Dude, that's why you are the one Dominican I like to read here. Pray tell, please. My curiosity has been piqued. PM maybe?
And I bet it is better than the DVC, as this visit actually happened.
What does this have to do with the environment? maybe the religious environment...
Actually, I exagerated a bit, but the skinny is nevertheless true, because I was very close to some of the main players at the time.
In a nut shell...
At the time of His Holiness visit, the DR Catholic church was being racked by desertions, as more and more local priests disregarded their celibacy vows, and married. When the married priest were finally defrocked, they organized themselves into the Dominican Orthodox Church and kept on administering the sacraments to the populace, who could not tell the Catholic bona fides from the defrocked. During his visit, the Pope met with representatives of the defrocked priests, and convinced them to desist in creating a parallel Church, and join the Orthodox Church, for which they would receive several churches, including one of the old colonial churches in Santo Domingo, in addition to other benefits, such as monthly stipends. In order to sabotage the new Dominican Church, the Pope obtained the colaboration of His Beatitude, the Patriarch of Antioch, who appointed a Vicar to head the Dominican branch of the Antioch Orthodox Church, which the defrocked priests would be joining. In the end, none of the promises were kept, and most of the leaders of the new Dominican church left the country in frustration.
