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| | The Word From Rome March 31, 2006 |
 | | After John Paul II, he was the most visible figure in Roman Catholicism over the last quarter-century, a man associated with all of the most important controversies in the church over that stretch of time -- liberation theology, the limits of dissent, battles over what theological sense to make of other religions, and so on. |
 | | Second, a key to understanding the mind of Benedict XVI is to realize that he makes a sharp distinction between what he considers matters of faith and morals, about which he is tenacious, and "judgment calls" in specific circumstances where there is no clear answer in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. |
 | | John Paul, who met with Muslims more than 60 times over the course of his papacy, and who during a 2001 trip to Damascus became the first pope to enter a mosque, believed in reaching out to Islamic moderates and avoiding confrontational talk. |
| www.nationalcatholicreporter.org /word/word033106.htm (3977 words) |
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