Tag: papacy and the pope

Vatican Fast Facts | CNN

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Here’s a look at the Vatican, also known as the Holy See, the spiritual and governing center of the Roman Catholic Church.

The full name of the country is State of Vatican City.

It stands on Vatican Hill in northwestern Rome, Italy west of the Tiber River. It is comprised of roughly 100 acres.

Tall stone walls surround most of Vatican City.

Historical documentation says that St. Peter was crucified at or near the Neronian Gardens on Vatican hill and buried at the foot of the hill directly under where the main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica now stands. Excavations at the basilica between 1940 and 1957 located the tomb believed to be St. Peter’s.

Vatican City has its own pharmacy, post office, telephone system and media outlets. The population is 1,000 (2022 est.)

The Vatican is an absolute monarchy. Full legislative, judicial and executive authority resides with the pope.

The world’s second-largest Christian church after the Yamoussoukro Basilica in Cote d’Ivoire. St. Peter’s is not a cathedral, which is a bishop’s principal church. The pope is the bishop of Rome, and his cathedral church is in Rome.

Built on the foundation of the first St. Peter’s, the new basilica took 120 years to complete. Masonry, sculpture, painting and mosaic work continued for nearly 200 years.

The dome of the basilica was designed by Michelangelo.

The church is shaped like a cross and is almost 650 feet long.

In the grottoes, beneath the basilica, is a papal burial chamber.

The Vatican Palaces consist of several connected buildings with over 1,000 rooms. Within the palaces there are apartments, chapels, museums, meeting rooms and government offices.

The Palace of Sixtus V is the pope’s residence.

The Vatican museums, archive, library, gardens and other offices make up the remainder of the palaces.

A separate structure from the basilica, designed for the papal court, was commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere.

It is the site of the papal conclave and where elections for the new pope are held.

It is one of the world’s most famous galleries of biblical art with the ceiling by Michelangelo, tapestries by Raphael and Rosselli’s Last Supper.

320s – Construction begins on the first St. Peter’s, by order of Constantine the Great.

1473-1481 – The Sistine Chapel is constructed.

April 18, 1506 – Pope Nicholas V begins rebuilding and expanding St. Peter’s Basilica.

1508-1512 – Michelangelo paints the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

February 11, 1929 – The signing of the Lateran Pacts between the Holy See and Italy establishes Vatican City State, the smallest independent nation in the world, covering only 109 acres.

June 7, 1929 – The Treaty of the Lateran is ratified. Pope Pius XI gives up all claims to the Papal States, and Italy agrees to the establishment of the independent State of Vatican City.

October 11, 1962-November 21, 1964 – The 21st Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church, known as Vatican II, is held under orders of Pope John XXIII. The council included 2,700 clergymen from all walks of Christiandom looking to improve relations with the Catholic Church. By the end of the council there is a new pope, Paul VI, a new constitution for the Church and new reforms.

June 2011 – Pope Benedict XVI sends the first Vatican tweet announcing the opening of a news site, “Dear Friends, I just launched News.va Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI.”

October 6, 2012 – The pope’s former butler Paolo Gabriele is convicted of aggravated theft for leaking confidential papal documents and sentenced to 18 months in prison. In December 2012, Gabriele is pardoned by the pope and released to his family.

November 10, 2012 – Claudio Sciarpelletti, a computer technician, receives a two-month suspended sentence for leaking Vatican secrets to the media.

May 2013 – Missio, a smartphone app, is launched by Pope Francis. The app provides Catholic news from the Vatican and around the world.

November 24, 2013 – The Vatican exhibits the bones of a man long believed to be St. Peter, one of the founding fathers of the Christian church, for the first time.

January 10, 2019 – The Holy See launches its official athletics team after receiving the blessing of the Italian Olympic Committee. Among the first members of the Vatican Athletics track team are nuns, priests, Swiss Guards, museum workers, carpenters and maintenance workers.

March 2, 2020 – The Vatican opens its secret archives containing World War II-era documents from the controversial papacy of Pope Pius XII.

December 24, 2020 – Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the pope holds a sparsely attended Christmas Eve mass with only 200 people in attendance, including 30 cardinals. The Christmas Eve mass, which usually attracts up to 10,000 people, is a landmark event in Vatican City.

July 3, 2021 – The Vatican releases a statement saying that it has indicted 10 people, including an Italian cardinal, for several alleged financial crimes including extortion, corruption, fraud, forgery, embezzlement and abuse of power. The investigation, which started in July 2019, was carried out by the Vatican in cooperation with Italian authorities and revealed “a vast network of ties between financial market operators who generated substantial losses for the Vatican finances.” In December 2023, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu is sentenced to five and a half years in prison for his role in financial crimes. Others indicted are convicted on some counts and acquitted on others. One, Monsignor Mauro Carlino, former secretary to Becciu, is acquitted on all counts.

June 22, 2023 – The Vatican announces it will hand over evidence in the disappearance of a 15-year-old daughter of one of its employees 40 years ago to the Rome city prosecutor. Emanuela Orlandi, who was the daughter of a prominent Vatican employee and lived within the walls of the holy city, disappeared in the summer of 1983 while on her way home from a music lesson in central Rome. The Vatican – which has come under scrutiny over the years for its handling of the case – announced in January that it had opened a fresh investigation.

November 16, 2023 – The Vatican announces that, as part of a move to reduce its carbon emissions, it will gradually electrify its fleet of vehicles. The Holy See also pledges to build a charging network within Vatican City and in other areas it controls. The city state plans to ensure that electricity for its charging network comes from renewable sources.

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March 28, 2024
Pope Francis warns about AI’s dangers | CNN Business

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Pope Francis warned that artificial intelligence could pose a risk to society, highlighting its “disruptive possibilities and ambivalent effects” and urging those who would develop or use AI to do so responsibly.

In a statement Tuesday, Francis alluded to the threat of algorithmic bias in technology and called on the public for vigilance “so that a logic of violence and discrimination does not take root in the production and use of such devices, at the expense of the most fragile and excluded.”

“Injustice and inequalities fuel conflicts and antagonisms,” Francis continued. “The urgent need to orient the concept and use of artificial intelligence in a responsible way, so that it may be at the service of humanity and the protection of our common home, requires that ethical reflection be extended to the sphere of education and law.”

Francis’s remarks dovetail with calls by some AI experts to ensure that algorithms are properly “aligned” in development to support human rights and other widely shared values. Other industry experts and policymakers have expressed concerns that AI could facilitate the spread of fraud, misinformation, cyberattacks and perhaps even the creation of biological weapons.

Francis himself has been the subject of AI-generated deepfakes. Earlier this year, an AI-generated image of Francis wearing a white, puffy Balenciaga-inspired coat went viral.

Tuesday’s message announced the theme for 2024’s World Day of Peace, which the Pope said would focus on AI and peace.

“The protection of the dignity of the person,” he said, “and concern for a fraternity effectively open to the entire human family, are indispensable conditions for technological development to help contribute to the promotion of justice and peace in the world.”

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August 2, 2023
Pope Francis says the Vatican is involved in a peace mission to end the war in Ukraine | CNN

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The Vatican is part of a peace mission to end the war in Ukraine, Pope Francis said Sunday.

“The mission is in the course now, but it is not yet public. When it is public, I will reveal it,” Francis told reporters.

The pontiff made the remarks as he returned to Rome following a three-day trip to the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

During his visit, Francis met with a representative from the pro-Kremlin Russian Orthodox church, Metropolitan Hilarion, and separately with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Asked if the meetings could accelerate peace, Francis said: “I believe that peace is always made by opening channels; peace can never be made by closure.”

Also asked if he was willing to help facilitate the return of Ukrainian children taken to Russia, the pope said: “The Holy See is willing to act because it is right, it just is.”

At a meeting with the pope last week, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal asked for his assistance with the children’s return.

Francis also heard testimony from refugees – many from Ukraine – and appealed to the importance of charity during his Budapest visit.

On Sunday, the pontiff also told reporters that he was feeling better after being hospitalized in late March with a respiratory infection.

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April 30, 2023
Minneapolis reaches settlements in 2 suits alleging then-officer Derek Chauvin used excessive force years before George Floyd’s killing | CNN

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The city of Minneapolis has reached settlements totaling more than $8.8 million in two civil lawsuits that accuse former police officer Derek Chauvin of using excessive force in two incidents that happened nearly three years before he killed George Floyd during an arrest.

The plaintiffs, John Pope and Zoya Code – both Black – said Chauvin restrained them on the ground with his knee on their necks, a move similar to the one he would later deploy on Floyd and which was determined be a contributing factor in his death.

Chauvin was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for Floyd’s 2020 murder, during which the former officer knelt on the 46-year-old Black man’s neck for more than nine minutes as he cried out, “I can’t breathe.”

The Minneapolis City Council unanimously voted Thursday to approve a $7.5 million settlement in Pope’s case and a $1.375 million in Code’s case, the city said in a release.

Their lawsuits alleged that the Minneapolis Police Department’s failure to intervene in Chauvin’s pattern of excessive force ultimately led to Floyd’s killing. The two suits collectively named seven other Minneapolis police officers who were present during the arrests as defendants.

“Derek Chauvin is exactly where he should be, which is in federal prison,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said during a media conference on Thursday. “He should have been fired in 2017. He should have been held accountable in 2017. … If the supervisors had done the right thing, George Floyd would not have been murdered.”

Frey went on to apologize to Pope, Code and any others who have “experienced this kind of egregious conduct at the hands of Derek Chauvin.”

The attorney who represented Pope and Code, Bob Bennett, said Thursday that problem far exceeds Chauvin.

“Beware the ease of blaming Chauvin alone. While he is a blunt instrument of police brutality and racism, he could never flourish in a police agency that lived up to its mission statement,” Bennett said in a statement.

They urged people to “focus instead on the MPD rank and file who supported Chauvin with their unquestioning obedience, failure to intervene to stop his heinous acts, and their failure to report them per policy and human conscience.”

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara apologized Thursday to Pope and Code and called Chauvin “a national embarrassment to the policing profession.”

“This is an example of the cancer that has infected this department,” O’Hara said. “Today is not a day for excuses or attempts at justification. The notion that we are dealing with the bad actions of one employee is false. We are dealing with the ugly consequences stemming from a systemic failure within the Minneapolis Police Department that has allowed for, and at times encouraged, unjust and brutal policing.”

The US Department of Justice launched a federal civil investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department’s practices in April 2021.

CNN has attempted to reach out to Chauvin’s attorney for comment.

Code encountered Chauvin on June 25, 2017, when he and another officer responded to a call in which Code’s mother reported her daughter assaulted her, the lawsuit states.

While in the home, the officers forced Code to the ground and handcuffed her “without incident,” according to the lawsuit. Chauvin then carried her out of the house by her arms, which were handcuffed behind her back, it says.

“Outside the residence, Defendant Chauvin gratuitously slammed Zoya’s unprotected head on the ground. Then he immediately took his signature pose, kneeing on the back of Zoya’s neck,” the lawsuit states. The city said in its Thursday release that Chauvin knelt on her for several minutes, even after she had been restrained by a hobble.

Chauvin later lied about the encounter in his police report and “left out critical information about the interaction,” the city said.

Code’s experience was “strikingly similar” to that of Pope, who was 14 years old at the time of his September 4, 2017 arrest, their attorneys said.

While responding to a domestic dispute call, Chauvin repeatedly struck Pope in the head with a metal flashlight and pinned him to the floor with his knee on Pope’s upper back and neck for more than 15 minutes, the lawsuit states.

“Many significant details in the officers’ reports are not consistent with what happened,” during their interaction with Pope that day, the city said.

That encounter led to a federal civil rights indictment against Chauvin, who pleaded guilty to all charges in December 2021, admitting to using “unreasonable and excessive force.”

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April 13, 2023
Pope jokes he’s ‘still alive’ as he leaves hospital | CNN

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Pope Francis joked that he is “still alive” as he left a hospital in Rome where he spent the past few days being treated for a respiratory infection.

He stopped to talk to journalists after being discharged from Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Saturday morning.

The Pontiff was in good spirits when he replied to CNN’s Delia Gallagher’s questions about how he was feeling, telling her “[I’m] still alive, you know!”

When asked if he got scared on Wednesday due to his respiratory problems, the Pope recalled what an “old man” told him after going through a similar situation.

“An old man, older than me, told me after a situation like this: ‘Father, I didn’t see death, but I saw it coming. It’s ugly, eh!’”

Pope Francis, 86, was taken to Gemelli hospital on Wednesday and was given antibiotics to treat infectious bronchitis.

The pontiff – who as a young man suffered from severe pneumonia and had part of a lung removed – has had a recent history of medical issues.

He has often been seen with a walking stick and sometimes uses a wheelchair due to pain in his right knee. Last year, he canceled a trip to Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan after doctors said he might also have to miss a later trip to Canada unless he agreed to have 20 more days of therapy and rest for his knee. He ultimately went to the DRC and South Sudan in February.

Francis also suffers from diverticulitis, a common condition that can cause the inflammation or infection of the colon. In 2021, he had surgery to remove part of his colon.

The Pope is expected to participate in a Palm Sunday Mass service in St Peter’s Square, the Vatican says.

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April 1, 2023
Pope Francis expands Catholic Church sexual abuse law to cover lay leaders | CNN

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Pope Francis has updated a 2019 church law governing clerical sexual abuse and extended it to include accountability for Catholic lay leaders of Vatican-approved religious organizations.

Lay leaders are people other than clergy members who are on the professional rosters of the church.

The norms were first defined by Francis in an Apostolic letter, Vos estis lux mundi, in 2019 and were originally mandated for a four-year period.

Francis has now made minor changes to that document and made it permanent, effective April 30, according to a document released by the Vatican on Saturday.

For decades the Catholic Church has been plagued by a series of sex abuse scandals in countries around the world.

The new norms represent Pope Francis’ pledge to offer “concrete measures” to combat sexual abuse.

One of the changes includes provisions for holding lay leaders of Vatican-approved associations accountable for cover-ups of sexual abuse. The norms previously only related to bishops and religious superiors.

Another change involves the definition of abuse victims, which previously referred to “minors and vulnerable persons.”

The updated document now specifies “a minor, or with a person who habitually has an imperfect use of reason, or with a vulnerable adult.”

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March 25, 2023
Pope Francis attracts more than one million worshippers to DRC Mass | CNN

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More than one million people attended Pope Francis’ Mass in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Wednesday, the Vatican Press Office said, citing figures estimated by local authorities.

Francis’ trip to the DRC – the first papal visit since 1985 – comes at a time the African nation is beset by armed fighting and a worsening refugee crisis.

It is part of a six-day trip in the DRC and South Sudan – two countries where Catholics comprise about half of the population and the Church is a key stakeholder in health and education systems as well as in democracy-building efforts. Both countries have abundant natural resources, but are grappling with poverty and strife.

A CNN team on the ground witnessed crowds singing and dancing at N’Dolo Airport from the early hours of the morning, waiting for their first glimpse of the Pope, who toured the air field in an open Popemobile.

Francis spoke to attendees in his homily about peace and directly challenged those who wield weapons.

“May it be the right time for you, who in this country call yourself a Christian but commit violence,” Francis said. “To you the Lord says, ‘Put down your arms and embrace mercy.’”

“We Christians are called to cooperate with everyone, to break the cycle of violence, to dismantle the machinations of hatred,” the Pope said.

Francis said the population was suffering from “wounds that ache, continually infected by hatred and violence, while the medicine of justice and the balm of hope never seem to arrive,” according to Reuters.

Decades of militia violence have taken grip of the DRC, as state forces struggle to curb rebel groups. Conflict between government troops and the M23 rebel group, which seeks control of the country from its stronghold in eastern DRC, has left many dead and displaced thousands.

According to the UN World Food Programme, 26 million people in the DRC face severe hunger.

Francis met with victims of violence from the east during his visit, and said he was “left without words” after hearing their harrowing stories.

“We can only weep in silence,” the Pope said, as he thanked the victims for their courageous testimony.

He is scheduled to leave Kinshasa Friday for South Sudan’s capital, Juba, where he will be joined by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Iain Greenshields.

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February 1, 2023
Pope Francis to visit two fragile African nations | CNN

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Pope Francis starts a trip on Tuesday to two fragile African nations often forgotten by the world, where protracted conflicts have left millions of refugees and displaced people grappling with hunger.

The Jan. 31-Feb 5 visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan, takes the 86-year-old pope to places where Catholics make up about half of the populations and where the Church is a key player in health and education systems as well as in democracy-building efforts.

The trip was scheduled to take place last July but was postponed because Francis was suffering a flare-up of a chronic knee ailment. He still uses a wheelchair and cane, but his knee has improved significantly.

Both countries are rich in natural resources – DRC in minerals and South Sudan in oil – but beset with poverty and strife.

DRC, which is the second-largest country in Africa and has a population of about 90 million, is getting its first visit by a pope since John Paul II travelled there in 1985 when it was known as Zaire.

Francis had planned to visit the eastern city of Goma but that stop was scrapped following the resurgence of fighting between the army and the M23 rebel group in the area where Italy’s ambassador, his bodyguard and driver were killed in an ambush in 2021.

Francis will stay in the capital, Kinshasa, but will meet there with victims of violence from the east.

“Congo is a moral emergency that cannot be ignored,” the Vatican’s ambassador to DRC, Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, told Reuters.

According to the U.N. World Food Programme, 26 million people in the DRC face severe hunger.

The country’s 45 million-strong Catholic Church has a long history of promoting democracy and, as the pope arrives, it is gearing up to monitor elections scheduled for December.

“Our hope for the Congo is that this visit will reinforce the Church’s engagement in support of the electoral process,” said Britain’s ambassador to the Vatican, Christ Trott, who spent many years as a diplomat in Africa.

DRC is getting its first visit by a pope since John Paul II travelled there in 1985 when it still was known as Zaire.

The trip takes on an unprecedented nature on Friday when the pope leaves Kinshasa for South Sudan’s capital, Juba.

That leg is being made with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Iain Greenshields.

“Together, as brothers, we will live an ecumenical journey of peace,” Francis told tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square for his Sunday address.

The three Churches represent the Christian makeup of the world’s youngest country, which gained independence in 2011 from predominantly Muslim Sudan after decades of conflict and has a population of around 11 million.

“This will be a historic visit,” Welby said. “After centuries of division, leaders of three different parts of (Christianity) are coming together in an unprecedented way.”

Two years after independence, conflict erupted when forces loyal to President Salva Kiir clashed with those loyal to Vice President Riek Machar, who is from a different ethnic group. The bloodshed spiralled into a civil war that killed 400,000 people.

A 2018 deal stopped the worst of the fighting, but parts of the agreement – including the deployment of a re-unified national army – have not yet been implemented.

There are 2.2 million internally displaced people in South Sudan and another 2.3 million have fled the country as refugees, according to the United Nations, which has praised the Catholic Church as a “powerful and active force in building peace and reconciliation in conflict-torn regions”.

In one of the most remarkable gestures since his papacy began in 2013, Francis knelt to kiss the feet of South Sudan’s previously warring leaders during a retreat at the Vatican in April 2019, urging them not to return to civil war.

Trott, a former ambassador in South Sudan, said he hoped the three Churchmen can convince political leaders to “fulfil the promise of the independence movement”.

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January 30, 2023
Pope Francis leads funeral for predecessor Benedict XVI, a first in modern times | CNN

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Pope Francis paid tribute to his predecessor former Pope Benedict XVI Thursday, in a funeral attended by tens of thousands of mourners at St. Peter’s Square.

The event marked the first occasion in modern times that a pontiff had presided over the funeral of his predecessor – and the first ever of one who resigned. Benedict, the first pontiff in almost 600 years to resign his position, rather than hold office for life, died aged 95 on December 31 at a monastery in Vatican City.

It was an occasion characterized by simplicity, as per the wish of the former pope. “It’s difficult to have a simple service in St. Peter’s Square, but I think it was,” Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest, writer and editor, told CNN’s Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo on CNN Newsroom.

“You have to have some pomp and ceremony for a former pope, but I think within the guidelines of what Pope Emeritus Benedict wanted, it succeeded very well.”

About 50,000 people attended the funeral in St. Peter’s Square according to Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni, with many members of the crowd calling for the late pope to be consecrated a saint.

The attendance compared with an estimated 1.1 million people for the funeral of Benedict’s predecessor, Pope John Paul II. There were 500,000 people in St. Peter’s Square and the surrounding area in 2005, and another 600,000 who watched on video screens in other parts of Rome.

John Paul II’s funeral was the largest gathering of heads of state ever outside the United Nations. Delegations included nine monarchs along with 70 presidents and prime ministers.

Over the six days between John Paul II’s death and his funeral, an estimated 3 million people came to pay their final respects. Each hour, 21,000 people passed through St. Peter’s Basilica. The average wait to see the pope was 13 hours, and at its maximum the line was 3 miles long.

In pictures: The funeral of former Pope Benedict XVI

Dignitaries and religious leaders lined the square on Thursday, which can seat approximately 60,000 people, for the ceremony. Prime Minister Petr Fiala of the Czech Republic, was among those in attendance, according to CNN affiliate CNN Prima.

The ceremony was similar to that of a reigning pope but with some modifications. Benedict was named pope emeritus during the funeral, and the language of some prayers was different because he was not the reigning pope when he died.

Francis started leading the mass Thursday morning, during which he gave a homily at about 10 a.m. local time (4 a.m. ET). Members of the crowd later took part in a Communion.

Benedict’s coffin was transported through the Basilica and transferred to the Vatican crypt for the burial, in the first tomb of John Paul II. The tomb was vacated after John Paul II’s body and remains were moved to a chapel inside the Basilica after he became a saint.

As Benedict’s coffin was carried to St. Peter’s Basilica, many members of the crowd could be heard chanting “Santo Subito,” which is a call for the Pope Emeritus to become a saint immediately.

“God’s faithful people, gathered here, now accompanies and entrusts to him the life of the one who was their pastor,” Francis said as he delivered the homily.

“Like the women at the tomb, we too have come with the fragrance of gratitude and the balm of hope, in order to show him once more the love that is undying. We want to do this with the same wisdom, tenderness and devotion that he bestowed upon us over the years. Together, we want to say: ‘Father, into your hands we commend his spirit.’

“Benedict, faithful friend of the Bridegroom, may your joy be complete as you hear his voice, now and forever,” Francis added.

At the time of the burial during the rite, a webbing was placed around the coffin with the seals of the apostolic chamber, the pontifical house and liturgical celebrations. The cypress coffin was placed inside a zinc coffin that is soldered and sealed, and subsequently placed inside a wooden coffin, which was buried, according to Bruni.

The ceremony is expected to end at around 11:15 a.m. local time (5.15 a.m. ET).

High-profile dignitaries including Queen Sofia of Spain and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz are set to attend the funeral, alongside US Ambassador to the Holy See Joe Donelly.

Benedict was elected pope in April 2005 following John Paul II’s death. He was known to be more conservative than his successor, Pope Francis, who has made moves to soften the Vatican’s position on abortion and homosexuality, as well as doing more to deal with the sexual abuse crisis that has engulfed the church in recent years and clouded Benedict’s legacy.

The scroll that was put inside Pope Benedict XVI’s coffin, which is a biography of his life and mentions some of the most important moments of his tenure, recalls that he “firmly” fought against pedophilia.

“He firmly fought against crimes committed by members of the clergy against minors or vulnerable persons, continually calling the Church to conversion, prayer, penance and purification,” the scroll said.

His death prompted tributes from political and religious leaders including US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the Dalai Lama.

About 200,000 mourners, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella, paid their respects to the former pontiff earlier this week during his lying-in-state in St. Peter’s Basilica.

The public viewing of Benedict finished Wednesday, before an intimate religious rite during which items including coins and medals minted over his tenure and a scroll about the pontificate were placed into his sealed cypress coffin ahead of the funeral.

Meloni paid homage to “enlightened theologian” Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in a tweet on Thursday.

“Today in St. Peter’s to bid a last farewell to Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus. Enlightened theologian who leaves us a spiritual and intellectual legacy of faith, trust and hope,” Meloni tweeted after the funeral, which she attended.

“We have the task of always preserving and honoring it and of carrying on its precious teachings,” she added.

The Italian government previously announced on Wednesday that Italian and European flags would be flying at half-staff on public buildings across Italy on Thursday.

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January 5, 2023
Biden remembers Pope Benedict XVI as ‘renowned theologian, with a lifetime of devotion to the Church’ | CNN Politics

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President Joe Biden mourned the passing of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, saying in a statement Saturday that the late pontiff “will be remembered as a renowned theologian, with a lifetime of devotion to the Church, guided by his principles and faith.”

Benedict died Saturday at the age of 95 in a Vatican monastery, according to a statement from the Vatican. He was the first pope in almost 600 years to resign his position, rather than hold office for life, doing so in 2013.

Biden, the second Catholic to serve as president of the United States, reflected on his meeting with Benedict at the Vatican in 2011, recalling the late pontiff’s “generosity and welcome as well as our meaningful conversation.”

“As he remarked during his 2008 visit to the White House, ‘the need for global solidarity is as urgent as ever, if all people are to live in a way worthy of their dignity.’ May his focus on the ministry of charity continue to be an inspiration to us all,” Biden said Saturday.

Benedict’s funeral will be held on Thursday in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City at 9:30 a.m. local time, the Vatican statement said. The funeral will be led by Pope Francis.

Benedict was a polarizing figure, hailed by conservatives who admired his erudite writings and careful theology. But he faced criticism, particularly in the postmodern West, for his staunch insistence on fidelity to church doctrine and his willingness to silence dissent. He also came under fire for his handling of the sexual abuse crisis that engulfed the Catholic Church during his years as a senior cleric.

Benedict met with three sitting US presidents – in addition to future President Biden – during his time as leader of the Catholic Church.

“It was like going back to theology class,” Biden told America, a Jesuit publication, in 2015 of his meeting with Benedict. “And by the way, he wasn’t judgmental. He was open. I came away enlivened from the discussion.”

In pictures: The life of Pope Benedict XVI

Benedict met with his first sitting president in 2007 when George W. Bush traveled to the Vatican. Benedict made his only papal visit to the United States the following year. Bush took the rare step of meeting the pope when his plane arrived at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, DC, and he later welcomed Benedict to the White House with an arrival ceremony on the South Lawn where thousands gathered and sang “Happy Birthday” to the pope, who turned 81 that day.

Later that year, Bush visited Benedict at the Vatican, where the two men strolled through the Vatican Gardens and met privately for roughly 30 minutes.

In 2009, President Barack Obama met with Benedict for 30 minutes at the Vatican. Officials at the time said their meeting included discussions on addressing poverty and the Middle East, as well as issues such as abortion and stem cell research.

Abortion also appeared to be a topic of discussion during Biden’s meeting with Benedict. In his 2015 interview with America, Biden said the two men spoke about Catholic doctrine and the then-vice president’s view that he should not impose his own beliefs on other people, including on issues such as abortion.

Benedict talked about Biden’s abortion stance after he became president in 2021.

“It’s true, he’s Catholic and observant. And personally, he is against abortion,” Benedict said in an interview with The Tablet, a Catholic publication. “But as president, he tends to present himself in continuity with the line of the Democratic Party … and on gender policy, we still don’t really understand what his position is.”

Biden also spoke of Benedict at a White House event this summer, calling him a “great theologian, a very conservative theologian.” The president shared that Benedict had asked him for advice when they met.

“‘Well, one piece of advice,’ I said, ‘I’d go easy on the nuns. They’re more popular than you are,’” Biden recounted to laughter.

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December 31, 2022
Pope Francis has already signed resignation letter in case of bad health | CNN

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Pope Francis has revealed in a new interview that he has already signed his resignation letter to be used in the event of him becoming “impaired.”

Francis made the comment in an interview with Spanish news outlet ABC, published Sunday, when asked what would happen if a pope is suddenly rendered unable to perform his duties due to health issues or an accident.

Francis said he wrote the letter several years ago and gave it to then-Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who resigned in 2013.

“I have already signed my renunciation. The Secretary of State at the time was Tarcisio Bertone. I signed it and said: ‘If I should become impaired for medical reasons or whatever, here is my renunciation,’” Francis was quoted as saying.

“I don’t know who Cardinal Bertone has given that letter to, but I handed it to him when he was the Secretary of State,” Francis said, adding that this was the first time he had spoken publicly about the letter’s existence.

Francis said past pontiffs Paul VI and Pious XII had also drafted their letters of renunciation in the event of a permanent impairment.

Francis, 86, appears to be in good health apart from knee problems. He has often been seen with a walking stick and sometimes uses a wheelchair due to pain in his right knee.

Earlier this year, he canceled a trip to Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan after doctors said he might also have to miss a later trip to Canada unless he agreed to have 20 more days of therapy and rest for his right knee.

Last year, he had surgery to remove part of his colon due to diverticulitis, a common condition.

In 2013, Francis’ immediate predecessor, Pope Benedict, made the almost unprecedented decision to resign from his position, citing the reason as “advanced age” and startling the Catholic world.

It marked the first time a pope had stepped down in nearly 600 years. The last pope to step down before his death was Gregory XII, who in 1415 quit to end a civil war within the church in which more than one man claimed to be pope.

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December 18, 2022