of
—
Cardinals, which
meets occasionally to advise the pope and which is responsible for electing a new pope, can have as many as 120 members under the age of 80. Pope John Paul does not have to keep the membership up to the limit, but he generally fills, the ranks every three or four years. The last round of nominations was in 1994. One clue that a consistory, or formal meeting of the College of Cardinals, may be near is the fact that three
Vatican congregations are
headed by archbishops with the temporary title of "pro-prefect," awaiting the conferral of red hats. As of Dec. 23, the college had 107 members under the age of 80 and therefore eligible to vote in a papal conclave.
With three cardinals celebrating
their
80th birthdays in January or early February, the fill.
pope would have
1
6 places to