Chronic illness remains but pontiff, 88, is stable and in good humour, doctor says
Pope Francis, who is in hospital undergoing treatment for double pneumonia, is “not yet out of danger” and will remain in hospital for at least the whole of next week, one of his doctors has said.
Francis, 88, was stable but “the chronic illness remains”, Sergio Alfieri, a general surgeon at Rome’s Gemelli university hospital, told reporters on Friday.
Continue reading...Pontiff, 88, already in hospital when latest diagnosis made, as Vatican confirms medical situation is ‘complex’
Pope Francis has been diagnosed with double pneumonia after further tests showed a continuing “complex” medical situation, the Vatican said in a statement on Tuesday.
The pontiff, 88, underwent a chest X-ray, which “demonstrated the onset of bilateral pneumonia that required further pharmacological therapy”.
Continue reading...Pontiff to receive treatment for bronchitis after having difficulty breathing during meeting
Pope Francis has cancelled his scheduled events over the next few days after being hospitalised, the Vatican said.
The pontiff, who has been suffering from bronchitis, was admitted to Gemelli hospital in Rome on Friday after reportedly having breathing difficulties during one of his meetings.
Continue reading...Sodalitium of Christian Life ended after investigation found sexual and spiritual abuses and financial mismanagement
Pope Francis has taken the remarkable step of dissolving a Peruvian-based Catholic movement, the Sodalitium of Christian Life (SCV), after years of attempts at reform and a Vatican investigation. The investigation uncovered sexual abuses by its founder, financial mismanagement by its leaders and spiritual abuses by its top members.
The Sodalitium on Monday confirmed the dissolution, which was conveyed to an assembly of its members in Aparecida, Brazil at the weekend by the pope’s top legal adviser, Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda. In revealing the dissolution in a statement, the group lamented that news of Francis’s decision had been leaked by two members attending the assembly, who were “definitively expelled”.
Continue reading...Appointment of progressive Robert McElroy comes as rightwing Catholics wield significant influence in US capital
When the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, sought to shut down a Catholic charity that was was providing shelter and aid to undocumented migrants at the border, the San Diego cardinal, Robert McElroy, took a robust public stand against the attempt.
“The state of Texas is using governmental pressure to curtail the work of the Church in one of its most fundamental obligations: to feed the hungry, to shelter the homeless, and to provide drink to the thirsty,” McElroy said in a statement at the time. “No government can morally tell us to abandon or limit this mission.”
Continue reading...Twenty-nine-metre tall fir destined to be chopped down and transported to St Peter’s Square in the Vatican
Environmental campaigners in Italy’s northern Trentino province have started a campaign to stop the felling of a 200-year-old fir tree intended to form the centrepiece of the Vatican’s Christmas decorations.
The so-called “Green Giant” is 29 metres tall and is due to be chopped down next week in a forest in the Ledro valley before being transported to the Vatican and positioned in St Peter’s Square, where it will be unveiled on 9 December.
Continue reading...Newlyweds nicknamed ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by Italian media had both refused to resign so other could keep job
A man and woman have been fired from their jobs at the Vatican bank because they flouted a ban on marriage between employees.
The young couple, nicknamed “Romeo and Juliet” by the Italian media, got married in August, after the bank imposed a rule banning marriage between employees aimed at preventing nepotism.
Continue reading...More than 100 comics from around the world including Jimmy Fallon and Chris Rock visited the pontiff on Friday
Pope Francis said that laughing at God “is not blasphemy” as he met more than 100 comedians from around the world at the Vatican on Friday, encouraging them to use their powerful gift of humour to spread laughter “in the midst of so much gloomy news”.
The pontiff, himself prone to the odd quip, invited comedians including Jimmy Fallon, Chris Rock, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Stephen Merchant to the audience at the Apostolic Palace as part of his attempt to engage with contemporary culture.
Continue reading...Updated guidelines strip bishops of power to recognise ‘supernatural’ nature of purportedly divine events
Apparitions of the Virgin Mary and weeping statues have been part of Catholicism for centuries, but the age of social media has prompted the Vatican to issue a crackdown against potential scams and hoaxes.
New rules issued on Friday say that only a pope, rather than local bishops, can declare apparitions and revelations to be “supernatural”. The document, Norms for Proceeding in the Discernment of Alleged Supernatural Phenomena, updates previous guidance issued in 1978 that is now considered “inadequate”.
Continue reading...Petition by 49 employees could lead to Holy See being taken to court for ‘undermining dignity and health’
Forty-nine employees at the Vatican Museums have started an unprecedented legal dispute over job conditions and workplace safety, which could lead to the Holy See being taken to court.
The staff, mostly custodians who have worked at the museums for years, claim they are treated as “commodities” by Pope Francis’s administration, according to a report in Corriere della Sera.
Continue reading...Pope Francis to attend installation that includes short film featuring Zoë Saldaña and Giudecca inmates
Originally a convent dating to the 13th century, and once a reformatory for prostitutes, the Giudecca women’s prison, set on an island in the Venetian lagoon, will this summer perform a quite different role: as the official pavilion for the Vatican at this year’s Venice Biennale.
Pope Francis is due to attend on 28 April – the first pontifical visit to the Biennale since it was founded in 1895. In the women’s prison he will see a work by Maurizio Cattelan, who notoriously created a hyper-real sculpture in 1999 depicting Pope John Paul II struck down by a meteorite.
Continue reading...Pontiff thought be be responding to conservative critics after sexually explicit book by cardinal resurfaces
“Sexual pleasure is a gift from God” but Catholics must avoid pornography, Pope Francis has said.
The pontiff made the remarks during a catechesis devoted to the “vice of lust” at his general audience in Saint Peter’s Square on Wednesday.
Continue reading...New practice does not endorse homosexuality but is not heretical, Catholic church says amid opposition from some bishops
The Vatican has stressed that allowing priests to bless same-sex couples is not an endorsement of homosexuality, but neither is it blasphemous, after some Catholic bishops reacted negatively to the measure announced last month.
Pope Francis approved a ruling in December allowing priests to bless unmarried and same-sex couples so long as the blessing was performed without any type of ritualisation and did not give the impression of the church’s approval of the relationship.
Continue reading...Highest-ranking church official ever to stand trial before Vatican criminal court sentenced to five years and six months in jail
A Vatican court on Saturday sentenced a once powerful Italian cardinal to five years and six months in jail for financial crimes at the end of a historic trial.
Angelo Becciu, 75, a former adviser to Pope Francis who was once considered a papal contender himself, is the most senior clergyman in the Catholic church to face a Vatican criminal court.
Continue reading...Pontiff tells Mexican broadcaster he will break with tradition and simplify papal funeral
Pope Francis has said he has “already prepared” his tomb in a Rome basilica in a further sign of the pontiff’s quest to break from longstanding Vatican tradition.
Francis, who turns 87 on 17 December, told the Mexican broadcaster N+ that he would be laid to rest in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in the Esquilino neighbourhood in Rome, where he goes to pray before and after trips overseas.
Continue reading...Pope cancelled Saturday activities due to ‘light flu’ a week before key climate address
Pope Francis has undergone hospital tests after he came down with the flu but the results ruled out any respiratory problems, the Vatican said.
Francis, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, underwent a Cat scan, the Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said.
Continue reading...Rare move comes after years of criticism from Strickland, a strong supporter of former US president Donald Trump
Pope Francis has dismissed a bishop in Texas, Joseph Strickland, one of his fiercest critics among US Roman Catholic conservatives, the Vatican has said.
It is very rare for a bishop to be relieved of his duties outright. Usually bishops in trouble with the Vatican are asked to resign before submitting a resignation, which the pope accepts.
Continue reading...Ulma family including unborn child all beatified for their actions to help Jews during second world war
The Vatican has beatified a Polish family of nine – a married couple and their small children – who were executed by the Nazis during the second world war for sheltering Jews.
During a ceremonious mass in the village of Markowa, in south-east Poland, the papal envoy Cardinal Marcello Semeraro read out the Latin formula of the beatification of the Ulma family signed last month by Pope Francis.
Continue reading...Prayer will instead be said in his suite after chief surgeon says Francis should avoid strain on abdomen
Pope Francis’s recovery from surgery is going well but doctors have advised him not to deliver his Sunday blessing from a hospital balcony to avoid strain on his abdomen, his surgeon said.
Briefing reporters at the Gemelli hospital on Saturday, chief surgeon Sergio Alfieri also said the 86-year-old had agreed with doctors to stay there for at least all of next week.
Continue reading...Pope Francis offers help repatriating Ukrainian children from Russia as Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets select leaders in Italy
Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked Pope Francis on Saturday to back Kyiv’s peace plan, and the pope indicated the Vatican would help in the repatriation of Ukrainian children taken by Russians.
The Ukrainian president was in Rome for a one-day whistle-stop visit, also meeting Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, and the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.
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