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Church History web sites: http://www.vatican.va/
30-64
Peter served as the first pope. By 2003 he was still
noted as the longest-serving, for a total of 34 or 37 years, until 64
or 67 A.D.
(AP, 10/16/03)
31CE Mar 25, The 1st Easter,
according to calendar-maker Dionysius Exiguus.
(MC, 3/25/02)
136-140CE Hyginus was pope. He was later proclaimed a
saint.
(WUD, 1994, p.697)
141-155 St. Pius I, pope, martyr.
(PGA, 12/9/98)
155CE Feb 23, Polycarp, disciple
of Apostle John, was arrested and burned at stake.
(MC, 2/23/02)
c182-c251 Origen of Caesarea, a church father, urged
Christians not to celebrate birthdays because they were a pagan custom.
(WSJ, 12/18/98, p.W15)
199-217 Pope Zephyrinus led the Church.
(ITV, 1/96, p.59)
~200CE Pope Zephyrinus assigned his deacon, Calixtus
(a former slave), to administer the large underground complex beneath
the Appian Way. The subterranean graveyard had existed from about
150CE. This first official Christian cemetery probably originated as
the private open-air burial ground of the noble Cecili family of Rome.
From this time on it became known as the Catacombs of St. Calixtus. It
extended over an area of 20 km., one 3-5 levels, and includes some
500,000 tombs.
(ITV, 1/96, p.59)
200-400 Christianity spread rapidly in Numidia and
the diocese of Lamiggiga was established. It was later abandoned and
just the name was used as an honorary jurisdiction for Auxiliary
bishops.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.C1)
215 Clement of Alexandria, a
Church father, died. He cited early efforts to fix the Nativity on Apr
19, 20th or May 20.
(WSJ, 12/18/98, p.W15)
235CE An inscription in Greek in
the Calixtian Complex of Rome was dedicated to the pope St. Pontian,
who died in the Sardinian mines.
(ITV, 1/96, p.60)
235CE An inscription in Greek in
the Calixtian Complex of Rome was dedicated to pope St. Anterus, who
reigned for only 43 days and died in prison.
(ITV, 1/96, p.60)
250CE An inscription in Greek in
the Calixtian Complex of Rome was dedicated to pope St. Fabian, who
re-organized the Church in a period of peace and was then martyred
during the Decian persecutions.
(ITV, 1/96, p.60)
254CE Pope St. Lucius I, who spent
part of his pontificate in exile, was buried in the Calixtian Complex
of Rome and has an inscription in Greek.
(ITV, 1/96, p.60)
254CE May 12, St. Stephen I began
his reign as the 23rd Catholic Pope. According to the "Liber
Pontificalis" he instituted the rule that clerics should wear special
clothes at their ministrations.
(SC, internet, 5/12/97)(HN, 5/12/98)
257 Aug 2, Pope Stefanus I (St.
Stephen), bishop of Rome (254-57), heretic fighter, died.
(MC, 8/2/02)
258 Aug 6, Pope Sixtus II, bishop
of Rome (257-58), was beheaded upon orders of Emperor Valerian.
(ITV, 1/96, p.60)(MC, 8/6/02)
258 A red agate cup with gold
handles, the Santo Caliz, was sent to Spain by Pope Sixtus II and St.
Laurence as Rome went under siege by the Persians. In 1437 the church
moved it to the Cathedral of Valencia.
(SSFC, 5/27/06, p.G3)
267 Dec 26, Dionysius, bishop of
Rome and saint, died.
(MC, 12/26/01)
270CE The Catholic Bishop
Valentine was clubbed, stoned and beheaded by Emperor Claudius for
refusing to acknowledge the monarch’s outlawing of marriage. The
Catholics then made Valentine a symbol to oppose the Roman mid-February
custom in honor of the God Lupercus, where Roman teenage girls’ names
were put in a box and selected by young Roman men for "sex toy" use
until the next lottery.
(SFEM, 2/9/97, p.11)
283CE Pope St. Eutychian escaped
persecution but struggled with early heresies. He was buried in the
Calixtian Complex of Rome and has an inscription in Greek.
(ITV, 1/96, p.60)
296CE Apr 22, St. Gaius ended his
reign as Catholic Pope.
(HN, 4/22/98)
299-311 The period of Christian persecutions begun by
Diocletian.
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.W11)
c300-400 It was during the Fourth century that the
celebration of Christ's birth on December 25 was gradually adopted by
most Eastern Churches.
(HNQ, 12/25/99)
309-310 Apr 18, St. Eusebius began his reign as
Catholic Pope. He ruled for just 4 months in either 309 or 310.
(PTA, 1980, p.62)(WUD, 1994 p.492)(HN, 4/18/98)
311 Jul 2, St. Miltiades began
his reign as Catholic Pope.
(SC, 7/2/02)
311 At the consecration of bishop
Caecilian of Carthage, one of the three bishops, Felix, bishop of
Aptunga, who consecrated Caecilian, had given copies of the Bible to
the Roman persecutors. A group of about 70 bishops formed a synod
and declared the consecration of the bishop to be invalid. Great
debate arose concerning the validity of the sacraments (baptism, the
Lord's Supper, etc.) by one who had sinned so greatly against other
Christians.
(http://religion-cults.com/heresies/fourth.htm)
311 The Donatists were a Christian
sect that developed in northern Africa [Numidia] and maintained that it
alone constituted the whole and only true church and that baptisms and
ordinations of the orthodox clergy were invalid. The Donatists insisted
that sinners must be re-baptized.
(WUD, 1994, p.425)(SFC, 9/19/98, p.C1)(Econ,
5/14/05, p.87)
316CE Diocletian, former emperor
of Rome, died. By this time there were about 30,000 converts to
Christianity and some 33 popes had followed in the footsteps of St.
Peter.
(ITV, 1/96, p.58)
325 May 20, An ecumenical council
was inaugurated by Emperor Constantine in Nicea, Asia Minor. The Church
Council of Nicaea (aka Iznik) in Asia Minor condemned the teaching of
Arius, a Christian priest at Alexandria (d.336), who held that Christ
was not divine in the same sense as God the Father. The council fixed
Orthodox Easter as the first Sunday after the first full moon following
the vernal equinox unless the date falls on the 1st day of Passover, in
which case it moves to the next Sunday.
(WUD, 1994, p.80,81)(Sky, 4/97, p.56)(SFC, 4/25/97,
p.A21)(HN, 5/20/98)
325 Aug 25, Council of Nicaea
ended with adoption of the Nicene Creed establishing the doctrine of
the Holy Trinity. The Council also decreed that priests cannot marry
after their ordination.
(MC, 8/25/02)(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A3)
326 Jul 25, Constantine refused to
carry out the traditional pagan sacrifices.
(HN, 7/25/98)
326CE The Church of the Nativity
in Bethlehem was begun by the Roman emperor Constantine.
(SFC, 12/26/96, p.B2)
336 Dec 25, The first recorded
celebration of Christmas on this day took place in Rome. By this year
Dec 25 was established in the Liturgy of the Roman Church as the
birthday of Jesus. [see 354] The Basilica of St. Anastasia was built as
soon as a year after the Nicaean Council. It probably was where
Christmas was first marked on Dec. 25, part of broader efforts to link
pagan practices to Christian celebrations in the early days of the new
religion. In 2007 Italian archaeologists unveiled an underground
grotto, near St. Anastasia, that they believe ancient Romans revered as
the place where a wolf nursed Rome's legendary founder Romulus and his
twin brother Remus.
(WSJ, 12/18/98, p.W15)(AP, 12/25/99)(AP, 12/22/07)
352 May 17, Liberius began his
reign as Catholic Pope replacing Julius I.
(MC, 5/17/02)
353-431 St. Paulinus, poet and Bishop of Mola: "For
it is after the Solstice, when Christ born in the flesh with the new
sun transformed the season of cold winter, and giving to mortal men a
healing dawn, commanded the nights to decrease at his coming with
advancing day."
(WSJ, 12/18/98, p.W15)
354 Augustine (Aurelius
Augustinus, d.430) was born in Tagaste, North Africa (modern Souk
Ahras, Algeria). Augustine of Hippo, Church Father and philosopher,
held that as long as the fetus was "shapeless" homicide laws did not
apply because it had no senses and no soul. "Total abstinence is
easier than perfect moderation." He fused the New Testament with Greek
philosophy. "Nothing is so powerful in drawing the spirit of a man
downwards as the caresses of a woman."
(http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/augustine.html)(AM,
Mar/Apr 97 p.13)(HN, 11/13/98) (SFC, 3/16/02, p.A3)
354 Pope Liberius decided to add
the Nativity to the Church calendar and selected December 25 to
celebrate it. [see 336]
(WSJ, 12/21/07, p.A19)
355 Donatus, bishop of Casae
Nigrae in North Africa, died. He taught that the effectiveness of the
sacraments depends on the moral character of the minister. In other
words, if a minister who was involved in a serious enough sin were to
baptize a person, that baptism would be considered invalid.
(http://religion-cults.com/heresies/fourth.htm)
356 Feb 19, Emperor Constantius II
shut all heathen (non-Christian) temples.
(MC, 2/19/02)
366-384 Pope St. Damasus located martyr’s graves and
composed verse inscriptions for their tombs. He transformed the
catacombs into popular and venerated shrines.
(ITV, 1/96, p.58)
376 Dec 25, In Milan, Ambrose, the
Bishop of Milan, forced the emperor Theodosius to perform public
penance for his massacre.
(HN, 12/25/98)
385 Pope Siricius left his wife to
become pope and told priests to stop sleeping with their wives.
(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A3)
385CE Priscillian, bishop of Avila
in Spain, was convicted of sorcery and executed by the Roman emperor
Maximus.
(NH, 9/96, p.20)
392 Nov 8, Theodosius of Rome
passed legislation prohibiting all pagan worship in the empire and
declared Christianity the state religion.
(HN, 11/6/98)(MC, 11/8/01)
401 Dec, St. Innocent, born in
Albano, Italy, became pope. He was the pope nine years later when the
Visigoths captured and sacked Rome.
(AP, 3/21/09)
410 Aug 18, King Alaric I's
Visigoths occupied and plundered Rome. [see Aug 24]
(PC, 1992, p.50)
410 Aug 24, Rome was overrun by
the Visigoths, an event that symbolized the fall of the Western Roman
Empire. German barbarians sacked Rome [see Aug 18].
(V.D.-H.K.p.87)(AP, 8/24/97)(HN, 8/24/98)
418 Dec 27, Zosimus, Greek Pope
(417-8), died.
(MC, 12/27/01)
430 Aug 28, Augustine (b.354) died
in Hippo (Annaba, Algeria) with a Vandal army outside the gates of the
city. His writings included "The Confessions." In 1999 Garry Wills
authored the biography "St. Augustine." Augustine had developed the
theory of a "just war" and said a nation’s leaders must consider among
other things, anticipated loss of civilian life and whether all
peaceful options have been exhausted before war starts. In 2003 Garry
Wills authored "Saint Augustine's Sin." In 2005 James J. O’Donnell
authored “Augustine: A New Biography.”
(SSFC, 12/21/03, p.M6)(Econ, 5/14/05,
p.86)(www.connect.net/ron/august.html)
431 The Council of Ephesus was
held to deal with the heretics and heresies of the day such as Arianism
and Apollinarianism. The council condemned Nestorianism, which taught
that there were 2 person in Christ and that Mary was the mother of the
human Christ but not of God. In 2009 Miri Rubin authored “Mother of
God: A History of the Virgin Mary.”
(Usenet, 3/4/97)(PTA, 1980, p.86)(Econ, 2/21/09,
p.84)
431 The Assyrians and Chaldeans
broke from what was to become the Roman Catholic Church over a
theological dispute.
(WSJ, 3/12/00, p.A10)
440 Aug 19, Pope Sixtus III
(432-440) died.
(PTA, 1980, p.88)
451 Oct 8, Council of Chalcedon
(4th ecumenical council) opened. The Council declared that the two
natures of Christ, divine and human, were united without change,
division or confusion in Christ. This led to the formation of the
Coptic Monophysite Church which continued to hold that Jesus had but
one divine nature. Copt comes from the Arabic word for Egyptian.
(CU, 6/87)(SFC, 3/31/97, p.A9)(MC, 10/8/01)
452 Pope Leo I met Attila the Hun
on the banks of the Mincio and Attila agreed to make peace and spare
Rome.
(PTA, 1980, p.90)
461 Nov 10, Leo I the Great, Pope
(440-61), died.
(MC, 11/10/01)
468 Mar 3, St. Simplicius was
elected to succeed Catholic Pope Hilarius.
(SC, 3/3/02)
483CE Mar 13, St. Felix began his
reign as Catholic Pope.
(HN, 3/13/98)
492 Mar 1, St. Felix III ended his
reign as Catholic Pope.
(SC, 3/1/02)
492 Mar 1, St Gelasius I began his
reign as Catholic Pope (492-496).
(PTA, 1980, p.98)(SC, 3/1/02)
495 May 3, Pope Gelasius asserted
that his authority was superior to Emperor Anastasius.
(PTA,
1980, p.98)(HN, 5/3/98)
496CE Nov 21, Pope Galasius, an
African by birth or descent, died. He changed the mid-February lottery
rules for young Roman men so that they drew names of Catholic Saints to
emulate instead of young girls for play. The Lupercalia pagan rite had
been revived to bring good luck to the city following a plague.
(PTA, 1980, p.98)(SFEM, 2/9/97, p.11)
498 Nov 19, Anastasius II, Pope
(496-98), (Dante Inferno XI, 8-9), died.
(MC, 11/19/01)
526 May 18, St. John I, Catholic
Pope (523-526), died.
(HN, 5/18/98)(SC, 5/18/02)
530 Oct 14, Dioscurus, anti-Pope
(530), died.
(MC, 10/14/01)
532 Oct 17, Boniface II, 1st
"German" Pope, died.
(MC, 10/17/01)
535CE May 13, St Agapitus I began
his reign as Catholic Pope
(SS, Internet, 5/13/97)
536CE Apr 22, St. Agapitus I ended
his reign as Catholic Pope (535-36).
(HN, 4/22/98)(MC, 4/22/02)
549 Jerusalem held to a Jan 6 date
for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus until this year. In the
end the West added the Epiphany and the East added the Dec 25 nativity
to their liturgical calendars.
(WSJ, 12/18/98, p.W15)
555 Jun 7, Vigilius ended his
reign as Catholic Pope (537-555).
(PTA, 1980, p.118)(SC, 6/7/02)
556 Feb 21, Maximianus van
Ravenna, bishop (Basilica S Stefano), died.
(MC, 2/21/02)
556CE Apr 16, Pelagius I began his
reign as Catholic Pope.
(HN, 4/16/98)
561 Mar 4, Pelagius I, Italian
Catholic Pope (556-61), died.
(PTA, 1980, p.120)
561 Jul, John III was consecrated
Pope.
(PTA, 1980, p.122)
574 Jul 13, Pope John III died.
(PTA, 1980, p.122)
575 Jun 2, Benedict I (d.579)
began his reign as Catholic Pope.
(SC, 6/2/02)
579 Jul 30, Pope Benedict I died.
(PTA, 1980, p.124)
580 Pope Pelagius left married
priests alone if they kept their wives and children from inheriting
church property.
(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A3)
590 Feb 7, Pelagius II, Gothic
Pope (579-90), died from plague.
(MC, 2/7/02)
590 Pope Gregory said he spotted
an angel atop Hadrian’s Mausoleum. The site was then reconfigured as a
fortress called Castel Sant’Angelo. In 1925 it became a national museum.
(SSFC, 5/1/05, p.F8)
590-604CE Pope Gregory the Great led the Church. He
established the popes as the de facto rulers of central Italy, and
strengthened the papal primacy over the Churches of the West.
(CU, 6/87)
600 Feb 16, Pope Gregory the Great
decreed "God bless You" as the religiously correct response to a sneeze.
(MC, 2/16/02)
604 Mar 12, Gregory I the Great
(64), Pope (590-604), died. In 1997 R.A. Markus authored “Gregory the
Great and His World.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Gregory_I)(WSJ,
4/12/08, p.W8)
609 May 13, Pope Boniface I turned
Roman Pantheon into Catholic church.
(MC, 5/13/02)
615 May 8, St. Boniface IV ended
his reign as Catholic Pope.
(MC, 5/8/02)
615 May 25, Boniface IV, Pope
(608-15), died.
(SC, 5/25/02)
642 Pope Theodore I began using
the title “Patriarch of the West.” In 2006 the Vatican took the unusual
step of explaining its decision to renounce the title, saying the
omission of "patriarch of the West," from the new edition of the
Annuario Pontificio, the Vatican's 2,373-page directory of prelates,
should benefit relations with the Orthodox Church, not hinder them.
(AP, 3/23/06)
649 May 14, Theodore, Greek Pope
(642-49), excommunicated by Paul II, died.
(MC, 5/14/02)
649 Jul 5, St. Martin I
began his reign as Pope.
(MC, 7/5/02)
657 Jun 2, St. Eugene I ended his
reign as Catholic Pope.
(SC, 6/2/02)
678 Jun 27, St. Agatho began his
reign as Catholic Pope.
(SC, 6/27/02)
682 Aug 17, Leo II, later St. Leo,
began his reign as Catholic Pope.
(SC, 8/17/02)
684 Jun 26, Benedict II (d.685)
was consecrated as Pope.
(PTA, 1980, p.162)
685 May 8, St. Benedict II ended
his reign as Catholic Pope.
(MC, 5/8/02)
686 Aug 2, John V, 1st
Greek-Syrian Pope (685-86), died.
(MC, 8/2/02)
c700CE Nov 1, The Celts of Ireland, Great Britain and
northern France celebrated Oct. 31 as their New Years' Eve from around
1000-500BC. The pagan harvest event incorporated masks to ward off evil
ones, as dead relatives were believed to visit families on this night.
The Catholic holiday of All Saints' Day, set for Nov. 1, was instituted
around 700 CE to supplant this All Hallows' Eve. Halloween was
transplanted to the US in the 1840s.
(WSJ, 10/28/99, p.A24)
700-800 The Catholic Church changed its rules on
fasting and allowed fish to be eaten on Fridays and during Lent.
(NH, 5/96, p.58)
c700-800 Dionysus Exiguus (Dennis the Short), a
Catholic monk, created a chronology for Pope St. John I with a calendar
that began in the year CE 1.
(SFEC,11/16/97, BR p.5)
701 Sep 8, Sergius I, Syrian and
Italian Pope (687-701), died.
(MC, 9/8/01)
705 Mar 1, John VII began his
reign as Catholic Pope.
(SC, 3/1/02)
708 Mar 25, Constantine began his
reign as Catholic Pope.
(HN, 3/24/98)
715 Apr 9, Constantine I,
Greek-Syrian Catholic Pope (708-15), died.
(HN, 4/9/98)(MC, 4/9/02)
715 May 19, St. Gregory II began
his reign as Catholic Pope.
(HN, 5/19/98)
731 Feb 11, Gregory II,
Greek-Syrian Pope, died.
(MC, 2/11/02)
731-741 Gregory III served as Pope.
(WUD, 1994, p.621)
732CE Pope Gregory III, banned
horseflesh from Christian tables after he learned that pagans of
northern Europe ate it in their religious rites.
(SFC, 5/30/98, p.E4)
752CE Mar 23, Pope Stephen II was
elected to succeed Pope Zacharias; however, Stephen died 4 days later.
(AP, 3/23/97)(PTA, 1980, p.184)
752 Mar 26, Pope Stephen II died 4
days after his election.
(SS, 3/26/02)(PTA, 1980, p.184)
754CE The Iconoclasts (image
smashers) prevailed and religious art was banned in churches by an
edict that remained in effect for a century.
(WSJ, 3/10/97, p.A16)(AP, 7/16/97)
757 Apr 26, Stephen II ended his
reign as Catholic Pope.
(HN, 4/26/98)
757 May 29, St. Paul I (d.767)
began his reign as Catholic Pope.
(PTA, 1980, p.188)(SC, 5/29/02)
768 Aug 7, Stephen IV was
consecrated as Pope. He served to 772.
(PTA, 1980, p.190)
787 Sep 24, The 2nd Council of
Nicaea (7th ecumenical council) opened in Asia Minor.
(http://www.malaspina.com/site/person_672.asp)
787 Oct 23, Byzantine
Empress Irene (c. 752-803) attended the final session of the 2nd church
council at Nicaea, Bithynia [now Iznik, a city in Anatolia (now part of
Turkey)]. The council formally revived the adoration of icons and
reunited the Eastern church with that of Rome.
(http://www.malaspina.com/site/person_672.asp)
799 Nov 29, Pope Leo III, aided by
Charlemagne, returned to Rome.
(MC, 11/29/01)
800 Dec 25, Pope Leo III crowned
Charlemagne emperor at the basilica of St. Peter's at Rome.
(V.D.-H.K.p.105)(HN, 12/25/98)
834 Oct 31, This evening became
All Hallow’s Eve with the establishment of Nov 1 as Feast of All Saints
by Pope Gregory IV.
(PTA, 1980, p.204)(SFC, 10/31/01, p.C2)
834 Nov 1, This day was declared
to be All Saints’ Day by the Catholic Church. [see 835CE]
(SFC, 10/31/01, p.C2)
835 Nov 1, After the spread
of Christianity through the west, the Roman Catholic Church in 835 A.D.
made November 1 a church holiday to honor all the saints. This
celebration was called All Saint's Day or All Hallows and the day
before it--October 31--was called All Hallow's Eve (later Halloween).
Pope Gregory extended the Feast of All Saints on Nov 1 to France and
Germany. [see 834CE]
(PTA, 1980, p.204)(HNPD, 10/31/99)
842 Feb 19, The Medieval
Iconoclastic Controversy ended as a council in Constantinople formally
reinstated the veneration of icons in the churches.
(MC, 2/19/02)
855 Benedict III (d.858) was
elected Pope.
(PTA, 1980, p.210)
858 Apr 17, Benedict III, Catholic
Pope, died.
(PTA, 1980, p.210)
858 Apr 24, Nicholas I succeeded
Benedict III as the Catholic Pope.
(HN, 4/24/98)(MC, 4/24/02)
867 Nov 13, Pope Nicholas I (the
Great) died at age 67. He served from 858-867.
(MC, 11/13/01)
872 Dec 14, Adrian II (~80),
Italian Pope (867-72), the last married pope, died.
(MC, 12/14/01)
872-882 Pope John VIII. A novel by Donna Cross in
1996 is based on historical documents that indicate that he was
actually female.
(WUD, 1994, p.769)(SFEC, 11/17/96, BR p.8)
884 May 17, St. Adrian III began
his reign as Catholic Pope.
(MC, 5/17/02)
891-896 Formosus served as Pope following Stephen VI.
(PTA, 1980, p.224)(WSJ, 6/27/01, p.A14)
896 Feb 22, Pope Formosa was
crowned king Arnulf of Carinthia, French emperor.
(MC, 2/22/02)
896 Apr 4, Pope Formosus died. His
body was exhumed by his successor in the Cadaver Synod. He was then put
on trial for perjury, found guilty and dumped in the Tiber River.
(PTA, 1980, p.224)(WSJ, 6/27/01, p.A14)
900 Benedict IV succeeded John IX
as Pope.
(PTA, 1980, p.236)
903 Benedict IV, Catholic Pope,
died.
(PTA, 1980, p.236)
955 May 16, Alberich II,
(bastard?) son of Octavianus, was elected pope.
(MC, 5/16/02)
965 Mar 1, Leo VIII, Italian
(anti-)Pope (963-65), died.
(SC, 3/1/02)
964 Benedict V (d.965), succeeded
John XII as Catholic Pope.
(PTA, 1980, p.236)
965 Jul 4, Benedict V, Catholic
Pope, died.
(PTA, 1980, p.236)
973 Jan 19, Benedict VI was
consecrated as Catholic Pope. He succeeded John XIII.
(PTA, 1980, p.236)
974 Pope Benedict VI was strangled
to death by a priest named Stephen under directions of anti-Pope
Boniface Franco, who called himself Boniface VII.
(PTA, 1980, p.270)
974 Oct, Benedict, the bishop of
Sutri, was elected pope and became Pope Benedict VII.
(PTA, 1980, p.272)
983 Jul 10, Pope Benedict VII died.
(PTA, 1980, p.272)
996 May 21, Otto III (16) was
crowned the Roman Emperor by his cousin Pope Gregory V.
(HN, 5/21/98)(MC, 5/21/02)
999 Feb 18, Gregory V, [Bruno] 1st
German Pope, died.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1001 Otto III was ousted. He had
moved his thrown from Germany to Rome and fancied himself Holy Roman
Emperor.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R54)
1002 Jun 21, Pope Leo IX was born.
He brought the conflict between Rome and the eastern Church to a head
in 1054, ending with the Patriarch of Constantinople being
excommunicated and the creation of the Schism.
(Camelot, 6/21/99)
1012 Tehophylactus, son of Count
Gregory of Tusculum, became Pope Benedict VIII.
(PTA, 1980, p.288)
1014 Feb 14, Pope Benedict VIII
crowned Henry II, German King (1002), as Roman German emperor
(1014-1024).
(HN, 5/6/98)(MC, 5/6/02)(MC, 2/14/02)
1024 Apr 7, Pope Benedict VIII
died.
(PTA, 1980, p.288)
1027 Mar 26, John XIX crowned
Conrad II the Salier Roman German emperor.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1032 Theophylactus, the nephew of
Pope John XIX, became Pope Benedict IX.
(PTA, 1980, p.292)
1036 The Romans drove Pope
Benedict IX out of Rome.
(PTA, 1980, p.292)
1044 The Romans drove Pope
Benedict IX out of Rome for a 2nd time. John, bishop of Sabina, was set
up as Pope Sylvester III, but Benedict’s family base from Tusculum
fought their way back into Rome and restored Benedict.
(PTA, 1980, p.292)
1045 Pope Benedict IX abdicated
and, for a large sum of money, turned the papacy over to his godfather,
archpriest John Gratian, who became Pope Gregory VI.
(PTA, 1980, p.292)
1046 Dec, Pope Gregory VI
abdicated. As Benedict IX, Sylvester III, and Gregory VI claimed the
papal throne, all were deposed by Henry III in the Synod of Sutri.
Henry selected Clement II. Clement then crowned Henry and his wife as
emperor and empress.
(PTA, 1980, p.294)(V.D.-H.K.p.111)
1046 Dec 25, Suidger, bishop of
Bamberg, was enthroned as Pope Clement II.
(PTA, 1980, p.296)
1047 Oct 9, Pope Clement II died.
(PTA, 1980, p.296)
1047 Former Pope Gregory VI died.
(PTA, 1980, p.294)
1053 In Italy Richard of Aversa
helped win the Battle of Civitate, inflicting a decisive defeat over
the papal army.
(www.fanaticus.org/DBA/campaigns/campaignitaly1043ad.html)
1054 Mar 12, Pope Leo IX escaped
captivity and returned to Rome.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1054CE Jul, The Council of Florence in 1445
established this date for the Great Schism between the Eastern and
Western (Orthodox and Catholic). An official date was needed so that
talks could begin on reunion.
(WSJ, 7/16/97, p.A23)
1054CE The Roman and Orthodox Churches split
decisively. [see 330CE] The Orthodox Church did not accept the papal
authority from Rome. Christians in southern Albania were left under the
ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople and those in the north under the
pope in Rome. The Orthodox Church maintained the tradition of married
priests.
(WSJ, 11/14/95, p. A-12)(WP, 6/29/96, p.B7)(www,
Albania, 1998)(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A3)
1058 Despite protests from the
cardinals Count Gregory of Tusculum led the selection of John, bishop
of Velletri, as Pope Benedict X.
(PTA, 1980, p.306)
1059 A council gathered at Lateran
and declared that the election of Benedict X was invalid. The council
enthroned Gerard of Burgundy as Pope Nicholas II. A synod at Rome
followed and set decrees for papal elections that rested election
powers with the cardinal-bishops.
(PTA, 1980, p.306)
1059 Richard of Aversa and his
brother-in-law, Robert Guiscard, met with Pope Nicholas II. The Norman
chiefs swore allegiance to the Pope in return for papal recognition for
their conquests, whereupon Richard was invested as prince of Capua.
(HNQ, 7/17/00)
1061 Jul, Pope Nicholas II died in
Florence.
(PTA, 1980, p.306)
1073 Apr 21, Alexander II,
[Anselmo da Baggio], Pope (1061-73), died.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1073-1085 Gregory VII, St. Hildebrand, served as
Pope. He was driven from Rome and died in exile.
(WUD, 1994, p.621)(WSJ, 3/10/99, p.A22)
1076 Feb 14, Pope Gregory VII
excommunicated Henry IV.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1077 Jan 28, Pope Gregory VII
pardoned German emperor Henry IV at Canossa in northern Italy. Henry
had insisted that he reserved the right to "invest" bishops and other
clergymen, despite the papal decree, but became penitent when faced
with permanent excommunication.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walk_to_Canossa)(Econ,
5/9/09, p.88)
1083 Jun 3, Henry IV of Germany
stormed Rome capturing St. Peter's Basilica.
(MC, 6/3/02)
1084 Mar 31, Anti-pope Clemens
crowned German emperor Hendrik IV.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1085 May 25, Gregory VII
[Ildebrando], Pope (1073-85), died.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1095 Nov 26, Pope Urban urged the
faithful to wrest the Holy Land from the Muslims, heralding start of
Crusades.
(AP, 11/26/02)
1095 Nov 27, In Clermont, France,
Pope Urbana II made an appeal for warriors to relieve Jerusalem. He was
responding to false rumors of atrocities in the Holy Land. Pope Urban
II called for a Christian army to defeat the Turks and recapture the
Holy Sepulchre from the Muslims. The first Crusade sparked a renewal of
trade between Europe and Asia.
(V.D.-H.K.p.109)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)(HN, 11/27/99)
1118 Apr 7, Pope Gelasius II
excommunicated Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1119 The Knights Templar were
founded to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land during the second Crusade.
(AHD, 1971, p.724)
1130 Feb 14, Jewish Cardinal
Pietro Pierleone was elected as anti-pope Anacletus II.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1133 Jun 4, In Rome Pope
Innocentius II crowned German King Lothair II as emperor at the Church
of the Lateran.
(MC, 6/4/02)(PCh, 1992, p.92)
1138 May 29, Anti-Pope Victor IV
(Gregorio) overthrew self for Innocentius II.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1139 Apr 20, The Second Lateran
Council opened in Rome. The crossbow was outlawed in the 12th century,
at least against Christians, by the second Lateran council (the 10th
ecumenical council), called by Pope Innocent II. Capable of piercing
chain mail from a range of up to 1,000 feet, this formidable missile
weapon remained a fixture of technically-advanced European armies
throughout the Middle Ages. Although it was used after the introduction
of firearms, it was eventually succeeded by the harquebus—a primitive
gun—in the late 15th century. The council attempted universal
enforcement of priestly celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church.
(HN, 4/20/98)(HN, 4/20/98)(HNQ, 12/5/00)(SFC,
3/16/02, p.A3)
1141 Jan 31, Pope Innocent II
authorized Bishop Henry of Moravia to preach Catholicism in Prussia.
(LHC, 1/31/03)
1144 Mar 8, Celestine II [Guido],
Italian Pope (1143-44), died in battle.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1148 The Second Crusade.
(V.D.-H.K.p.109)
1153 Mar 23, Treaty of Konstanz
between Frederik I "Barbarossa" and Pope Eugene III.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1159 Sep 1, Adrian IV, [Nicole
Breakspear], only English pope (1154-59), died.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1160-1216 Giovanni Lotario de' Conti, served as Pope
Innocent III from 1198-1216.
(WUD, 1994, p.733)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R6)
1164 Apr 20, Victor IV, [Ottaviano
Montecello], Italian antipope (1159-64), died.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1164 Apr 22, Raynald of Dassel
named Guido di Crema as anti-pope Paschalis III.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1165 Nov 23, Pope Alexander III
returned from exile to Rome
(MC, 11/23/01)
1168 Sep 20, Paschal III, [Guido
di Crema], Italian anti-Pope, died.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1170 Henry II sent his
Anglo-Norman barons to invade Ireland after he gained support from the
English pope.
(SFEM, 2/22/98, p.37)
1173 Feb 21, Pope Alexander III
canonized Thomas Becket (1117-1170) of Canterbury.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1178 Aug 29, Anti-Pope Callistus
III gave pope title to Alexander III.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1179 Pope Alexander III
established The Apostolic Penitentiary, or Tribunal of Conscience, for
sins considered so heinous by the Catholic Church that only the Pope
can grant absolution to those who perpetrate them.
(www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTracker/)(AP,
1/14/09)
1191 Apr 14, Giacinto Bobo (85)
became Pope Coelestinus III.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1198 Jan 8, Lotario de Conti di
Sengi became Pope Innocent III (d.1216). He raised the papacy to an
acme of papal prestige and power, and Christian Europe came close to
being a unified theocracy with no internal contradictions. He oversaw 2
crusades and established fees for indulgences to fatten the Church's
treasury. He hired Italian merchant bankers to manage papal funds and
sanctioned the new Franciscan and Dominican orders.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Innocent_III)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R6)
1205 Jun 19, Pope Innocent III
fired Adolf I as archbishop of Cologne.
(MC, 6/19/02)
1205 Jul 15, Pope Innocent III
decreed that the Jews were doomed to perpetual servitude and
subjugation due to crucifixion of Jesus.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1208 Mar 24, King John of England
opposed Innocent III on his nomination for archbishop of Canterbury.
(HN, 3/24/99)
1209 The Franciscan brotherhood
received papal approval.
(SFC, 7/23/99, p.C8)
1210 Oct 18, Pope Innocent III
excommunicated German emperor Otto IV.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1210 Francis founded the
Franciscans, and demanded that his followers subsist entirely on what
they can beg while preaching.
(V.D.-H.K.p.108)
1212 Aug 25, Children's crusaders
under Nicolas (10) reached Genoa.
(MC, 8/25/02)
1213 May 15, King John submitted
to the Pope, offering to make England and Ireland papal fiefs. Pope
Innocent III lifted the interdict of 1208. He named Stephen Langton
Archbishop of Canterbury.
(HN, 5/15/99)(MC, 5/15/02)
1215 Aug 24, Pope Innocent III,
following a request from King John, declared the Magna Carta invalid.
The barons of England soon retaliated by inviting King Philip of France
to come to England. Philip accepted the offer.
(MC, 8/24/02)(ON, 7/04, p.2)
1215 The 4th Lateran Council
announced that "Christ descended into Hell, rose again from the dead,
and ascended into Heaven. But he descended in soul, rose again in the
flesh, and ascended equally in both."
(WSJ, 4/18/03, p.W13)
1216 Jun 16, Pope Innocent III
died. In 2003 John C. Moore authored “Pope Innocent III.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Innocent_III)(WSJ, 4/12/08, p.W8)
1220 Nov 22, After promising to go
to the aid of the Fifth Crusade within nine months, German King
Frederick II was crowned emperor by Pope Honorius III.
(HN, 11/22/98)(PCh, 1992, p.106)
c1224/25-1274 Thomas Aquinas born in Aquino between
Rome and Naples. He was a pupil of the Benedictines in the monastery of
Monte Cassino. After nine years Emperor Frederic II temporarily
disbanded the monks at Cassino and Thomas went to Naples to study and
joined the Dominicans. He tried to reconcile theology with the emerging
economic conditions of his time.
(V.D.-H.K.p.119)(NH, 10/98, p.4)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R20)
1227 Roman Emperor Frederick II
was first excommunicated by the Catholic Pope because his growing
empire threatened the independence of the papal states. [see 1239]
(AP, 5/5/06)
1228 St. Francis of Assisi,
founder of the Franciscan order, was canonized.
(AP, 10/3/97)
1233 The Inquisition began and
lasted into the 19th century.
(SFC, 10/30/98, p.A16)
1239 Roman Emperor Frederick II
was excommunicated a 2nd time because his growing empire threatened the
independence of the papal states.
(AP, 5/5/06)
1243-1254 Pope Innocent IV. He established canon law
that recognized communities such as cathedral chapters and monasteries
as legal individuals.
(WSJ, 12/23/99, p.A18)
1244 Oct 17, The Sixth Crusade
ended when an Egyptian-Khwarismian force almost annihilated the
Frankish army at Gaza.
(HN, 10/17/98)
c1244 Pope Innocent III launched
the Albigensian Crusade, a forerunner of the Inquisition, that
systematically besieged and exterminated the Cathars.
(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T10)
1245 Thomas Aquinas was sent to
Paris where he enrolled as a student of Albertus Magnus to study
theology, philosophy, and history. In 1974 Michael R. Best and Frank H.
Brightman edited "The Book of secrets of Albertus Magnus," which
contained a recipe for Greek Fire.
(V.D.-H.K.p.119)(AM, May/Jun 97 p.10)
1250 Apr 15, Pope Innocent III
refused Jews of Cordova, Spain, permission to build a synagogue.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1251 Mindaugas of Lithuania
accepted Christianity with his wife, 2 sons, about 600 of his nobility
and many of his people. An envoy was then sent to Rome to request the
Pope’s formal approval for coronation which was granted. The German
Order then worked closely with Mindaugas in establishing the first
Bishopric in Lithuania and were in turn granted lands in western
Lithuania (Zemaiciuose). Pope Innocent IV authorized Mindaugas to be
crowned King.
(H of L, 1931, p.30,32)(XXIA, 7/21/99)
1253 Jul 23, Jews were expelled
from Vienne, France, by order of Pope Innocent III.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1255 Mar 6, Pope Alexander
IV permitted Mindaugas to crown his son as king of Lithuania.
(LHC, 3/6/03)
1256 Thomas Aquinas received his
license to teach. He became involved in the current questions of
doctrine on two basic issues. He sided with the Nominalists as opposed
to the Realists on the question of "universals". The second issue was
based on Aristotle's notion of nature. Aquinas saw a distinction
between spirit and nature but also a unity.
(V.D.-H.K.p.121)
1260-1390 Carbon-14 dating techniques in 1988
determined that the cloth of the Shroud of Turin dated to this period.
E.T. Hall (d.2001 at 77) of Oxford Univ. led the testing, which was
later held in question. In 1978 Walter C. McCrone (d.2002), chemical
analyst, determined that the image was painted on the cloth some 1300
years after the crucifixion of Christ.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A24)(SFC, 8/22/01, p.D2)(SFC,
7/29/02, p.B5)
1261 May 25, Alexander IV [Rinaldo
dei conti di Segni], Pope (1254-61), died.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1266 St. Thomas Aquinas penned his
"Summa Theologica," in which he attempted to reconcile theology with
economic conditions. He argued that reason could operate within faith.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(WSJ, 6/22/99, p.A22)
1267 Jul 26, The Inquisition
formed in Rome under Pope Clement IV.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1268 Jan 21, Pope Clement IV gave
permission to Poland’s King Premislus II to take over Lithuania and
establish Catholicism.
(LHC, 1/18/03)
1270 Aug 25, King Louis IX (56),
King of France (1226-70), died on The Eighth Crusade, which was
decimated by the Plague.
(PCh, 1992, p.114)(V.D.-H.K.p.110)(MC, 8/25/02)
1270 Oct 30, The seventh crusade
was ended by the treaty of Barbary.
(HN, 10/30/98)
1274 Mar 7, Thomas Aquinas (48),
Italian theologian, saint, died.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1274 Thomas Aquinas was summoned
before a council at Lyons to answer for his opinions. He was publicly
chastised but not condemned.
(V.D.-H.K.p.122)
1294 Jul 5, Pietro di Murrone, a
pious hermit, was elected as Pope Celestine V. He was so besieged by
the political, social and religious challenges of the position that
just five months later, on December 13, he became the first pope to
resign, for which he was imprisoned by his successor, Boniface VIII. He
died in the castle of Fumone, May 19, 1296.
(SFEC, 10/22/00,
p.A20)(www.newadvent.org/cathen/03479b.htm)
1296 May 19, Pietro di Murrone,
former Pope Celestine V, died in the castle of Fumone, where he was
imprisoned by his successor, Boniface VIII.
(SFEC, 10/22/00,
p.A20)(www.newadvent.org/cathen/03479b.htm)
1300 Jan 1, A Jubilee Year, the
symbolic moment for Dante's Divine Comedy. It marked the end of the
Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance. Pope Boniface VIII
had issued a Papal Bull that declared a Rome Holy Year, "Giubileo." The
event was such a success that papal gendarmes had to execute several
dozen people to bring the crowds under control. Pope Bonifacius VIII
introduced Jubilee indulgences.
(V.D.-H.K.p.123)(WSJ, 4/2/97, p.A12)(WSJ, 1/13/00,
p.A1)
1303 Sep 8, Anagni: French king
Philip IV captured Pope Boniface VIII.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1307 Oct 13, French king Philip IV
convicted the Knights Templar of heresy. Members of the Knights of
Templar were arrested throughout France, imprisoned and tortured by the
order of the King Philip the Fair. Papal hearings convened after King
Philip IV of France arrested and tortured Templar leaders under charges
of heresy and immorality.
(HN, 10/13/98)(AP, 10/12/07)
1308 The "Parchment of Chinon"
contained the decision by Pope Clement V to save the Templars and their
order. The document was misplaced for centuries in the archives and
found again by researchers in 2001. In 2007 it was published as part of
the Vatican’s secret archive documents about the trial of the Knights
Templar.
(AP, 10/12/07)
1312 The Knights Templar were
suppressed by Pope Clement at the Council of Vienna. Pressured by King
Philip of France, Pope Clement reversed his 1308 decision and
suppressed the order.
(AHD, 1971, p.724)(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)(AP,
10/12/07)
1314 Apr 20, Clement V, [Bertrand
Got], pope (1305-14) who moved papacy to Avignon, died.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1317 Feb 3, Pope John XXII, under
guidance from Gnesen Archbishop Borislav, offered Catholicism to
Lithuania.
(LHC, 2/3/03)
1324 Feb 10, The pope officially
chastised the Knights of the Cross for ill treatment of Catholics and
for pushing pagans away from Christianity.
(LHC, 2/10/03)
1328 May 26, William of Ockham was
forced to flee from Avignon by Pope John XXII.
(HN, 5/26/98)
1347 Dec 3, Pope Clemens VI
declared Roman tribune, Cola di Rienzi, a heretic.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1352 Dec 18, Etienne Aubert was
elected as Pope Innocentius VI.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1378 Mar 27, Gregory XI, [Pierre R
the Beaufort], last French Pope (1370-78), died.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1378 Aug 9, Cardinals declared
pope Urbanus VI lawless (anti-Christian, devil).
(MC, 8/9/02)
1378 Sep 20, The election of
Robert of Geneva as anti-pope by discontented cardinals created a great
schism in the Catholic church.
(HN, 9/20/98)
1378 Dec 31, Callistus III,
[Alfonso the Borgia], Pope (1455-58), was born.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1378-1417 The Great Western Schism split the Roman
Catholic Church and involved 2 anti-popes at its height.
(CU, 6/87)
1388 Mar 12, Pope Urban VI
authorized Poznan’s Bishop Dobrogost to establish a Vilnius archdiocese.
(LHC, 3/12/03)
1389 A French bishop advised the
Pope that the Shroud of Turin, that had materialized in the village of
Lirey a generation earlier, was a fraud.
(WSJ, 4/10/98, p.W6)
1414 Nov 16, A council of bishops
opened in Constance Germany under Emp. Sigismund. When the council of
Constance opened, Christians owed obedience to three different popes:
Gregory XII of the Roman party, Benedict XIII of the Avignon party, and
John XXIII, who had been elected after the death of Alexander V. John
XXIII and Benedict XIII were deposed by the council, and Gregory XII
voluntarily resigned. Then Martin V was elected pope on 11 November
1417 and he was regarded as the legitimate pontiff by the church as a
whole.
(www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/CONSTANC.HTM)(WUD,
1994 p.313)
1414 Franceso Della Rovere, later
Pope Sixtus IV, was born at Celle.
(PTA, 1980, p.420)
1415 Jul 4, Angelo Correr became
Pope Gregory XII.
(Maggio)
1417 Feb 23, Pietro Barbo, later
Pope Paul II (1464-1471), was born in Venice.
(PTA, 1980, p.418)
1417 Nov 11, Martin V was elected
pope and was regarded as the legitimate pontiff by the church as a
whole.
(www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/CONSTANC.HTM)
1420 Mar 1, Pope Martinus I
(1417-1431) called for a crusade against the Hussieten (Bohemia).
(SC, 3/1/02)(PTA, 1980, p.408)
1423 May 23, Benedict XIII, [Pedro
the Luna], Spanish Pope (1394-1423), died. He had been elected by the
Avignon cardinals during the Great Western Schism.
(MC, 5/23/02)(PTA, 1980, p.402)
1431 Jan 1, Rodrigo Borgia Lanzol
(d.1503), member of the Borgia family, was born in Xativa, Spain. His
mother was the sister of Pope Calixtus III. He was elected Pope
Alexander VI in 1492 and amassed a fortune by pocketing church funds.
His reign helped inspire the Protestant reformation. He fathered
numerous children including Lucrezia Borgia. Machiavelli based "The
Prince" on him.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)(PTA, 1980, 424)
1431 Mar 3, Bishop Gabriele
Condulmer (1383-1447) was elected as Pope Eugene IV (1431-1447).
(WUD, 1994 p.491)(PTA, 1980, p.410)(SC, 3/3/02)
1439-1448 Felix V served as the last antipope. He was
born as Amadeus VIII, duke of Savoye in 1383.
(MC, 9/4/01)
1443 Dec 5, Giuliano della Rovere,
later Pope Julius II (1443-1513), was born in Liguria.
(www.newadvent.org/cathen/08562a.htm)
1445 The Council of Florence
ended. It established the date for the Great Schism between the Eastern
and Western (Orthodox and Catholic) churches as July, 1054. An official
date was needed so that talks could begin on reunion.
(WSJ, 7/16/97, p.A23)
1451 The Vatican Library was
founded.
(WSJ, 3/2/00, p.W10)
1455 Apr 8, Alfonso de Borgia was
elected as Pope Callistus III.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1456 Pope Calixtus III appointed
his nephew Rodrigo Borgia Lanzol, later Pope Alexander VI, a cardinal.
(PTA, 1980, p.424)
1459 Mar 2, Adrian VI [Adriaan F
Boeyens], Pope (1522-23), was born in the Netherlands.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1461 The Pope's godson discovered
a source of alum, used in dyes. This led to a booming business for the
Catholic Church.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1464-1471 Pope Paul II, Pietro Barbo, succeeded Pius
II. He was responsible for a Papal Bull that established a 25-year
interval between Holy Years.
(PTA, 1980, p.418)(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A15)
1468 Feb 29, Pope Paul III was
born.
(SFC, 2/29/00, p.A1)
1471 Jul 26, Pope Paul II died.
(PTA, 1980, p.418)
1471 Aug 7, Francesco Della Rovere
succeeded Paul II as Pope Sixtus IV.
(PTA, 1980, p.410)
1474 Guillame Dufay (b.1399),
composer, died. His work included "Ecclesiae militantis," a 5-part
motet on Pope Eugenius IV’s short-lived supremacy over the Eastern
Orthodox Church.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A15)
1475 Cesare Borgia, illegitimate
son of Rodrigo Borgia Lanzol, later Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503), was
born. He was made a church cardinal before his 20th birthday.
(PTA, 1980, p.424)(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A3)
1475 Pope Sixtus IV celebrated the
Holy Year by building the Sistine Chapel and the Sixtus Bridge over the
Tiber River.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A15)
1483 Aug 9, Pope Sixtus IV
celebrated the first mass in the Sistine Chapel, which was named in his
honor.
(HN, 8/9/98)
1483 Felice della Rovere (d.1536),
illegitimate daughter of Pope Julius II (r.1503-1513), was born about
this time. Her mother was a member of the Normanni, an illustrious
Roman family long in decline. In 2005 Caroline P. Murphy authored “The
Pope’s Daughter: The Extraordinary Life of Felice della Rovere.”
(www.jsonline.com/enter/books/reviews/jul05/339335.asp)
1484 Aug 12, Pope Sixtus IV died.
His rule was marked by nepotism and he was involved in a conspiracy to
overthrow the Medici in Florence.
(PTA, 1980, p.98)
1484 Aug 29, Cardinal Cibo was
crowned as Pope Innocent VIII.
(http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08562a.htm)
1484 Dec 5, Pope Innocent VIII
issued a bull deploring the spread of witchcraft and heresy in Germany.
He ordered that all cats belonging to witches scheduled to be burned,
be also burned. Kraemer and Sprenger, two Dominican friars, had induced
Pope Innocent VIII to issue a bull authorizing them to extirpate
witchcraft in Germany.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, zone 1 p.2)(HN, 12/5/98)(HNQ,
10/31/99)
1486 Heinrich Kraemer and Johann
Sprenger, Dominican friars, published Malleus melefircarum (The
Witches‘ Hammer), which became the authoritative encyclopedia of
demonology throughout Christendom. The authority of their work, which
was a synthesis of folk beliefs that had until then been manifested in
local outbursts of witch finding, lasted through the European witch
craze of the next three centuries.
(HNQ, 10/31/99)
1487 Sep 10, Julius III, Italian
counter-Reformation Pope (1550-1555), was born. He was also a poet and
promoted the Jesuits.
(WUD, 1994, p.773)(HN, 9/10/98)(MC, 9/10/01)
1487 Lorenzo the Magnificent
ordered a giraffe from Africa and a cardinal’s hat for his 13-year-old
son from Pope Innocent VIII. In return for the hat Lorenzo promised the
hand of his eldest daughter for the Pope’s illegitimate son along with
a nice loan. The giraffe was procured from Sultan Qaitbay, the Ottoman
ruler of Egypt. Pope Innocent promised to get Queen Anne of France to
hand over Djem, the exiled brother of Qaitbay, for use as a pawn.
Lorenzo promised to give the giraffe to Anne. In 2006 the story was
covered by Marina Belozerskaya in her book “The Medici Giraffe.”
(WSJ, 8/19/06, p.P9)
1492 Jul 25, Pope Innocent VIII
died.
(http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08562a.htm)
1492 Aug 11, Cardinal Rodrigo
Borgia Lanzol (61), father of Cesare and Lucretia, became Pope
Alexander VI (d.1503). He siphoned off untold riches from Church funds.
Borgia arrived in Rome from Spain in 1449 and Italianized his name from
Borja to Borgia. His rise in the church was helped a great deal when
his uncle became Pope Calixtus III.
(HN, 8/10/98)(PTA, p.424)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R4)(MC,
8/11/02)
1493 May 3-1493 May 4, Pope
Alexander VI issued 3 papal bulls that divided the discoveries of
Columbus between Spain and Portugal. By the Bulls of May 3 and 4 he
drew an imaginary line one hundred leagues west of the Cape Verde
Islands. The May 4 Bull, “Inter Caetera,” was amended in Sep. granting
Spain the right to hold lands to the “western regions and to India.”
(DAH, 1946, p.2)(www.kwabs.com/bull_of_1493.html)
1495 Jan 28, Pope Alexander VI
gave his son Cesare Borgia as hostage to Charles VIII of France.
(MC, 1/28/02)
1497 May 13, Pope Alexander VI
excommunicated Girolamo Savonarola for heresy. In Florence the
Dominican monk Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498) had led the burning of
musical instruments, books and priceless works of art. He preached
against corruption in the Church and civil government.
(Hem., 4/97, p.53)(WUD, 1994, p.1672)(MC, 5/13/02)
1498 Aug 17, French King Louis XII
made Cesare Borgia (1475-1507) the Duke of Valentinois. Borgia resigned
his position as cardinal, which had been bestowed on him at age 18 by
his father, Pope Alexander VI.
(Econ, 8/16/08,
p.16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Borgia)
1499 Mar 31, Pius IV, [Gianangelo
de' Medici], Italian lawyer, pope (1559-65), was born.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1499 Michelangelo completed his
"Pieta" for the Vatican.
(OG)
1500 The Vatican established a
permanent nunciature (diplomatic service) in Venice.
(Econ, 7/21/07, p.59)
1501 Michelangelo was commissioned
by Florence to carve a colossal David.
(OG)
1502 Dec 31, Cesare Borgia (son of
Pope Alexander VI) occupied Urbino.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1503 Aug 18, Pope Alexander VI
(1492-1503), born in Spain as Rodrigo di Borgia (1431), died. He
had recently authorized the building of a prison in the cellars of
Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome.
(PTA,
p.424)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Alexander_VI)(SSFC, 7/22/07,
p.G2)
1503 Nov 28, Giuliano della Rovere
(1443-1513) was crowned as Pope Julius II.
(http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08562a.htm)
1504 Jan 17, Pius V, Pope from
1566-1572, was born.
(HN, 1/17/99)
1505 Pope Julius summoned
Michelangelo to Rome to design the pope’s tomb. The contract was
revised 5 times and only 3 of 40 large figures were executed.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.9)(OG)
1506 Jan 22, The Swiss Guard
mercenaries, summoned by Pope Julius II to protect the pope and the
Vatican, arrived in Rome. In 2006 Robert Royal authored “The Pope’s
Army.”
(USAT, 5/6/98, p.6A)(AP, 1/22/06)(WSJ, 4/14/06, p.W5)
1506 Pope Julius II placed the 1st
stone for the new St. Peter’s Basilica. Bramante began to rebuild St.
Peter’s Cathedral in Rome, which had been neglected since the 14th
century when the popes resided at Avignon. Pope Urban VIII consecrated
it in 1626.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.9)(SSFC, 2/18/07, p.A2)
1507 Pope Julius II announced an
indulgence for the re-building of St. Peter’s.
(TL-MB, p.9)
1508 Pope Julius II transferred
Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling in Rome.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.9)(OG)
1508 Raphael at age 26 entered the
service of Pope Julius II and was entrusted with the decoration of the
new papal apartments.
(TL-MB, p.9)
1509 Apr 27, Pope Julius II
excommunicated the republic of Venice. The pope lifted the ban in
February 1510.
(AP, 4/27/07)
1511 Sep 1, Council of Pisa
opened. Louis XII of France called the council to oppose the Holy
League of Pope Julius II.
(PTA, 1980, p.432)(MC, 9/1/02)
1511 Raphael completed the
frescoes in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican for Pope Julius
II.
(TL-MB, p.10)
1511 Pope Julius joined the Holy
League with Aragon and Venice against the French. Papal forces captured
Modena and Mirandola from the French.
(TL-MB, p.10)
1512 Nov 1, Michelangelo's
paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel were completed and first
exhibited to the public.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.10)(AP, 11/1/97)(HN, 11/1/98)
1513 Feb 20-1513 Feb 21, Pope
Julius II (1503-1513), born as Giuliano della Rovere (1443), died. He
was laid in rest in a huge tomb sculptured by Michelangelo. He had been
a patron of Michelangelo, Bramante, and Raphael.
(www.newadvent.org/cathen/08562a.htm)
1513 Mar 11, Giovanni de' Medici
became Pope Leo X. The Medici Pope Leo X led the Catholic Church until
1521.
(OG)(MC, 3/12/02)
1514 Pope Leo X issued a papal
bull against slavery.
(TL-MB, p.10)
1518 Raphael painted a portrait of
Leo X which showed spectacles with concave lenses for short-sightedness.
(TL-MB, p.11)
1518 Cardinal Wolsey arranged the
Peace of London between England, France, the Pope, Maximilian I and
Spain.
(TL-MB, p.11)
1519 Jun 24, Lucrezia Borgia (39),
daughter of Pope Alexander, died.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1520 Jun 15, Pope Leo the Tenth
threatened to excommunicate Martin Luther if he did not recant his
religious beliefs. Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther by the bull
Exsurge.
(AP, 6/15/00)(HT, 6/15/00)
1520 The funereal monuments of the
Medici Chapel were commissioned by Pope Clement VII. They were done
primarily by Michelangelo (1475-1564) from 1520 to 1534, being
completed by his students after his departure. The four figures—dawn,
day, dusk and night—are considered among the sculptor‘s most
accomplished work. He left Florence in 1534, hoping to return, but
spent his last years in Rome.
(HNQ, 11/15/00)
1521 Jan 3, Pope Leo X
excommunicated Martin Luther from the Roman Catholic Church.
(NH, 9/96, p.18)(AP, 1/3/98)
1521 Apr 7, Inquisitor-general
Adrian Boeyens banned Lutheran books.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1521 Apr 17, Under the protection
of Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony, Martin Luther first appeared
before Charles V and the Imperial Diet to face charges stemming from
his religious writings. The Roman Catholic Church had already
excommunicated him on Jan 3, 1521.
(NH, 9/96, p.18)(HN, 4/17/98)(AP, 4/17/05)
1521 Oct 11, Pope Leo X titled
King Henry VIII of England "Defender of the Faith" in recognition of
his writings in support of the Catholic Church. Henry had penned a
defense of the seven Catholic Sacraments in response to Martin Luther‘s
Protestant reform movement. By 1534, Henry had broken completely with
the Catholic Church, and the Pope‘s authority in England was abolished.
(TL-MB, p.12)(HNQ, 8/12/00)(MC, 10/11/01)
1522 Adrian VI was elected Pope.
He was the last non-Italian pope until John Paul II.
(TL-MB, p.12)
1523 Adrian VI died and was
succeeded by Pope Clement VII, nephew of Lorenzo de’ Medici. Adrian VI
was the last non-Italian Pope until 1978 when Cardinal Wojtyla,
Archbishop of Cracow, became Pope Paul II. Clement was pope until 1534.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691) (TL-MB, p.12)(WUD, 1994, p.276)
1524 Apr 19, Pope Clemens VII
fired the Netherlands inquisitor-general French Van de Holly.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1527 May 6, German and Spanish
troops under Charles V began sacking Rome, bringing about the end of
the Renaissance. Libraries were destroyed, Pope Clement VII was
captured and thousands were killed. 147 of 189 of the Pope’s Swiss
guard were killed.
(HN, 5/6/02)(PCh, 1992, p.174)(WSJ, 4/14/06, p.W5)
1527 Dec 6, Pope Clemens VII fled
to Orvieto.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1527 Henry VIII appealed to the
Pope for permission to divorce Catherine of Aragon.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.13)
1527 Florence expelled the Medici
nephews of the Pope and reverted to a republic.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.13)
1527 Spanish mercenaries paid by
Charles V sacked Rome and left 4,000 dead. Some see this event as
marking the close of the Renaissance.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.13)
1527-1528 Henry VIII imprisoned Pope Clement VII for
disobedience. It was to Clement that Henry appealed for an annulment of
his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, which had been granted under
special dispensation in the first place.
(V.D.-H.K.p.163)
1530 Feb 23, Spain's Carlos I was
crowned Holy Roman Emperor Charles V by Pope Clement VII in the last
coronation of a German king by a Pope. Charles restored the Medici to
power after capturing Florence and ceded Malta to the landless
religious order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem.
(TL-MB, p.14)(MC, 2/24/02)(PC, 1992, p.176)
1530 Mar 7, King Henry VIII's
divorce request was denied by the Pope. Henry then declared that he,
not the Pope, is supreme head of England's church.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1531 Jan 5, Pope Clemens VII
forbade English king Henry VIII to re-marry.
(MC, 1/5/02)
1531 Dec 12, Legend held that a
dark-skinned Virgin Mary appeared to a peasant outside Mexico City and
left an imprint on his cactus-fiber poncho. The poncho became an icon
for the Virgin of Guadalupe. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, an Indian
peasant, had visions of the Virgin Mary. In 2002 Pope John Paul II
planned to canonize him. The Vatican’s main source was a religious work
that dated to 1666.
(SFC, 2/1/99, p.A9)(WSJ, 2/27/02, p.A1)(WSJ,
4/17/02, p.A1)(AP, 7/30/02)
1532 Mar 18, English parliament
banned payments by English church to Rome.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1532 Nov 15, Pope Clemens VII told
Henry VIII to end his relationship with Anne Boleyn.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1533 Jul 11, Henry VIII, who
divorced his wife and became head of the church of England, was
excommunicated from the Catholic Church by Pope Clement VII.
(AP, 7/11/97)(HN, 7/11/98)
1534 Feb 26, Pope Paul III
affirmed George van Egmond as bishop of Utrecht.
(PTA, 1980, p.440)(SC, 2/26/02)
1534 Pope Paul III (1534-1549),
Alessandro Farnese, confirmed "The Last Judgement" commission to
Michelangelo, who settled in Rome and began to work on the immense
painting on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.14)(OG)(Econ, 12/13/03, p.82)
1534 St. Ignatius of Loyola,
Spanish ecclesiastic, founded the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) in
Paris with the aim of defending Catholicism against heresy and
undertaking missionary work. Ignatius converted to Christianity while
convalescing after a battle and wrote his Spiritual Exercises meant as
a guide for conversion. In Paris, Ignatius and a small group of men
took vows of poverty, chastity and papal obedience. Ignatius formally
organized the order in 1539 that was approved by the pope in 1540. The
society‘s rapid growth and emphasis on scholarship aided in the
resurgence of Catholicism during the Counter-Reformation. The Jesuits
were also active in missionary work in Asia, Africa and the Americas.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.14)(HNQ, 1/13/01)
1535 Aug 31, Pope Paul III deposed
& excommunicated King Henry VIII.
(YN, 8/31/99)
1536 May 23, Pope Paul III
installed the Portuguese Inquisition.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1536 Jun 6, Mexico began it's
inquisition.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1536 Jul 18, The authority of the
pope was declared void in England.
(AP, 7/18/97)
1537 Jun 2, Pope Paul III banned
the enslavement of Indians in the New World.
(HN, 6/2/99)
1538 Dec 17, Pope Paul III
excommunicated England's King Henry VIII. [see Aug 31, 1535]
(MC, 12/17/01)
1538 Benvenuto Cellini, Florentine
artist, was imprisoned for about a year in the dungeon beneath the
papal fortress of Castel Sant’Angelo for killing his brother’s murderer.
(SSFC, 7/22/07, p.G2)
1540 Sep 27, The Society of Jesus,
a religious order under Ignatius Loyola, was approved by the Pope. The
Jesuits were recognized by Pope Paul III. They were to become the chief
agents of the Church of Rome in spreading the Counter-Reformation.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.16)(HN, 9/27/98)
1541 Oct 31, "The Last Judgement"
by Michelangelo on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel at Rome was
officially unveiled. It is one of the largest paintings in the
world.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.16)(OG)
1542 Jul 21, Pope Paul III
launched the Inquisition against Protestants (Sanctum Officium).
Alleged heretics were tried and tortured in an effort to stem the
spread of the Reformation.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.16)(MC, 7/21/02)
1545 Feb 19, Pierre Brully, [Peter
Brulius], Calvinist minister, was burned to death.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1545 Dec 13, The Church Council of
Trent began with the meeting of 30 bishops. It lasted 3 years but took
18 years to complete its work. The Council sparked the beginning of the
Counter-Reformation. [see 1562]
(CU, 6/87)(TL-MB, 1988, p.17)
1546 Pope Paul III put
Michelangelo (71) in charge of the restoration of St. Peter’s Basilica
in Rome. He designed the dome of St. Peter’s.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.17)(SSFC, 2/18/07, p.A2)
1549 Sep 13, Pope Paul III closed
the first session of the Council of Bologna.
(HN, 9/13/98)
1549 Pope Paul III died and was
succeeded by Julius III.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.17)
1550 Apr 28, Powers of Dutch
inquisition were extended.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1550 Michelangelo completed the
frescoes of the Cappella Paolina, "the Conversion of Paul" and "The
Crucifixion of St. Peter."
(OG)
1550-1555 Julius III, Giommaria Ciocci del Monte or
Giovanni Maria del Monte, served as Pope 1550-1555.
(WUD, 1994, p.773)
1551 Pope Eugenius IV brought some
of the Middle-Eastern Christians back into the Western Christian fold
when he established the Chaldean rite of the Catholic Church.
(WSJ, 3/12/00, p.A10)
1551 The Jesuits founded the Papal
Univ. in Rome.
(TL-MB, p.18)
1552 The shift from the Julian to
the Gregorian calendar was begun. In 2000 Duncan Steel authored
"Marking Time: The Epic Quest to Invent the Perfect Calendar."
(SFEC, 2/20/00, Par p.7)
1553 Aug 12, Pope Julius III
ordered the confiscation and burning of the Talmud.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1554 Jan 9, Gregory XV,
Roman Catholic Pope was born.
(HN, 1/9/98)
1554 Nov 30, England reconciled
with Pope Julius III.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.18)(MC, 11/30/01)
1555 Mar 23, Julius III (67), born
as Giovanni M. del Monte, Pope (1550-55), died. He was succeeded by
Marcellus II and then by Paul IV.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.19)(SS, 3/23/02)
1555 Pope Paul IV decreed that all
Jews in the Papal States be segregated into enclosed quarters.
(SFC, 12/2/08, p.E1)
1556 Apr 13, Portuguese Marranos
who reverted back to Judaism were burned alive by order of Pope.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1556 Sep 9, Pope Paul IV refused
to crown Ferdinand of Austria emperor.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1559 Feb 16, Pope Paul IV called
for the overthrow of sovereigns supporting heresy.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1559 Pope Paul IV issued the
Catholic Church's 1st Index Librorum Prohibitorum. The Index of
Forbidden Books was maintained until 1966.
(SFC, 1/21/04, p.D2)
1559 Pope Paul IV died and was
succeeded by Pius IV.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.19)
1562 Sep 17, The Council of Trent
took ecclesiastical canon. The Council of Trent (1545-1563) demanded
that clarity replace embellishment and display in church
music.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.20)(MC, 9/17/01)
1563 The Council of Trent ordered
a repainting of the "The Last Judgement" by Michelangelo to cloth many
of the frescos' previously nude figures.
(SFC, 1/21/04, p.D2)
1564 Aug 18, Spanish king Philip
II joined the Council of Trent.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1565 Dec 9, Pius IV (66),
[Gianangelo de' Medici], Italian Pope (1559-65), died.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1566-1572 Pius V (b. 1504) led the Catholic Church.
(HN, 1/17/99)
1567 The Catholic Church outlawed
the outright sale of indulgences.
(WSJ, 1/13/00, p.A1)
1568 Feb 16, A sentence of the
Holy Office condemned all the inhabitants of the Netherlands to death
as heretics. From this universal doom only a few persons, especially
named, were acquitted.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighty_Years%27_War)
1568 In Rome Aonio Paleario, poet
and protestant-style reformer, was burned at the stake by Pius V for
posting a poem on a statue, a practice that was called the "talking
statue" (Pasquino): "You’d think it was winter – the way Pius is
burning Christians, - like so many logs on the fire. – He must be
getting himself ready – to enjoy the flames of Hell.
(WSJ, 5/3/01, p.A16)
1569 Feb 7, King Philip II ordered
the inquisition in South America.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1569 Aug 27, Pope Pius named
Cosimo I de' Medici, grand duke of Toscane.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1570 Feb 25, Pope Pius V issued
the bull Regnans in Excelsis which excommunicated Queen Elizabeth the
First of England. This absolved her subjects from allegiance. Elizabeth
responded by hanging and burning Jesuits.
(TL-MB, p.22)(AP, 2/25/98)(HN, 2/25/99)(MC, 2/25/02)
1570 Apr 27, Pope Pius V
excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I [see Feb 25].
(AP, 4/27/07)
1571 May 20, Venice, Spain &
Pope Pius formed an anti-Turkish Saint League.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1572 May 1, Pius V (Antonio
Ghislieri), grand inquisitor, Pope (1566-72), died. He was succeeded by
Gregory XIII.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(MC, 5/1/02)
1574 Feb 28, On the orders of the
Holy Office of the Inquisition, two Englishmen and an Irishman were
burnt for heresy.
(HN, 2/28/99)
1581 Pope Gregory XIII attempted
in vain to reconcile the Roman and Orthodox churches.
(TL-MB, p.23)
1582 Feb 24, Pope Gregory XIII
issued a papal bull, or edict, outlining his calendar reforms. The old
Julian Calendar had an error rate of one day in every 128 years. This
was corrected in the Gregorian Calendar of Pope Gregory XIII, but
Protestant countries did not accept the change till 1700 and later.
[see 1552 and Oct 4, 1582]
(HFA, '96, p.22)(TL-MB, 1988, p.23)(HN,
6/7/98)(SFEC, 2/20/00, Par p.7)(AP, 2/24/02)
1582 Oct 4, The Church Council at
Trent, Italy, discussed the error of 10 days in the calendar as
referenced to the spring equinox which was used to establish the date
for Easter. Pope Gregory XIII announced a correction, "The Gregorian
Adjustment," and had Oct. 4 followed by Oct. 15. The calendar is
accurate to a day in 3,323 years.
(K.I.-365D, p.97)(NG, March 1990, J. Boslough)
1585 Sep 9, Pope Sixtus V deprived
Henry of Navarre of his rights to the French crown.
(HN, 9/9/98)
1585 An obelisk that had been
brought from Egypt to Rome by the emperor Caligula was erected at the
Vatican.
(RFH-MDHP, p.213, illustration)
1586 The Lateran Church of St.
John, Rome, was rebuilt on the orders of Pope Sixtus V, who succeeded
the late Gregory XIII.
(TL-MB, p.24)
1587 Pope Sixtus V proclaimed a
Catholic crusade for the invasion of England. Philip II prepared an
invasion fleet but was interrupted by Francis Drake, who "singed the
king’s beard" by burning 10,000 tons of shipping in Cadiz harbor.
(TL-MB, p.24)
1588 Domenico Fontana, Italian
architect and engineer, completed the Vatican library in Rome. He also
completed the cupola and lantern of St. Peter’s in Rome.
(TL-MB, p.24)
1591 Mar 1, Pope Gregory XIV
threatened to excommunicate French king Henri IV.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1592-1605 Pope St. Clement VIII led the Church.
(ITV, 1/96, p.61)
1593 Jan 27, Vatican opened a 7
year trial against scholar Giordano Bruno.
(MC, 1/27/02)
1593 Michel Mercatus, physician to
Pope Clement VIII, died. He left manuscripts on his study of Ceraunia,
or ancient stone tools which had been thought to be rocks hurled down
from the sky by lightning bolts, or rocks struck by lightning.
(RFH-MDHP, p.70)
1599 Feb 13, Alexander VII, Roman
Catholic Pope, was born.
(HN, 2/13/98)
1600 Feb 8, Vatican sentenced
scholar Giordano Bruno to death.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1600 Feb 17, Giordano Bruno,
advocate of Copernican theory, was burned at stake by Catholic Church.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1600 Cardinal Filippo Spinelli,
Pope Clement VIII’s ambassador in Prague, wrote to the Pope that
Emperor Rudolf II was bewitched by the devil.
(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.P9)
1605 Pope Paul V (d.1621) was
elected following Clement VIII. After 2 months he elevated his young
law-student nephew, Scipione Borghese, to the office of cardinal.
(WSJ, 9/15/98, p.A20)(WSJ, 2/8/00, p.A20)
1606 Venice expelled the Jesuits
as part of a larger jurisdictional dispute with the Vatican.
(WSJ, 5/5/07, p.P10)
1610 Apr 22, Alexander VIII,
[Pietro Ottoboni], Italian lawyer, Pope (1689-91), was born.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1615 Mar 13, Innocent XII, Roman
Catholic Pope, was born.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1616 Mar 5, Copernicus' "de
Revolutionibus" was placed on Catholic Forbidden index.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1617 Aug 30, Rosa de Lima of Peru
became the first American saint to be canonized.
(HN, 8/30/98)
1621-1623 Gregory XV served as pope.
(WSJ, 2/8/00, p.A20)
1622 Mar 12, Ignatius of Loyola
(founder of the Jesuits) was declared a saint.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1626 Nov 18, Pope Urban VIII
consecrated St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome.
(HN, 11/18/98)(SSFC, 2/18/07, p.A2)
1633 Feb 13, Italian astronomer
Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for trial before the Inquisition.
(AP, 2/13/98)
1640 Pope Urban VIII ordered
Spanish priests to stop smoking cigars.
(SFC, 5/24/97, p.E3)
1644 Pope Innocent X was elected
Pope. He was from the noble Roman Pamphili family.
(SFC, 11/20/00, p.A20)
1648 Nov 26, Pope Innocent X
condemned the Peace of Westphalia, which ended 30 Years War one month
earlier.
(AP, 11/26/02)
1657 Venice re-admitted the
Jesuits ushering in a period of cultural conservatism that marked the
end of the “Renaissance project.”
(WSJ, 5/5/07, p.P10)
1665 May 15, Pope Alexander VII
condemned Jansenism.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1676 Sep 21, Benedetto Odescalchi
was elected as Pope Innocent XI.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1678 Nov 30, Roman Catholics
were banned from English parliament.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1683 Sep 12, A combined Austrian
and Polish army defeated the Ottoman Turks at Kahlenberg and lifted the
siege on Vienna, Austria. Prince Eugene of Savoy helped repel an
invasion of Vienna, Austria, by Turkish forces. Marco d'Aviano, sent by
Pope Innocent XI to unite the outnumbered Christian troops, spurred
them to victory. The Turks left behind sacks of coffee which the
Christians found too bitter, so they sweetened it with honey and milk
and named the drink cappuccino after the Capuchin order of monks to
which d'Aviano belonged. An Austrian baker created a crescent-shaped
roll, the Kipfel, to celebrate the victory. Empress Maria Theresa later
took it to France where it became the croissant. In 2006 John Stoye
authored “The Siege of Vienna.”
(Hem., Dec. '95, p.69)(WSJ, 3/27/96, p.A-16)(HN,
9/12/98)(SFEC, 2/6/00, p.A1)(Reuters, 4/28/03)(WSJ, 6/3/03, p.D5) (WSJ,
12/6/06, p.D12)
1731 May 28, All Hebrew books in
Papal State were confiscated.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1732 Sep 2, Pope Clement XII
renewed anti-Jewish laws of Rome.
(MC, 9/2/01)
1738 Pope Clement XII issued a
bull against the Freemasons forbidding Catholics to join under threat
of excommunication.
(WSJ, 2/6/02, p.A16)
1740 Feb 8, Clement XII (87),
[Lorenzo Corsini], blind Pope (1730-40), died.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1742 Jul 11, A papal decree was
issued condemning the disciplining actions of the Jesuits in China.
(HN, 7/11/98)
1752 Mar 23, Pope Stephen II was
elected to succeed Zacharias. He died 2 days later.
(MC, 3/23/02)
1758 Pope Benedict XIV removed the
blanket proscription against the works of Copernicus from the Index of
Forbidden Books. He left Galileo on the Index because a Pope had
participated in the condemnation of Galileo.
(WSJ, 10/22/99, p.W15)
1759 Feb 28, Pope Clement XIII
allowed the Bible to be translated into various languages.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1759 Sep 3, Pope Clement XIII
officially placed the French Encyclopedie on the Vatican’s Index of
Prohibited Books.
(ON, 4/05, p.9)
1766 Nov 25, Pope Clement XIII
warned of dangers of anti-Christian writings
(MC, 11/25/01)
1773 Jul 21, Pope Clement XIV
abolished the Jesuit order. He disbanded, defrocked, and stripped them
of their sustenance. They were ignored by other orders and denounced as
schemers and plotters. The Jesuits finally regained respectability in
1814after flourishing underground.
(HN, 7/21/98)(MC, 7/21/02)
1791 Mar 10, Pope condemned
France's Civil Constitution of the clergy.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1792 May 13, Giovanni-Maria
Mastaia-Ferretti, later Pope Pius IX, "Pio Nono" (1846-78), was born at
Sinigaglia.
(PTA, 1980, p.510)(MC, 5/13/02)
1797 Feb 19, Pope Pius VI ceded
papal territory to France in the Treaty of Tolentino.
(PC, 1992 ed, p.353)
1797 Gammarelli was founded under
Pope Pius VI as tailors to the clergy.
(SSFC, 12/28/03, p.I4)
1798 Feb 20, Pope Pius VI fled
Rome to Siena following an invasion of French forces. He was later
arrested and deported 1st to Florence and then to France.
(www.zum.de/whkmla/region/italy/papalstate17891799.html)(WSJ, 4/14/06,
p.W5)
1799 Aug
29, Pope Pius VI (b.1717) died in Valence, France.
(www.newadvent.org/cathen/12131a.htm)
1801 Jul 16, Pope Pius VII and 1st
consul Napoleon signed a concord.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1804 Dec 2, Napoleon was crowned
emperor of France with Josephine as Empress as Pope Pius VII looked on.
In 1807 Jacques-Louis David completed his painting of the event.
(AP, 12/2/97)(WSJ, 12/14/04, p.D10)
1805 Prussia sent Baron Wilhelm
von Humboldt as envoy to the Vatican, the first Protestant state to do
so.
(Econ, 7/21/07, p.59)
1809 May 17, The Papal States were
annexed by France. Pope Pius VII responded by excommunicating Napoleon.
(MC, 5/17/02)(PTA, 1980, p.502)
1809 Jul 5, Pope Pius VII was
taken prisoner to France and held there until 1814.
(PC, 1992 ed, p.371)
1809 Jul 5-1809 Jul 6, Napoleon
beat Austria’s archduke Charles at the Battle of Wagram. He annexed the
Illyrian Provinces (now part of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro), and abolished the Papal States.
(http://tinyurl.com/vx8dk)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wagram)
1810 Mar 2, Leo XIII (Vincenzo G
Pecci), 256th Catholic Pope (1878-1903), was born.
(HN, 3/2/99)(SC, 3/2/02)
1814 Aug 7, Pope Pius VII
reinstated the Jesuits.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1823 St. Peter's Basilica in Rome
was destroyed by fire. It was reconstructed for the 1825 Holy Year.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A15)
1835 Jun 2, St. Pius X, 257th
Roman Catholic pope (1903-14), was born.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1846-1878 Pope Pius IX, Giovanni Mastai-Ferretti,
allowed archeological excavations of the catacombs by G.B. de Rossi.
Under Pius IX the child Edgardo Mortara was taken from the Jewish
merchant, Momolo Mortara, in Bologna and raised as a foster son of the
pope. The 6-year-old boy had been baptized by a Catholic servant and
canonical law did not allow that he be raised by his Jewish parents.
The story is told by David I. Kertzer in his 1997 book: "The Kidnapping
of Edgardo Mortara."
(ITV, 1/96, p.58)(SFEC, 8/31/97, BR p.9)(PTA, 1980,
p.510)
1848 Count Pellegrino, the prime
minister for Pope Pius IX, was stabbed and killed during the unrest
leading to the unification of Italy.
(USAT, 5/6/98, p.6A)
1850 Jun 11, Cardinal Franzoni
told Rev. Joseph Sadoc Alemany, a Dominican missionary who had worked
in the Midwest frontier, that he was appointed the new bishop of
Monterey, Ca.
(SSFC, 7/27/03, p.A22)
1850 Jun 16, Pope Pius IX
persuaded Rev. Joseph Sadoc Alemany to return to the US and to go to
California.
(SSFC, 7/27/03, p.A22)
1850 French priest Jean-Baptiste
Lamy was dispatched by Rome to bring order and discipline to the New
Mexican territory.
(WSJ, 9/13/06, p.D10)
1853 Mar 4, Pope Pius IX recovered
Catholic hierarchy in Netherlands.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1853 Jul 29, Pope Pius IX
established the archdiocese of San Francisco, Ca.
(SSFC, 7/27/03, p.A22)
1854 Dec 8, Pope Pius IX
proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. In an encyclical he
stated that: "The Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her
conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God…
Preserved immune from all stain of original sin. Ineffabilis Deus."
(AP, 12/8/97)(PTA, 1980, p.510)(WSJ, 6/3/99, p.A27)
1854 Archeologist G.B. de Rossi,
while excavating the Christian catacombs discovered a marble-pillored
chamber filled with rubble and fragments of inscriptions suggesting the
burial of several early Popes.
(ITV, 1/96, p.60)
1858 Papal police took Edgardo
Mortara (6), a Jewish boy, from the arms of his father after a Catholic
housemaid claimed to have baptized the boy during an illness. Edgardo
grew up a church ward and later became a priest.
(SFC, 9/1/00, p.D4)
1861 The L’Osservatore Romano
newspaper was founded as the mouthpiece for the Vatican.
(WSJ, 10/13/08, p.A16)
1864 Pope Pius IX issued the
encyclical "Quanta cura," which included a syllabus of 70 errors in
contemporary beliefs. The Syllabus of Errors included 80 negative
points condemning modern ideas such as freedom of speech and religion
and separation of church and state.
(PTA, 1980, p.510)(SFC, 9/1/00, p.D4)
1870 Jul 18, Pontifical
infallibility was proclaimed at the Vatican Council. It proclaimed as
dogma that the Pope when speaking ex cathedra can make no mistake in
solemn declarations of what must be believed in matters of faith and
morals. The 20th ecumenical council, soon adjourned due to the outbreak
of the Franco-Prussian War.
(PTA, 1980, p.510)(MC, 7/18/02)
1870 Sep 20, Italian troops took
control of the Papal States, leading to the unification of Italy.
(WSJ, 9/13/96, p.A6)(SFEM, 1/19/96, p.10)(AP,
9/20/97)
1870 Oct 2, The papal states voted
in favor of union with Italy. The capital was moved from Florence to
Rome.
(HN, 10/2/98)
1870 The abolition of the Papal
States freed the Jews from restrictions in Rome’s ghetto.
(SFC, 9/1/00, p.D4)
1874 May 13, Pope Pius IX
issued the encyclical "On the Greek-Ruthenian rite."
(SS, Internet, 5/13/97)
1876 Mar 2, Pius XII [Eugenio MGG
Pacelli], 260th Pope (1939-58), was born to an aristocratic Roman
family accustomed to serving the Catholic Church.
(SFEC, 9/26/99, BR p.3)(SC, 3/2/02)
1878 Feb 7, Pope Pius IX
(1846-1878), Giovanni Ferretti (85), died. Revenge-seeking Italian
liberals tried to dump his body into the Tiber River. He served 31
years, seven months and 22 days. In 1954 E.E.Y. Hayes authored “Pio
Nono.”
(PTA, 1980, p.510)(SFC, 9/1/00, p.D4)(AP,
10/15/03)(WSJ, 4/12/08, p.W8)
1881 Nov 25, Pope John the 23rd
(1958-1963) was born Angelo Roncalli near Bergamo, Italy.
(AP, 11/25/97)(MC, 11/25/01)
1881 The area around Bosnia was
annexed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Pope Leo XIII reasserted the
Catholic Church with dioceses in Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Mostar.
(SFC, 4/15/97, p.A10)
1886 The Catholic Church
promulgated a ban on creation on the suspicion that the movement was
top heavy with atheists and other infidels.
(WSJ, 4/27/01, p.W17)
1887 Cardinal Gibbons and the
American hierarchy convinced Rome to back off of a papal condemnation
of the Knights of Labor.
(WSJ, 8/31/01, p.W17)
1891 Pope Leo XIII wrote his
encyclical "Rerum Novarum." It endorsed trade unionism and the
safeguarding of property rights.
(WSJ, 8/31/01, p.W17)
1897 Sep 26, Pope Paul VI
(Giovanni Battista Montini), the 262nd pope of the Roman Catholic
Church, was born.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1903 Feb 20, Pope Leo XIII
celebrated 25 years as the Pope.
(HN, 2/20/98)
1903 Jul 20, Pope Leo XIII died.
He served 25 years, four months and 17 days.
(AP, 10/15/03)
1903 Aug 4, Cardinal Giuseppe
Sarto of Venice was elected Pope Pius X.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1904 Jan 8, Pope Pius X banned low
cut dresses in the presence of churchmen.
(MC, 1/8/02)
1904 Aug 10, Angelo G. Roncalli,
later Pope John XXIII, became a priest.
(MC, 8/10/02)
1906 Feb 2, A Papal encyclical
denounced the separation of church & state.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1907 Jul 3, A Papal decree forbade
the modernization of theology.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1907 Sep 8, Pius X published his
anti-modernism encyclical Pasceni dominici gregis.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1909 Mar 8, Pope Pius X lifted the
church ban on interfaith marriages in Hungary.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1909 Apr 18, Joan of Arc was
declared a saint.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1910 May 29, Pope's encyclical on
Editae Saepe was against church reformers.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1912 Jun 7, Pope Pius X issued the
encyclical: "On the Indians of South America."
(SC, 6/7/02)
1917 May 13, Three peasant
children near Fatima, Portugal, reported seeing a vision of the Virgin
Mary. Francisco and Jacinta Marto and Lucia de Santos reported
appearances later reported 5 more occasions. In 2000 the Vatican
disclosed that the so-called third Secret of Fatima was a vision of an
attempt to kill a pope. It was associated to the May 13, 1981,
assassination attempt. The 1st secret foretold the end of World War I.
The 2nd predicted the spread and collapse of Communism and the
conversion of Russia.
(AP, 5/13/97)(SFC, 5/14/00, p.A2)
1917 Jul 13, Three peasant
children near Fatima, Portugal, reported seeing a vision of the Virgin
Mary. In 2000 the Vatican unveiled the 62-line handwritten account of
Lucia de Jesus dos Santos from the Fatima, Portugal. [see May 13]
(SFC, 6/27/00, p.A12)
1917 The silent opera film "Thais"
by Mary Garden was the first movie shown at the Vatican.
(WSJ, 3/19/98, p.A16)
1917 The Catholic Church’s Code of
Canon Law of this year stated that “An ecumenical council enjoys
supreme power over the universal church.
(WSJ, 12/26/08, p.A11)
1920 May 16, Joan of Arc was
canonized by Pope Benedict XV.
(AP, 5/16/97)(HN, 5/16/98)
1920 May 18, Pope John Paul II
(d.2005) was born as Karol Jozef Wojtyla, in Wadowice, Poland. In 1978
he became the 264th Roman Catholic pope. He was the first non-Italian
Roman Catholic pope since the Renaissance and wrote the international
bestseller "Crossing the Threshold."
(SFC, 5/19/97, p.A13)(HN, 5/18/99)(SSFC, 4/3/05,
p.A12)
1921 Apr 30, Pope Benedict XV
issued his encyclical "On Dante."
(MC, 4/30/02)
1921 Sep 21, Pope Benedictus XV
donated 1 million lire to feed Russians.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1922 Jan 22, Pope Benedict XV
died; he was succeeded by Pius XI.
(AP, 1/22/98)
1923 Jun 24, Pope Pius XI spoke
against allies occupying Ruhrgebied.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1925 Feb 10, Poland made an accord
with the Vatican and the archdiocese of Vilnius was revived as one of 5
Polish dioceses.
(LHC, 2/10/03)
1925 Mar 19, Angelo G. Roncalli
(Pope John XXIII) became a bishop.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1926 Apr 4, The Papal Bull
"Lituanorum Gente" established Lithuanian as a province of the Catholic
Church.
(LC, 1998, p.14)
1927 The Pontifical Society for
the Propagation of the Faith founded Fides to report and distribute
information on Catholic missionary work.
(WSJ, 3/30/01, p.W15)
1928 Oct 2, Spanish priest
Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer (1902-1975) founded Opus Dei, a
conservative Catholic organization, in Madrid. In 2002 Pope John Paul
II raised him to sainthood.
(WSJ, 5/19/06,
p.A1)(www.josemariaescriva.info/index.php?id_cat=40&id_scat=34)
1929 Jun 7, The sovereign state of
Vatican City came into existence as copies of the Lateran Treaty were
exchanged in Rome.
(AP, 6/7/97)
1929 Feb 11, The Lateran Treaty
was signed, with Italy recognizing the independence and sovereignty of
Vatican City.
(HFA, '96, p.22)(AP, 2/11/97)
1929 Feb 11, The Lateran Treaty
was signed, with Italy recognizing the independence and sovereignty of
Vatican City. The Italian government paid the Vatican $91.7 million for
the papal lands it seized in 1870. The Italian state agreed to supply
water but the disposal of waste was not specified. This became a big
issue in 1999.
(SFEM, 1/19/96, p.10)(HFA, '96, p.22)(AP,
2/11/97)(WSJ, 12/3/99, p.A1)
1930 Dec 4, Vatican approved the
rhythm method for birth control.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1930 Dec 31, Pontifical encyclical
Casti connubial was against mixed marriages.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1933 Jun 3, Pope Pius XI
encyclical "On oppression of the Church in Spain."
(MC, 6/3/02)
1933 Jul 20, Vatican state
secretary Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) signed an accord with Hitler.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1933 Dec 23, The Pope condemned
the Nazi sterilization program.
(HN, 12/23/98)
1935 Thomas More (1478-1535) was
canonized as a saint.
(WSJ, 10/22/98, p.A20)
1937 Mar, The encyclical "With
Burning Sorrow" (Mit brennender Sorge) was "smuggled" into Germany.
Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (later Pius XII) helped Pius XI draft the work
which denounced Nazi paganism and racism. The Encyclical was
"published" in Germany and read from the pulpits of every Catholic
church on Palm Sunday.
(WSJ, 4/25/97, p.A18)(WSJ, 5/8/97, p.A23)
1938 May 3, Vatican recognized
Franco's Catholic and fascist Spain.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1938 Jun, Pius XI commissioned
American Jesuit John Lafarge to write a new encyclical expressly
condemning Nazi anti-Semitism. Lafarge and others wrote "The Unity of
the Human Race." Pius XI died soon thereafter and it was never
published. In 1997 George Passelecq and Bernard Suchecky published:
"The Hidden Encyclical of Pius XI."
(WSJ, 5/8/97, p.A23)(SFEC, 9/7/97, BR p.4)
1939 Feb 10, Pope Pius XI died in
Rome. He was born in Desio, Italy, as Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti.
(www.nndb.com/people/327/000088063/)
1939 Mar 2, Roman Catholic
Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (d.1958) was elected Pope; he took the name
Pius XII.
(WSJ, 4/25/97, p.A18)(WSJ, 5/8/97, p.A23)(AP, 3/2/98)
1939 Mar 12, Pope Pius XII was
formally crowned in ceremonies at the Vatican.
(HN, 3/12/98)(AP, 3/12/98)
1941 In Mexico Rev. Marcial Maciel
founded the Legion of Christ, a conservative Roman Catholic order to
minister to the wealthy and multiply its beneficial impact on society.
In 1946 Pope Pius XII ordered Father Maciel to recruit Latin American
leaders. In 1997 8 men went public with allegations of sexual abuse by
Father Maciel dating to the 1940s and 1950s.
(WSJ, 1/21/06, p.A13)
1942 Mar, Japan established
relations with the Vatican, the 1st non-Christian state to do so. The
first ambassador's name was Ken Harada.
(Econ, 7/21/07,
p.59)(www.reformation.org/vatican-and-japan.html)
1942 Sep 12, Free-Poland &
Belgium asked Pope to condemn Nazi-war crimes. He did not.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1942 Dec 25, Pius XII issued an
encyclical with a strong attack on Nazism but no explicit mention of
Jews.
(WSJ, 5/8/97, p.A23)
1943 Apr 30, Pius XII wrote a
letter to Bishop von Preysing of Berlin and referred to the
extermination of the Jews. His concluding thoughts stated: "Unhappily
in the present state of affairs, we can bring no help other than our
prayers."
(WSJ, 5/8/97, p.A23)
1943 May 18, In Croatia Archbishop
Stepinac urged Pius XII to take a firm position to hold on "to its
240,000 converts." Eastern Orthodox practitioners had converted to
Catholicism to escape death camps.
(WSJ, 5/20/99, p.A21)
1943 Jul 12, Pope Pius XII
received Baron von Weizsacker, the German ambassador.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1943 Sep 10, German troops
occupied Rome and took over the protection of Vatican City.
(MC, 9/10/01)
1943 Sep 26, The Germans placed an
extortion on the Jews of Rome with an order to produce 50 kg of gold
within 2 days or face massive deportations. Pius XII offered to loan
the Jewish community 15 kg of gold with interest with repayment within
4 years after the war. Rome’s Jews and citizens came up with sufficient
gold to make the Pope’s offer needless.
(WSJ, 5/8/97, p.A23)
1943 Oct 16, In Italy the Nazi SS
police and Waffen SS began rounding up the Jews of Rome. There was an
anti Jewish riot in Rome as the Jewish quarter was surrounded by Nazis,
and Jews were evacuated to Auschwitz. Pope Pius XII made no public
protest, though he did send some messages of disapproval through
intermediaries.
(WSJ, 10/18/99, p.A46)(MC, 10/16/01)
1945 A secret internal US Treasury
Dept. document, hidden for 50 years, revealed in 1997 that the Vatican
held some 200 million Swiss francs plundered from Serbs and Jews by the
Nazi puppet government of Croatia after WW II.
(SFC, 7/22/97, p.A8)
1946 Oct 23, A Vatican document
advised French church authorities on how to handle information requests
from Jewish officials, asking them not to put anything in writing:
“Children who have been baptized must not be entrusted to institutions
that cannot ensure their Christian education.” The document surfaced in
2004.
(SFC, 1/1/05, p.A12)
1948 Jun, In Rome Father Karol
Jozef Wojtyla, later Pope John Paul II, completed his thesis “The
Problems of Faith in the Works of St. John of the Cross” and earned a
doctorate in philosophy. In July he returned to Poland as an assistant
pastor at Niegowicd.
(SSFC, 4/3/05, p.A12)
1949 Jun 20, The Vatican, as a
counter measure, excommunicated all active supporters of Communism in
Czechoslovakia.
(EWH, 1968, p.1187)
1949 Jul 13, The militantly
anti-communist Pope Pius XII excommunicated communist Catholics voters
in Italy, an action aimed at the Italian Communist Party.
(MC, 7/13/02)(AP, 5/5/06)
1950 Apr 18, Polish Catholic
church and government signed an accord over relations.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1950 Pope Pius XII declared that
the bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven was the
"infallible" dogma of the Roman Catholic Church.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A15)
1951 Jul 18, Pope Pius XII
established the Archdiocese of Seattle and named Rev. Thomas A.
Connolly as its 1st archbishop.
(SFC, 7/13/01, WBb p.6)
1951 China and the Vatican broke
formal relations after missionaries were kicked out and Catholics were
forced to sever ties with Rome.
(SFC, 1/7/00, p.A14)
1952 Dec 17, Yugoslavia broke
relations with the Vatican.
(HN, 12/17/98)
1953 Feb 13, Pope Pius XII asked
the U.S. to grant clemency to convicted spies Ethel and Julius
Rosenberg.
(HN, 2/13/98)
1953 Jul 27, Vatican disallowed
priests holiday work in factories.
(MC, 7/27/02)
1954 May 29, Pope Pius XII, born
as Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Pacelli (1876-1958), canonized Pope Pius X,
born as Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto (1835-1914). It was the first
canonization of a Pope since 1712.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saints_canonized_by_Pope_Pius_XII)
1955 Jun 16, Pope Pius XII
excommunicated Argentine President Juan Domingo Peron. The ban was
lifted eight years later.
(AP, 6/16/98)
1956 May 25, Pope Pius XII
published his encyclical Haurietis aquas.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1957 May 16, Pope Pius XII
published his encyclical Invicti Athletae.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1957 Sep 8, Pope Pius XII posted
his encyclical On motion pictures, radio, TV.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1957 Argentina signed a treaty
with the Vatican that created the post of military bishop.
(Econ, 4/2/05, p.34)
1958 Oct 9, Pope Pius XII died, 19
years after he was elevated to the papacy. In 1999 John Cornwell
published "Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII."
(WSJ, 4/25/97, p.A18)(AP, 10/9/97)(SFC, 9/7/99, p.A4)
1958 Oct 28, The Roman Catholic
patriarch of Venice, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, was elected Pope, taking
the name John XXIII.
(AP, 10/28/97)
1958 Nov 4, Angelo G. Roncalli was
crowned as Pope John XXIII.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1959 Jan 25, Pope John XXIII
proclaimed the 2nd Vatican council.
(MC, 1/25/02)
1959 Apr 13, A Vatican edict
forbade Italian Roman Catholics from for voting for communists.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1960 It was reported that a rule
that required women to wear head coverings in churches was repealed. No
official statement to that effect was actually made.
(WSJ, 10/8/97, p.A1)(www.catholicintl.com/qa/qa.htm)
1961 Jul 14, Pope John XXIII
published his encyclical Mater et magistrate.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1962 Jan 3, Pope John XXIII
excommunicated Fidel Castro.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1962 Oct 11, Pope John XXIII
convened the first session of the Roman Catholic Church's 21st
Ecumenical Council, also known as Vatican II, with a call for Christian
unity. This was the largest gathering of the Roman Catholic hierarchy
in history. Among delegate-observers were representatives of major
Protestant denominations, in itself a sign of sweeping change. He
declared its purpose to be "aggiornamento," an "updating" that would be
a pastoral response to the needs of the modern world. It allowed for
vernacular languages in the Liturgy and continued to 1965, when it
published Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in
the Modern World.
(CU, 6/87)(AP, 10/11/97)(HN, 10/11/98)
1962-1965 Rev. Francis X. Murphy (d.2002) covered the
Vatican Council. In 1963 he published "Letters from Vatican City:
Vatican Council II." In 1968 he published "Vatican Council II," a
history of the council.
(SFC, 4/16/02, p.A18)
1963 Feb 20, Rolf Hochhuth's "Der
Stellvertreter" (The Representative) premiered in Berlin. The work
indicted Pope Pius XII for Nazi complicity during WW II. The Catholic
Church was outraged at the portrayal of Pius XII as a war criminal. An
English translation by Richard and Clara Winston was published as “The
Deputy: A Play,” by Grove Press in 1964. In 2002 The Deputy was made
into the film “Amen.” by Costa Gavras.
(WSJ, 4/25/97,
p.A18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deputy)(Econ, 10/25/08,
p.73)
1963 Apr 11, John XXIII put forth
his encyclical "On peace in truth, justice, charity and liberty."
(MC, 4/11/02)
1963 June 3, Pope John XXIII died
at the age of 81, ending a papacy marked by innovative reforms in the
Roman Catholic Church. He was succeeded by Pope Paul VI.
(AP, 6/3/97)
1963 Jun 21, Cardinal Giovanni
Battista Montini was chosen to succeed the late Pope John XXIII as head
of the Roman Catholic Church. The new pope took the name Paul VI.
(AP, 6/21/97)
1963 Jun 30, Cardinal Montini was
crowned as Pope Paul VI, the 262nd head of the Roman Catholic Church.
(AP, 6/30/97)(MC, 6/30/02)
1963 Jul 2, President John F.
Kennedy met Pope Paul the Sixth at the Vatican, the first meeting
between a Roman Catholic US chief executive and the head of the
Catholic Church.
(AP, 7/2/00)
1963 Sep 29, The second session of
Second Vatican Council opened in Rome.
(AP, 9/29/97)
1963 Nov 21, Roman Catholic
Vatican Council authorized the use of vernacular instead of Latin in
the Sacraments.
(AP, 11/21/02)
1964 Sep 14, Pope Paul VI opened
the third session of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, also
known as Vatican Two.'' The session closed two months later.
(AP, 9/14/06)
1964 Nov 13, Pope Paul VI gave a
tiara to the poor.
(MC, 11/13/01)
1964 Nov 23, Vatican abolished
Latin as the official language of Roman Catholic liturgy. [see Nov 29]
(MC, 11/23/01)
1964 Nov 29, Catholic Church in US
replaced Latin with English. [see Nov 23]
(MC, 11/29/01)
1964 Saul Friedlander published
"Pius XII and the Third Reich."
(SFEC, 9/26/99, BR p.3)
1965 Sep 14, The 4th meeting of
2nd Vatican council opened.
(http://www.vatican.va)
1965 Oct 4, Pope Paul VI became
the first reigning pontiff to visit the Western Hemisphere as he
addressed the U.N. General Assembly.
(AP, 10/4/97)
1965 Oct 28, Pope Paul VI issued a
decree, Nostra Aetate, absolving Jews of collective guilt for the
crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
(AP, 10/28/99)(SFC, 3/11/06, p.B10)
1965 The 21st Vatican Council,
begun in 1962 and later known as the Second Vatican Council (Vatican
II), ended. In 2008 John W. O’Malley authored “What Happened at Vatican
II.”
(WSJ, 12/26/08, p.A11)
1966 Mar 23, The 1st official
meeting after 400 years of Catholic and Anglican Church.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1966 Nov 18, U.S. Roman Catholic
bishops did away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays.
(AP, 11/18/97)
1966 Pope Paul VI allowed celibacy
dispensations for men wanting to leave the Catholic priesthood. Over
the next 2 decades thousands of Catholic priests left active ministry
to marry.
(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A3)
1967 Jan 1, Pope Paul VI announced
his Apostolic Constitution (Indulgentiarum Doctrina). He also
established this day as World Peace Day.
(http://tinyurl.com/ah8ck9)(SFC, 1/2/99, p.C12)
1967 Mar 26, Pope Paul VI
published encyclical Populorum Progressio (On the Development of
Peoples).
(www.ewtn.com/library/ENCYC/P6DEVELO.HTM)
1967 May 29, Pope Paul VI named 27
new cardinals, including Karol Wojtyla, archbishop of Krakow, who later
became Pope John Paul II.
(SSFC, 4/3/05, p.A13)
1967 Jun 24, Pope Paul VI
published his encyclical Sacerdotalis coelibatus (priestly celibacy).
(MC, 6/24/02)
1967 Dec 23, President Johnson, on
his way home from a visit to Southeast Asia, held an unprecedented
meeting with Pope Paul VI at the Vatican.
(AP, 12/23/07)
1968 Jul 29, Pope Paul VI issued
the encyclical Humanae Vitae, which reaffirmed the Church’s opposition
to abortion and to all contraception except the rhythm method.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(AP, 7/29/98)(SSFC, 7/8/01, p.A4)
1968 Aug 22, Pope Paul VI arrived
in Bogota, Colombia, for the start of the first papal visit to Latin
America.
(AP, 8/22/98)
1968 The Sant’Egidio community was
started in Rome by a high school student with ideals of prayer, mission
and solidarity wit the poor. By 2008 it had 60,000 members in 70
countries and had become active in faith-based peacemaking.
(Econ, 7/5/08,
p.72)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_Sant'Egidio)
1970 Nov 27, Pope Paul VI,
visiting the Philippines, was slightly wounded at the Manila airport by
Benjamin Mendoza, a dagger-wielding Bolivian painter disguised as a
priest.
(AP, 11/27/02)
1971 May 14, Pope Paul VI
(1897-1978), the 262nd pontiff, delivered his Octagesima Adveniens
apostolic letter on the 80th anniversary of the Rerum Novarum
encyclical by Leo XIII. Paul VI was born in Lombardy, Italy, as
Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini.
(SFC, 11/20/96, p.C1)(http://tinyurl.com/65jr23)
1971 Sep 28, Cardinal Josef
Mindszenty (1892-1975) of Hungary, who had spent 15 years in refuge in
the US Embassy in Budapest, ended his exile and flew to Rome.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3zsef_Mindszenty)
1973 Jan 15, Pope Paul VI had an
audience with Golda Meir at Vatican.
(http://tinyurl.com/65npaj)
1975 Sep 14, Pope Paul VI declared
Mother Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton the first native-born American saint
in the Roman Catholic Church.
(AP, 9/14/97)(HN, 9/14/98)
1975 Oct 12, Archbishop Oliver
Plunkett (1625-1681) became the 1st Irish-born saint in 700 years. He
was beheaded by Cromwell's troops.
(www.archatl.com/parishes/saintoliverplunkett_snellville.html)
1977 Jan 27, The Vatican
reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's ban on female priests.
(AP, 1/27/98)
1977 Jun 19, Pope Paul VI
proclaimed a 19th-century Philadelphia bishop, John Neumann, the first
male US saint.
(AP, 6/19/07)
1978 Aug 6, Pope Paul VI died at
Castel Gandolfo at age 80.
(AP, 8/6/97)
1978 Aug 11, Chiefs of state and
foreign dignitaries arrived in Vatican City for the funeral of Pope
Paul VI.
(AP, 8/11/98)
1978 Aug 12, Pope Paul VI, who had
died six days earlier at age 80, was buried in St. Peter's Basilica.
(AP, 8/12/97)
1978 Aug 26, Cardinal Albino
Luciani of Venice was elected the 264th Pope of the Roman Catholic
Church following the death of Paul VI. The new pontiff took the name
John Paul I.
(AP, 8/26/97)
1978 Sep 3, Pope John Paul I,
Cardinal Albino Luchiani of Venice, was installed as the 264th pontiff
of the Roman Catholic Church.
(AP, 9/3/97)(SFC, 12/10/99, p.AA11)
1978 Sep 28, Pope John Paul I
[Albino Luciano] died after 33 days as pope. He was found dead the next
day in his Vatican apartment.
(www.prose-n-poetry.com/display_work/10583/)(AP,
9/29/97)
1978 Oct 4, Funeral services were
held at the Vatican for Pope John Paul I.
(AP, 10/4/98)
1978 Oct 16, The College of
Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church chose Cardinal Wojtyla (58),
Archbishop of Cracow, to become Pope. He took the name John Paul II.
The first non-Italian since Adrian VI of Utrecht died in 1523.
(AP, 10/16/97)(HN, 10/16/98)
1979 Jun 2, Pope John Paul II,
formerly Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Warsaw, arrived in his native Poland
on the first visit by a pope to a Communist country.
(SFC, 11/20/96, p.C1)(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.D1)(AP, 6/2/97)
1979 Sep 29, John Paul II became
the first pope to visit Ireland as he arrived for a three-day tour.
(AP, 9/29/99)
1979 Oct 1, Pope John Paul II
arrived in Boston for the start of a U.S. tour.
(AP, 10/1/99)
1979 Oct 6, Pope John Paul II, on
a week-long U.S. tour, became the first pontiff to visit the White
House, where he was received by President Carter.
(AP, 10/6/97)
1979 Oct 7, Pope John Paul II
concluded a week-long tour of the United States with a Mass on the Mall
in Washington.
(AP, 10/7/99)
1979 Nov 30, John Paul II, while
on a pilgrimage to Turkey, became the first pope in 1,000 years to
attend an Orthodox mass.
(www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/travels/sub_index1979/trav_turkey.htm)
1980 May 2, Pope John Paul II
arrived Kinshasa for the centennial of Catholicism in Zaire and the
beginning of his African tour.
(SFC, 7/18/97,
p.A10)(http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id99.htm)
1980 May 4, Nine people were
killed at Kinshasa, Zaire (later the Democratic Republic of Congo)
during a stampede to attend mass given by Pope John Paul II.
(http://africanhistory.about.com/od/may/a/td0504.htm)
1980 May 30, Pope John Paul II,
formerly Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Warsaw, arrived in France on the
first visit by the head of the Roman Catholic Church since the early
19th century.
(AP, 5/30/97)
1980 Jul 9, In Brazil at least 3
and as many as 7 died in a stampede to see the Pope at a stadium in
Fortaleza.
(http://tinyurl.com/36kdnt)
1980 Pope John Paul II allowed
married Episcopal clergy to join the Catholic Church and serve as
priests.
(AP, 8/22/05)
1981 May 13, John Paul II was shot
and seriously wounded in St. Peter's Square by Turkish assailant Mehmet
Ali Agca. The shots hit the pope’s hand and penetrated his abdomen.
John Paul forgave Agca 4 days later. In 2006 an Italian report said the
Soviet Union was behind the attempted assassination.
(TMC, 1994, p.1981)(AP, 5/13/97)(SFC, 6/14/00,
p.A12)(AP, 3/2/06)
1981 Jun 3, Pope John Paul II left
a Rome hospital and returned to the Vatican three weeks after the
attempt on his life.
(AP, 6/3/97)
1981 Aug 14, Pope John Paul II
left a Rome hospital, three months after being wounded in an attempt on
his life.
(AP, 8/14/01)
1982 May 12, In Fatima, Portugal,
security guards overpowered a Spanish ex-priest armed with a bayonet
who was trying to reach Pope John Paul II. John Paul was visiting to
give thanks for surviving an assassination attempt on May 13, 1981.
Ultra-conservative Spanish priest, Juan Fernandez Krohn, lunged at the
pope with a dagger and was knocked to the ground by police and
arrested. The pope was wounded, but this was not disclosed until 2008.
(AP,
10/12/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II)(Reuters,
10/15/08)
1982 May 28, Pope John Paul II
became the 1st Pontiff to visit Britain.
(www.popejohnpaulii.org.uk/)
1982 Jun 7, Pres. Reagan met with
Pope John Paul II at the Vatican and later with Queen Elizabeth in
England.
(www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/trvl/pres/12800.htm)
1982 Sep 15, Pope John Paul II
received PLO leader Yasser Arafat.
(http://religion-cults.com/pope/religions.htm)
1982 Oct 10, Pope John Paul II
canonized Rev. M. Kolbe (1894-1941), a Polish Franciscan friar. The
controversial racist priest had volunteered to die in place of another
inmate at Auschwitz concentration camp.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilian_Kolbe)
1982 Oct 31, Pope John Paul II
became the 1st pontiff to visit Spain.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pastoral_visits_of_Pope_John_Paul_II_outside_Italy)
1982 Nov 16, A replica of the
original 1854 "Pope’s Stone," donated by the Vatican, was dedicated at
the Washington Monument. The original from Pope Pius IX, arrived in
October 1853. It was taken by force in 1854 by unknown men. The common
idea is that the men were part of a group called the Know-Nothings.
(www.nps.gov/archive/wamo/memstone_564.htm)
1982 Pope John Paul II declared
Rev. Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish priest who died at Auschwitz, a saint.
(SFC, 1/2/99, p.C12)
1983 Jan 1, Pope John Paul II
declared this year to be an extraordinary Holy Year to mark the 1,950th
anniversary of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in year 33.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A15)
1983 Jan 19, The New Catholic code
expanded women's rights in the Church.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1983 Feb 3, Cardinal Antonio
Samore (b.1905), Vatican representative and archivist, died. In 1978 he
mediated the Beagle conflict, a border dispute between Argentina and
Chile.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Samor%C3%A9)
1983 Jun 16, Pope John Paul II
visited Poland.
(www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/travels/sub_index1983/trav_polonia_en.htm)
1983 Jun 22, Emanuela Orlandi
(b.1968), the daughter of a Vatican messenger, disappeared after a
music lesson in Rome. She was 15 at the time. Her self-proclaimed
kidnappers demanded the release of Ali Agca, who wounded the Pope in
1981, for her freedom. They never offered any proof they had the girl
or that she was alive.
(AP,
1/10/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuela_Orlandi)
1983 Dec 11, Pope John Paul II
visited a Lutheran church in Rome, the first visit by a Roman Catholic
pontiff to a Protestant church in his own diocese.
(www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/1983/december/index.htm)
1983 Dec 27, Pope John Paul II
pardoned Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who shot him. The Pope visited Mehmet
Ali Agca at Rome’s Rebibbia prison and personally pardoned him for the
1981 assassination attempt.
(SFC, 6/14/00,
p.A14)(http://preview.tinyurl.com/pddl)
1983 The code to annul marriages
was revised under Canon 1095. It permitted annulment if it could be
proved beyond a reasonable doubt that at the time of their marriage one
or both spouses suffered from a "grave lack of discretionary judgement"
concerning their marriage obligations.
(WSJ, 9/11/98, p.W9)
1983 In Guatemala on the eve of
Pope John Paul’s visit Gen’l. Montt had 6 rebel suspects executed.
(SFC, 7/31/98, p.D3)
1984 Jan 10, The United States and
the Vatican established full diplomatic relations for the first time in
117 years.
(AP, 1/10/98)(HN, 1/10/99)
1984 In a bank scandal the Vatican
paid $244 million for its part in the collapse of another Italian bank.
(SFEM, 1/19/96, p.10)
1984 A commission of the Roman
Catholic Church, appointed by Pope John Paul II in 1980, concluded that
the Inquisition was in error in its 1632 condemnation of Galileo‘s
support of the Copernican Theory of the solar system. By 1611
Galileo had made a series of discoveries and observations with his
telescope that clearly confirmed the theory of Polish astronomer
Copernicus that the earth and planets revolved around the sun.
Controversy erupted when Galileo announced his support of Copernicus, a
theory in opposition to the accepted Church belief that the sun and
planets revolved around a stationary earth. Galileo‘s 1632 publication
of Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World led to condemnation
by the Inquisition, which forced him to renounce his views and live
under house arrest until his death in 1642 [see 1992].
(HNQ, 2/11/00)
1985 Jan 27, Pope John Paul said
mass to one million in Venezuela.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1986 Feb 3, Dalai Lama met Pope
John Paul II in India.
(http://tinyurl.com/nek6w)
1986 Mar 29, A court in Rome
acquitted six men in a plot to kill the Pope.
(HN, 3/29/98)
1986 Apr 13, Pope John Paul II
visited a Rome synagogue and met with Chief Rabbi Elio Toaff in the
first recorded papal visit of its kind.
(AP,
4/13/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Paul_II)
1986 The Vatican issued a
statement that described homosexuality as a disorder.
(SFC, 7/14/99, p.A4)
1986 J.N.D. Kelly authored “The
Oxford Dictionary of Popes.”
(WSJ, 4/12/08, p.W8)
1987 Mar 10, The Vatican condemned
surrogate parenting as well as test-tube and artificial insemination.
(HN, 3/10/98)
1987 Apr 30, Pope John Paul II
began a five-day visit to West Germany.
(AP, 4/30/97)
1987 May 1, During a visit
to West Germany, Pope John Paul II beatified Edith Stein, a Jewish-born
Carmelite nun who was gassed in the Nazi concentration camp at
Auschwitz.
(AP, 5/1/97)
1987 May 4, Pope John Paul II
ended his five-day visit to West Germany with a call for religious
freedom in the Soviet bloc and praise for those who had opposed the
"mass hysteria and propaganda" of the Nazi era.
(AP, 5/4/97)
1987 Jun 25, Pope John Paul II
received Austrian President Kurt Waldheim at the Vatican, a meeting
fraught with controversy because of allegations that Waldheim had
hidden a Nazi past.
(AP, 6/25/97)
1987 Sep 1, After Jewish leaders
met with the Pope at Castel Gandolfo it was announced that a document
would be produced on the Holocaust. The document was made public Mar
16, 1998.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.A24)
1987 Sep 20, Pope John Paul II
concluded an 11-day visit to North America as he celebrated Mass for
thousands of Indians at Fort Simpson in Canada's Northwest Territories.
(AP, 9/20/97)
1988 Jan 29, Nicaraguan President
Daniel Ortega received a coolly polite reception from Pope John Paul II
at the Vatican.
(AP, 1/29/98)
1988 Apr 2, Secretary of State
George P. Shultz briefed Pope John Paul II on his Middle East peace
proposals during a private audience at the Vatican.
(AP, 4/2/98)
1988 Jun 23, Pope John Paul II
began his second papal visit to Austria, where he met with President
Kurt Waldheim, despite controversy over Waldheim's alleged involvement
in Nazi war crimes.
(AP, 6/23/98)
1988 Jun 30, Renegade Roman
Catholic Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrated four bishops in
defiance of papal authority; the Vatican announced the excommunication
of all five.
(AP, 6/30/98)
1988 Oct 8, Pope John Paul II
journeyed to eastern France, where he addressed the Council of Europe
and the European Court of Human Rights.
(AP, 10/8/98)
1988 Dec 23, Pope John Paul II met
with Yasser Arafat at the Vatican. The pontiff told the PLO leader he
believed Palestinians and Jews had "an identical fundamental right" to
their own countries.
(AP, 12/23/98)
1988 The Shroud of Turin Research
Project (Sturp) performed radiocarbon dating on fibers of the shroud
and found that the linen dated to between 1260 and 1390 CE. Ian Wilson
wrote the 1978 book "The Shroud of Turin" and in 1998 "The Blood and
the Shroud: New Evidence That the Most Sacred Relic Is Real."
(WSJ, 4/10/98, p.W6)
1989 Dec 1, In an extraordinary
encounter, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev met with Pope John
Paul II at the Vatican.
(AP, 12/1/99)
1990 Apr 21, Pope John Paul II was
greeted by hundreds of thousands of people as he visited Czechoslovakia
to help celebrate the nation's peaceful overthrow of communist rule.
(AP, 4/21/00)
1990 Pope John Paul II put forth
his encyclical "Redemptoris Missio," on Christian evangelization and
world religions.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.W13)
1990 Pope John Paul II put forth
his "Excorde Ecclesiae," a set of instructions to bishops to safeguard
the identity of Catholic institutions.
(USAT, 11/18/99, p.1A)
1990 A new church law required
Catholic dioceses around the world to support the Holy See.
(SFEM, 1/19/96, p.10)
1991 May 2, In his ninth
encyclical, Pope John Paul the Second acknowledged the success of
capitalism, but denounced the system for sometimes achieving results at
the expense of the poor and of morality. Pope John Paul II put forth
his encyclical "Centesimus Annus," on the dignity of the human person
and the free economy in the free society. He pointed out that the main
cause of the wealth of nations is knowledge, science, know-how, and
discovery.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.W13)(WSJ, 12/23/99, p.A18)(AP,
5/2/01)
1991 Jun 2, Pope John Paul the
Second, on a pilgrimage to his native Poland, visited the town of
Przemysl, less than ten miles from the Soviet border; an estimated
10,000 Ukrainians crossed into Poland to see the pontiff.
(AP, 6/2/01)
1991 Jun 3, Pope John Paul the
Second, visiting the Polish city of Kielce, indirectly criticized
abortion, appealing to his listeners to "prevent further destruction of
the Polish family."
(AP, 6/3/01)
1992 Oct 31, Roman Catholic church
rehabilitated Galileo Galilei after 359 years. Galileo was tortured and
imprisoned by the Holy Office during the Inquisition, and was forced to
recant his heretical views that the earth and planets revolve around
the Sun. Pope John Paul II acknowledged that the church had erred in
condemning Galileo. [see 1984]
(/www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Galileo.html)
1992 Jason Berry authored "Lead Us
Not Into Temptation," a work on clerical sex abuse.
(SFC, 3/18/02, p.F10)
1993 Mar 20, Pope John Paul II
declared Duns Scotus (1266-1308) a saint.
(www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintj55.htm)
1993 Aug 11, Pope John Paul II
visited Mexico.
(http://tinyurl.com/ckmy6)
1993 Aug 14, Pope John Paul II
denounced abortion and euthanasia as well as sexual abuse by American
priests in a speech at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver.
(AP, 8/14/98)
1993 Aug 15, Pope John Paul II
ended his four-day U.S. visit with a farewell address at Denver's
Stapleton International Airport in which he denounced the "culture of
death" of abortion and euthanasia.
(AP, 8/15/98)
1993 Dec 30, Israel and the
Vatican agreed to recognize one another. Pope John Paul II normalized
relations between the Vatican and Israel.
(SFC,12/25/97, p.A14)(AP, 12/30/97)
1993 Pope John Paul II put forth
his encyclical "Veritatis Splendor," on the nature of moral truth in a
relativistic world.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.W13)
1994 Feb 20, Pope John Paul II
demanded juristic discrimination of homosexuals.
(www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/lgbcathbib11.html)
1994 Apr 3, In his Easter Sunday
address, Pope John Paul II expressed hope that the joy of Christianity
would overwhelm the din of violence and hate.
(AP, 4/3/99)
1994 Apr 7, Pope John Paul II made
remarks at the conclusion of a concert in commemoration of the Shoah
(holocaust), in which he acknowledged the Nazi Holocaust killing of
Jews for the 1st time.
(http://tinyurl.com/c9vt8)
1994 Jun 2, President Clinton met
at the Vatican with Pope John Paul II.
(AP, 6/2/99)
1994 Jun 15, Israel and the
Vatican established full diplomatic relations.
(AP, 6/15/97)
1994 Nov 26, Thirty clergymen were
elevated to the rank of cardinal in a Vatican ceremony presided over by
Pope John Paul II.
(AP, 11/26/99)(www.usccb.org/pope/dates.htm)
1994 Dec 25, Pope John Paul II, in
his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" message, bemoaned "selfishness and
violence" around the world.
(AP, 12/25/99)
1995 Jan 14, Pope John Paul II
addressed a huge rally in Manila, urging young people to reject
cynicism.
(AP, 1/14/00)
1995 Oct 4, Pope John Paul the
Second arrived in the United States for a five-day visit.
(AP, 10/4/00)
1995 Pope John Paul II put forth
his encyclical "Evangelium Vitae," on the culture of life and threats
to human dignity. Also "Ut Unum Sint," on the unity of the Church and
the unity of the world.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.W13)
1995 The Vatican established a
simple World Wide Web site.
(Sky, 9/97, p.22)
1996 Oct 8, Pope John Paul II
underwent a successful operation to remove his inflamed appendix.
(AP, 10/8/97)
1997 Jan, Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a
Jesuit journalist, published Inside the Vatican, a look at the
institution’s internal politics and organization.
(SFEM, 1/19/96, p.10)
1997 Mar 10, The Vatican
established diplomatic relations with Libya.
(SFC, 3/11/97, p.A11)
1997 May 4, Pope John Paul
beatified the first Gypsy Jimenez Malla, killed by Republican forces in
the 1936 Spanish Civil War. Also beatified were Florentino Asensio
Barroso, bishop of Barbastro, Spain, where Malla died; Enrico
Rebuschini, a northern Italian priest who died in 1938; and Maria
Encarnacion Rosal, a 19th century Guatemalan nun.
(SFC, 5/5/97, p.A8)(AP, 5/4/98)
1997 Jun 10, Pope John Paul II
bade farewell to his native Poland as he ended an 11-day pilgrimage.
(AP, 6/10/98)
1997 Aug 21, Pope John Paul II
began a visit to Paris with an outdoor encounter with 500,000 young
people from around the world.
(SFC, 8/22/97, p.A14)
1997 Aug 24, In France Pope John
Paul II offered tough challenges and affectionate encouragement to more
than 1 million faithful attending Mass during closing World Youth Day
ceremonies in Paris.
(AP, 8/24/98)
1997 Oct 2, In Brazil thousands
turned out to greet Pope John Paul II for the start of his 4-day visit.
(SFC, 10/3/97, p.B2)
1997 Dec 23, For the 1st time a
Chanukah candle was officially lit in Vatican City.
(www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1997/hanukkah/hanukkah.vatican/index.html)
1998 Jan 23, Pope John Paul II
condemned the US embargo against Catholic Cuba.
(www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/latin_america/jan-june98/pope_1-23.html)
1998 Jan 24, Pope John Paul II,
delivering blunt political messages during his visit to Cuba, called
for the release of "prisoners of conscience" and respect for freedom of
expression, initiative and association.
(AP, 1/24/99)
1998 May 4, In Vatican City Alois
Estermann (43), the pope’s top bodyguard, was shot and killed along
with his wife, Gladys Meza Romero (49) in their apartment by Cedrich
Tornay (23), who then shot himself. Estermann had just been appointed
the head of the Swiss Guards and was killed by Tornay due to damaged
professional pride. An investigation was concluded in 1999 and
suggested that marijuana and a brain cyst impaired Tornay.
(WSJ, 5/5/98, p.A1)(USAT, 5/6/98, p.6A)(SFC, 2/9/99,
p.A10)(AP, 5/4/99)
1998 Jun 19, Pope John Paul II
visited Austria for 3 days.
(SFC, 6/20/98, p.B3)
1998 Jun 25, The Vatican agreed to
sign a joint declaration with the Lutheran Church on how humans receive
God’s forgiveness and salvation.
(SFC, 6/26/98, p.D2)
1998 Sep 18, In SF Rev. John
Charles Wester was named as Catholic Bishop of SF and titular prelate
of Lamiggiga.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.C1)
1998 Oct 3, In Croatia Pope John
Paul II beatified Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, the World War II
archbishop of Zagreb and a controversial figure because many Serbs and
Jews accused him of sympathizing with the Nazis.
(SFEC, 10/4/98, p.A22)(AP, 10/3/99)
1998 Oct 11, Pope John Paul II
bestowed sainthood on Edith Stein, a Jewish-born woman who became a
Catholic nun and was executed by Nazis in 1942.
(SFC, 10/12/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 15, Pope John Paul marked
his 20th anniversary with a new encyclical "Fides et Ratio," or Faith
and Reason with the basic message of: Be not afraid of human reason.
The 40,000 word treatisse emphasizes spiritual truth over technology.
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.A17)(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.W13)
1998 Oct 18, Pope John Paul II
celebrated Mass at the Vatican marking the 20th anniversary of his
election to the papacy.
(AP, 10/18/99)
1998 Nov 27, From the Vatican Pope
John Paul issued a papal bull, "Incarnationis Mysterium" (The Mystery
of the Incarnation) that proclaimed 2000 a special Holy Year. Special
indulgences were offered for making pilgrimages, doing good deeds or
fasting.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A10)
1999 Dec 24, The Catholic Holy
Year was to begin Christmas eve and last to Jan 6, 2001. The Church was
expected to ask for forgiveness for past errors.
(SFC, 12/25/98, p.A18)
1998 Robert J. Hutchinson
published "When in Rome: A Journal of Life in Vatican City."
(SFEC, 8/9/98, p.T8)
1999 Jan 8, Pope John Paul II met
with the new Prime Minister and former communist leader, Massimo
D'Alema.
(SFC, 1/9/99, p.A9)
1999 Jan 22, Pope John Paul II
began a 5-day pilgrimage to Mexico and St. Louis. He was greeted by
Pres. Zedillo some 2 dozen official sponsors who would help defray the
$2 million costs of the 4-day visit.
(SFC, 1/22/99, p.A1)(SFC, 1/23/99, p.A10)
1999 Mar 11, Pope John Paul II met
with Mohammad Khatami of Iran.
(SFC, 3/12/99, p.A14)
1999 Mar 17, The Vatican and Sony
announced the release of the first music video, "Abba Pater," by Pope
John Paul II.
(SFC, 3/17/99, p.C3)
1999 May 7, In Romania the Pope
began a 3-day visit. This was his first visit to a country with an
Orthodox Christian majority. The Pope was greeted by Orthodox Patriarch
Teoctist (84).
(WSJ, 5/7/99, p.A1)(SFC, 5/8/99, p.A10)
1999 Jun 2, President Clinton met
at the Vatican with Pope John Paul II.
(AP, 6/2/04)
1999 Jun 3, It was reported that
Catholics and Lutherans had agreed to sign an accord over the
theological issue of "justification." They agreed that divine
forgiveness and salvation come "solely by God's grace" and that good
works flow from that.
(SFC, 6/3/99, p.C4)
1999 Jun 4, Pope John Paul II
traveled to Poland, the first stop on a 13-day visit to 20 cities. This
was his 8th visit to Poland.
(WSJ, 6/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Oct 31, In Augsburg, Germany,
leaders of the Roman Catholic and modern Lutheran Churches signed the
Augsburg Accord, a "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of
Justification," in a step toward reconciliation. The accord gave weight
to the Lutheran position on salvation through faith and embraced the
Catholic ethic of earthly service.
(SFC, 11/1/99, p.A11,12)
1999 Dec 3, Acea SpA was at issue
with the Vatican over a $23.2 million sewage disposal bill.
(WSJ, 12/3/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 24, The Catholic Jubilee
Holy Year began Christmas eve and lasted to Jan 6, 2001. The Church was
expected to ask for forgiveness for past errors. The bronze door to St.
Peter's was opened and symbolized the passage from sin to grace.
(SFC, 12/25/98, p.A18)(SFC, 12/25/99, p.A12)
1999 John L. Heilbron, a historian
of science, authored "The Sun in the Church."
(SFC, 10/25/99, p.A4)
1999 Monsignor Luigi Marinelli
(d.2000 at 73) authored "Via col Vento in Vaticano" (Gone With the Wind
in the Vatican). It alleged intrigue and corruption in the Vatican,
became a best seller and prompted a defamation suit by the Vatican
along with a decree ordering its removal from bookstores.
(SFC, 10/25/00, p.A26)
1999 Thomas Plante edited "Bless
Me Father For I Have Sinned: Perspectives on Sexual Abuse Committed By
Roman Catholic Priests."
(SFC, 8/14/99, p.A8)
1999 George Weigel authored
"Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II."
(WSJ, 10/5/99, p.A24)
2000 Jan 6, In China the
state-controlled Catholic Church ordained 5 new bishops while the Pope
elevated 12 prelates in St. Peter's Basilica.
(SFC, 1/7/00, p.A14)
2000 Feb 26, Pope John Paul II
visited the 6th century St. Catherine's monastery in Egypt, built on
the reputed site where Moses encountered the burning bush. He met with
Greek Orthodox Archbishop Damianos and held a short prayer service in
an olive garden outside the monastery.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, p.A20)
2000 Mar 12, In Rome Pope John
Paul II begged for God's forgiveness for sins committed or condoned by
Roman Catholics over the last 2,000 years.
(SFC, 3/13/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 20, Pope John Paul II
arrived in Jordan for the beginning of his Holy land tour. He prayed at
Mt. Nebo where the bible says Moses first viewed the Promised Land.
(WSJ, 3/20/00, p.A1)(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 21, Pope John Paul II
landed in Tel Aviv and began his official visit to Israel with a
welcome from Pres. Ezer Weizman.
(SFC, 3/22/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 23, Pope John Paul the
Second paid his respects at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial.
(AP, 3/23/01)
2000 Mar 24, In Israel Pope John
Paul II delivered a sermon from the Mount of Beatitudes before some
100,000 people.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.A10)
2000 Jun 26, The Vatican unveiled
the 62-line handwritten account of Lucia de Jesus dos Santos from the
Fatima, Portugal, vision of Jul 13, 1917.
(SFC, 6/27/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 20, At the Vatican some 2
million young people closed the 6-day World Youth festival dubbed the
Catholic Woodstock.
(SFC, 8/21/00, p.A9)
2000 Aug 29, Pope John Paul II
laid down moral guidelines for medical research in the 21st century,
endorsing organ donation and adult stem cell study, but condemning
human cloning and embryo experiments.
(AP, 8/29/01)
2000 Sep 3, At the Vatican Pope
John Paul II beatified Pope Pius IX and Pope John XXIII.
(SFC, 9/4/00, p.A8)
2000 Sep 5, The Vatican issued a
statement that declared efforts to depict all religions as equal are
wrong and reasserted that the Catholic Church is the one true church.
(WSJ, 9/6/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 1, Pope John Paul II
canonized as martyrs 87 Chinese believers and 33 European missionaries
killed between 1648 and 1930. He also canonized Mother Katherine Drexel
(d.1955), a Philadelphia heiress, who became a nun.
(SFC, 10/2/00, p.A12)
2000 Oct 10, In Portland the Roman
Catholic Church apologized for the sexual abuse committed by Rev.
Maurice Grammond (80) between 1950-1974. The church agreed to pay and
undisclosed sum to 22 men.
(SFC, 10/11/00, p.A3)
2000 Dec 16, Joerg Haidar, a
far-right Austrian leader, visited Pope John Paul II along with a 250
person delegation to present a Christmas tree from Carinthia. This
provoked heavy clashes between protesters and police.
(SSFC, 12/17/00, p.D1)
2000 Gary Wills authored "Papal
Sin: Structures of Deceit," an indictment of how the Vatican has
rewritten history and twisted the truth in an effort to preserve
outdated teachings on human sexuality and gender equality.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.C1)
2001 Jan 28, Pope John Paul II
named 5 new cardinals and revealed the identities of 2 others from the
former Soviet Union.
(SFC, 1/29/01, p.A14)
2001 Feb 21, Pope John Paul II
installed 44 new cardinals. It was the largest number ever installed at
one time.
(SFC, 2/21/01, p.A13)
2001 May 4, Pope John Paul II
visited Athens and apologized for Roman Catholic sins of "action or
omission" against Orthodox Christians. A day earlier some 1,000
Orthodox conservatives took to the streets to denounce his visit.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.D3)
2001 May 5, In Syria Pres. Bashar
Assad greeted Pope John Paul II with a speech against Israel.
(SSFC, 5/6/01, p.A14)
2001 May 6, In Syria Pope John
Paul II prayed in the Great Umayyad Mosque, the 1st time a pontiff ever
visited and prayed in a Muslim house of worship.
(SFC, 5/7/01, p.A1)
2001 May 8, In Malta Pope John
Paul II was welcomed on the final stop of his 6-day pilgrimage to
retrace the steps of the Apostle Paul.
(WSJ, 5/9/01, p.A1)
2001 May 24, In Rome 155 cardinals
concluded a private 3-day meeting.
(SSFC, 5/27/01, p.A3)
2001 Jun 23, Pope John Paul II
began his 5-day visit to Ukraine, where the Greek Catholic Church had 5
million followers who observed Byzantine rites but were loyal to Rome.
He hoped to mend a rift with the Eastern Orthodoxy.
(SFC, 6/22/01, p.A14)
2001 Jun 25, In Ukraine Pope John
Paul II planned to visit Babi Yar where some 200,000 Jews and other
Nazi victims are buried. Pope John Paul II visited Babi Yar, the site
of a Nazi massacre of at least 100,000 Jews. [see 1941]
(SFC, 6/25/01, p.A8)(WS, 6/26/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 19, The Roman Catholic
Church declared that Mormon converts must be rebaptized.
(SFC, 7/20/01, p.A9)
2001 Sep 22, Pope John Paul II
arrived in Kazakstan with good wishes for Islamic leaders and for "all
people of good will" who seek peace.
(SSFC, 9/23/01, p.A27)
2001 Nov 22, Pope John Paul II
issued a papal message via the Internet to Catholics in Australia, New
Zealand and the South Pacific islands that included an apology for
sexual abuse by priests.
(SFC, 11/23/01, p.A1)
2002 Feb 15, The bishop of the
Diocese of Dorchester, NH, named 14 priests implicated in the sexual
abuse of children from 1963-1987.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb, The Archdiocese of
Boston identified 80 priests as having abused children over the last 40
years.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A8)
2002 Mar 8, Anthony J. O’Connell,
Palm Beach Catholic bishop, resigned after admitting to the sexual
abuse of a teen-age seminary student 27 years earlier.
(SFC, 3/9/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 28, Pope John Paul II
accepted the resignation of Julius Paetz, archbishop of Poznan, Poland,
due to a sex scandal and accusations of molesting young seminarians.
(SFC, 3/29/02, p.A7)
2002 Mar 31, Pope John Paul II
used his Easter message to call for an end to violence in the Holy Land.
(AP, 3/31/03)
2002 Apr 15, Pope John Paul II
summoned all US cardinals to the Vatican to discuss clerical sex abuse
scandals in the US.
(SFC, 4/16/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 23, Pope John Paul II
opened a Vatican meeting with American cardinals to discuss sexual
abuse by clergy.
(SFC, 4/24/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 24, US cardinals at the
Vatican issued a communique for expedited procedures to defrock priests
guilty of sexual abuse of minors.
(SFC, 4/25/02, p.A1)
2002 May 22, Pope John Paul (82)
arrived in Azerbaijan for a 2-day visit before continuing on to
Bulgaria. He hope to improve relations with the Muslim and Christian
Orthodox believers.
(WSJ, 5/22/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/23/02, p.A1)
2002 May 24, Pope John Paul
accepted the resignation of Rembert Weakland (75), archbishop of
Milwaukee. Weakland admitted to a $450,000 settlement in 1998 to Paul
Marcoux (53) for an alleged sexual assault in 1979.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A3)
2002 May 28, Pres. Bush met with
Pope John Paul II in Vatican City and expressed his worries on the sex
scandals in the US involving Catholic clergy.
(SFC, 5/29/02, p.A8)
2002 Jun 14, US bishops voted to
remove any priest from his ministry who abuses a minor but stopped
short of zero tolerance, as pushed by some victims.
(SFC, 6/15/02, p.A1)
2002 Jun 16, Pope John Paul II
declared Padre Pio (d.1968), a mystic Capuchin monk, a saint.
(AP, 6/16/02)
2002 Jul 23, A frail Pope John
Paul II walked down the steps of his plane instead of using a lift
after arriving in Canada to join thousands of young Catholic pilgrims
for World Youth Day. Tens of thousands of exuberant young Catholics
massed in Toronto to greet the Pope.
(AP, 7/23/02)(Reuters, 7/23/02)
2002 Jul 28, In Canada Pope John
Paul ended the celebrations of World Youth Day for 800,000 people in
Toronto's massive Downsview Park. Speaking publicly on the church abuse
scandal for the first time, Pope John Paul II told young Catholics that
sexual abuse of children by priests "fills us all with a deep sense of
sadness and shame."
(Reuters, 7/29/02)(AP, 7/28/03)
2002 Jul 30, In Guatemala City
Pope John Paul II canonized his 463rd saint, Pedro de San Jose
Betancur, a 17th century Spanish missionary and Central America's first
saint.
(SFC, 7/31/02, p.A2)(AP, 7/30/07)
2002 Jul 30, Pope John Paul II
began a three-day visit to Mexico to canonize Juan Diego, the first
Indian saint. He arrived from Guatemala to a greeting by President
Vicente Fox and tens of thousands of people lining Mexico City's
streets.
(AP, 7/30/02)
2002 Jul 31, Pope John Paul II
canonized Juan Diego, an Indian peasant to whom church tradition says
the Virgin Mary appeared 500 years ago, in a ceremony in Mexico that
drew more than 1 million believers into the streets.
(AP, 8/1/02)
2002 Aug 2, Pope John Paul II
returned to Rome after ending an 11-day pilgrimage to Canada, Guatemala
and Mexico.
(AP, 8/2/03)
2002 Aug 5, The Vatican
excommunicated 7 women who claimed to have been recently ordained as
priests, because they had attacked the fundamental structure of the
Catholic Church. The 7 women, from Germany, Austria and the United
States, had defied an earlier Vatican warning to repent over their
participation in a June 29 ceremony which they claimed made them
priests.
(AP, 8/6/02)(WSJ, 8/6/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 16, Pope John Paul II
returned to Poland for a 3-day visit.
(SFC, 8/17/02, p.A10)
2002 Aug 18, In a tearful,
farewell Mass in his beloved Krakow, Pope John Paul II told more than 2
million Poles that he would like to return one day — but that "this is
entirely in God's hands."
(AP, 8/18/03)
2002 Aug 19, An ailing and aging
John Paul II bid a tearful farewell to his homeland as he concluded a
four-day visit to the Krakow region of Poland.
(AP, 8/19/03)
2002 Oct 6, Pope John Paul II
raised to sainthood Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer the Spanish priest
who founded the conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei (1928),
only 27 years after his death.
(AP, 10/6/02)
2002 Dec 13, Pope John Paul II
accepted the resignation, due to sex abuse, of Boston's Cardinal
Bernard Law (71).
(SFC, 12/14/02, p.A1)(AP, 12/13/07)
2002 Dec 20, Pope John Paul II
brought Mother Teresa (d.1997) closer to sainthood when he approved a
miracle attributed to the nun.
(AP, 12/20/02)
2003 May 3, Pope John Paul II
began a whirlwind visit to Madrid, Spain. He urged hundreds of
thousands of young people outside Madrid to be "artisans of peace."
(AP, 5/3/04)
2003 May 4, In Spain Pope John
Paul II proclaimed five new saints and urged Spaniards to emulate them.
They included: Pedro Poveda, a priest killed in 1936; Angela de la
Cruz, who founded the Sisters of the Company of the Cross; Genoveva
Torres, who founded the Sisters of the Sacred Heart and of the Holy
Angels; Maravillas de Jesus, who founded convents for the Order of
Barefoot Carmelites, and Jose Maria Rubio, a Jesuit priest.
(AP, 5/4/03)
2003 May 17, Cardinal Giovanni
Battista Re acknowledged that Pope John Paul II was suffering from
Parkinson's disease.
(AP, 5/17/04)
2003 May 18, Pope John Paul II
celebrated his 83rd birthday.
(AP, 5/19/03)
2003 Jun 5, Pope John Paul II
began his landmark 100th foreign pilgrimage with a five-day, five-city
tour of Croatia.
(AP, 6/5/03)
2003 Jul 31, The Vatican launched
a global campaign against gay marriages, warning Catholic politicians
that support of same-sex unions was "gravely immoral" and urging
non-Catholics to join the offensive.
(SFC, 8/1/03, p.A1)(AP, 7/31/04)
2003 Sep 11, Weary and trembling,
Pope John Paul II struggled to greet Slovaks as he began a four-day
visit.
(AP, 9/11/03)
2003 Sep 14, Pope John Paul II
wrapped up a pilgrimage to Slovakia by beatifying two clerics, Greek
Catholic Bishop Vasil Hopko and Roman Catholic Sister Zdenka
Schelingova, who were jailed and tortured under the former communist
regime.
(AP, 9/14/03)
2003 Sep 19, The government of
Georgia scrapped an accord guaranteeing religious freedom for
Catholics. The next day the Vatican issued an unusually strong rebuke
to the former Soviet republic and its dominant Orthodox Church.
(AP, 9/20/03)
2003 Sep 28, Pope John Paul II
named 31 new cardinals.
(AP, 9/29/03)
2003 Oct 5, Pope John Paul II
declared three missionaries to be saints: Daniele Comboni, an Italian;
Arnold Janssen, a German; and Josef Freinademetz, an Austrian.
(AP, 10/5/03)
2003 Oct 16, Pope John Paul II
celebrated his 25th anniversary, reaching a milestone matched by only
three of his predecessors.
(AP, 10/16/03)
2003 Oct 19, Pope John Paul
beatified Mother Teresa before a crowd of 300,000.
(AP, 10/19/03)
2003 Oct 21, Pope John Paul II
added 30 names to the list of his possible successors, installing a
diverse collection of cardinals.
(AP, 10/21/03)
2003 Nov 9, Pope John Paul II in
St. Peter's Square beatified two Spaniards, an Italian, a Belgian and a
Frenchwoman.
(AP, 11/9/03)
2003 Nov 27, At the Vatican the
Dalai Lama visited Pope John Paul II.
(SFC, 11/28/03, p.A3)
2004 Apr 25, Pope John Paul II
added six more people to the ranks of Catholics on the path to possible
sainthood. Honored were: August Czartoryski (1858-1893) of Poland, a
prince who became a Salesian priest; Laura Montoya (1874-1949) of
Colombia, who founded the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the
Immaculate Mary; Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala (1878-1963) of Mexico,
co-founder of the Congregation of the Servants of Saint Margaret Mary
and the Poor; Nemesia Valle (1847-1916) of Italy, a nun of the
Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Giovanna Antida
Thouret; Eusebia Palomino Yenes (1899-1935) of Spain; a nun of the
Institute of the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians; and da Costa
(1904-1955), who became a lay Salesian cooperator.
(AP, 4/25/04)
2004 May 16, Pope John Paul II
named six new saints, including Gianna Beretta Molla, revered by
abortion foes because she'd refused to end her pregnancy despite
warnings it could kill her. Beretta Molla, an Italian pediatrician,
died in 1962 at age 39, a week after giving birth to her fourth child.
(AP, 5/16/05)
2004 Jun 4, Pope John Paul II met
with President Bush and reminded him of the Vatican's opposition to the
war in Iraq.
(AP, 6/4/04)
2004 Jul 31, The Vatican issued a
document denouncing feminism for trying to blur differences between men
and women and threatening the institution of families based on a mother
and a father.
(AP, 7/31/05)
2004 Aug 14, A visibly weak Pope
John Paul II joined thousands of other ailing pilgrims at a cliffside
shrine in Lourdes, France, telling them he shares in their physical
suffering and assuring them the burden is part of God's "wondrous plan."
(AP, 8/14/05)
2005 Feb 1, Pope John Paul II was
hospitalized for breathing problems and the flu.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2005 Feb 27, Pope John Paul II
made a surprise first public appearance after surgery, appearing at his
Rome hospital window.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2005 Mar 13, Pope John Paul II was
released from the hospital and returned to his Vatican apartment
overlooking St. Peter's Square.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2005 Apr 2, Pope John Paul II,
born in Poland in 1920 as Karol Wojtyla, died in Rome at age 84. He was
elevated to Pope in 1978 and was the first non-Italian pope in 455
years. In November Viking published “John Paul the Great: Remembering a
Spiritual Father” by Peggy Noonan.
(AP, 4/2/05)(WSJ, 11/22/05, p.D8)
2005 Apr 7, President Robert
Mugabe of Zimbabwe defied a European Union travel ban and arrived in
Rome to join world leaders attending Pope John Paul II's funeral. Italy
has a pact with the Vatican in which it does not interfere with people
transiting the country to see the pope.
(AP, 4/7/05)
2005 Apr 8, World leaders joined
pilgrims and prelates in St. Peter's Square for the funeral of Pope
John Paul II.
(AP, 4/8/06)
2005 Apr 19, Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger (78) of Germany became Pope Benedict XVI. As the 265th pope
he promised to enforce strictly conservative policies for the world's
Roman Catholics. In Germany Ratzinger's latest book, "Werte in Zeiten
des Umbruchs" (Values in Times of Upheaval), was already sold out after
its release a week ago. Ratzinger viewed secularism and moral
relativism as the chief adversaries of God and the church. After
Ratzinger was elected pope, the Holy See's No. 2 official, Cardinal
Angelo Sodano, signed a decree assigning "in perpetuity and worldwide"
the copyrights of all Benedict's works, including the hundreds he wrote
before becoming pope, to the Vatican's publishing house, Libreria
Editrice Vaticana (LEV).
(AP, 4/19/05)(WSJ, 4/20/05, p.A1)(AP, 2/19/06)
2005 Apr 20, In his first Mass as
pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI pledged to work for unity among Christians
and to seek an open and sincere dialogue'' with other faiths.
(AP, 4/20/06)
2005 Apr 24, Pope Benedict XVI
formally began his stewardship of the Roman Catholic Church; the former
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said in his installation homily that as
pontiff he would listen to the will of God in governing the world's 1.1
billion Catholics.
(AP, 4/24/06)
2005 May 13, Pope Benedict XVI
appointed SF Archbishop William Levada (68) as the new prefect of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s top arbiter
of questions of faith and morals.
(SFC, 5/14/05, p.A1)
2005 May 23, The Vatican said
there was no investigation under way of allegations that Rev. Marcial
Maciel Degallado, the Mexican founder of a conservative religious
order, sexually abused seminarians more than 30 years ago.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 Jul 25, Israel expressed
outrage that Pope Benedict XVI failed to condemn terrorist attacks
against Israelis. Pope Benedict urged dialogue with the best elements
of Islam.
(SFC, 7/26/05, p.A3)
2005 Aug 18, Pope Benedict XVI
began his first foreign trip as pontiff, leaving Rome to take part in
the Roman Catholic Church's World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany.
(AP, 8/18/05)
2005 Aug 19, Pope Benedict XVI
warned of rising anti-Semitism and hostility to foreigners, winning a
standing ovation from members of Germany's oldest Jewish community
during a visit to a rebuilt synagogue that had been destroyed by the
Nazis.
(AP, 8/19/05)
2005 Aug 21, Pope Benedict XVI
triumphantly ended his four-day trip to his native Germany, celebrating
an open-air Mass for a million people in Cologne.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2005 Oct 16, Polish television
broadcast a recorded interview with Pope Benedict XVI, who said that he
planned to visit Poland, the homeland of his predecessor, John Paul II
(it's believed to be the first TV interview by a pope).
(AP, 10/16/06)
2005 Oct 22, Bishops from around
the world approved a set of 50 recommendations for Pope Benedict XVI on
running the Roman Catholic Church that reaffirm church teaching on such
issues as celibacy for priests.
(AP, 10/22/05)
2005 Oct 23, Pope Benedict XVI
named five new saints at the close of a 3-week Synod of Bishops. They
included: Rev. Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga, a Chilean Jesuit who was known
for his work with the poor as well as the young; from Ukraine Josef
Bilczewski, archbishop of Lviv, who was greatly admired by Catholics,
Orthodox Christians and Jews alike during World War and the Rev.
Zygmunt Gorazdowski, who founded the Congregation for the Sisters of
St. Joseph to care for the sick and poor; and Italians Felice da
Nicosia, a lay Capuchin who lived in the 1700s, and the Rev. Gaetano
Cantanoso, who founded the Veronican Sisters of the Holy Face in 1934.
(AP, 10/23/05)
2005 Nov 10, Iraqi President Jalal
Talabani met with Pope Benedict XVI amid tight security that closed
down the main boulevard leading to the Vatican.
(AP, 11/10/05)
2005 Nov 17, Israeli President
Moshe Katsav met with Pope Benedict XVI and other top Roman Catholic
officials to discuss a long-standing tax dispute that has irritated
relations between Israel and the Holy See.
(AP, 11/17/05)
2005 Nov 19, Pope Benedict XVI and
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi discussed relations between the
Catholic Church and Italy, amid accusations that the church interferes
in the country's domestic affairs.
(AP, 11/19/05)
2005 Nov 19, Pope Benedict XVI
curbed the independence of Franciscan friars running the famed St.
Francis Basilica in Assisi, decreeing they must now get permission for
their activities from the local bishop.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, The Vatican beatified
13 Mexicans who died during a Roman Catholic uprising in the late 1920s
that was crushed by the Mexican government.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 22, Pope Benedict XVI
created the diocese of Ba Ria, in the Vietnam province of the same
name, by dividing up the existing diocese of Xuan Loc. He named
Monsignor Thomas Nguen Van Tram bishop of Ba Ria. Vietnam had an
estimated 6 million Catholics.
(AP, 11/22/05)
2005 Nov 29, The Vatican published
its long-awaited document on gays in the clergy, saying men with
"deep-seated" homosexual tendencies should not be ordained but those
with a "transitory problem" could be if they had overcome them for
three years.
(AP, 11/29/05)
2005 Dec 25, Pope Benedict the
16th marked his first Christmas as pope, calling for concrete actions
to back up “signs of hope” in the Middle East and urging peace in
Darfur, Sudan and the Korean peninsula.
(AP, 12/25/06)
2006 Jan 25, Pope Benedict XVI
said in his first encyclical, "God is Love," that the Roman Catholic
Church has no desire to govern states or set public policy, but can't
remain silent when its charity is needed to ease suffering around the
world.
(AP, 1/25/06)
2006 Feb 2, The Vatican announced
that Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of an auxiliary
bishop of Detroit, Thomas Gumbleton, a liberal voice in the US church
who recently revealed that a priest abused him 60 years ago.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 22, Pope Benedict XVI
named 15 new cardinals, including John Paul II's longtime private
secretary and prelates from Boston and Hong Kong, adding his first
installment to the elite group of churchmen who will elect his
successor.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 26, In Canada, 19
Catholic priests singed an open letter in Montreal’s La Presse
newspaper denouncing Vatican opposition to gay marriage and having
homosexuals into the priesthood.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 13, Pope Benedict XVI and
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak held talks at the Vatican about Iran,
Iraq and the prospects for lasting peace in the Middle East.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 23, Pope Benedict XVI
convened the College of Cardinals for the first time since his election
last year, inviting its members to share their concerns about the
challenges facing the Catholic Church before adding 15 new members to
their ranks.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2006 Mar 24, Pope Benedict XVI
installed his first group of cardinals, promoting 15 prelates,
including two Americans, to the elite club that chooses his successor.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 25, The Vatican's foreign
minister said that the "time is ripe" for the Holy See and Beijing to
establish diplomatic relations, and confirmed it is ready to move its
embassy from Taiwan.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Apr 16, In his first Easter
message as pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI urged nations to use diplomacy to
defuse nuclear crises and prayed that Palestinians would one day have
their own state alongside Israel.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2006 May 3, China's state-approved
Catholic church installed a bishop without Vatican approval, the second
this week.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 4, The Vatican
excommunicated two bishops ordained by China's state-controlled church
without the pope's consent, escalating tensions as the two sides
explored preliminary moves toward improving ties.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 13, Pope Benedict XVI
named a new bishop for Vietnam, a country that lacks ties with the
Vatican but has the second highest number of Catholics in Southeast
Asia.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 19, The Vatican said it
had asked Rev. Marcial Maciel, the Mexican founder of the conservative
order Legionaries of Christ (1941), to renounce celebrating public
Masses and live a life of "prayer and repentance" following its
investigation into allegations he sexually abused seminarians.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 25, Poland welcomed Pope
Benedict XVI with cheers and fluttering yellow and white Vatican flags
as the German-born pontiff started a four-day visit aimed at honoring
predecessor John Paul II and healing wounds from World War II.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 28, Pope Benedict XVI
urged some 900,000 Poles at a giant mass to fight growing secularism by
spreading their Christian faith across Europe and the world. He visited
Auschwitz.
(AFP, 5/28/06)(WSJ, 5/30/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 3, British PM Tony Blair
had a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI, at which the two men
focused on the importance of inter-faith dialogue, in particular with
"moderate Islam", in achieving peace.
(AP, 6/3/06)
2006 Jun 6, The Vatican issued a
sweeping condemnation of contraception, abortion, in-vitro
fertilization and same-sex marriage, declaring that the traditional
family has never been so threatened as in today's world.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 30, The Vatican said it
will release from its secret archives years of files on Pope Pius XI,
whose pontificate spanned most of the period between the world wars.
(AP, 6/30/06)
2006 Jul 8, Pope Benedict XVI
stressed family values during a visit to Spain, where church influence
has waned and the government has angered the Vatican with its liberal
take on issues including gay marriage.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Sep 9, Pope Benedict XVI
began a six-day homecoming to his native Bavaria.
(AP, 9/9/06)
2006 Sep 12, Pope Benedict XVI
delivered a speech at Regensburg Univ. that included brusque words
about Islam. He quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor as saying “Show
me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find
things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the
sword the faith he preached.” The speech quickly provoked criticism
from the world’s Muslim communities. The pontiff later said he
regretted that Muslims were offended.
(SFC, 9/15/06, p.A17)(AP, 9/12/07)
2006 Sep 14, Turkey's top Islamic
cleric asked Pope Benedict XVI to take back recent remarks he made
about Islam on Sep 12. He unleashed a string of counteraccusations
against Christianity, raising tensions before the pontiff's November
visit.
(AP, 9/14/06)(SFC, 9/15/06, p.A17)
2006 Sep 16, Leaders across the
Muslim world demanded Pope Benedict XVI apologize for his remarks on
Islam and jihad. The Vatican said Pope Benedict XVI "sincerely"
regretted offending Muslims with his reference to an obscure medieval
text characterizing some of the teachings of Islam's founder as "evil
and inhuman," but the statement stopped short of the apology demanded
by Islamic leaders. Two West Bank Christian churches were hit by
firebombs, and a group claiming responsibility said it was protesting
Pope Benedict XVI's remarks about Islam.
(AP, 9/16/06)(AP, 9/16/07)
2006 Sep 17, Pope Benedict XVI
said that he was "deeply sorry" about the angry reaction to his recent
remarks about Islam, which he said came from a text that didn't reflect
his personal opinion.
(AP, 9/17/06)
2006 Sep 18, The Vatican opened
part of its secret archives to let historians review millions of
diplomatic letters, private correspondence and other church documents
to gain insight into how the Holy See dealt with the growing
persecution of Jews before World War II.
(AP, 9/18/06)
2006 Sep 25, Pope Benedict XVI
told Muslim diplomats that Christians and Muslims must work together to
guard against intolerance and violence as he sought to soothe anger
over his recent remarks about Islam.
(AP, 9/25/06)
2006 Sep 26, The Vatican said it
has excommunicated Zambia’s Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, for defying
the Holy See by installing four married men as bishops. The prelate had
already angered the Vatican by getting married in 2001.
(AP, 9/26/06)
2006 Oct 13, Pope Benedict XVI met
privately with the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, but the
Vatican released no details of the low-key visit that was not even
listed on the pontiff's official calendar.
(AP, 10/13/06)
2006 Oct 15, Pope Benedict XVI
gave Catholics four news saints, bestowing the honor on a 19th-century
nun who struggled on the American frontier, a bishop who tended to the
wounded during the Mexican Revolution and two Italian clergy.
(AP, 10/15/06)
2006 Oct 18, Pope Benedict XVI
received an open letter signed by 38 Muslim personalities from various
countries and of different outlooks, which discussed point by point the
views on Islam expressed by the pope in his Sep 12 Regensburg lecture.
(http://popebenedict16.blogspot.com/)
2006 Nov 16, The Vatican
reaffirmed the value of celibacy for priests after a summit led by Pope
Benedict XVI that was spurred by a married African archbishop who has
been excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.
(AP, 11/16/06)
2006 Nov 26, More than 20,000
Muslims in Istanbul held the biggest protest so far against Pope
Benedict's controversial visit to Turkey this week.
(AP, 11/26/06)
2006 Nov 28, Pope Benedict XVI
began his first visit to a Muslim country with a message of dialogue
and brotherhood between Christians and Muslims in an attempt to ease
anger over his perceived criticism of Islam. In Turkey Benedict urged
all religious leaders to "utterly refuse" to support any violence in
the name of faith.
(AP, 11/28/06)(AP, 11/28/07)
2006 Dec 22, The Roman Catholic
Church denied a religious funeral for Piergiogio Welby, the paralyzed
Italian author who died after a doctor disconnected his respirator,
saying it would treat his public wish to "end his life" as a willful
suicide.
(AP, 12/22/06)
2006 Dec 25, Pope Benedict XVI
used his Christmas Day address to call for a peaceful resolution of
conflicts worldwide and appealed for greater caring of the poor, the
exploited and all who suffer.
(AP, 12/25/07)
2006 Dec 26, The Vatican called on
retired Bishop Fernando Lugo to give up his plans to run for Paraguay's
presidency or face canonical sanctions. Lugo said he had already
resigned from the priesthood to lead a planned opposition alliance and
challenge conservative President Nicanor Duarte of the Colorado Party
in elections scheduled for May 2008.
(AP, 12/26/06)
2007 Jan 11, A US federal judge
ruled that the Vatican can be sued for damages by US victims of
clerical sex abuse.
(WSJ, 1/12/07, p.A1)
2007 Jan 25, Pope Benedict XVI met
with Vietnam's PM Nguyen Tan Dung. Their talks marked an important step
toward establishing diplomatic relations following decades of tension.
(AP, 1/25/07)
2007 Mar 3, Pope Benedict named
Kazimierz Nycz, a bishop with a spotless record, as archbishop of
Warsaw to replace a prelate who resigned in disgrace after admitting he
spied for the communist police.
(Reuters, 3/3/07)
2007 Mar 13, Russian President
Vladimir Putin and Pope Benedict XVI met for the highest-level
Kremlin-Vatican talks in more than three years, focusing on easing
tension between Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians and finding
common ground in denouncing intolerance and extremism.
(AP, 3/13/07)
2007 Mar 28, In France an official
at a Paris maternity hospital said Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre is the
French nun whose testimony of a mystery cure from Parkinson's disease
will likely be accepted as the miracle the Vatican needs to beatify
Pope John Paul II.
(AP, 3/28/07)
2007 Apr 13, Benedict XVI
published “Jesus of Nazareth,” his first book as pope. It criticizes
the "cruelty" of capitalism and colonialism and the power of the
wealthy over the poor.
(AP, 4/13/07)
2007 Apr 20, A Vatican committee
issued a report concluding that unbaptized babies who die may go to
heaven and not be stuck in Limbo, which “reflects an unduly restrictive
view of salvation.”
(SFC, 4/21/07, p.A7)
2007 May 4, Former Iranian
President Mohammad Khatami met with Pope Benedict XVI for talks the
Vatican hoped would help heal tensions left from the pontiff's remarks
on Islam and violence, but the Iranian said the wounds were still very
deep.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 6, Italian news said a
Vatican court for the first time has issued a drug conviction, giving a
former employee of the Holy See a four-month suspended sentence for
cocaine use.
(AP, 5/6/07)
2007 May 9, Pope Benedict XVI
departed for a 5-day visit to Brazil, as evangelical Christians packed
converted storefronts and cavernous churches every Sunday. Benedict
gave his first full-fledged news conference since becoming pontiff in
2005. When a reporter pressed Benedict on whether he agreed that
Catholic politicians who recently legalized abortion in Mexico City
should rightfully be considered excommunicated, the response was "Yes."
(AP, 5/9/07)(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 10, In Brazil Pope
Benedict XVI reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's opposition to
abortion in his first speech but avoided further suggestion that
politicians who support abortion rights should be considered
excommunicated.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 11, In Sao Paulo Pope
Benedict XVI canonized Antonio de Sant'Anna Galvao (d.1822), an
18th-century Franciscan monk, as Brazil's first native-born saint.
Friar Galvao began a tradition among Brazilian Catholics of handing out
tiny rice-paper pills, inscribed with a Latin prayer, to people seeking
cures for all manner of ailments.
(AP, 5/11/07)
2007 May 13, Pope Benedict XVI
held an inaugural mass for the 5th conference of bishops from Latin
America and the Caribbean. This brought together 166 bishops to discuss
the church's situation in the region, home to nearly half of the
world's 1.1 billion Catholics.
(Econ, 5/5/07, p.47)(AFP, 5/13/07)
2007 May 14, Pope Benedict XVI
returned to Rome after telling Brazilians a growing rich-poor gap is to
be lamented, but that the solution isn’t Marxism.
(WSJ, 5/15/07, p.A1)
2007 Jun 3, Pope Benedict XVI
named four new saints from France, Malta, the Netherlands and Poland at
a ceremony in St. Peter's Square. Among those honored was Sister Marie
Eugenie de Jesus Milleret, a French nun who in 1839 founded the
Religious of the Assumption to educate young girls; the Rev. George
Preca of Malta, who founded the Society of Christian Doctrine in 1932
as a group of lay people who teach the faith to others; the Rev. Szymon
z Lipnicy of Poland, a Franciscan monk who comforted Poles afflicted by
the plague that broke out in Krakow from 1482-83 and died of it
himself; and the Rev. Charles of St. Andrew (Dublin), who was born
Karel Van Sint Andries Houben in the Netherlands in 1821.
(AP, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 5, A Vatican engineer
said some Holy See buildings will start using solar energy, reflecting
Pope Benedict XVI's concern about conserving the Earth's resources.
(AP, 6/6/07)
2007 Jun 9, President Bush and
Pope Benedict XVI discussed the pontiff's deep worries that Christians
in Iraq would not be embraced by the Muslim majority. Bush, denounced
by anti-American protesters on the streets of Rome, defended his
humanitarian record as he met with the Pope. Bush met with PM Prodi for
the first time several hours after seeing the pope.
(AP, 6/9/07)(AP, 6/9/08)
2007 Jun 19, The Vatican issued a
set of "Ten Commandments" for drivers, telling motorists not to kill,
not to drink and drive, and to help fellow travelers in case of
accidents.
(AP, 6/19/07)
2007 Jun 23, Britain’s PM Tony
Blair held long talks with Pope Benedict XVI, with the Vatican stop on
his farewell tour fueling rumors that he plans to convert to
Catholicism.
(AP, 6/23/07)
2007 Jun 28, The Vatican said Pope
Benedict XVI has approved a document that relaxes restrictions on
celebrating the Latin Mass used by the Roman Catholic Church for
centuries until the modernizing reforms of the 1960s.
(AP, 6/28/07)
2007 Jul 7, Pope Benedict XVI
removed restrictions on celebrating the old form of the Latin Mass in a
concession to traditional Catholics, but he stressed that he was in no
way rolling back the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 10, Pope Benedict XVI has
reasserted the universal primacy of the Roman Catholic Church,
approving a document that says Orthodox churches were defective and
that other Christian denominations were not true churches.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Aug 27, Opera Romana
Pellegrinaggi, a Vatican-backed charter airline service, made its
inaugural flight, aiming to carry pilgrims to such Catholic shrines as
Lourdes, Fatima, Santiago de Compostela and the Holy Land.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Sep 6, Pope Benedict XVI met
with Israeli President Shimon Peres, as the elder statesman and Nobel
Peace Prize laureate continued his visit to Italy amid an international
push for peace in the Middle East.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 7, Pope Benedict XVI paid
tribute to Holocaust victims, extending his "sadness, repentance and
friendship" to the Jewish people as he began a 3-day pilgrimage to
Austria.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 8, In Austria Pope
Benedict XVI blasted Europeans for being selfish and not having enough
children, in a sermon at the 850-year-old pilgrimage site of Mariazell.
(AP, 9/8/07)
2007 Oct 11, Pope Benedict XVI
appealed to South Koreans' "inherent moral sensibility" to reject
embryonic stem cell research and human cloning after the country
decided to let embryonic stem cell research resume.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 17,
Pope Benedict XVI named 23 new cardinals, tapping two Americans,
the patriarch of Baghdad, and archbishops from five continents to join
the elite ranks of the "princes" of the Roman Catholic Church.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 28, The Vatican staged
its largest mass beatification ceremony ever, putting 498 victims
(1934-1937) of religious persecution before and during Spain's civil
war on the path to possible sainthood.
(AP, 10/28/07)
2007 Nov 6, In the Vatican
Benedict XVI raised concerns about restrictions on Christian worship in
Saudi Arabia in the first meeting ever between a pope and a reigning
Saudi king.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 24, Pope Benedict XVI
elevated 23 churchmen from around the world to the top ranks of the
Catholic Church hierarchy, telling them they must be willing to shed
their blood to spread the Christian faith.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2008 Mar 10, A top Vatican
official listed drugs, pollution, genetic manipulation and social and
economic injustice as new sins.
(AP, 3/11/08)(WSJ, 3/11/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 22, Magdi Allam (55),
Italy's most prominent Muslim, converted to Catholicism in a baptism by
the pope at a Vatican Easter service. The iconoclastic writer has
condemned Islamic extremism and defended Israel.
(AP, 3/22/08)
2008 Mar 30, The Vatican said
Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism in number of adherents. It
recently put the Roman Catholic number at 1.13 billion. Others
estimated Muslims to number around 1.3 billion.
(WSJ, 3/31/08, p.A8)
2008 Apr 15, Pope Benedict arrived
at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland and was met by President Bush and
Catholic dignitaries. Benedict turned 81 the next day.
(AP, 4/16/08)(SFC, 4/16/08, p.A2)
2008 Apr 19,
In NYC Pope Benedict XVI preached in St. Patrick's cathedral,
assuring priests and nuns that he was close to them as they battled the
damage left by the clergy sex scandal.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19, Alfonso Lopez
Trujillo (b.1935), Vatican enforcer and former archbishop of Medellin,
died. In 1995, as head of the Pontifical council for the Family, he
published a “Lexicon of Ambiguous and Debatable Terms.”
(Econ, 5/3/08,
p.93)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfonso_L%C3%B3pez_Trujillo)
2008 Apr 20, Pope Benedict XVI
held a Mass at Yankee Stadium on his last day in the US.
(WSJ, 4/21/08, p.A1)
2008 Jun 27, Archbishop Raymond
Burke of St. Louis, a church law expert known for his tough stance that
politicians who support abortion rights be denied Holy Communion, was
named to head the Vatican's supreme court.
(AP, 6/28/08)
2008 Jul 12, Pope Benedict XVI
left Rome on a flight to Australia for a 10-day pilgrimage. The Pope
said he will use his visit to Australia to apologize for sexual abuse
by priests and to examine how the Church can "prevent, heal and
reconcile".
(AFP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 13, Pope Benedict XVI
arrived in Sydney, after a stop in Darwin, for one of the largest
Christian gatherings on Earth, starting a visit set to be marked by his
apology for sexual abuse by priests in Australia.
(AFP, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 17, In Sidney, Australia,
Pope Benedict XVI delivered a stinging attack on pop culture,
consumerism and "false idols" to 150,000 mainly teenaged Catholic
pilgrims gathered for World Youth Day.
(AFP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 18, In Australia Pope
Benedict XVI warned Christian leaders that the push to unite Christian
churches was at a "critical juncture" and called on people of all
religions to join together against violence.
(AFP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 19, In Sidney, Australia,
Pope Benedict apologized directly for the first time for sexual abuse
of minors by Catholic clergy, but victims groups said they wanted
action and not words.
(Reuters, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 20, In Australia Pope
Benedict XVI said a "spiritual desert" was spreading throughout the
world and he challenged young people to shed the greed and cynicism of
their time to create a new age of hope for humankind.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 21, In Sidney Pope
Benedict XVI met privately with Australians who were sexually abused as
children by priests, ending a pilgrimage to the country with a gesture
of contrition and concern over a scandal that has rocked the Roman
Catholic church.
(AP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 30, The papal nuncio said
Paraguay's president-elect Fernando Lugo (57) has received
unprecedented permission from the pope to resign as bishop, ending a
dispute over his priestly status.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Sep 12, Pope Benedict XVI
urged France to take Christianity into account despite its secular
tradition, saying on his first visit there as pontiff that church and
state should be open to each other.
(AP, 9/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, Pope Benedict XVI
gave the Roman Catholic church four new saints, including an Indian
woman whose canonization is seen as a morale boost to Christians in
India who have suffered Hindu violence. They included Sister Alphonsa
(1910-1946) of the Immaculate Conception, a nun from southern India and
India’s first woman saint; Gaetano Errico (1791-1860), a Neapolitan
priest who founded a missionary order in the 19th century; Sister Maria
Bernarda, born as Verena Buetler (1848-1924) in Switzerland, who worked
as a nun in Ecuador and Colombia; and Narcisa de Jesus Martillo Moran
(1832-1869), a 19th century laywoman from Ecuador who helped the sick
and the poor.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Nov 4, In a bid to improve
strained Catholic-Muslim relations, the Vatican hosted scholars, imans
and clerics from both religions as it opened a three-day religious
conference.
(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Dec 12, The Vatican raised
its opposition to embryonic stem cell research, the morning-after pill,
in vitro fertilization and human cloning to a new level in a major new
document on bioethics.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2008 Dec 31, The Vatican announced
that it will no longer automatically adopt new Italian laws as its own,
citing the vast number of laws Italy churns out, many of which are in
odds with Catholic doctrine.
(AP, 12/31/08)
2009 Jan 5, The Vatican said that
Bishop Allen H. Vigneron will replace Cardinal Adam Joseph Maida at the
head of the Detroit archdiocese. The pope also named the auxiliary
bishop of Halifax, Claude Champagne, as the new bishop of Edmundston in
Canada. Benedict appointed the Rev. Cirilo Flores as new auxiliary
bishop of Orange, California.
(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 24, Pope Benedict
rehabilitated four traditionalist bishops who lead the far-right
Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), which has about 600,000 members and
rejects modernizations of Roman Catholic worship and doctrine. One of
the four, British-born Richard Williamson, has made statements denying
the full extent of the Nazi Holocaust of European Jews, as accepted by
mainstream historians.
(Reuters, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 28, Israel’s chief
rabbinate cut ties with the Vatican to protest the reinstatement of
English-born Bishop Richard Williamson (b.1940), who has continued to
deny the Holocaust. Williamson was excommunicated by the Roman Catholic
Church in 1988 because of his unauthorized consecration by French
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, deemed by the Holy See to be "unlawful" and
"a schismatic act."
(WSJ, 1/29/09,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Williamson_(bishop))
2009 Jan 31, The Vatican announced
that the Pope has tapped the Rev. Gerhard Maria Wagner (54) to be
auxiliary bishop in Linz, the capital of Upper Austria province. Wagner
caused a stir in 2005 when he was quoted as saying that he was
convinced that the death and destruction of Hurricane Katrina earlier
that year was "divine retribution" for tolerance of homosexuals and
laid-back sexual attitudes in New Orleans.
(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Feb 4, The Vatican demanded
that Bishop Richard Williamson recant his positions on the Holocaust
before being admitted as a bishop into the Roman Catholic Church.
(WSJ, 2/5/09, p.A8)
2009 Mar 16, The Vatican said it
will launch a Chinese version of its website on March 19 in an effort
to bring more of Pope Benedict's message to China, whose communist
government does not allow Catholics to recognize his authority.
(Reuters, 3/16/09)
2009 Mar 17, Pope Benedict XVI
arrived in Cameroon to start his first visit to Africa as pontiff.
Benedict, arriving in Africa, said that condoms "increase the problem"
of AIDS. The comment, made to reporters aboard his plane, caused a
worldwide firestorm of criticism.
(Reuters, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 20, Tens of thousands of
Angolans welcomed Pope Benedict XVI. He urged Angolans to continue on
the path of reconciliation after nearly three decades of civil war,
saying dialogue could overcome all conflict and tension.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 21, In Angola Pope
Benedict XVI appealed to the Catholics of Angola to reach out to and
convert believers in witchcraft who feel threatened by "spirits" and
"evil powers" of sorcery. Two people were killed in a deadly stampede
that broke out at Luanda stadium a few hours before Pope Benedict XVI
addressed young people.
(AP, 3/21/09)
2009 Mar 23, The Vatican said Pope
Benedict XVI has named Monsignor Salvatore Joseph Cordileone, a San
Diego clergyman, to be bishop of Oakland, California.
(AP, 3/23/09)
2009 Apr 17, The Vatican said it
will spend $660 million to build the biggest solar plant in Europe on
740 acres of pasture land it owns north of Rome.
(SFC, 4/18/09, p.C1)
2009 Apr 26, Pope Benedict XVI
named five new saints, including Portugal's 14th century independence
leader and an Italian priest who ministered to factory workers at the
dawn of the industrial era.
(AP, 4/26/09)
2009 Apr 27, Belarus'
authoritarian Pres. Lukashenko met with Pope Benedict XVI on his first
trip to Western Europe since the European Union lifted a travel ban
imposed in 1999 over his dismal human rights record. The EU lifted the
ban to allow Lukashenko to attend an East-West summit in Prague, Czech
Republic, in May.
(www.contracostatimes.com/nationandworld/ci_12237339)
2009 May 8, Pope Benedict XVI
arrived in Jordan and expressed deep respect for Islam. He said he
hopes the Catholic Church can play a role in Mideast peace as he began
his first trip to the region, where he hopes to improve frayed ties
with Muslims.
(AP, 5/8/09)
2009 May 10, In Jordan Pope
Benedict XVI urged Middle East Christians to persevere in their faith
despite hardships threatening their ancient communities, addressing a
crowd of 20,000 who filled a sports stadium where he celebrated the
first open-air Mass of his pilgrimage.
(AP, 5/10/09)
2009 May 11, Pope Benedict XVI
confronted the dark history of his native Germany on the first day of
his visit to Israel, shaking the hands of six Holocaust survivors and
saying victims of the genocide "lost their lives but they will never
lose their names." He also called for the establishment of an
independent Palestinian homeland, a stance that could put him at odds
with his hosts on a trip aimed at improving ties between the Vatican
and Jews.
(AP, 5/11/09)
2009 May 13, Standing in
Bethlehem, Pope Benedict XVI told Palestinians he understands their
suffering and offered the Vatican's strongest and most symbolic public
backing yet for an independent Palestinian homeland.
(AP, 5/13/09)
2009 May 14, Pope Benedict XVI
greeted tens of thousands of adoring followers in Nazareth with a
message of reconciliation, urging Christians and Muslims to overcome
recent strife and "reject the destructive power of hatred and
prejudice."
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 15, In Israel Pope
Benedict XVI ended his pilgrimage to the Holy Land with his strongest
call yet for the creation of a Palestinian state and telling the
faithful at the site of Jesus' crucifixion that peace is possible.
(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 Jun 29, Pope Benedict XVI
signed his latest encyclical, "Charity in Truth," a text on ways to
make globalization more attentive to meeting the needs of the poor amid
the worldwide financial crisis.
(AP, 6/29/09)
2009 Jul 6, Vatican Radio began
airing advertisements for the first time in its 80-year history.
Vatican debt last year was pegged at $22 Million.
(SFC, 7/27/09, p.D3)
2009 Jul 7, Pope Benedict XVI
called for a radical rethinking of global economy in “Caritas et
Verite” (Charity in Truth) his 3rd encyclical.
(SFC, 7/8/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 10, At the Vatican Pope
Benedict XVI stressed the church's opposition to abortion and stem cell
research in his first meeting with President Barack Obama.
(AP, 7/10/09)
2009 Jul 30, Italy approved the
use of the abortion drug RU-486, drawing fierce protests by the
Vatican. The Italian Drug Agency ruled that the drug cannot be sold in
drug stores but can only be administered by doctors in a hospital.
(AP, 7/31/09)
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