(单词翻译:单击)
The Vatican’s opposition to modernity had given Catholics a common adversary to unite against, and had suppressed the Church’s internal disagreements.
梵蒂冈反对现代化给了天主教徒一个可以联合起来对付的对手，这也压制了教会内部的分歧。
Vatican II brought these out into the open.
第二次梵蒂冈大公会议把这些公之于众。
Since then, an institution long defined by what it was against has had to ask itself: What is the Church for—what vision of life does it strive to fulfill?
从那时起，一个长期以来由它反对之物（现代化）定义的机构不得不自问:教会为了什么，教会要努力实现什么样的生活愿景?
The challenge of offering answers has fallen, at least publicly and rhetorically, to the popes, who have used the papacy to promote distinct programs for engagement with the world.
最起码在公开措辞上，提供答案的挑战落在了教皇身上，他们利用教皇身份推动与世界接触的独特规划。
John Paul II affirmed that the Church stands for “a culture of life” against a “culture of death”—taking an approach to human flourishing grounded in a fixed view of gender roles, marriage, and procreation.
若望·保禄二世宣称，教会支持“生的文化”，反对“死的文化”——采取一种以性别角色、婚姻和生育的固定观点为基础的人类繁荣的方法。
Benedict XVI saw the Church as the source of objective truth, opposing a “dictatorship of relativism.”
本笃十六世视教会为客观真理的来源，反对“相对主义独裁”。
Francis proposes that the Church foster “a culture of encounter,” in which people of faith thrive through face-to-face dealings with others of different backgrounds and outlooks, forging a solidarity stronger than nation, class, or ideology.
教皇方济各建议教会培养一种“相遇文化”。在这种文化中，有信仰的人通过与不同背景和观点的人面对面交流而茁壮成长，形成一种比国家、阶级或意识形态更强大的团结组织。
Vatican II invited Catholics to do openly what they’d tried to do surreptitiously all through the modern age—adapt the Church’s practices to local circumstances where possible—and those papal programs (unfamiliar to most Catholics) have been meant to guide the bishops as they seek to influence civil society in their home countries.
梵蒂冈第二次大公会议邀请天主教徒公开实施他们在现代社会的秘密行为——尽可能地使教会的做法与当地的情况相适应——而那些教皇的项目(大多数天主教徒不熟悉)旨在对那些寻求影响本国公民社会的主教们进行指导。
Unsurprisingly, consistency has not been the rule since 1965 any more than it was after 1789.
不足为奇的是，相较于1789年之后，保持一致在1965年之后就不再是规则了。
Sometimes the tensions involve geopolitics: John Paul championed a people’s movement against oppressive state power in Poland while opposing people’s movements against oppressive state power in Central America.
有时这种紧张关系会涉及地缘政治: 若望·保禄二世支持波兰反对压迫性国家政权的人民运动，然而却不支持中美洲反抗压迫性国家政权的人民运动。
Sometimes they arise from a split between doctrine and practice: Although women now run the offices in many U.S. parishes, the sacramental theology barring women from the priesthood still prevails in Rome.
有时，还会出现教义与实践的分裂: 虽然美国现在许多教区的神职人员都是女性，但禁止女性担任神职的圣礼神学仍然盛行于罗马。
And sometimes a shift in tactics is at work, as when hard-right American Catholics switched from decrying the “activist Court” that ruled in Roe v. Wade to helping form an “activist Court” rooted in traditionalist Catholic principles.
有时，策略的转变也在奏效，比如美国极右派天主教徒从谴责对“罗诉韦德案”作出裁决的“激进法院”，转向帮助成立一个根源于传统天主教原则的“激进法院”。
