Pope Benedict XVI sent a clear message at the weekend that he intends to stick rigidly to the "pro-life" stance of his predecessor.
The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said he, like John Paul II, would defend "the inviolability of human life from conception to natural death."
He said it was the duty of the pontiff to ensure "obedience to the word of God" and resist "all efforts at adaptation or dilution as well as any opportunism."
In an unmistakable reference to Catholic teaching on abortion and euthanasia, the Pope said: "The freedom to kill is not a true freedom, but a tyranny that reduces human beings to slavery."
Pope Benedict XVI made his remarks during the last of the ceremonies held for an incoming pontiff, in which he was enthroned as bishop of Rome.
Speaking from a marble and mosaic throne in St. John Lateran, the oldest of Rome's four great basilicas, he said: "The Pope is not an absolute sovereign, whose thoughts and wishes are law. On the contrary, the ministry of the Pope is to be the guarantor of obedience to Christ and His word."
Catholic institutions are already positioning themselves for what is expected to be an ultra-hardline papacy.
It was learned on the weekend that a prominent Jesuit journalist who had called for more open debate in the church had left his job.
Father Thomas Reese, editor of the liberal weekly America announced his unexpected departure in a statement that made no comment on the reasons for the change.
Several sources said, however, that he had stepped down because of pressure exerted on his superiors by the Vatican department which had previously been headed by the Pope, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The Italian daily, Corriere della Sera, quoted the Jesuits' spokesman, Father Jose de Vera yesterday as saying that the then Cardinal Ratzinger had personally protested to the head of the order over articles in America.
The weekly scandalized many in the Vatican by publishing, alongside articles by orthodox Catholic writers, others which challenged church doctrine on controversial issues such as same-sex marriage and the point at which human life begins.
In an editorial published before the election Father Reese noted that over the previous 20 years more than 100 theologians were reckoned to have been silenced or disciplined by the then Joseph Ratzinger's department.
In a comment which may have sealed his fate, the 60-year-old Jesuit said: "A church that cannot openly discuss issues is a church retreating into an intellectual ghetto."
However, the new Pope continues to insist that he will reach out across divisions of opinion to other Christians.
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