In a final act of compassion and legacy, Pope Francis’ Popemobile is being repurposed into a mobile health unit traveling across Gaza to provide crucial medical care for children. This transformation is part of the Vatican’s plan to carry out the Pope’s final wishes, extending his legacy of peace, care, and healing. The Popemobile, once […]
In global diplomacy, the Pope’s dual role as both spiritual leader of the Catholic Church and head of state of Vatican City creates unique responsibilities and relationships with nations worldwide. Recent controversy surrounding diplomatic protocols highlights how this duality is often misunderstood. The Vatican’s Sovereign Status The Pope serves as the sovereign of Vatican City […]
Pope Francis’ wooden coffin was carried into St. Peter’s Square on Saturday at the start of a funeral Mass attended by a multitude of mourners, including powerful world leaders, clerics and pilgrims. Applause rang out as the coffin, inlaid with a large cross, was brought out of St. Peter’s Basilica and into the sun-filled square by 14 […]
With no one watching from below his windows to represent the embrace of the outside world on Monday morning, Francis died far more privately.
Pope Francis died at 7:35 am in his apartment at the Santa Marta residence in the Vatican. According to the certificate published by the Vatican, the pope had fallen into a coma before passing away early on Monday.
Predicting the outcome of the highly secretive papal conclave is near impossible as cardinals’ positions shift over successive votes and some try to game the system to influence the chances of their favoured – or least-favoured – candidates. In the last conclave in 2013, few predicted that Jorge Mario Bergoglio would be elected as Pope Francis. At […]
As an at-times unwitting star on social media, Pope Francis knew how to exploit the internet to preach the gospel, broadening the Church’s appeal while modernising its communications. Yet the head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, who died on Monday, likewise regularly warned against the scourge of disinformation, and in recent years took aim […]
When the Pope dies (or resigns, as in the rare case of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013), the cardinals are summoned to a meeting at the Vatican, followed by the conclave, as the election is known.
The Vatican has now entered an interregnum period known as Sede Vacante—the throne of St. Peter is empty.
The 88-year-old pontiff spent five weeks in hospital with pneumonia in February and March. According to his medical team, the pope came close to death during the illness.
The 88-year-old made his first public appearance on Sunday (Mar 23) from the hospital balcony before being discharged to bless the crowd since being admitted on February 14.
Francis, 88, went to hospital on February 14 with a severe respiratory infection that became the most serious health crisis of his 12-year papacy.
Pope Francis, 88, who has been in hospital since February 14 with pneumonia in both lungs, has been gradually improving and talk has turned to when he might go home. But the Argentine has still not been seen in public since his admission, and in an audio message released on March 6, the octogenarian sounded […]
