Just a year ago this month, the Dutch Pastoral Council of the Roman Catholic Church voted for a policy statement against compulsory celibacy. During the debates preceding that vote (TIME, Jan. 19, 1970), one of the few voices arguing to preserve the old celibacy rule was a young-looking parish priest from The Hague, Msgr. Adrianus J. Simonis, now 39. "Simonis?" said a leading Dutch progressive priest at the time. "An unimportant voice." Soon, by a decree of Pope Paul VI, that "unimportant voice" will speak as bishop of some 1,000,000 Roman Catholics in...
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