title: Nurse practitioner

text: Becoming a nurse practitioner in the United States requires either a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) or Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). During their studies, nurse practitioners are required to receive a minimum of 500 hours of clinical training in addition to the clinical hours required to obtain their RN. Upon completion of the graduate program, they must pass the National NP Certification Board Exam, specific to their specialization. After passing this exam, candidates must apply for NP licensure which varies by state regulations.


title: Nurse practitioner

text: Although nurse practitioners are required to be licensed as registered nurses prior to obtaining their advanced practice registered nurse certification, there are several programs that combine a nursing undergraduate degree with nurse practitioner training. Other nurse practitioner programs have 100% acceptance rates.


title: Nurse practitioner

text: There are many types of nurse practitioner programs in the United States with the vast majority being in the specialty of a family nurse practitioner (FNP). There are also psychiatric, adult geriatric acute care, adult geriatric primary care, pediatric, cardiac, women's health, oncology and neonatal nurse practitioner programs. Many of these programs have their pre-clinical or didactic courses taught online with proctored examinations. Once the students start their clinical courses they have online material, but are required to perform clinical hours at an approved facility under the guidance of an NP or physician. Each clinical course has specific requirements that vary on their program's degree/eligibility for certification. For instance FNPs are required to see patients across the lifespan whereas Adult Geriatric NPs do not see anyone below the age of 13.


title: Nurse practitioner

text: A review of studies comparing outcomes of care by NPs and physicians in primary care and urgent care settings were generally comparable, although the strength of the evidence was generally low due to limited study duration and participant numbers. A recent study showed nurse practitioners practicing in states with independent prescription authority were more than twenty times more likely to overprescribe opioids than nurse practitioners in prescription-restricted states, the same study identified that both nurse practitioners and Physician Associates were more likely to over-prescribe opioids compared to physicians. Nurse practitioners and physician assistants were also associated with more unnecessary imaging services than primary care physicians, which may have ramifications on care and overall costs.


title: Nurse practitioner

text: One systematic review suggests "that the implementation of advanced practice nursing roles in the emergency and critical care settings improves patient outcomes in emergency and critical care settings".


title: Nurse practitioner

text: Nurse practitioners are currently employed in a wide variety of practice settings. These settings include the ambulatory, inpatient, or emergency room of hospitals, health clinics, and office practices whether private or nurse-run. In addition, they serve in schools and college campuses delivering care as well as nursing homes and assisted living facilities. NPs can work alone or under the supervision of a physician in a wide variety of specializations.


title: Nurse practitioner

text: In Australia, a nurse practitioner-endorsed registered nurse has an expanded scope of practice, allowing them to practice certain advanced clinical skills within their endorsed field. As a nurse practitioner, they can complete advanced health assessments, diagnose and treat diseases, order diagnostic testing such as imaging and pathology, and prescribe medications and therapeutics. They are also able to register for a provider number with Medicare for the services they provide to patients, excluding services provided in public facilities (such as a Queensland Health hospital).


title: Nurse practitioner

text: Nurse practitioner items on the Medicare Benefits Schedule, however, provide significantly smaller rebates than equivalent items for General Practitioners, leading to a higher out-of-pocket cost to patients. To claim Medicare rebates, the NP must also be in a documented "Collaborative Practice Arrangement" with a medical practitioner and the episode of care approved by a doctor. Prescriptions issued by NPs must also be verified by a medical practitioner to be eligible to be subsidised under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.


title: Nurse practitioner

text: In Canada, an NP is a registered nurse (RN) with a graduate degree in nursing. Canada recognizes them in primary care and acute care practice. NPs diagnose illnesses and medical conditions, prescribe Schedule 1 medications, order and interpret diagnostic tests, and perform procedures, within their scope of practice, and may build their own panel of patients at the same level as physicians. Primary care NPs work in places like primary care and community healthcare centers, as well as long-term care institutions. The main focus of primary care NPs includes health promotion, preventative care, diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic diseases and conditions. Acute care NPs serve a specific population of patients. They generally work in in-patient facilities that include neonatology, nephrology, and cardiology units. There are currently three specialties for nurse practitioners in Canada: family practice, pediatrics, and adult care. NPs who specialize in family practice work at the same level and offer the same services as family physicians with the exclusion of Quebec, where only physicians are allowed to formulate a medical diagnosis.


title: Nurse practitioner

text: Ireland's publicly funded healthcare system, the Health Service Executive has the advanced nurse practitioner (ANP) grade. ANPs may prescribe medications.


title: Nurse practitioner

text: In the United Kingdom nurse practitioners carry out care at an advanced practice level. They commonly work in primary care (e.g. GP surgeries) or A&E departments, although they are increasingly being seen in other areas of practice.


title: Nurse practitioner

text: Because the profession is state-regulated, the scope of practice varies by state. Some states allow NPs to have full practice authority, however, in other states, a written collaborative or supervisory agreement with a physician is legally required for practice. Autonomous practice was introduced in the 1980s, mostly in states facing a physician shortage or that struggled to find enough healthcare providers to work in rural areas. The extent of this collaborative agreement, and the role, duties, responsibilities, nursing treatments, and pharmacologic recommendations again varies widely between states.


title: Nurse practitioner

text: NPs can legally examine patients, diagnose illness, prescribe some medications, and provide treatments. As of 2022, twenty-six states granted full practice authority to NPs and do not require the supervision or collaboration with a physician. Twenty-four states require NPs to have a written agreement with a physician in order to provide care. Eleven of those states require NPs to be supervised or delegated by a physician; this physician may not be on site.


title: Nurse practitioner

text: In Australia, nursing registration including endorsement of a RN as a nurse practitioner is overseen by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). Registered nurses working in rural and isolated communities can apply for scheduled medicine prescriber endorsement if clinically necessary and trained, and instead become a prescribing registered nurse rather than a nurse practitioner to better meet the need of less-resourced communities. Nurse practitioners are professionally represented by the Australian College of Nurse Practitioners, as well as the Australian College of Nursing. Endorsement as a nurse practitioner in either Australia or New Zealand is recognised by both countries as part of the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Scheme.


title: Nurse practitioner

text: For a RN to apply to the NMBA for nurse practitioner endorsement, they must be able to demonstrate they have completed at least 5000 hours (three years, full-time equivalent) at an "advanced nursing practice" level. Advanced nursing practice is loosely defined, and not a specific role, but rather a recognised process of higher-level clinical practice within a nurse's existing scope of practice. The RN must also complete an approved nurse practitioner postgraduate master's degree, or demonstrate they have gained qualifications to an equivalent level in advanced health assessment, pharmacology, therapeutics, diagnostics, and research. Nurses applying through the latter pathway must also demonstrate the equivalent training is clinically relevant to the field for which they wish to apply for nurse practitioner endorsement in.


title: Nurse practitioner

text: In Canada, the educational standard is a graduate degree in nursing. The Canadian Nursing Association (CNA) notes that advanced practice nurses must have a combination of a graduate level education and the clinical experience that prepare them to practice at an advanced level. Their education alone does not give them the ability to practice at an advanced level. Two national frameworks have been developed in order to provide further guidance for the development of educational courses and requirements, research concepts, and government position statements regarding advanced practice nursing: the CNA's "Advanced Nursing Practice: A National Framework" and the "Canadian Nurse Practitioner Core Competency Framework." All educational programs for NPs must achieve formal approval by provincial and territorial regulating nurse agencies due to the fact that the NP is considered a legislated role in Canada. As such, it is common to see differences among approved educational programs between territories and provinces. Specifically, inconsistencies can be found in core graduate courses, clinical experiences, and length of programs. Canada does not have a national curriculum or consistent standards regarding advanced practice nurses. All advanced practice nurses must meet individual requirements set by their provincial or territorial regulatory nursing body.


title: Nurse practitioner

text: The most common path to becoming a nurse practitioner in the United States begins by earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and passing the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) to become an RN. One must then be accepted into and complete a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) or Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) (most of which require at least 1-2 years of RN experience) to gain additional medical training in their specialty area. Finally, one must pass a national NP board certification exam.


title: Nurse practitioner

text: The salary of an NP generally depends on the area of specialization, location, years of experience, and level of education. In 2015, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) conducted its fourth annual NP salary survey. The results revealed the salary range to be between $98,760 to $108,643 reported income among full-time NPs. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, NPs in the top 10% earned an average salary of $135,800. The median salary was $98,190. According to a report published by Merritt Hawkins, starting salaries for NPs increased in dramatic fashion between 2015 and 2016. The highest average starting salary reached $197,000 in 2016. The primary factor in the dramatic increase in starting salaries is skyrocketing demand for NPs, recognizing them as the fifth most highly sought after advanced health professional in 2016.


title: Nurse practitioner

text: The pandemic expanded the scope of practice for nurse practitioners in some countries as a result of temporary legislative policy adjustments. In the US, the Trump administration waived many requirements for nurse practitioners, permitting NPs to utilize their abilities to the fullest extent in some cases.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The Counter-Reformation (), also called the Catholic Reformation () or the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. It began with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) and largely ended with the conclusion of the European wars of religion in 1648. Initiated to address the effects of the Protestant Reformation, the Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort composed of apologetic and polemical documents and ecclesiastical configuration as decreed by the Council of Trent. The last of these included the efforts of Imperial Diets of the Holy Roman Empire, heresy trials and the Inquisition, anti-corruption efforts, spiritual movements, and the founding of new religious orders. Such policies had long-lasting effects in European history with exiles of Protestants continuing until the 1781 Patent of Toleration, although smaller expulsions took place in the 19th century.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: Such reforms included the foundation of seminaries for the proper training of priests in the spiritual life and the theological traditions of the Church, the reform of religious life by returning orders to their spiritual foundations, and new spiritual movements focusing on the devotional life and a personal relationship with Christ, including the Spanish mystics and the French school of spirituality. It also involved political activities that included the Spanish Inquisition and the Portuguese Inquisition in Goa and Bombay-Bassein etc. A primary emphasis of the Counter-Reformation was a mission to reach parts of the world that had been colonized as predominantly Catholic and also try to reconvert nations such as Sweden and England that once were Catholic from the time of the Christianisation of Europe, but had been lost to the Reformation. Various Counter-Reformation theologians focused only on defending doctrinal positions such as the sacraments and pious practices that were attacked by the Protestant reformers, up to the Second Vatican Council in 1962–1965.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: Key events of the period include: the Council of Trent (1545–63); the excommunication of Elizabeth I (1570), the codification of the uniform Roman Rite Mass (1570), and the Battle of Lepanto (1571), occurring during the pontificate of Pius V; the construction of the Gregorian observatory in Rome, the founding of the Gregorian University, the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, and the Jesuit China mission of Matteo Ricci, all under Pope Gregory XIII (r. 1572–1585); the French Wars of Religion; the Long Turkish War and the execution of Giordano Bruno in 1600, under Pope Clement VIII; the birth of the Lyncean Academy of the Papal States, of which the main figure was Galileo Galilei (later put on trial); the final phases of the Thirty Years' War (1618–48) during the pontificates of Urban VIII and Innocent X; and the formation of the last Holy League by Innocent XI during the Great Turkish War (1683–1699).


title: Counter-Reformation

text: Pope Paul III (1534–49) is considered the first pope of the Counter-Reformation, and he also initiated the Council of Trent (1545–63), tasked with institutional reform, addressing contentious issues such as corrupt bishops and priests, the sale of indulgences, and other financial abuses.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The council upheld the basic structure of the medieval church, its sacramental system, religious orders, and doctrine. It recommended that the form of Mass should be standardised, and this took place in 1570, when Pope Pius V made the Tridentine Mass obligatory.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: It rejected all compromise with Protestants, restating basic tenets of the Catholic Faith. The council upheld salvation appropriated by grace through faith "and" works of that faith (not just by faith, as the Protestants insisted) because "faith without works is dead", as the Epistle of James states (2:22–26).


title: Counter-Reformation

text: Transubstantiation, according to which the consecrated bread and wine are held to have been transformed really and substantially into "the body, blood, soul and divinity" of Christ, was also reaffirmed, as were the traditional seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. Other practices that drew the ire of Protestant reformers, such as pilgrimages, the veneration of saints and relics, the use of venerable images and statuary, and the veneration of the Virgin Mary were strongly reaffirmed as spiritually commendable practices.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The council, in the Canon of Trent, officially accepted the Vulgate listing of the Old Testament Bible, which included the deuterocanonical works (called apocrypha by Protestants) on a par with the 39 books found in the Masoretic Text. This reaffirmed the previous Council of Rome and Synods of Carthage (both held in the 4th century AD), which had affirmed the Deuterocanon as scripture. The council also commissioned the Roman Catechism, which served as authoritative Church teaching until the "Catechism of the Catholic Church" (1992).


title: Counter-Reformation

text: While the traditional fundamentals of the Church were reaffirmed, there were noticeable changes to answer complaints that the Counter-Reformers were, tacitly, willing to admit were legitimate. Among the conditions to be corrected by Catholic reformers was the growing divide between the clerics and the laity; many members of the clergy in the rural parishes had been poorly educated. Often, these rural priests did not know Latin and lacked opportunities for proper theological training. Addressing the education of priests had been a fundamental focus of the humanist reformers in the past.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: Parish priests were to be better educated in matters of theology and apologetics, while Papal authorities sought to educate the faithful about the meaning, nature and value of art and liturgy, particularly in monastic churches (Protestants had criticised them as "distracting"). Notebooks and handbooks became more common, describing how to be good priests and confessors.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: Thus, the Council of Trent attempted to improve the discipline and administration of the Church. The worldly excesses of the secular Renaissance Church, epitomized by the era of Alexander VI (1492–1503), intensified during the Reformation under Pope Leo X (1513–21), whose campaign to raise funds for the construction of Saint Peter's Basilica by supporting use of indulgences served as a key impetus for Martin Luther's 95 Theses. The Catholic Church responded to these problems by a vigorous campaign of reform, inspired by earlier Catholic reform movements that predated the Council of Constance (1414–17): humanism, devotionalism, legalism and the observantine tradition.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The council, by virtue of its actions, repudiated the pluralism of the secular Renaissance that had previously plagued the Church: the organization of religious institutions was tightened, discipline was improved, and the parish was emphasized. The appointment of bishops for political reasons was no longer tolerated. In the past, the large landholdings forced many bishops to be "absent bishops" who at times were property managers trained in administration. Thus, the Council of Trent combated "absenteeism", which was the practice of bishops living in Rome or on landed estates rather than in their dioceses. The Council of Trent gave bishops greater power to supervise all aspects of religious life. Zealous prelates, such as Milan's Archbishop Carlo Borromeo (1538–84), later canonized as a saint, set an example by visiting the remotest parishes and instilling high standards.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The 1559–1967 "Index Librorum Prohibitorum" was a directory of prohibited books which was updated twenty times during the next four centuries as books were added or removed from the list by the Sacred Congregation of the Index. It was divided into three classes. The first class listed heretical writers, the second class listed heretical works, and the third class listed forbidden writings which were published without the name of the author. The "Index" was finally suspended on 29 March 1967.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The 1575 "Nova ordinantia ecclesiastica" was an addendum to the "Liturgia Svecanæ Ecclesiæ catholicæ & orthodoxæ conformia", also called the "Red Book". This launched the Liturgical Struggle, which pitted John III of Sweden against his younger brother Charles. During this time, Jesuit Laurentius Nicolai came to lead the Collegium regium Stockholmense. This theatre of the Counter-Reformation was called the "Missio Suetica".


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The 1578 "Defensio Tridentinæ fidei" was the Catholic response to the "Examination of the Council of Trent".


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The 1713 papal bull "Unigenitus" condemned 101 propositions of the French Jansenist theologian Pasquier Quesnel (1634–1719). Jansenism was a Protestant-leaning or mediating movement within Catholicism that was criticized for being Crypto-Protestant. After Jansenism was condemned it led to the development of the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: When the Calvinists took control of various parts of the Netherlands in the Dutch Revolt, the Catholics led by Philip II of Spain fought back. The king sent in Alexander Farnese as Governor-General of the Spanish Netherlands from 1578 to 1592.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: Farnese led a successful campaign 1578–1592 against the Dutch Revolt, in which he captured the main cities in the south Spanish – Belgium and returned them to the control of Catholic Spain. He took advantage of the divisions in the ranks of his opponents between the Dutch-speaking Flemish and the French-speaking Walloons, using persuasion to take advantage of the divisions and foment the growing discord. By doing so he was able to bring back the Walloon provinces to an allegiance to the king. By the treaty of Arras in 1579, he secured the support of the 'Malcontents', as the Catholic nobles of the south were styled.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The seven northern provinces as well as the County of Flanders and Duchy of Brabant, controlled by Calvinists, responded with the Union of Utrecht, where they resolved to stick together to fight Spain. Farnese secured his base in Hainaut and Artois, then moved against Brabant and Flanders. City after city fell: Tournai, Maastricht, Breda, Bruges and Ghent opened their gates.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: Farnese finally laid siege to the great seaport of Antwerp. The town was open to the sea, strongly fortified, and well defended under the leadership of Marnix van St. Aldegonde. Farnese cut off all access to the sea by constructing a bridge of boats across the Scheldt. Antwerp surrendered in 1585 as 60,000 citizens (60 per cent of the pre-siege population) fled north. All of the southern Netherlands was once more under Spanish control.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: In a war composed mostly of sieges rather than battles, he proved his mettle. His strategy was to offer generous terms for surrender: there would be no massacres or looting; historic urban privileges were retained; there was a full pardon and amnesty; return to the Catholic Church would be gradual.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: Meanwhile, Catholic refugees from the North regrouped in Cologne and Douai and developed a more militant, Tridentine identity. They became the mobilizing forces of a popular Counter-Reformation in the South, thereby facilitating the eventual emergence of the state of Belgium.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The Augsburg Interim was a period where Counter-Reformation measures were exacted upon defeated Protestant populations following the Schmalkaldic War.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: During the centuries of Counter Reformation, new towns, collectively termed , were founded especially as homes for refugees fleeing the Counter-Reformation. Supporters of the Unity of the Brethren settled in parts of Silesia and Poland. Protestants from the County of Flanders often fled to the Lower Rhine region and northern Germany. French Huguenots crossed the Rhineland to Central Germany. Most towns were named either after the ruler who established them or as expressions of gratitude, e.g. "Freudenstadt" ("Joy Town"), "Glückstadt" ("Happy Town").


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The Cologne War (1583–89) was a conflict between Protestant and Catholic factions that devastated the Electorate of Cologne. After Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg, the archbishop ruling the area, converted to Protestantism, Catholics elected another archbishop, Ernst of Bavaria, and successfully defeated Gebhard and his allies.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: In the Habsburg hereditary lands, which had become predominantly Protestant except for Tyrol, the Counter-Reformation began with Emperor Rudolf II, who began suppressing Protestant activity in 1576. This conflict escalated into the Bohemian Revolt of 1620. Defeated, the Protestant nobility and clergy of Bohemia and Austria were expelled from the country or forced to convert to Catholicism. Among these exiles were important German poets such as Sigmund von Birken, Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg, and Johann Wilhelm von Stubenberg. This influenced the development of German Baroque literature, especially around Regensburg and Nuremberg. Some lived as crypto-Protestants.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: Others moved to Saxony or the Margraviate of Brandenburg. The Salzburg Protestants were exiled in the 18th century, especially to Prussia. The Transylvanian Landlers were deported to the eastern part of the Habsburg domain. As heir to the throne, Joseph II spoke vehemently to his mother, Maria Theresa, in 1777 against the expulsion of Protestants from Moravia, calling her choices "unjust, impious, impossible, harmful and ridiculous." His 1781 Patent of Toleration can be regarded as the end of the political Counter-Reformation, although there were still smaller expulsions against Protestants (such as the Zillertal expulsion). In 1966, Archbishop Andreas Rohracher expressed regret about the expulsions.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: Huguenots (French Reformed Protestants) fought a series of wars in France with Catholics, resulting in millions of deaths and the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685 which revoked their freedom of religion. In 1565, several hundred Huguenot shipwreck survivors surrendered to the Spanish authorities in Florida, presuming they would be treated fairly. The small number of Catholics among the shipwrecked were spared but the rest were all executed for heresy, with active clerical participation.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The effects of the Council of Trent and the counter-reformation also paved the way for Ruthenian Orthodox Christians to return to full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving their Byzantine tradition. Pope Clement VIII received the Ruthenian bishops into full communion on February 7, 1596. Under the Treaty of the Union of Brest, Rome recognized the Ruthenians' continued practice of Byzantine liturgical tradition, married clergy, and consecration of bishops from within the Ruthenian Christian tradition. Moreover, the treaty specifically exempts Ruthenians from accepting the Filioque clause and Purgatory as a condition for reconciliation.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The Counter-Reformation succeeded in drastically diminishing Protestantism in Poland, France, Italy, and the vast lands controlled by the Habsburgs including Austria, southern Germany, Bohemia (now the Czech Republic), the Spanish Netherlands (now Belgium), Croatia, and Slovenia. Noticeably, it failed to succeed completely in Hungary, where a sizeable Protestant minority remains to this day, although Catholics still are the largest Christian denomination.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries saw a spiritual revival in Europe, in which the question of salvation became central. This became known as the Catholic Reformation. Several theologians harkened back to the early days of Christianity and questioned their spirituality. Their debates expanded across most of the Western Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, whilst secular critics also examined religious practice, clerical behavior and the church's doctrinal positions. Several varied currents of thought were active, but the ideas of reform and renewal were led by the clergy.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The reforms decreed at Fifth Council of the Lateran (1512–1517) had only a small effect. Some doctrinal positions got further from the Church's official positions, leading to the break with Rome and the formation of Protestant denominations. Even so, conservative and reforming parties still survived within the Catholic Church even as the Protestant Reformation spread. Protestants decisively broke from the Catholic Church in the 1520s. The two distinct dogmatic positions within the Catholic Church solidified in the 1560s. The Catholic Reformation became known as the Counter-Reformation, defined as a reaction to Protestantism rather than as a reform movement. The historian Henri Daniel-Rops wrote:


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The regular orders made their first attempts at reform in the 14th century. The 'Benedictine Bull' of 1336 reformed the Benedictines and Cistercians. In 1523, the Camaldolese Hermits of Monte Corona were recognized as a separate congregation of monks. In 1435, Francis of Paola founded the Poor Hermits of Saint Francis of Assisi, who became the Minim Friars. In 1526, Matteo de Bascio suggested reforming the Franciscan rule of life to its original purity, giving birth to the Capuchins, recognized by the pope in 1619. This order was well known to the laity and played an important role in public preaching. To respond to the new needs of evangelism, clergy formed into religious congregations, taking special vows but with no obligation to assist in a monastery's religious offices. These regular clergy taught, preached and took confession but were under a bishop's direct authority and not linked to a specific parish or area like a vicar or canon.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: In Italy, the first congregation of regular clergy was the Theatines founded in 1524 by Gaetano and Cardinal Gian Caraffa. This was followed by the Somaschi Fathers in 1528, the Barnabites in 1530, the Ursulines in 1535, the Jesuits, canonically recognised in 1540, the Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of Lucca in 1583, the Camillians in 1584, the Adorno Fathers in 1588, and finally the Piarists in 1621. In 1524, a number of priests in Rome began to live in a community centred on Philip Neri. The Oratorians were given their constitutions in 1564 and recognized as an order by the pope in 1575. They used music and singing to attract the faithful.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: New religious orders were a fundamental part of the reforms. Orders such as the Capuchins, Discalced Carmelites, Discalced Augustinians, Augustinian Recollects, Cistercian Feuillants, Ursulines, Theatines, Barnabites, Congregation of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri, and especially Jesuits worked in rural parishes and set examples of Catholic renewal.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The Theatines undertook checking the spread of heresy and contributed to a regeneration of the clergy. The Capuchins, an offshoot of the Franciscan order notable for their preaching and for their care for the poor and the sick, grew rapidly. Capuchin-founded confraternities took special interest in the poor and lived austerely. Members of orders active in overseas missionary expansion expressed the view that the rural parishes often needed Christianizing as much as the heathens of Asia and the Americas.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The Ursulines focused on the special task of educating girls, the first order of women to be dedicated to that goal. Devotion to the traditional works of mercy exemplified the Catholic Reformation's reaffirmation of the importance of both faith and works and salvation through God's grace and repudiation of the maxim "sola scriptura" emphasized by Protestants sects. Not only did they make the Church more effective, but they also reaffirmed fundamental premises of the medieval Church.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The Jesuits were the most effective of the new Catholic orders. An heir to the devotional, observantine, and legalist traditions, the Jesuits organized along military lines. The worldliness of the Renaissance Church had no part in their new order. Loyola's masterwork "Spiritual Exercises" showed the emphasis of handbooks characteristic of Catholic reformers before the Reformation, reminiscent of devotionalism.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: Jesuits participated in the expansion of the Church in the Americas and Asia, by their missionary activity. Loyola's biography contributed to an emphasis on popular piety that had waned under political popes such as Alexander VI and Leo X. After recovering from a serious wound, he took a vow to "serve only God and the Roman pontiff, His vicar on Earth." The emphasis on the Pope is a reaffirmation of the medieval papalism, while the Council of Trent defeated conciliarism, the belief that general councils of the Church collectively were God's representative on Earth rather than the Pope. Taking the Pope as an absolute leader, the Jesuits contributed to the Counter-Reformation Church along a line harmonized with Rome.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The Catholic Reformation was not only a political and Church policy oriented movement, but it also included major figures such as Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Ávila, John of the Cross, Francis de Sales, and Philip Neri, who added to the spirituality of the Catholic Church. Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross were Spanish mystics and reformers of the Carmelite Order, whose ministry focused on interior conversion to Christ, the deepening of prayer, and commitment to God's will. Teresa was given the task of developing and writing about the way to perfection in her love and unity with Christ. Thomas Merton called John of the Cross the greatest of all mystical theologians.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The spirituality of Filippo Neri, who lived in Rome at the same time as Ignatius, was practically oriented, too, but totally opposed to the Jesuit approach. Said Filippo, "If I have a real problem, I contemplate what Ignatius would do ... and then I do the exact opposite". As a recognition of their joint contribution to the spiritual renewal within the Catholic reformation, Ignatius of Loyola, Filippo Neri, and Teresa of Ávila were canonized on the same day, March 12, 1622.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The Virgin Mary played an increasingly central role in Catholic devotions. The victory at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 was accredited to the Virgin Mary and signified the beginning of a strong resurgence of Marian devotions. During and after the Catholic Reformation, Marian piety experienced unforeseen growth with over 500 pages of mariological writings during the 17th century alone. The Jesuit Francisco Suárez was the first theologian to use the Thomist method on Marian theology. Other well-known contributors to Marian spirituality are Lawrence of Brindisi, Robert Bellarmine, and Francis of Sales.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The sacrament of penance was transformed from a social to a personal experience; that is, from a public community act to a private confession. It now took place in private in a confessional. It was a change in its emphasis from reconciliation with the Church to reconciliation directly with God and from emphasis on social sins of hostility to private sins (called "the secret sins of the heart").


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The Catholic Church was a leading arts patron across much of Europe. The goal of much art in the Counter-Reformation, especially in the Rome of Bernini and the Flanders of Peter Paul Rubens, was to restore Catholicism's predominance and centrality. This was one of the drivers of the Baroque style that emerged across Europe in the late sixteenth century. In areas where Catholicism predominated, architecture and painting, and to a lesser extent music, reflected Counter-Reformation goals.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The Council of Trent proclaimed that architecture, painting and sculpture had a role in conveying Catholic theology. Any work that might arouse "carnal desire" was inadmissible in churches, while any depiction of Christ's suffering and explicit agony was desirable and proper. In an era when some Protestant reformers were destroying images of saints and whitewashing walls, Catholic reformers reaffirmed the importance of art, with special encouragement given to images of the Virgin Mary.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: "The Last Judgment", a fresco in the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo (1534–1541), came under persistent attack in the Counter-Reformation for, among other things, nudity (later painted over for several centuries), not showing Christ seated or bearded, and including the pagan figure of Charon.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: Italian painting after 1520, with the notable exception of the art of Venice, developed into Mannerism, a highly sophisticated style striving for effect, that concerned many Churchmen as lacking appeal for the mass of the population. Church pressure to restrain religious imagery affected art from the 1530s and resulted in the decrees of the final session of the Council of Trent in 1563 including short and rather inexplicit passages concerning religious images, which were to have great impact on the development of Catholic art. Previous Catholic councils had rarely felt the need to pronounce on these matters, unlike Orthodox ones which have often ruled on specific types of images.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The decree confirmed the traditional doctrine that images only represented the person depicted, and that veneration to them was paid to the person, not the image, and further instructed that:


title: Counter-Reformation

text: Ten years after the decree Paolo Veronese was summoned by the Holy Office to explain why his "Last Supper", a huge canvas for the refectory of a monastery, contained, in the words of the Holy Office: "buffoons, drunken Germans, dwarfs and other such scurrilities" as well as extravagant costumes and settings, in what is indeed a fantasy version of a Venetian patrician feast. Veronese was told that he must change his painting within a three-month period. He just changed the title to "The Feast in the House of Levi", still an episode from the Gospels, but a less doctrinally central one, and no more was said.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The number of such decorative treatments of religious subjects declined sharply, as did "unbecomingly or confusedly arranged" Mannerist pieces, as a number of books, notably by the Flemish theologian Molanus, Charles Borromeo and Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti, and instructions by local bishops, amplified the decrees, often going into minute detail on what was acceptable. Much traditional iconography considered without adequate scriptural foundation was in effect prohibited, as was any inclusion of classical pagan elements in religious art, and almost all nudity, including that of the infant Jesus.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: According to the great medievalist Émile Mâle, this was "the death of medieval art", but it paled in contrast to the Iconclasm present in some Protestant circles and did not apply to secular paintings. Some Counter Reformation painters and sculptors include Titian, Tintoretto, Federico Barocci, Scipione Pulzone, El Greco, Peter Paul Rubens, Guido Reni, Anthony van Dyck, Bernini, Zurbarán, Rembrandt and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The Council of Trent is believed to be the apex of the Counter-Reformation's influence on Church music in the 16th century. However, the council's pronouncements on music were not the first attempt at reform. The Catholic Church had spoken out against a perceived abuse of music used in the Mass before the Council of Trent ever convened to discuss music in 1562. The manipulation of the Creed and using non-liturgical songs was addressed in 1503, and secular singing and the intelligibility of the text in the delivery of psalmody in 1492. The delegates at the council were just a link in the long chain of Church clergy who had pushed for a reform of the musical liturgy reaching back as far as 1322.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: Probably the most extreme move at reform came late in 1562 when, instructed by the legates, Egidio Foscarari (bishop of Modena) and Gabriele Paleotti (archbishop of Bologna) began work on reforming religious orders and their practices involving the liturgy. The reforms prescribed to the cloisters of nuns, which included omitting the use of an organ, prohibiting professional musicians, and banishing polyphonic singing, were much more strict than any of the council's edicts or even those to be found in the Palestrina legend.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: Fueling the cry for reform from many ecclesial figures was the compositional technique popular in the 15th and 16th centuries of using musical material and even the accompanying texts from other compositions such as motets, madrigals, and chansons. Several voices singing different texts in different languages made any of the text difficult to distinguish from the mixture of words and notes. The parody mass would then contain melodies (usually the tenor line) and words from songs that could have been, and often were, on sensual subjects. The musical liturgy of the Church was being more and more influenced by secular tunes and styles. The Council of Paris, which met in 1528, as well as the Council of Trent were making attempts to restore the sense of sacredness to the Church setting and what was appropriate for the Mass. The councils were simply responding to issues of their day.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The Council of Trent met sporadically from December 13, 1545, to December 4, 1563, to reform many parts of the Catholic Church. The 22nd session of the council, which met in 1562, dealt with Church music in Canon 8 in the section of "Abuses in the Sacrifice of the Mass" during a meeting of the council on September 10, 1562.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: Canon 8 states that "Since the sacred mysteries should be celebrated with utmost reverence, with both deepest feeling toward God alone, and with external worship that is truly suitable and becoming, so that others may be filled with devotion and called to religion: ... Everything should be regulated so that the Masses, whether they be celebrated with the plain voice or in song, with everything clearly and quickly executed, may reach the ears of the hearers and quietly penetrate their hearts. In those Masses where measured music and organ are customary, nothing profane should be intermingled, but only hymns and divine praises. If something from the divine service is sung with the organ while the service proceeds, let if first be recited in a simple, clear voice, lest the reading of the sacred words be imperceptible. But the entire manner of singing in musical modes should be calculated not to afford vain delight to the ear, but so that the words may be comprehensible to all; and thus may the hearts of the listeners be caught up into the desire for celestial harmonies and contemplation of the joys of the blessed."


title: Counter-Reformation

text: Canon 8 is often quoted as the Council of Trent's decree on Church music, but that is a glaring misunderstanding of the canon; it was only a proposed decree. In fact, the delegates at the council never officially accepted canon 8 in its popular form but bishops of Granada, Coimbra, and Segovia pushed for the long statement about music to be attenuated and many other prelates of the council joined enthusiastically. The only restrictions actually given by the 22nd session was to keep secular elements out of the music, making polyphony implicitly allowed. The issue of textual intelligibility did not make its way into the final edicts of the 22nd session but were only featured in preliminary debates. The 22nd session only prohibited "lascivious" and "profane" things to be intermingled with the music but Paleotti, in his Acts, brings to equal importance the issues of intelligibility.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The idea that the council called to remove all polyphony from the Church is widespread, but there is no documentary evidence to support that claim. It is possible, however, that some of the Fathers had proposed such a measure. The emperor Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor has been attributed to be the "saviour of Church music" because he said polyphony ought not to be driven out of the Church. But Ferdinand was most likely an alarmist and read into the council the possibility of a total ban on polyphony. The Council of Trent did not focus on the style of music but on attitudes of worship and reverence during the Mass.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The crises regarding polyphony and intelligibility of the text and the threat that polyphony was to be removed completely, which was assumed to be coming from the council, has a very dramatic legend of resolution. The legend goes that Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525/26–1594), a Church musician and choirmaster in Rome, wrote a Mass for the council delegates in order to demonstrate that a polyphonic composition could set the text in such a way that the words could be clearly understood and that was still pleasing to the ear. Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli (Mass for Pope Marcellus) was performed before the council and received such a welcoming reception among the delegates that they completely changed their minds and allowed polyphony to stay in use in the musical liturgy. Therefore, Palestrina came to be named the "saviour of Church polyphony". This legend, though unfounded, has long been a mainstay of histories of music. The saviour-myth was first spread by an account by Aggazzari and Banchieri in 1609 who said that Pope Marcellus was trying to replace all polyphony with plainsong. Palestrina's "Missa Papae Marcelli" was, though, in 1564, after the 22nd session, performed for the Pope while reforms were being considered for the Sistine Choir.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The Pope Marcellus Mass, in short, was not important in its own day and did not help save Church polyphony. What is undeniable is that despite any solid evidence of his influence during or after the Council of Trent, no figure is more qualified to represent the cause of polyphony in the Mass than Palestrina. Pope Pius IV upon hearing Palestrina's music would make Palestrina, by Papal Brief, the model for future generations of Catholic composers of sacred music.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: Like his contemporary Palestrina, the Flemish composer Jacobus de Kerle (1531/32–1591) was also credited with giving a model of composition for the Council of Trent. His composition in four-parts, Preces, marks the "official turning point of the Counter Reformation's a cappella ideal." Kerle was the only ranking composer of the Netherlands to have acted in conformity with the council. Another musical giant on equal standing with Palestrina, Orlando di Lasso (1530/32–1594) was an important figure in music history though less of a purist than Palestrina. He expressed sympathy for the council's concerns but still showed favor for the "Parady chanson Masses."


title: Counter-Reformation

text: Despite the dearth of edicts from the council regarding polyphony and textual clarity, the reforms that followed from the 22nd session filled in the gaps left by the council in stylistic areas. In the 24th session the council gave authority to "Provincial Synods" to discern provisions for Church music. The decision to leave practical application and stylistic matters to local ecclesiastical leaders was important in shaping the future of Catholic church music. It was left then up to the local Church leaders and Church musicians to find proper application for the council's decrees.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: Though originally theological and directed towards the attitudes of the musicians, the Council's decrees came to be thought of by Church musicians as a pronouncement on proper musical styles. This understanding was most likely spread through musicians who sought to implement the council's declarations but did not read the official Tridentine pronouncements. Church musicians were probably influenced by order from their ecclesiastical patrons. Composers who reference the council's reforms in prefaces to their compositions do not adequately claim a musical basis from the council but a spiritual and religious basis of their art.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, Charles Borromeo, was a very important figure in reforming Church music after the Council of Trent. Though Borromeo was an aide to the pope in Rome and was unable to be in Milan, he eagerly pushed for the decrees of the council to be quickly put into practice in Milan. Borromeo kept in contact with his church in Milian through letters and eagerly encouraged the leaders there to implement the reforms coming from the Council of Trent. In one of his letters to his vicar in the Milan diocese, Nicolo Ormaneto of Verona, Borromeo commissioned the master of the chapel, Vincenzo Ruffo (1508–1587), to write a Mass that would make the words as easy to understand as possible. Borromeo also suggested that if Don Nicola, a composer of a more chromatic style, was in Milan he too could compose a Mass and the two be compared for textural clarity. Borromeo was likely involved or heard of the questions regarding textual clarity because of his request to Ruffo.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: Ruffo took Borromeo's commission seriously and set out to compose in a style that presented the text so that all words would be intelligible and the textual meaning be the most important part of the composition. His approach was to move all the voices in a homorhythmic manner with no complicated rhythms, and to use dissonance very conservatively. Ruffo's approach was certainly a success for textual clarity and simplicity, but if his music was very theoretically pure it was not an artistic success despite Ruffo's attempts to bring interest to the monotonous four-part texture. Ruffo's compositional style which favored the text was well in line with the council's perceived concern with intelligibility. Thus the belief in the council's strong edicts regarding textual intelligibility became to characterize the development of sacred Church music.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: The Council of Trent brought about other changes in music: most notably developing the Missa brevis, Lauda and "Spiritual Madrigal" (Madrigali Spirituali). Additionally, the numerous sequences were mostly prohibited in the 1570 Missal of Pius V. The remaining sequences were "Victimae paschali laudes" for Easter, "Veni Sancte Spiritus" for Pentecost, "Lauda Sion Salvatorem" for Corpus Christi, and "Dies Irae" for All Souls and for Masses for the Dead.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: More celebrations of holidays and similar events raised a need to have these events followed closely throughout the dioceses. But there was a problem with the accuracy of the calendar: by the sixteenth century the Julian calendar was almost ten days out of step with the seasons and the heavenly bodies. Among the astronomers who were asked to work on the problem of how the calendar could be reformed was Nicolaus Copernicus, a canon at Frombork (Frauenburg). In the dedication to "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" (1543), Copernicus mentioned the reform of the calendar proposed by the Fifth Council of the Lateran (1512–1517). As he explains, a proper measurement of the length of the year was a necessary foundation to calendar reform. By implication, his work replacing the Ptolemaic system with a heliocentric model was prompted in part by the need for calendar reform.


title: Counter-Reformation

text: An actual new calendar had to wait until the Gregorian calendar in 1582. At the time of its publication, "De revolutionibus" passed with relatively little comment: little more than a mathematical convenience that simplified astronomical references for a more accurate calendar. Physical evidence suggesting Copernicus's theory regarding the earth's motion was literally true promoted the apparent heresy against the religious thought of the time. As a result, during the Galileo affair, Galileo Galilei was placed under house arrest, served in Rome, Siena, Arcetri, and Florence, for publishing writings said to be "vehemently suspected of being heretical." His opponents condemned heliocentric theory and temporarily banned its teaching in 1633. Similarly, the Academia Secretorum Naturae in Naples had been shut down in 1578. As a result of clerical opposition, heliocentricists emigrated from Catholic to Protestant areas, some forming the Melanchthon Circle.


title: Mikkey Dee

text: Micael Kiriakos Delaoglou (born 31 October 1963), known professionally as Mikkey Dee, is a Swedish musician, best known as the last drummer for British heavy metal band Motörhead from 1992 until its dissolution in 2015. Dee also played temporarily in the German metal band Helloween in 2003. In September 2016, he became German rock band Scorpions new drummer as a permanent member. Dee is famous for lengthy drum solos, often lasting between five and fifteen minutes. Some notable examples include those that appear in "Sacrifice", "In the Name of Tragedy", and "The One to Sing the Blues." In addition he also played with King Diamond from 1985–1989.


title: Mikkey Dee

text: He began his musical career with local bands Nadir and Geisha. His favourite drummer is Ian Paice. Other influences include Brian Downey, Neil Peart and Steve Smith. Dee also gives credit as an influence to Buddy Rich.


title: Mikkey Dee

text: Having moved to Copenhagen, Denmark to play with Geisha, Dee joined King Diamond in 1985. He played on the King Diamond recordings "Fatal Portrait" (1986), "Abigail" (1987) and "Them" (1988). King Diamond himself was becoming quite popular and the musicians backing him were taking a secondary role in the writing and decision making. After the completion of the supporting tour for "Them", Dee decided to leave the band as he felt that he was becoming more of a backup musician rather than an equal contributing songwriter. However, he was rehired to play session drums for the recording of the band's follow-up album, "Conspiracy" (1989). After completion of the album, he was replaced by Snowy Shaw.


title: Mikkey Dee

text: Dee joined Don Dokken for his solo album "Up from the Ashes" (1990). The music videos for the songs "Stay" and "Mirror Mirror" received airplay on MTV's "Headbangers Ball". The band headlined their own tour as well as opening for Judas Priest. During this time, Dee also filled in temporarily for the band World War Three (WWIII).


title: Mikkey Dee

text: While King Diamond was touring with Motörhead, frontman Lemmy repeatedly asked Dee to join his band. In 1992, Dee accepted, replacing Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor. On his replacement of a longstanding member, Dee said in 2006:


title: Mikkey Dee

text: "Phil Taylor was great when he was good... so I could never have filled that space. It's like when you get married and have kids; no one can take my father's place… I could never be Phil Taylor, so I had to introduce Mikkey Dee into Motörhead."


title: Mikkey Dee

text: Dee's first gig with the band was on 30 August 1992 at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in New York. He did not have much input on that year's "March ör Die" album which had been recorded with Tommy Aldridge prior to Dee joining. Dee played on the band's albums "Hellraiser" and "Hell on Earth –" the soundtrack for "".


title: Mikkey Dee

text: Although Aldridge recorded most of the drum tracks, Dee's photo appeared on the rear album sleeve. Aldridge said that Dee could take credit for the playing but Dee declined, citing differing styles.


title: Mikkey Dee

text: Epic Records dropped the band after the soundtrack's release and the group continued recording with German label SPV. They also started a label called "Motörhead" which was distributed through Warner-Chappell and ZYX. Dee's first album for this label was 1993's "Bastards."


title: Mikkey Dee

text: Dee also played drums on Helloween's 2003 album "Rabbit Don't Come Easy," stepping in for Mark Cross.


title: Mikkey Dee

text: In April 2006, King Diamond reunited with Dee at a sold-out gig at Kåren in Gothenburg, Sweden. King referred to Dee as "one of the best [drummers] of all time and that's something that has bothered us since he left."


title: Mikkey Dee

text: Dee played drums for Martin "E-Type" Eriksson in the Swedish pre-qualification for the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 as well as on E-Type's 2003 EuroMetal Tour.


title: Mikkey Dee

text: Dee was a contestant on series 1 of "Kändisdjungeln" on TV4 in 2009 but was eliminated in the 15th episode. While filming, his place was filled on tour by Matt Sorum, who commented: "I thought either Mikkey would either die in the jungle or I would die on the Motörhead tour."


title: Mikkey Dee

text: Dee joined Thin Lizzy to play on their anniversary shows in January 2016. However, on 19 April, it was announced that he would not be participating. Subsequently, it was announced that Dee would be filling in for James Kottak on the Scorpions' twelve North American headlining dates, including a run of shows at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas dubbed "Scorpions blacked out in Las Vegas". Dee later joined the band permanently.


title: Mikkey Dee

text: Dee uses Sonor drums, Paiste cymbals, Evans drumheads, and Wincent Drums sticks. He endorsed Vic Firth, but recently switched to Wincent, with whom he has his own signature model. He also used Remo heads in the past. His main kit is a Sonor SQ2 Vintage Maple Custom Finish set.


title: Mikkey Dee

text: Dee is an avid ice hockey fan and a supporter of the Frölunda HC team from Gothenburg. The rumor that he was a member of a Swedish National Youth Hockey team, which began with an interview on Motörhead's "Stage Fright" DVD, has been rebutted by Dee himself. He stated: "At the end of the 80s and a bit into the 90s I played for a team called Team Sweden in southern California."


title: Zion National Park

text: Zion National Park is an American national park located in southwestern Utah near the town of Springdale. Located at the junction of the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert regions, the park has a unique geography and a variety of life zones that allow for unusual plant and animal diversity. Numerous plant species as well as 289 species of birds, 75 mammals (including 19 species of bat), and 32 reptiles inhabit the park's four life zones: desert, riparian, woodland, and coniferous forest. Zion National Park includes mountains, canyons, buttes, mesas, monoliths, rivers, slot canyons, and natural arches. The lowest point in the park is at Coalpits Wash and the highest peak is at Horse Ranch Mountain. A prominent feature of the park is Zion Canyon, which is long and up to deep. The canyon walls are reddish and tan-colored Navajo Sandstone eroded by the North Fork of the Virgin River.


title: Zion National Park

text: Human habitation of the area started about 8,000 years ago with small family groups of Native Americans, one of which was the semi-nomadic Basketmaker Ancestral Puebloans (who used to be called Anasazi by early non-indigenous archeologists)( 300 CE). Subsequently, what has been called the Virgin Anasazi culture () and the Parowan Fremont group developed as the Basketmakers settled in permanent communities. Both groups moved away by 1300 and were replaced by the Parrusits and several other Southern Paiute subtribes. Mormons came into the area in 1858 and settled there in the early 1860s. In 1909, President William Howard Taft named the area Mukuntuweap National Monument in order to protect the canyon. In 1918, the acting director of the newly created National Park Service, Horace Albright, drafted a proposal to enlarge the existing monument and change the park's name to Zion National Monument, Zion being a term used by the Mormons. According to historian Hal Rothman: "The name change played to a prevalent bias of the time. Many believed that Spanish and Indian names would deter visitors who, if they could not pronounce the name of a place, might not bother to visit it. The new name, Zion, had greater appeal to an ethnocentric audience." On November 19, 1919, Congress redesignated the monument as Zion National Park, and the act was signed by President Woodrow Wilson. The Kolob section was proclaimed a separate Zion National Monument in 1937, but was incorporated into the national park in 1956. Congress designated 85% of the park a wilderness area in 2009.


title: Zion National Park

text: The geology of the Zion and Kolob canyons area includes nine formations that together represent 150 million years of mostly Mesozoic-aged sedimentation. At various periods in that time warm, shallow seas, streams, ponds and lakes, vast deserts, and dry near-shore environments covered the area. Uplift associated with the creation of the Colorado Plateau lifted the region starting 13 million years ago.


title: Zion National Park

text: The park is located in southwestern Utah in Washington, Iron and Kane counties. Geomorphically, it is located on the Markagunt and Kolob plateaus, at the intersection of three North American geographic provinces: the Colorado Plateau, the Great Basin, and the Mojave Desert. The northern part of the park is known as the Kolob Canyons section and is accessible from Interstate 15, exit 40.


title: Zion National Park

text: The summit of Horse Ranch Mountain is the highest point in the park; the lowest point is the elevation of Coal Pits Wash, creating a relief of about .


title: Zion National Park

text: Streams in the area take rectangular paths because they follow jointing planes in the rocks. The stream gradient of the Virgin River, whose North Fork flows through Zion Canyon in the park, ranges from (0.9–1.5%)—one of the steepest stream gradients in North America.


title: Zion National Park

text: The road into Zion Canyon is long, ending at the Temple of Sinawava, which is named for the coyote god of the Paiute Indians. The canyon becomes more narrow near the Temple and a hiking trail continues to the mouth of The Narrows, a gorge only wide and up to tall. The Zion Canyon road is served by a free shuttle bus from early April to late October and by private vehicles the other months of the year. Other roads in Zion are open to private vehicles year-round.


title: Zion National Park

text: The east side of the park is served by Zion-Mount Carmel Highway (SR-9), which passes through the Zion–Mount Carmel Tunnel and ends at US 89 at Mount Carmel Junction. Park features on the east side of the park include Checkerboard Mesa and The East Temple.


title: Zion National Park

text: The Kolob Terrace area, northwest of Zion Canyon, features a slot canyon called The Subway, and a panoramic view of the entire area from Lava Point. The Kolob Canyons section, further to the northwest near Cedar City, features Tucupit Point and one of the world's longest natural arches, Kolob Arch.


title: Zion National Park

text: Other notable geographic features of Zion Canyon include Angels Landing, The Great White Throne, the Court of the Patriarchs, The Sentinel, The West Temple, Towers of the Virgin, the Altar of Sacrifice, The Watchman, Weeping Rock, and the Emerald Pools.


title: Zion National Park

text: Spring weather is unpredictable, with stormy, wet days being common, mixed with occasional warm, sunny weather. Precipitation is normally heaviest in March. Spring wildflowers bloom from April through June, peaking in May. Fall days are usually clear and mild; nights are often cool. Summer days are hot (), but overnight lows are usually comfortable (). Afternoon thunderstorms are common from mid-July through mid-September. Storms may produce waterfalls as well as flash floods. Autumn tree-color displays begin in September in the high country; in Zion Canyon, autumn colors usually peak in late October. Winter in Zion Canyon is fairly mild. Winter storms bring rain or light snow to Zion Canyon and heavier snow to the higher elevations. Clear days may become quite warm, reaching ; nights are often . Winter storms can last several days and make roads icy. Zion roads are plowed, except the Kolob Terrace Road which is closed when covered with snow. Winter driving conditions last from November through March.


title: Zion National Park

text: Zion National Park has a "BSk" (Köppen climate classification) cold semi-arid climate consisting of very hot summers and mild winters with a limited amount of precipitation throughout the year.


title: Zion National Park

text: Archaeologists have divided the long span of Zion's human history into three cultural periods: the Archaic, Protohistoric and Historic periods. Each period is characterized by distinctive technological and social adaptations.


title: Zion National Park

text: The first human presence in the region dates to 8,000 years ago when family groups camped where they could hunt or collect plants and seeds. About 2,000 years ago, some groups began growing corn and other crops, leading to an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. Later groups in this period built permanent villages called pueblos. Archaeologists call this the Archaic period and it lasted until . Baskets, cordage nets, and yucca fiber sandals have been found and dated to this period. The Archaic toolkits included flaked stone knives, drills, and stemmed dart points. The dart points were attached to wooden shafts and propelled by throwing devices called atlatls.


title: Zion National Park

text: By , some of the archaic groups developed into an early branch of seminomadic Anasazi, the Basketmakers. Basketmaker sites have grass- or stone-lined storage cists and shallow, partially underground dwellings called pithouses. They were hunters and gatherers who supplemented their diet with limited agriculture. Locally collected pine nuts were important for food and trade.


title: Zion National Park

text: Both the Virgin Anasazi and the Parowan Fremont disappeared from the archaeological record of southwestern Utah by . Extended droughts in the 11th and 12th centuries, interspersed with catastrophic flooding, may have made horticulture impossible in this arid region.


title: Zion National Park

text: Tradition and archaeological evidence hold that their replacements were Numic-speaking cousins of the Virgin Anasazi, such as the Southern Paiute and Ute. The newcomers migrated on a seasonal basis up and down valleys in search of wild seeds and game animals. Some, particularly the Southern Paiute, also planted fields of corn, sunflowers, and squash to supplement their diet. These more sedentary groups made brownware vessels that were used for storage and cooking.


title: Zion National Park

text: The Historic period begins in the late 18th century with the exploration of southern Utah by padre Silvestre Vélez de Escalante and padre Francisco Atanasio Domínguez. The padres passed near what is now the Kolob Canyons Visitor Center on October 13, 1776, becoming the first people of European descent known to visit the area. In 1825, trapper and trader Jedediah Smith explored some of the downstream areas while under contract with the American Fur Company.


title: Zion National Park

text: In 1847, Mormon farmers from the Salt Lake area became the first people of European descent to settle the Virgin River region. In 1851, the Parowan and Cedar City areas were settled by Mormons who used the Kolob Canyons area for timber, and for grazing cattle, sheep, and horses. They prospected for mineral deposits, and diverted Kolob water to irrigate crops in the valley below. Mormon settlers named the area "Kolob" which in Mormon scripture is the heavenly place nearest the residence of God.


title: Zion National Park

text: Settlements had expanded south to the lower Virgin River by 1858. That year, a Southern Paiute guide led young Mormon missionary and interpreter Nephi Johnson into the upper Virgin River area and Zion Canyon. Johnson wrote a favorable report about the agricultural potential of the upper Virgin River basin, and returned later that year to found the town of Virgin. In 1861 or 1862, Joseph Black made the arduous journey to Zion Canyon and was very impressed by its beauty.


title: Zion National Park

text: The floor of Zion Canyon was settled in 1863 by Isaac Behunin, who farmed corn, tobacco, and fruit trees. The Behunin family lived in Zion Canyon near the site of today's Zion Lodge during the summer, and wintered in Springdale. Behunin is credited with naming Zion, a reference to the place of peace mentioned in the Bible. Two more families settled Zion Canyon in the next couple of years, bringing with them cattle and other domesticated animals. The canyon floor was farmed until Zion became a Monument in 1909.


title: Zion National Park

text: The Powell Geographic Expedition of 1869 entered the area after their first trip through the Grand Canyon. John Wesley Powell visited Zion Canyon in 1872 and named it "Mukuntuweap", under the impression that that was the Paiute name. Powell Survey photographers John K. Hillers and James Fennemore first visited the Zion Canyon and Kolob Plateau region in the spring of 1872. Hillers returned in April 1873 to add more photographs to the "Virgin River Series" of photographs and stereographs. Hillers described wading the canyon for four days and nearly freezing to death to take his photographs.


title: Zion National Park

text: Paintings of the canyon by Frederick S. Dellenbaugh were exhibited at the Saint Louis World's Fair in 1904, followed by a favorable article in "Scribner's Magazine" the next year. The article and paintings, along with previously created photographs, paintings, and reports, led to President William Howard Taft's proclamation on July 31, 1909, that created Mukuntuweap National Monument. In 1917, the acting director of the newly created National Park Service visited the canyon and proposed changing its name from the locally unpopular Mukuntuweap to Zion, a name used by the local Mormon community. The United States Congress added more land and established Zion National Park on November 19, 1919. A separate Zion National Monument, the Kolob Canyons area, was proclaimed on January 22, 1937, and was incorporated into the park on July 11, 1956.


title: Zion National Park

text: Travel to the area before it was a national park was rare due to its remote location, lack of accommodations, and the absence of real roads in southern Utah. Old wagon roads were upgraded to the first automobile roads starting about 1910, and the road into Zion Canyon was built in 1917 leading to the Grotto, short of the present road that now ends at the Temple of Sinawava.


title: Zion National Park

text: Touring cars could reach Zion Canyon by the summer of 1917. The first visitor lodging in Zion Canyon, called Wylie Camp, was established that same year as a tent camp. The Utah Parks Company, a subsidiary of the Union Pacific Railroad, acquired Wylie Camp in 1923, and offered ten-day rail/bus tours to Zion, nearby Bryce Canyon, the Kaibab Plateau, and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The Zion Lodge complex was built in 1925 at the site of the Wylie tent camp. Architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood designed the Zion Lodge in a rustic architectural style, while the Utah Parks Company funded the construction.


title: Zion National Park

text: Work on the Zion Mount Carmel Highway started in 1927 to enable reliable access between Springdale and the east side of the park. The road opened in 1930 and park visit and travel in the area greatly increased. The most famous feature of the Zion – Mount Carmel Highway is its tunnel, which has six large windows cut through the massive sandstone cliff.


title: Zion National Park

text: In 1896, local rancher John Winder improved the Native American footpath up Echo Canyon, which later became the East Rim Trail. Entrepreneur David Flanigan used this trail in 1900 to build cableworks that lowered lumber into Zion Canyon from Cable Mountain. More than of lumber were lowered by 1906. The auto road was extended to the Temple of Sinawava, and a trail built from there to the start of the Narrows. Angel's Landing Trail was constructed in 1926 and two suspension bridges were built over the Virgin River. Other trails were constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the 1930s.


title: Zion National Park

text: Zion National Park has been featured in numerous films, including "The Deadwood Coach" (1924), "Arizona Bound" (1927), "Nevada" (1927), "Ramrod" (1947) and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969).


title: Zion National Park

text: Zion Canyon Scenic Drive provides access to Zion Canyon. Traffic congestion in the narrow canyon was recognized as a major problem in the 1990s and a public transportation system using propane-powered shuttle buses was instituted in the year 2000. As part of its shuttle fleet, Zion has two electric trams each holding up to 36 passengers. Usually from early April through late October, the scenic drive in Zion Canyon is closed to private vehicles and visitors ride the shuttle buses. The National Park Service has contracted the management of the shuttle bus system to transit operator RATP Dev.


title: Zion National Park

text: On April 12, 1995, heavy rains triggered a landslide that blocked the Virgin River in Zion Canyon. Over a period of two hours, the river carved away part of the only exit road from the canyon, trapping 450 guests and employees at the Zion Lodge. A one-lane, temporary road was constructed within 24 hours to allow evacuation of the Lodge. A more stable albeit temporary road was completed on May 25, 1995, to allow summer visitors to access the canyon. This road was replaced with a permanent road during the first half of 1996.


title: Zion National Park

text: The Zion–Mount Carmel Highway can be travelled year-round. Access for oversized vehicles requires a special permit, and is limited to daytime hours, as traffic through the tunnel must be one way to accommodate large vehicles. The -long Kolob Canyons Road was built to provide access to the Kolob Canyons section of the park. This road often closes in the winter.


title: Zion National Park

text: In March 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, which designated and further protected of park land, about 85% of the park, as the Zion Wilderness.


title: Zion National Park

text: In September 2015, flooding trapped a party of seven in Keyhole Canyon, a slot canyon in the park. The flash flood killed all seven members of the group, whose remains were located after a search lasting several days.


title: Zion National Park

text: The nine known exposed geologic formations in Zion National Park are part of a super-sequence of rock units called the Grand Staircase. Together, these formations represent about 150 million years of mostly Mesozoic-aged sedimentation in that part of North America. The formations exposed in the Zion area were deposited as sediment in very different environments:


title: Zion National Park

text: Uplift affected the entire region, known as the Colorado Plateaus, by slowly raising these formations more than higher than where they were deposited. This steepened the stream gradient of the ancestral Virgin and other rivers on the plateau.


title: Zion National Park

text: The faster-moving streams took advantage of uplift-created joints in the rocks. Eventually, all Cenozoic-aged formations were removed and gorges were cut into the plateaus. Zion Canyon was cut by the North Fork of the Virgin River in this way. During the later part of this process, lava flows and cinder cones covered parts of the area.


title: Zion National Park

text: High water volume in wet seasons does most of the downcutting in the main canyon. These flood events are responsible for transporting most of the 3 million short tons (2.7 million metric tons) of rock and sediment that the Virgin River transports yearly. The Virgin cuts away its canyon faster than its tributaries can cut away their own streambeds, so tributaries end in waterfalls from hanging valleys where they meet the Virgin. The valley between the peaks of the Twin Brothers is a notable example of a hanging valley in the canyon.


title: Zion National Park

text: The Great Basin, Mojave Desert, and Colorado Plateau converge at Zion and the Kolob canyons. This, along with the varied topography of canyon–mesa country, differing soil types, and uneven water availability, provides diverse habitat for the equally diverse mix of plants and animals that live in the area. The park is home to 289 bird, 79 mammals, 28 reptiles, 7 fish, and 6 amphibian species. These organisms make their homes in one or more of four life zones found in the park: desert, riparian, woodland, and coniferous forest.


title: Zion National Park

text: Desert conditions persist on canyon bottoms and rocky ledges away from perennial streams. Sagebrush, prickly pear cactus, and rabbitbrush, along with sacred datura and Indian paintbrush, are common. Utah penstemon and golden aster can also be found. Milkvetch and prince's plume are found in pockets of selenium-rich soils.


title: Zion National Park

text: Common daytime animals include mule deer, rock squirrels, pinyon jays, and whiptail and collared lizards. Desert cottontails, jackrabbits, and Merriam's kangaroo rats come out at night. Cougars, bobcats, coyotes, badgers, gray foxes, and ring-tail cats are the top predators.


title: Zion National Park

text: Cooler conditions persist at mid-elevation slopes, from . Stunted forests of pinyon pine and juniper coexist here with manzanita shrubs, cliffrose, serviceberry, scrub oak, and yucca. Stands of ponderosa pine, Gambel oak, manzanita and aspen populate the mesas and cliffs above .


title: Zion National Park

text: Golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, peregrine falcons, and white-throated swifts can be seen in the area. Desert bighorn sheep were reintroduced in the park in 1973. California condors were reintroduced in the Arizona Strip and in 2014 the first successful breeding of condors in the park was confirmed. Nineteen species of bat also live in the area.


title: Zion National Park

text: Boxelder, Fremont cottonwood, maple, and willow dominate riparian plant communities. Animals such as bank beavers, flannel-mouth suckers, gnatcatchers, dippers, canyon wrens, the virgin spinedace, and water striders all make their homes in the riparian zones.


title: Zion National Park

text: Rangers at the visitor centers in Zion Canyon and Kolob Canyons can help visitors plan their stay. Guided horseback riding trips, nature walks, and evening programs are available from late March to early November. The Junior Ranger Program for children ages 4 and up is active year-round at the Nature Center, Human History Museum, and the visitor centers. A bookstore attached to the Zion Canyon visitor center offers books, maps, and souvenirs. The Grotto in Zion Canyon, the visitor center, and the viewpoint at the end of Kolob Canyons Road have the only designated picnic sites.


title: Zion National Park

text: Seven trails with round-trip times of half an hour (Weeping Rock) to 4 hours (Angels Landing) are found in Zion Canyon. Two popular trails, Taylor Creek (4 hours round trip) and Kolob Arch (8 hours round trip), are in the Kolob Canyons section of the park, near Cedar City. Hiking up into The Narrows from the Temple of Sinawava is popular in summer, but hiking beyond Big Springs requires a permit. The entire Narrows from Chamberlain's Ranch is a 16-mile one way trip that typically takes 12 hours of strenuous hiking. A shorter alternative is to enter the Narrows via Orderville Canyon. Both Orderville and the full Narrows require a back country permit. Entrance to the Parunuweap Canyon section of the park downstream of Labyrinth Falls is prohibited. Other often-used backcountry trails include the West Rim and LaVerkin Creek. The more primitive sections of Zion include the Kolob Terrace and the Kolob Canyons. A network of trails totaling 50 miles in distance connect Zion's northwest corner of the park (Lee Pass Trailhead) to its southeast section (East Rim Trailhead). Popularly known as the Zion Traverse, the route offers backpackers a diverse experience of the park.


title: Zion National Park

text: Zion is a center for rock climbing, with short walls like Spaceshot, Moonlight Buttress, Prodigal Son, Ashtar Command, and Touchstone being the most popular, highly rated routes.


title: Zion National Park

text: Lodging in the park is available at Zion Lodge, located halfway through Zion Canyon. Just outside the park more lodging is available in Springdale.


title: Zion National Park

text: Zion has three campgrounds: South and Watchman at the far southern side of the park, and a primitive site at Lava Point in the middle of the park off Kolob Terrace Road. Overnight camping in the backcountry requires permits.


title: Mohammad Najibullah

text: Mohammad Najibullah Ahmadzai (Pashto/, ; 6 August 1947 – 27 September 1996), commonly known as Dr. Najib, was an Afghan politician who served as the General Secretary of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, the leader of the one-party ruling Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1986 to 1992 and as well as the President of Afghanistan from 1987 until his resignation in April 1992, shortly after which the mujahideen took over Kabul. After a failed attempt to flee to India, Najibullah remained in Kabul. He lived in the United Nations headquarters until his assassination by the Taliban after their capture of the city.


title: Mohammad Najibullah

text: A graduate of Kabul University, Najibullah held different careers under the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). Following the Saur Revolution and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, Najibullah was a low profile bureaucrat. He was sent into exile as Ambassador to Iran during Hafizullah Amin's rise to power. He returned to Afghanistan following the Soviet intervention which toppled Amin's rule and placed Babrak Karmal as head of the state, the party and the government. During Karmal's rule, Najibullah became head of the KHAD, the Afghan equivalent of the Soviet KGB. He was a member of the Parcham faction led by Karmal. During Najibullah's tenure as KHAD head, it became one of the most brutally efficient governmental organs. Because of this, he gained the attention of several leading Soviet officials, such as Yuri Andropov, Dmitriy Ustinov and Boris Ponomarev. In 1981, Najibullah was appointed to the PDPA Politburo. In 1985, Najibullah stepped down as the state security minister to focus on PDPA politics; he had been appointed to the PDPA Secretariat. Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, also the last Soviet leader, was able to get Karmal to step down as PDPA General Secretary in 1986, and replace him with Najibullah. For a number of months, Najibullah was locked in a power struggle against Karmal, who still retained his post of Chairman of the Revolutionary Council. Najibullah accused Karmal of trying to wreck his policy of National Reconciliation, a series of efforts by Najibullah to end the conflict.


title: Mohammad Najibullah

text: During his tenure as leader of Afghanistan, the Soviets began their withdrawal, and from 1989 until 1992, his government tried to solve the ongoing civil war without Soviet troops on the ground. While direct Soviet assistance ended with the withdrawal, the Soviet Union still supported Najibullah with economic and military aid, while Pakistan and the United States continued their support for the mujahideen. Throughout his tenure, he tried to build support for his government via the National Reconciliation reforms by distancing from socialism in favor of Afghan nationalism, abolishing the one-party state and letting non-communists join the government. He remained open to dialogue with the mujahideen and other groups, made Islam an official religion, and invited exiled businessmen back to re-take their properties. In the 1990 constitution, all references to communism were removed and Islam became the state religion. For various reasons, such changes did not win Najibullah any significant support. Following the August Coup in Moscow and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, Najibullah was left without foreign aid. This, coupled with the internal collapse of his government (following the defection of general Abdul Rashid Dostum), led to his resignation in April 1992. In 1996, he was tortured and killed by the Taliban.


title: Mohammad Najibullah

text: Najibullah was born on 6 August 1947 in the city of Gardez, Paktia Province, in the Kingdom of Afghanistan. His ancestral village of Najibqilla is located between the towns of Gardez and Said Karam in an area known as Mehlan. He belonged to the Ahmadzai Ghilji tribe of Pashtuns.


title: Mohammad Najibullah

text: He was educated at Habibia High School in Kabul, at St. Joseph's School in Baramulla, Jammu and Kashmir, India, and at Kabul University where he began studying in 1964 and completed his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) in 1975. However, he never practiced medicine. In 1965, during his study in Kabul, Najibullah joined the Parcham (Banner) faction of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) and was twice imprisoned for political activities. He served as Babrak Karmal's close associate and bodyguard during the latter's tenure in the lower house of parliament (1965–1973). In 1977, he was elected to the Central Committee. In April 1978, the PDPA took power in Afghanistan, with Najibullah a member of the ruling Revolutionary Council. However, the Khalq (People's) faction of the PDPA gained supremacy over his own Parcham (Banner) faction, and after a brief stint as Ambassador to Iran, he was dismissed from government and went into exile in Europe, until the Soviet Union intervened in 1979 and supported a Parcham-dominated government.


title: Mohammad Najibullah

text: In 1980, Najibullah was appointed the head of KHAD, the Afghan equivalent to the Soviet KGB, and was promoted to the rank of Major General. He was appointed following lobbying from the Soviets, including Yuri Andropov, then KGB Chairman. During his six years as head of KHAD he had two to four deputies under his command, who in turn were responsible for an estimated 12 departments. According to evidence, Najibullah was dependent on his family and his professional network, and more often than not appointed people he knew to top positions within the KHAD. In June 1981, Najibullah, along with Mohammad Aslam Watanjar, a former tank commander and the then Minister of Communications and Major General Mohammad Rafi, the Minister of Defence were appointed to the PDPA Politburo. Under Najibullah, KHAD's personnel increased from 120 to 25,000 to 30,000. KHAD employees were amongst the best-paid government bureaucrats in communist Afghanistan, and because of it, the political indoctrination of KHAD officials was a top priority. During a PDPA conference, Najibullah, talking about the indoctrination programme of KHAD officials, said "a weapon in one hand, a book in the other." Counter-insurgency activities launched by KHAD reached its peak under Najibullah. He reported directly to the Soviet KGB, and a big part of KHAD's budget came from the Soviet Union itself.


title: Mohammad Najibullah

text: As time would show, Najibullah was very efficient, and during his tenure as leader of KHAD, thousands were arrested, tortured, and executed. KHAD targeted anti-communist citizens, political opponents, and educated members of society. It was this efficiency which made him interesting to the Soviets. Because of this, KHAD became known for its ruthlessness. During his ascension to power, several Afghan politicians did not want Najibullah to succeed Babrak Karmal because Najibullah was known for exploiting his powers for his own benefit. Additionally, during his period as KHAD chief, the Pul-i Charki had become the home of several Khalqist politicians. Another problem was that Najibullah allowed graft, theft, bribery and corruption on a scale not seen previously. As would later be proven by the power struggle he had with Karmal after becoming PDPA General Secretary, despite Najibullah heading the KHAD for five years, Karmal still had sizeable support in the organisation.


title: Mohammad Najibullah

text: He was appointed to the PDPA Secretariat in November 1985. Najibullah's ascent to power was proven by turning KHAD from a government organ to a ministry in January 1986. With the situation in Afghanistan deteriorating, and the Soviet leadership looking for ways to withdraw, Mikhail Gorbachev wanted Karmal to resign as PDPA General Secretary. The question of who was to succeed Karmal was hotly debated, but Gorbachev supported Najibullah. Yuri Andropov, Boris Ponomarev and Dmitriy Ustinov all thought highly of Najibullah, and negotiations of who would succeed Karmal might have begun as early as 1983. Despite this, Najibullah was not the only choice the Soviets had. A GRU report argued that he was a Pashtun nationalist, a stance which could decrease the regime's popularity even more. The GRU preferred Assadullah Sarwari, earlier head of ASGA, the pre-KHAD secret police, who they believed would be better able to balance between the Pashtuns, Tajiks and Uzbeks. Another viable candidate was Abdul Qadir, who had been a participant in the Saur Revolution. Najibullah succeeded Karmal as PDPA General Secretary on 4 May 1986 at the 18th PDPA meeting, but Karmal still retained his post as Chairman of the Presidium of the Revolutionary Council.


title: Mohammad Najibullah

text: On 15 May, Najibullah announced that a collective leadership had been established, which was led by himself consisted of himself as head of party, Karmal as head of state and Sultan Ali Keshtmand as Chairman of the Council of Ministers. When Najibullah took the office of PDPA General Secretary, Karmal still had enough support in the party to disgrace Najibullah. Karmal went as far as to spread rumours that Najibullah's rule was little more than an interregnum, and that he would soon be reappointed to the general secretaryship. As it turned out, Karmal's power base during this period was KHAD. The Soviet leadership wanted to ease Karmal out of politics, but when Najibullah began to complain that he was hampering his plans of National Reconciliation, the Soviet Politburo decided to remove Karmal; this motion was supported by Andrei Gromyko, Yuli Vorontsov, Eduard Shevardnadze, Anatoly Dobrynin and Viktor Chebrikov. A meeting in the PDPA in November relieved Karmal of his Revolutionary Council chairmanship, and he was exiled to Moscow where he was given a state-owned apartment and a dacha. In his position as Revolutionary Council chairman Karmal was succeeded by Haji Mohammad Chamkani, who was not a member of the PDPA.


title: Mohammad Najibullah

text: In 1986, there were more than 100,000 political prisoners and there had been more than 16,500 extrajudicial executions. Its main objectives were the opponents of communism and the most educated classes in society.


title: Mohammad Najibullah

text: In September 1986, the National Compromise Commission (NCC) was established on the orders of Najibullah. The NCC's goal was to contact counter-revolutionaries "in order to complete the Saur Revolution in its new phase." Allegedly, an estimated 40,000 rebels were contacted by the government. At the end of 1986, Najibullah called for a six-months ceasefire and talks between the various opposition forces, this was part of his policy of National Reconciliation. The discussions, if fruitful, would lead to the establishment of a coalition government and be the end of the PDPA's monopoly of power. The programme failed, but the government was able to recruit disillusioned mujahideen fighters as government militias. In many ways, the National Reconciliation led to an increasing number of urban dwellers to support his rule, and the stabilisation of the Afghan defence forces.


title: Mohammad Najibullah

text: In September 1986, a new constitution was written, which was adopted on 29 November 1987. The constitution weakened the powers of the head of state by cancelling his absolute veto. The reason for this move, according to Najibullah, was the need for real-power sharing. On 13 July 1987, the official name of Afghanistan was changed from the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to Republic of Afghanistan, and in June 1988 the Revolutionary Council, whose members were elected by the party leadership, was replaced by a National Assembly, an organ in which members were to be elected by the people. The PDPA's socialist stance was denied even more than previously, in 1989 the Minister of Higher Education began to work on the "de-Sovietisation" of universities, and in 1990 it was even announced by a party member that all PDPA members were Muslims and that the party had abandoned Marxism. Many parts of the Afghan government's economic monopoly was also broken, this had more to do with the tight situation than any ideological conviction. Abdul Hakim Misaq, the Mayor of Kabul, even stated that traffickers of stolen goods would not be prosecuted by law as long as their goods were given to the market. Yuli Vorontsov, on Gorbachev's orders, was able to get an agreement with the PDPA leadership to offer the posts of Gossoviet chairman (the state planning organ), the Council of Ministers chairmanship (head of government), ministries of defence, state security, communications, finance, presidencies of banks and the Supreme Court. The PDPA still demanded it held on to all deputy ministers, retained its majority in the state bureaucracy and that it retained all its provincial governors. The government was not willing to concede all of these positions, and when the offer was broadcast, the ministries of defence and state security.


title: Mohammad Najibullah

text: Local elections were held in 1987. It began when the government introduced a law permitting the formation of other political parties, announced that it would be prepared to share power with representatives of opposition groups in the event of a coalition government, and issued a new constitution providing for a new bicameral National Assembly (Meli Shura), consisting of a Senate (Sena) and a House of Representatives (Wolesi Jirga), and a president to be indirectly elected to a 7-year term. The new political parties had to oppose colonialism, imperialism, neo-colonialism, Zionism, racial discrimination, apartheid and fascism. Najibullah stated that only the extremist part of the opposition could not join the planned coalition government. No parties had to share the PDPA's policy or ideology, but they could not oppose the bond between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. A parliamentary election was held in 1988. The PDPA won 46 seats in the House of Representatives and controlled the government with support from the National Front, which won 45 seats, and from various newly recognized left-wing parties, which had won a total of 24 seats. Although the election was boycotted by the Mujahideen, the government left 50 of the 234 seats in the House of Representatives, as well as a small number of seats in the Senate, vacant in the hope that the guerrillas would end their armed struggle and participate in the government. The only armed opposition party to make peace with the government was Hizbollah, a small Shi'a party not to be confused with the bigger party in Iran or the Lebanese organization.


title: Mohammad Najibullah

text: Several figures of the intelligentsia took Najibullah's offer seriously, even if they sympathised or were against the regime. Their hopes were dampened when the Najibullah government introduced the state of emergency on 18 February 1989, four days after the Soviet withdrawal. 1,700 intellectuals were arrested in February alone, and until November 1991 the government still supervised and restricted freedom of speech. Another problem was that party members took his policy seriously too, Najibullah recanted that most party members felt "panic and pessimism." At the Second Conference of the party, the majority of members, maybe up to 60 percent, were radical socialists. According to Soviet advisors (in 1987), a bitter debate within the party had broken out between those who advocated the Islamisation of the party and those who wanted to defend the gains of the Saur Revolution. Opposition to his policy of National Reconciliation was met party-wide, but especially from Karmalists. Many people did not support the handing out of the already small state resources the Afghan state had at its disposal. On the other side, several members were proclaiming anti-Soviet slogans as they accused the National Reconciliation programme to be supported and developed by the Soviet Union. Najibullah reassured the inter-party opposition that he would not give up the gains of the Saur Revolution, but to the contrary, preserve them, not give up the PDPA's monopoly on power, or to collaborate with reactionary Mullahs.