Wearing white chasubles, a grand assemblage of Roman Catholic bishops will file through St. Peter's Square and into the basilica next Sunday to con-celebrate a Mass with Pope John Paul II. The stately ritual will mark the beginning of a two-week world synod of bishops, summoned by the Pope to commemorate and evaluate the results of the Second Vatican Council, which concluded 20 years ago.
With the exception of the 1978 conclaves that elected Pope John Paul II and his short-lived predecessor, John Paul I, no meeting in Rome since Vatican II has provoked as much advance speculation as this synod....