CARDINAL KROL, KEY CHURCH FIGURE.Byline: Peter Steinfels Peter F. Steinfels (born in 1941) is an American journalist and educator best known for his writings on religious topics. A native of Chicago, Illinois, and a lifelong Catholic, Steinfels earned his PhD from Columbia University and joined the staff of the journal The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times Cardinal John Krol, who headed the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Philadelphia The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia covers the City and County of Philadelphia as well as Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. for 27 years and was a pivotal figure in the American church, died early Sunday at his home in Philadelphia. He was 85. He was hospitalized Feb. 14 for fluid in his lungs attributed to diabetes-related kidney problems. Doctors sent him home Saturday, saying he was unlikely to recover. The cardinal, who retired as archbishop in 1988, was an outspoken defender of traditional theology, hierarchical authority and strict church discipline. He combined those conservative views with managerial skill, becoming a prominent figure in American Catholicism in the two decades after the Second Vatican Council Noun 1. Second Vatican Council - the Vatican Council in 1962-1965 that abandoned the universal Latin liturgy and acknowledged ecumenism and made other reforms Vatican II Vatican Council - each of two councils of the Roman Catholic Church , which revised many Catholic practices. Appointed archbishop of Philadelphia by Pope John XXIII See also: 15th-century Antipope John XXIII. Pope John XXIII (Latin: Ioannes PP. XXIII; Italian: Giovanni XXIII), born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli in February 1961, he stood out among American prelates at the Council, held from 1962 to 1965. He served as a permanent undersecretary and a member of the central coordinating committee during the Council. But the Philadelphian, whom Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI (Latin: Paulus PP. VI; Italian: Paolo VI), born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini (September 26, 1897 – August 6, 1978), reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 1963 to 1978. elevated to cardinal in June 1967, soon joined those alarmed by the pressures for change that Vatican II produced. In the years after the historic meeting, Krol chastised chas·tise tr.v. chas·tised, chas·tis·ing, chas·tis·es 1. To punish, as by beating. See Synonyms at punish. 2. To criticize severely; rebuke. 3. Archaic To purify. Catholics who questioned church authority. He spoke harshly of priests who left the priesthood. He referred to the church's condemnation of contraception, reaffirmed by Pope Paul VI in 1968, as "divine law." He also opposed many of the small accommodations or options in church discipline that gained favor after Vatican II: looser regulations governing marriages between Catholics and non-Catholics, the reception of Communion in the hand and attending Mass on Saturday evening instead of Sunday. Krol's conservatism did not keep him from voicing strong criticism of the nuclear arms race The nuclear arms race was a competition for supremacy in nuclear weapons between the United States and Soviet Union and their respective allies during the Cold War. During the Cold War, in addition to the American and Soviet nuclear stockpiles, other countries also developed . In 1979, his Congressional testimony backing talks on limiting strategic arms foreshadowed an appeal in a pastoral letter by American bishops for nuclear disarmament in 1983. Indeed, at the high tide of the nuclear freeze movement in 1982, Krol told 15,000 demonstrators at a Philadelphia rally that it was time for governments "to dismantle existing nuclear weapons." He later acknowledged that his belief in gradual and reciprocal disarmament, with strong safeguards against cheating, was probably not shared by all the demonstrators. CAPTION(S): PHOTO Cardinal John Krol Defended traditional theology |
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