'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Fifty years ago Thursday, the fourth child from a family of Italian sharecroppers convened a epochal meeting of Roman Catholic Church leaders designed to "open the windows" of the nearly 2,000-year-old institution and let some of the modern world's "fresh air" inside.
He called on bishops assembled in Rome for a synod on the subject to ponder today's challenges, including what he said was a "crisis" in the institution of marriage.
"The [Vatican II] Council that was declared to open the windows is now being reinterpreted as closed shutters, protecting the church from the gale-force winds of a world searching for spiritual authenticity," John C. Sivalon, the former superior general of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, wrote in a recent commentary critical of the campaign against the nuns.
