Pope Leo XIV may have broken a historic barrier by becoming the first pontiff from the United States, but his views on the Catholic Church could harken back to more traditional times. There are also some areas of the church's doctrine where he takes a more progressive stance, similar to his predecessor, Pope Francis.

Climate change

When it comes to climate change, Leo will "likely continue Francis' legacy as a steward of the environment," said Time. The new pope has railed against the misuse of environmental resources and as a cardinal he made a speech "calling for the church to take greater action against the destruction of the planet."

Leo has also proven himself informed on modern climate issues like greenhouse gases and electric vehicles. He has criticized the "'harmful' effects of technological development and reaffirmed the Vatican's commitments to protecting the environment," said NPR. He also cited Francis' "installation of solar panels and shift to electric vehicles" as a commitment to a clean-energy church.

LGBTQ+ rights

Leo is less progressive on LGBTQ+ issues than his predecessor, as Francis famously said of gay Catholics, "Who am I to judge?" But Leo has said that "media depictions of the modern family present a major challenge to the Catholic Church," according to The Washington Post.

He has spoken out against what the National Catholic Register has called "disordered sexual practices and ideologies," including same-sex relationships. When he was a bishop in Peru, Leo also "opposed a plan to teach transgenderism in schools." However, while he is more strict about the church's anti-LGBTQ+ stance, Leo has also taken a "somewhat neutral position on Fiducia Supplicans," a 2023 Catholic Church doctrine that "allowed for blessings of people in same-sex couples."

Abortion and women's health

The Catholic Church generally opposes expanded reproductive care, and Leo has "criticized abortion in his homilies, often tying the issue of abortion to euthanasia," said Newsweek. People "cannot build a just society if we discard the weakest — whether the child in the womb or the elderly in their frailty," Leo said in a 2019 speech as a cardinal. He was also a member of his university's anti-abortion club, the Post said.

Regarding other women's health issues like contraception and IVF, Leo "has not made clear his views," said The 19th. This is in line with Francis, who during his time as pope "typically avoided highlighting reproductive health."

Political stance

Leo has "shared posts on X about political issues for years, including criticism of the Trump administration's stances on immigration," said CBS News. This includes reposting an article that "criticized Vice President J.D. Vance's response to a question on immigration." Leo also spoke harshly of the first Trump administration's migrant policy several times as a cardinal.

The pope has previously voted in some Republican primaries in his home state of Illinois. However, he is "not registered as a member of a political party," as Illinois does not have party registrations, and his "voter history does not indicate whom he voted for or why," said ABC News.

Church sex abuse

One of the main criticisms of the new pope is that he reportedly swept allegations of church sexual abuse under the rug. Leo was "accused of 'disregarding allegations' of abuse against two priests in Peru" and has a "history of resisting disclosure of abuse information to the public," the watchdog group BishopAccountability told The Guardian.

As a cardinal, Leo "denounced clergy sexual abuse and urged victims to come forward," said USA Today, and reportedly helped shut down the Catholic movement Sodality of Christian Life following abuse allegations. But "survivors are worried he will not take a tough enough stance to eradicate abuse within the church."

What happened

The College of Cardinals Thursday elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a Chicago native, as the Catholic Church's 267th pope. Prevost, 69, took the name Pope Leo XIV. He is the first pope from the U.S. — though he spent decades as a missionary, parish priest and bishop in Peru — and the first from the Augustinian religious order. His predecessor, Pope Francis, was the first pontiff from the Americas and the first Jesuit.

Who said what

"We have to look together how to be a missionary church, building bridges, dialogue, always open to receiving with open arms for everyone," Leo said in his first speech as pope, delivered in Italian and Spanish. "We want to be a synodal church, walking and always seeking peace, charity, closeness, especially to those who are suffering."

Francis made Prevost a cardinal and head of the Vatican's office overseeing bishops in 2023. And given their shared compassion for immigrants and the poor, Leo embodies the spirit of a "second Pope Francis," John Prevost, his older brother, told reporters.

The 133 cardinal electors "apparently wanted to keep moving in Francis' direction but with fewer detours and crashes," The New York Times said, so they picked a "mild-mannered pastor, moderate in tone but resolute in his defense of doctrine, one with deep Roman experience and governing chops" as former head of the centuries-old Order of St. Augustine. "He checked all the boxes," said veteran Vatican analyst John Allen.

Conservative Catholics drew hope from the traditional red garments Leo wore at his introduction and liberals are relieved at his similarities to Francis. Catholics from across the ideological spectrum approved of his name, which the Vatican confirmed was a nod to Pope Leo XIII, the late-19th century pontiff credited with developing Catholic social doctrine, a champion of the working class and the rosary and a critic of Marxism and laissez-faire capitalism.

What next?

Pope Leo is celebrating Mass mass at the Sistine Chapel Friday morning with the cardinals who elected him. He is scheduled to hold his first papal press conference on Monday.

For the first time in history, the one in five US adults who identify as Catholic will have a fellow American as their spiritual leader. Although Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, henceforth to be known as Pope Leo XIV, spent much of his religious career in Peru, he was born and raised in Chicago and holds citizenship of both countries.

President Donald Trump was quick to react to the announcement of the conclave's choice, posting on social media that it was "such an honour to realise that he is the first American Pope".

But many were quick to point out that the new Pope has a history of sharing posts online in support of racial justice and gun control, as well as comments critical of Trump and of his vice president, Catholic convert J.D. Vance, for their crackdown on migrants.

What did the commentators say?

Illinois voter registration data appears to suggest that Prevost voted in the Republican primaries in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2024, said Newsweek – although who he voted for is not public information. That a Catholic Pope would lean conservative is hardly a surprise, but "there's a twist", said Tim Stanley in The Telegraph. On "many bread-and-butter issues, he's probably a progressive".

During his two decades in Peru, Prevost worked with migrants and was "praised" for helping displaced Venezuelans. Even his choice of name is "telling": his 19th-century namesake, Leo XIII, "opposed socialism but supported trade unions", and wrote a "magnificent" text that analysed poverty and injustice. While conservative US Catholics exert "great influence in the judiciary" – six of the nine Supreme Court justices are Catholic – they prefer to "talk about doctrine rather than social action".

Leo is "to the right of his predecessor" on same-sex marriage and transgender rights – but "do not for a minute think he wants to Make America Great Again", said Time. Indeed, he stands to be "an ideological check" on the strain of Maga Catholicism that has been "ascendant in Washington" in recent years.

The election of Prevost "clearly represents a rejection by the Vatican of the intense lobbying from rich Americans to install a pontiff sympathetic" to Trump. There is a "good chance" Trump and Pope Leo will "clash" on immigration, human rights and the environment – especially given the president's "obsession" with an agenda that would "co-opt Christianity in service of his political goals". Within hours of Leo's selection, the Maga-verse "seemed to be gunning" for him. Far-right activist and key Trump ally Laura Loomer posted: "WOKE MARXIST POPE."

To be fair, Leo's criticism of Trump "largely echoes" that of his predecessor, said The New York Times. Pope Francis also openly disagreed with Trump's deportation policies. And so far, the president "doesn't seem to be holding any grudges" against the new Pope. Vance, too, sent his "well wishes".

Leo's first appearance on the balcony of St Peter's will also "reassure more conservative traditional Catholics in the US", said The Irish Times. They will be "similarly reassured" by his views on homosexuality. In 2012 he "lamented that popular culture fostered 'sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel'", referencing the "homosexual lifestyle" as well as "alternative families comprised of same-sex partners". Indicators of "a strong social conscience" won't "warm the cockles of any 'Maga' hearts", but for traditional American Catholics, "order has been restored to their world".

"I think this will make a big difference to Catholics in America," Craig Burwell, of Connecticut, told Politico. "It'll draw them back to the church. It'll give them a stake."

What next?

For all that has been written since his appearance on the balcony of St Peter's, Pope Leo XIV is still "a complete unknown", said The New Yorker. But the world has time to get to know him: at the age of 69, "he may be Pope for the next quarter century".

The "underlying tension" between Leo and Trump will "colour global affairs and domestic politics" for years, said Time. Catholics make up roughly a quarter of the US electorate: "a higher level of civic engagement than other faiths". They are also "politically pliable": Joe Biden, only the second Catholic president, won 52% of the Catholic vote, but Trump won 59% last year.

The world is "suffering from Trump's American populism", Brandon Gallaher, lecturer in theology at the University of Exeter, told The Irish Times. Leo XIV "shows the possibility of another different American vision".

There has never been an American pope, but Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost could change that. He is on some lists of possible candidates to replace Pope Francis when cardinals gather this week to choose a successor.

"Conventional wisdom" says never to bet on an American pope, said The New York Times. But the Chicago-born Prevost "could scrape together enough votes" to be an exception to the rule, partly because he "transcends borders" and has "spent much of his life outside the United States." He was ordained in 1982, then served two decades in Peru as a "missionary, parish priest, teacher and bishop" while obtaining citizenship in that country before rising in the Vatican hierarchy. If not for his American birth, he would "automatically" be a likely candidate for pope, said Vatican-watcher Marco Politi.

What did the commentators say?

Prevost is a "moderate, balanced figure, known for solid judgment," said The Catholic Herald. The cardinals will be looking for someone who can represent the faith well, stand on the "world stage" with global leaders and who has the skills to deal with the Vatican's ongoing financial problems. Prevost "ticks all three boxes." The question is whether that is enough to make him the first "superpower pope."

When picking a new pope, cardinals should keep in mind that America has the "fourth-largest Catholic population" in the world, said Jos Joseph at The Hill. The Catholic Church could choose a leader who "appeals to the largest Christian denomination" in the world's most powerful country. An American pope would have more influence than even John Paul II had in dealing with the Soviet Union. That would give the church "immense reach into a changing political world."

The next pope "should be an American" to address the Catholic Church's ongoing sexual abuse crisis, said Anne Barrett Doyle at National Catholic Reporter. Because of America's free press and civil justice system, the U.S. Catholic Church has been "forced to adopt more prudent policies on abuse" than their coreligionists in other countries. The American church now has zero tolerance and widespread public disclosure policies. The next pope must make those policies "universal in order to protect children."

What next?

There could be "pushback" to Prevost's candidacy, said The Pillar. Advocates say his handling of abuse cases in Chicago and Peru "should disqualify him from office." What the cardinals think about that "remains to be seen," however. Some cardinals think no former diocesan bishop would be "exempt" from such criticism.

Prevost is not the only American whose name has been mentioned. President Donald Trump supports Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, said Time. But it is "very doubtful that any cardinals will view Trump's endorsement favorably," said Oxford University historian Miles Pattenden. And the odds of any American leading the Vatican are fairly long, said The Chicago Sun-Times. America has immense "political, economic, military power," said Cardinal Blase Cupich. That makes the likelihood of a U.S.-born pope "a stretch."

The Catholic Church's conclave to select the next pope will begin May 7, with some wondering if the church will continue down the path of non-European pontiffs by electing an African pope. This speculation opens up new questions of how a pope from Africa could change the continent.

The church has never elected an African pope in its modern history. If it did, it would likely indicate a continuing trend of increased focus on African and Asian church members, who make up a large percentage of the world's Catholics. But it could affect Africa in larger ways, too.

What did the commentators say?

The "question of how Africa's rising Catholic population might shape the next papacy and the church's future has become more timely than ever," said The New York Times. The recently deceased Pope Francis was the first non-European pope in over 1,000 years. The election of an African pope could "usher in an era of conservatism, in line with the traditional views of many African Catholics."

About 280 million Africans, or a fifth of the continent's population, are Catholic, making up 20% of the world's Catholics. The "elevation of an African pope would be not only symbolic but also reflective of the church's evolving global demographic footprint," said Newsweek. It could also help to change perceptions of Africa and African people, as a Black pope would "revive the Christian faith in Africa and change people's views of Africa, by showing that an African can hold this office," said Charles Yapi, a Catholic priest in the Ivory Coast, to Reuters.

But even in a mostly conservative continent, the "elevation of an African cardinal to the papal throne would be widely interpreted as a continuation of Francis' track record of standing up for the poor and oppressed, migrants and civilians fleeing war," said Reuters. However, Vatican analysts are "skeptical that any of them have a realistic chance of becoming pope, partly because none have been subjected to the same level of public scrutiny as most Western cardinals."

Even if the next pope isn't African, as the continent "fast becomes a main population centre for the church," African Catholics will be expecting more "frequent visits" and "speeches from their new leader," said Tafi Mhaka at Al Jazeera. The Catholic Church has "inflicted unimaginable horrors on Africans," and the next pope "must address the role the Catholic Church played in the transatlantic slave trade and the colonization of the continent."

What next?

Some of the African candidates considered potential popes are Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, the archbishop of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo; Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana; Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea; and Cardinal Ignace Bessi Dogbo, the archbishop of Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Turkson holds mostly liberal views, while Besungu, Sarah and Dogbo are mostly conservative.

But conclaves are hard to predict, so it's unclear if any of these candidates have a real chance. Pope Francis' focus on "advancing and choosing more and more people from Asia and Africa" does "feed these distinct probabilities or possibilities," said Bruce Morrill, the chair of Roman Catholic studies and a professor of theology at Vanderbilt University, to ABC News. But "there really is no way to make any solid prediction."

A cardinal who was stripped of his rights and privileges by Pope Francis after being convicted of embezzlement has abandoned his fight to be admitted to next week's papal conclave.

Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu was the second highest ranking Vatican official until he was forced to resign after being charged with multiple counts of fraud in 2020. However, he had insisted that he should be able to take part in the conclave, despite resigning his rights and privileges.

In a twist worthy of the film and novel "Conclave", the Vatican's secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin "allegedly had" two letters, signed "F" by Pope Francis, apparently indicating that "Becciu could not participate" in the election of his successor, according to Catholic news site The Pillar.

On Monday, following days of uncertainty over his putative participation, the 76-year-old Becciu "withdrew from the conclave during the cardinals' morning general congregation", said Jesuit magazine America.

'Deprived of all rights'

In 2021, Becciu became the first cardinal to be tried by the Vatican's criminal court. He was accused of funnelling Vatican funds to members of his family and losing hundreds of millions of euros, some of it intended for charitable works, in a London property deal.

At a "stormy meeting" after the charges were filed, Pope Francis is said to have "sacked" Becciu from his Vatican office and "deprived him of all rights connected to the role of cardinal", leaving him a cardinal in name only, said The Times.

Becciu was convicted in 2023 on counts of embezzlement, aggravated fraud and abuse of office, and barred from holding public office. His jail sentence of five years and six months is pending an appeal hearing and he is allowed to remain living in a Vatican apartment while the process continues. Becciu strongly maintains his innocence and claims he was the victim of a conspiracy.

A test of strength

Becciu's decision to withdraw ends a "dramatic, if distracting, event on the sidelines of the upcoming papal conclave", said America.

The Italian-born cardinal had argued that his inclusion in a 2022 consistory – a gathering of cardinals – indicated that Pope Francis wanted to reinstate him. The decision to include him was described at the time as a "private act of pastoral mercy". Last week, he told a Sardinian newspaper that there had never been an "explicit will to exclude me from the conclave nor a request for my explicit renunciation in writing".

Opinions among Becciu's fellow cardinals on his eligibility were "mixed", said America. A source close to the case said his argument was "ridiculous", said the National Catholic Register. Italian investigative journalist Maria Antoinetta Calabro said in HuffPost that Becciu "never raised the issue" while the Pope was alive, "perhaps because it would have triggered a public stance by Pope Francis" that would not have gone in his favour.

Pope Francis I, who has died aged 88, was the first Pope from the Americas, and the first from outside Europe for 1,200 years. He was also the first to live at the Vatican around the corner from his predecessor, said The Daily Telegraph, having been elected following the shock resignation of Benedict XVI – and the first Jesuit to lead the Roman Catholic Church.

Known for his belief in social justice, he marked himself out with his informal style. "Buonasera," he famously greeted the crowds gathered in St Peter's Square following his election, aged 76. He dressed simply, eschewing the red shoes and ermine-trimmed cape Benedict had worn. Instead of moving into the papal apartments, he remained in the Vatican guest house; and was soon seen driving around in an old Renault 4. "My people are poor, and I am one of them," he said. He believed that clericalism – the idea that priests stand above the people they serve – was an "evil" at the root of many of the Church's ills, including its failure to tackle clerical abuse.

On the first birthday he celebrated as Pope, he invited three men who lived on the streets near the Vatican to join him for breakfast. And on Maundy Thursday that year, when priests traditionally wash men's feet, Pope Francis washed the feet of the young inmates of a detention centre – two of whom were female, and one Muslim. "As he dried each one, he bent over and kissed it."

His first pastoral visit outside Rome was to the island of Lampedusa, where he met asylum seekers from Africa and condemned the "global indifference" to their fate and that of others like them. He wanted, he said, to bring the Gospel to the "peripheries", to society's margins. He travelled widely, visiting hot spots including Myanmar and Iraq, and appointed 20 cardinals from countries including Rwanda and Tonga that had never previously had them. In his encyclicals, he sought to move the Church on from arguments about sexual morality, and to focus its mission on fighting climate change and global poverty.

Many Catholics adored him, said The Times. Some who had left the Church returned; others looked at it with fresh eyes. But mainstream conservatives were angered by many of his reforms (including his restrictions on the Tridentine Latin Mass beloved by traditionalists). In the US in particular, they objected to his attacks on the excesses of capitalism ("greed looking for easy gain"); and they were "alarmed" by the ambiguity of his statements on moral issues. "Who am I to judge?" he told a journalist in 2013, when asked about gay priests. Though welcomed by progressives, this remark did not signal the start of radical reforms. He opposed gay marriage and gay adoption, and he was steadfast on the sanctity of human life. But he urged priests to welcome gay parishioners; he expressed support for same-sex civil unions; and he said that priests could give same-sex couples spontaneous "non-liturgical" blessings, and that trans people could serve as godparents.

For some Catholics, he often seemed to go too far; for others, not far enough, said The New York Times. A "tough administrator", he reformed the constitution of the Roman Curia, so that he could appoint women to senior positions previously held by clerics, and he opened up synods to lay delegates including women; but he opposed the ordination of women as deacons. The upshot was that conservatives, led often by the likes of the American cardinal Raymond Burke, kept rallying against him, and successfully pushed back on some of his proposals (such as to allow married men to become priests in the Amazon, where there was a severe shortage of clerics); while some liberals felt let down that the revolution had never come. In Germany, there was even talk of a schism. Still, he did not stifle views he disagreed with. He believed in a patient process, of listening and talking before going forward. "Bosses cannot always do what they want," he said. "They have to convince."

Jorge Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires in 1936 into an Italian immigrant family. His parents, who were middle class, though not well-off, spoke Spanish at home, but Jorge learnt Italian from his grandparents. At school, he excelled at chemistry. Outside it, he loved football and the tango. His mother hoped he would become a doctor; but aged 16, he walked into a church and realised, he said, that God was waiting for him there. At 21, he suffered severe pneumonia and had to have part of his lung removed. Soon afterwards, he entered a Jesuit seminary, and after 11 years of training he was ordained.

In 1973, he was appointed to lead the Jesuits in Argentina; three years later, the brutal military junta took over. Two of his priests were arrested while working in a slum area, and tortured during five months of detention. His enemies would later spread rumours that he'd abandoned the pair, said The Guardian. In fact, he had petitioned the military leaders to release them; he'd also helped others to flee Argentina. However, his failure to denounce the junta, or embrace radical liberation theology, alienated him from his order, as did his authoritarian leadership style. As a result, he was sent into a form of internal exile; he emerged with a more compassionate, more consultative approach. In 1992, he was made auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires, in which role he affirmed his commitment to the poor. In 1998, he became archbishop.

He was relieved not to be made Pope in 2005 (he said that a faction had backed him, in a bid to block Cardinal Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict); but when Ratzinger stood down, he was deemed the right man to restore a Church reeling from a series of crises, including the clerical-abuse scandal. In that regard, he committed some serious errors – such as defending a Chilean bishop who had been accused of covering up a priest's abuse. Following a backlash, he admitted to having made a "grave mistake", and reached out to the abuse victims he had accused of slander. He gave survivors of clerical abuse access to documents from Church proceedings for use in lay courts; and he brought in rules obliging Church officials to report evidence of abuse or its cover-up – but only to Church authorities, not civil ones.

His advancing age did not hold him back: one of his last visits, in 2023, was to South Sudan and DR Congo; nor did ill health stop his political interventions. In February, he wrote a letter criticising Donald Trump's plans for the mass deportation of undocumented migrants. "All I am trying to do is advance the Gospel," he once said. "But imperfectly, because sometimes I make mistakes."

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Pope Benedict was an ardent defender of Catholic traditions. Pope Francis, who died Monday, chose a more liberal direction. Which way will the church, famously resistant to change, move under his successor?

"Papal successions are not like presidential transitions," said Anthony Faiola and Michelle Boorstein at The Washington Post. New popes do not "openly set about undoing the legacy" of their predecessors. But much can change in "style, emphasis, guidance and law." Francis backed away from the Latin Mass, allowed priestly blessings of same-sex couples and moved to decentralize the power of the church. But those changes didn't come without controversy, and could be reversed. "These innovations have been contested and rejected by many Catholics," said Rev. Gerald Murray. The next pope could "restate perennial Catholic doctrine."

Leading a church in decline

Francis "bent but did not break doctrinal orthodoxy," said Ed Kilgore at New York magazine. Those who hoped to see "full acceptance of gay or divorced Catholics" or the embrace of women in the clergy were disappointed, but the late pontiff "may have opened doors once firmly closed to future consideration." Francis reshaped the College of Cardinals that will choose his successor, making it more diverse, but he was "less concerned about doctrinal conformity" in his choices, putting both progressives and traditionalists in key positions. Everything is in play: The new pope could "be a protege of Francis, or someone inclined to turn back clocks."

Another challenge is that there is a "declining number of Catholics worldwide," said Axios, with many Latinos shifting instead to Charismatic Pentecostalism. One of the "greatest failures" of Francis is that "he didn't focus on evangelism," said Andrew Chesnut, the Bishop Walter F. Sullivan chair in Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. The next pope will likely "put some focus on appealing to evangelicals," said Axios.

'The de-Westernization of the church'

The selection of a new pope is "as much political balancing act as spiritual exercise," said Katherine Kelaidis at Vox. The conversation usually focuses on "progressive" and "traditionalist" factions in the "global culture wars" and will likely dominate the conclave that chooses the new pontiff. But there are other factors. "What the average Christian looks like and where the average Christian lives" is quickly changing. The church is in decline in North America and Europe, but rising in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Despite that, the church's "power centers have stayed firmly in the West." With Pope Francis' successor, that could begin to change.

Pope Francis "was not considered a radical" when he was chosen by the conclave in 2013, Molly Olmstead said at Slate. It is doubtful the cardinals "knew what they were ushering in." So there is no guarantee the next conclave will choose a successor "who shares Francis' more progressive ideals." Indeed, the "geographically and linguistically diverse cardinals" whom he put in place "barely know each other," increasing the unpredictability of the process. But Francis' key legacy — a church pivot to the "Global South" and away from Europe — is likely to stick. Whoever comes next, it will be difficult for him to "walk back the de-Westernization of the church."

What happened

Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pontiff and first pope from Latin America, died Monday morning. He was 88 and had been in poor health since an extended hospital stay for double pneumonia.

Who said what

"At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the home of the Father," after a life "dedicated to the service of the Lord and of his church," said Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Vatican camerlengo, or de facto administrator of the Holy See after a pope's death. "For Pope Francis, it was always to extend the arms of the church to embrace all people, not to exclude anyone." The pope had appeared in public Sunday to bless tens of thousands of people gathered to celebrate Easter Sunday.

During his 12-year papacy, Francis "charmed the world with his humble style and concern for the poor but alienated conservatives with critiques of capitalism and climate change" and his incremental elevation of women in the church and embrace of LGBTQ+ Catholics, The Associated Press said. He shook up the Catholic Church "without changing its core doctrine," shifting its focus to be a "refuge for everyone."

What next?

Pope Francis' death "will set off mourning around the world and deliberations and machinations to choose a successor" through a "chain of rituals and procedures, many of which have remained unchanged for centuries," The New York Times said. The College of Cardinals will have to decide "whether to choose a new pope who will follow his welcoming, global approach or to restore the more doctrinaire path" forged over "more than three decades of conservative papacies." Francis named 111 of the 136 voting cardinals, The Washington Post said, "making sure the conclave that would pick his successor was more diverse and less dominated by Europeans."

What happened

Pope Francis made his first public appearance in more than five weeks Sunday, waving to well-wishers from his balcony at Rome's Gemelli Polyclinic hospital before being discharged and driven back home to the Vatican to convalesce. The pope had entered the hospital on Feb. 14 with worsening bronchitis, and his subsequent battle against double pneumonia included "two very critical episodes" where his "life was in danger," said Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the head of the pope's hospital medical team.

Who said what

"Thank you, everyone," Pope Francis said from the hospital balcony, his "wisp of a voice" thin and "raspy" from his lung infections, according to The New York Times. The 88-year-old pope looked "frail" and wore nasal oxygen tubes during the drive home, The Associated Press said, but his exit from the hospital "brought tangible relief to the Vatican and Catholic faithful who have been anxiously following 38 days of medical ups and downs and wondering if Francis would make it."

What next?

Doctors have instructed the pope, "who had kept up a grueling schedule before his illness," to "take it easy for at least two months" and avoid large groups and small children due to infection concerns, the Times said.

The death of a pope, the spiritual leader of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics, propels the Holy Roman Church into "its most dramatic moment of flux", said The New York Times.

For that very reason, the period between a pontiff's death and the election of a successor is marked by a series of "carefully choreographed" rituals and moments of "pageantry", designed to communicate order and continuity.

What happens when a pope dies?

The protocol had been "refined over centuries and hundreds of dead popes", said Politico. Firstly, the death is confirmed by the camerlengo, a senior Vatican position currently held by Irish-born Cardinal Kevin Farrell. While doctors will have made a medical confirmation of death, the camerlengo's role is a ceremonial one, in which he calls out the pope's name and receives no response.

The pontiff's body, in a simple white cassock, is taken to his private chapel, where he is robed in red vestments and then placed in a zinc-lined wooden coffin with his symbols of office, the mitre and pallium, beside him, said The New York Times.

Then the camerlengo drafts a document authenticating the pope's death, and the pontiff's private papers are gathered, his apartments sealed off and his "fisherman's ring", used to seal papal documents, is defaced or destroyed with a ceremonial hammer.

What happens between the pope's death and the funeral?

The pope's death will automatically trigger a nine-day mourning period known as the Novendiale. Daily prayers and requiem masses will be held both in the Vatican and throughout the Catholic world.

Since the 13th century, the embalmed body of the deceased pope has been taken, in procession, to lie in state, on a raised pedestal, in St. Peter's Basilica. However, in 2024, Pope Francis "decided to highlight humility over glorification", and rewrote the protocol to do away with the raised platform, Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, a church historian, told The New York Times.

What is a papal funeral like?

The pope's funeral would be usually be held in St. Peter's Square between four and six days after his death, with "mourners packing into the Vatican for the service", said Politico.

His face covered by a white silk veil, the pope is buried with a bag containing coins minted during his reign, and a canister with a "rogito", or deed, summarising his life and papacy.

Until a successor is chosen, the Vatican will be in a transitional period called sede vacante ("vacant seat"), in which power is temporarily vested in the College of Cardinals – although any major decisions will be delayed until the next pope is installed.

What happened

Pope Francis was back on "noninvasive mechanical ventilation" after two episodes of acute respiratory failure Monday, the Vatican said. It was the latest setback in the pope's 18-day battle against double pneumonia at a Roman hospital.

Francis, 88, remained "alert, oriented and cooperative" as "copious" amounts of mucus were extracted from his lungs during two bronchoscopies, where a camera-equipped suction tube was sent down into his airways, the Vatican said.

Who said what

This was the pope's "third serious downturn" since he was admitted to Gemelli Polyclinic hospital with a complex respiratory infection on Feb. 14, the BBC said. The Vatican said laboratory tests suggested the mucus was a response to Francis' original pneumonia, not a new infection.

Monday's episodes were more worrisome than Friday's complication involving vomit the pope inhaled during a coughing fit, Dr. John Coleman, a pulmonary critical care doctor at Chicago's Northwestern Medicine, told The Associated Press. The need to manually extract mucus "means that he is not clearing the secretions on his own," he said. "He's taking little steps forward and then steps back."

What next?

The pontiff's return to a mask forcing air into his lungs shows he "is still in danger," a Vatican official told The Washington Post. It's good news that the infection doesn't appear to be growing, but it's "premature" to discuss when the pope might be discharged. Catholics are holding nightly vigils in St. Peter's Square as the Holy See prepares for Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent without Pope Francis there to lead the liturgical rituals.

What happened

Pope Francis, hospitalized Friday with bronchitis, has a "polymicrobial respiratory tract infection," the Vatican said Monday, and his "complex clinical picture" will "require an appropriate hospital stay" in Rome's A. Gemelli Polyclinic.

Who said what

The diagnosis essentially "means there's a mix of bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites growing" in the his lungs, The Associated Press aid, and "for someone with the pope's medical history — he lost part of his right lung decades ago and has previously had pneumonia — it's worrying that he's been hospitalized." The Vatican said Monday that Francis was "in good spirits," in stable condition with no fever and had resumed "some work activities."

The 88-year-old pope's "medical challenges have become more numerous with age," including the removal of part of his colon, seasonal respiratory infections and knee problems and sciatica that have "caused a severe limp" and "often required him to use a wheelchair, walker or cane," The New York Times said.

What next?

The Vatican gave no estimate for how long the "workaholic" pope would stay hospitalized, the AP said, but his general audience on Wednesday was canceled and the official Vatican calendar has "no more papal appointments or activities" listed until March 5, Ash Wednesday.

An unholy war is brewing in the Catholic Church, said Paola Totaro in The Australian (Sydney). While "Conclave", a film about the "murky web of curial politics", is getting Oscar-season buzz, in the real-world Vatican "a series of events has unfolded behind the Leonine Walls in past months that are just as intriguing". With only one lung, the fragile 88-year-old Pope Francis sparks alarm with "every cough or hospital admission". Around him, the vultures circle – devising strategies to ensure their preferred candidate becomes the next leader of the Catholic Church and its 1.4 billion faithful.

On one side are Francis's progressives, who want to modernise the Church; on the other, conservative traditionalists who fear "a shift too far on issues of capitalism, homosexuality, abortion and the role of women". This week, an unabashed Pope Francis appointed an Italian nun, Sister Raffaella Petrini, to run the Vatican City State – the first time a woman has ever been given the role. Women make better managers than men, said the Pope, adding: "Women have been running things since the Garden of Eden."

It's all part of Francis's restructuring of Vatican affairs, said Mikael Corre in La Croix (Paris). Under his leadership, some 20 women have been appointed to senior positions in the Holy See, "from the governing board of the Financial Information Authority to the Secretariat of State, the Vatican Library and the Museums". The ultimate aim, Francis says, is to incorporate women into every part of ecclesiastical life.

But in doing so, said the Catholic Herald, he risks stirring up an already febrile atmosphere in Rome. A Vatican employee, identified only by the initials G.F., claims the Argentinian Pope has "surrounded himself with Spanish-speaking favourites with progressive agendas", and that the Vatican is in the grip of two distinct lobbies: a powerful gay clique on the one hand, and the left-wing Santa Marta club on the other. To join the latter, says G.F., "you have to be green, pro-migrant and above all pro-Palestinian. For them, Nicolás Maduro is a saint and Donald Trump is a devil."

Francis should "brace" himself for a battle, said John Kenneth White in The Hill (Washington DC), particularly in the US, where a "conservative wave" has flooded the Church. More than half of the country's 3,500 priests described themselves as "conservative/orthodox" or "very conservative/orthodox" in a recent survey; not one priest ordained after 2020 described himself as "very progressive". Meanwhile, President Trump has launched his own "frontal assault on the papacy" by appointing Brian Burch – a firebrand anti-Francis "agitator" – as his US ambassador to the Vatican.

It makes for a dramatic final chapter of a pontificate, said Damian Thompson on UnHerd (London). The next conclave "can't be far off", but for now Francis remains, combative and compulsively secretive. The Cardinals wait patiently, "sharpening their knives".

What happened

President Joe Biden on Saturday awarded Pope Francis the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction, the highest U.S. civilian honor. Biden handed out Medals of Freedom to 19 people earlier this month, including Hillary Clinton, Michael J. Fox, Denzel Washington, Magic Johnson, designer Ralph Lauren, George Soros, Lionel Messi, philanthropic chef José Andrés and U2's Bono, but the pope is the only person upon whom Biden has bestowed the honor "with distinction."

Who said what

Francis is "the People's Pope — a light of faith, hope and love that shines brightly across the world," the White House said. "His mission of serving the poor has never ceased. A loving pastor, he joyfully answers children's questions about God. A challenging teacher, he commands us to fight for peace and protect the planet. A welcoming leader, he reaches out to different faiths. The first pope from the Southern Hemisphere, Pope Francis is unlike any who came before."

Biden had planned to present the pope with the medal on a visit to Rome, but he canceled the trip to oversee the federal response to the Los Angeles wildfires. Instead, he bestowed the honor during a phone call. Biden was the sole recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction under President Barack Obama.

What next?

Biden, the second Catholic president, leaves office Jan. 20. The Italy trip was to have been his final presidential trip abroad.

What happened

Pope Francis is seeking clarity on whether Israel's war in Gaza meets the legal definition of "genocide," according to book excerpts published Sunday in Italian newspapers and confirmed by the Vatican press office. Israel rejects that characterization, commonly used by Arab leaders and Palestinian advocates. The International Court of Justice is weighing South Africa's allegations that Israel has violated the Genocide Convention.

Who said what

"According to some experts," Pope Francis said in the upcoming book, "what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide. It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies."

That was some of the pope's "most explicit criticism yet of Israel's conduct in its yearlong war," Reuters said. Francis is "usually careful not to take sides in international conflicts," though he has recently "stepped up his criticism of Israel's conduct" in the war. In September, the pope called Israel's attacks in Gaza and Lebanon "'immoral' and disproportionate, and that its military has gone beyond the rules of war," said The Associated Press.

Israel's Vatican ambassador, Yaron Sideman, said the "genocidal massacre" was Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israeli citizens last year, "and since then, Israel has exercised its right of self-defense." Calling the war "by any other name is singling out the Jewish state," he added. Hamas killed 1,200 people on Oct. 7 and abducted 250 more, dozens of whom are still being kept hostage. Israel's military response has killed 43,846 people in Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry, and another 3,481 in Lebanon. Both those numbers include civilians and militants.

What next?

The book of interviews with Pope Francis, "Hope Never Disappoints: Pilgrims Toward a Better World," is scheduled for release on Nov. 19, ahead of his 2025 jubilee year.

What happened

Pope Francis on Saturday approved the final document of his yearslong global synod, or dialogue among the world's 1.4 billion Catholics on the direction of the church. He took the unusual step of saying it speaks for the church, requiring no additional action by him.

Who said what

The final document, approved by 368 delegates after three years of discussion "at every level of the Catholic Church," laid out a "vision for structural reform" that would give "lay leaders, especially women," a greater role and more equal voice in the church, Religion News Service said. The bishops, nuns and laypeople affirmed "there is no reason or impediment that should prevent women from carrying out leadership roles in the church," but the final document ruled out ordaining women as priests and said the question of women deacons "remains open."

Catholic deacons can preside over baptisms, weddings and funerals, but only priests can celebrate mass. Ordaining women deacons was a "fringe proposal pushed by Western progressives" before the synod, The Associated Press said. By the end it had become "something of a litmus test of how far the church was going to go" to include women in leadership roles.

Progressive Catholics "may be disappointed" in the outcome, "but some conservatives were upset about the whole summit from the beginning," the BBC said, "opposed to opening up this consultation process," traditionally reserved for bishops, to lay Catholics.

What next?

The question of women deacons was relegated to a Vatican study group, CNN said, but "for a church which thinks in centuries, what may seem like small steps to those on the outside are major leaps forward for many inside."

What happened

Pope Francis expelled 10 members of Peru's controversial Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV) movement on Wednesday, including a bishop, several priests and multiple lay members. The Vatican said the former members were guilty of "sadistic" abuses of power.

Who said what

The pope's public move against Sodalitium leadership was "unusual" and "astonishing," The Associated Press said, because it listed abuses that have "rarely if ever been punished canonically," like hacking a journalist's communications, and "cited the people the pope held responsible." Those expelled are accused of committing "physical abuse, including sadism and violence," as well as mental and spiritual abuse, and "abuse of authority," the Vatican said in a statement published online by the Peruvian Bishops Conference.

Wednesday's expulsion comes just over a month after the Vatican expelled Sodalitium founder Luis Fernando Figari, who was accused of "physical, psychological and sexual violence, including against minors," Vatican News said. At its height, SCV "represented one of the most active forces for evangelization in South America," a conservative counterweight to Catholic liberation theology.

What next?

It isn't clear "how exactly the expulsions can be enforced," especially "for the laypeople involved," the AP said. But the "very public announcement" shows that Pope Francis was "willing to take an unorthodox approach to interpreting the church's in-house laws to send a message." The Vatican said the pope and Peruvian bishops are "seeking the forgiveness of the victims" and urging SCV to pursue a "path toward justice and reparation."

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What happened

Pope Francis met with fellow religious leaders yesterday at Southeast Asia's largest mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia. The pope and the mosque's top cleric, Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar, signed a joint declaration urging Catholics and Muslims to encourage their leaders to fight climate change and religious intolerance.

Who said what

The visit to Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population, highlighted two pillars of Francis' papacy: the environment and interfaith dialogue. The declaration he and Umar signed at Jakarta's Istiqlal Mosque urged "all people of good will to take decisive action" to protect the planet from human-caused climate change and said religion should be used to resolve conflicts, never abused to justify violence.

The "Istiqlal Declaration" was the latest of several joint communiqués Pope Francis has signed with Muslim leaders, including on a historic 2019 trip to the Arabian peninsula and a 2021 visit to Iraq. The Jakarta encounter, "rich with symbolic meaning and personal touches," showed the "personal side" of that Muslim outreach, The Associated Press said, "with Francis and Umar — the aged pope and the youthful imam — showing a clear affinity for one another."

What next?

The pope will leave Indonesia on Friday for Papua New Guinea, the next stop in his "ambitious 12-day journey" through Southeast Asia and Oceania, Reuters said. He is scheduled to return to Rome on Sept. 13.

What happened

Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò said Thursday the Vatican was putting him on trial for the "crime of schism" and "denial of the legitimacy of Pope Francis." Viganò, a former Vatican ambassador to the U.S., has denounced the pope in increasingly harsh terms — a liberal "servant of Satan," for example — since publicly calling on him to resign in 2018.

Who said what

Viganò, 83, said he "regards the accusations against me as an honor." Since 2016, he has "slowly moved closer to more conservative and eventually conspiratorial wings of the church and American society," Religion News Service said.

Trials for schism, or rupture with Catholic "unity" under the pope, are "exceedingly rare," The Washington Post said. But following years of increasingly "vitriolic attacks" from conservative clerics, Pope Francis is drawing a line.

What next?

Viganò will be tried in absentia if he doesn't appear in person, and his conviction could lead to defrocking and excommunication. Viganò took "some attitudes and some actions for which he must answer," said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state. "I am very sorry because I always appreciated him as a great worker, very faithful to the Holy See.… I don't know what happened."

What happened

The Vatican apologized Tuesday after Pope Francis was quoted using a homophobic slur during a private conversation about openly gay clergy with a group of Italian bishops last week. 

Who said what

Pope Francis "never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms" and "extends his apologies to those who were offended by the use of a term, reported by others," Vatican Press Office Director Matteo Bruni said. Francis reportedly said that "seminaries were already too full of 'frociaggine,' an offensive Italian slang term referring to gay men," The New York Times said. According to some bishops in the meeting, Francis, "as an Argentine, might have not realized that the Italian term he used was offensive," Reuters said.

Since assuming the papacy, Francis has been "widely credited with urging the church to be more welcoming to the LGBTQ community, and he has delivered a mostly inclusive message," the Times said. 

What next?

As Pope Francis "has stated on many occasions, 'There is room for everyone in the church,'" Bruni said.

Pope Francis may have made waves with his announcement that priests would be allowed to bless same-sex couples, an extraordinarily liberal view for the leader of the Catholic Church, but his latest comments on surrogacy are drawing some criticism for being unnecessarily restrictive.

During an address on Monday, Francis said surrogacy turns children into "an object of [human] trafficking." Calling for a worldwide ban on the practice, Francis added that surrogacy was "deplorable" and "represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs."

Gestational surrogacy, described by the Cleveland Clinic as "when another person carries and delivers a child for another couple or person" through in-vitro fertilization, has been denounced by Francis before. His recent comments are by far his strongest words against surrogacy, though, and are generating controversy among people who are both for and against the practice. 

Francis 'couldn't be further from the truth'

Francis' characterization of surrogacy "couldn't be further from the truth," Sunshine Hanson, founder of surrogacy agency Surrogacy Is, told NPR. Hanson told the outlet that describing surrogacy as exploitative is "disrespectful to the women who are doing this."

"I just think that it's so brave for a parent to trust somebody else to carry their baby," Hanson said. "It's a really special and unique relationship that I don't think anybody who hasn't been through it can really fathom."

Francis also called surrogacy the basis of a "commercial contract," which is in line with a common criticism of the practice — it exploits people financially. But Hanson pushed back against Francis' comments, saying surrogacy was "intended to compensate you for the time and the effort and the sacrifice and the struggle of being pregnant."

The Catholic Church has traditionally turned against surrogacy due to religious law, but Francis appears to be taking the stance that it violates human rights. But in doing so, "the pope is failing to recognize how varied and nuanced the experiences of intended parents, surrogates and children are," Danielle Tumminio Hansen, a theology professor at Emory University, wrote for The Conversation. Some women indeed "become surrogates out of desperation and are abused in the process, as the pope says," Hanson added, but others "make the choice for altruistic reasons and never accept remuneration."

And while the Church condemns surrogacy because conception — which occurs via in-vitro fertilization — takes place outside of intercourse, it is actually "the only form of assisted reproduction documented in the Bible," according to Hanson. 

'Ethically thorny'

While many view Francis as an overall liberal Catholic leader, his "statements on surrogacy are an extension of the church's broader teachings on gender and human life," Jill Filipovic opined for CNN, which is "make as many babies as possible but also leave it in God's hands."

"It's a too-simplistic recipe for a complex human desire, vested in our notoriously imperfect and complicated human bodies," Filipovic added. "Who is anyone else to tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her own body?"

However, surrogacy is "among the most ethically thorny reproductive questions" and  "the potential for abuse is high and the negotiating table perilously uneven," Filipovic wrote. This is especially true among wealthy people who are willing to pay poorer women to carry their children, Filipovic said. She also noted that the pope is not alone in condemning surrogacy, as it is banned or restricted in large swaths of Europe and several U.S. states.

"The line between agency and exploitation is not always clear," Filipovic said. But while surrogacy "has too often been a one-way flow of children from poorer countries to richer ones," the problem is the Church's "overly broad, dogmatic and extreme response to surrogacy."

If surrogacy were to be banned globally, it would create "an outcry from people all across the globe who desire to be parents," Stephanie Levich, founder of Family Match Consulting, told People. This could lead to dangerous outcomes as people would pursue surrogacy "[in ways] that could potentially be illegal and less safe," she added. This could lead to large portions of the female demographic being impacted, Levich said. 

The "vast majority of surrogacy cases" result in "incredible and beautiful relationships," Levich told People. "I don’t know how something like that could be considered to be exploitative."

The Pope's controversial doctrinal chief has been accused of blasphemy after the rediscovery of a book he wrote 26 years ago praising "mystical orgasms". Víctor Manuel Fernández's book also depicts a "passionate encounter between Jesus and a young girl", said The Times. The chief is "currently at loggerheads" with traditional bishops after allowing the blessing of gay couples last month.

Woman's costly cocktail shock

A woman's New Year celebrations were "absolutely wrecked" after she mistakenly ordered an "extremely expensive drink", said the Daily Express. Lynsey Bennett, from Belfast, ordered a cocktail that she thought cost £18.90 while at a five-star hotel in London, England, only to "realise to her horror" it cost £1,890. She said her husband was "furious at me so he left the bar and left me there on my own to deal with it". The hotel agreed to waive the bill and Lynsey spent the rest of the night drinking with the hotel manager.

Punch bag record broken

An Indian martial artist broke a Guinness World Record when he spent 55 hours, 15 minutes punching a punch bag, reported UPI. Sidhu Kshetri, 42, was required by the rules to throw at least one punch every 2 seconds and was allowed a five-minute break per hour. "The pain started around the 20-hour mark," he said. "At that point, I reminded myself that it was a test of my limits. I believed that if I stayed emotionally strong, I could endure the pain."

The Catholic Church is holding a significant meeting at the Vatican this week, which some observers believe could become the major work of Pope Francis's papacy.

The Synod may lay the groundwork for important changes for previously taboo subjects such as married priests and the blessing of gay unions.

Conservative Catholics, especially those in the United States, are watching the meeting "with dread and deep mistrust", said The Washington Post. The word "schism" is even being thrown about, the paper added.

The current phase of the multi-year closed-door assembly – which began in October 2021 – opens today and will run until the end of the month.

What did the papers say?

The meeting's name alone, the "Synod on Synodality", sounds "esoteric" and "mystifyingly meta for many of the rank-and-file faithful", said The New York Times (NYT), but essentially it is a "major workshop for church leaders and lay people on how to work together for the good of the church".

Francis himself has addressed the uncertainties around the meeting, saying in August that he was "well aware that speaking of a 'Synod on Synodality' may seem something abstruse, self-referential, excessively technical, and of little interest to the general public". But, he added, it "is something truly important for the church".

Despite the listening sessions that have been offered around the world and at every level of the Catholic Church, many conservatives feel that the process for the synod has been "stacked against them", the Washington Post said.

The process itself is potentially the most transformative change for the church, "putting into practice the pope's bottom-up view of a collegial and inclusive institution that upends the traditional hierarchy", said the NYT.

In April, Pope Francis also approved changes to the norms governing the Synod of Bishops, which paves the way for women to hold 54 of the 365 votes as the church maps out its plans for the future.

It is not only the process, but also the synod's agenda that has disturbed many conservatives, said The Guardian, "as the Vatican seeks to address some of the church's thorniest issues".

The agenda "calls for concrete steps to promote women to decision-making roles and the 'radical inclusion' of LGBTQ+ Catholics and others who have been marginalised by the church", the paper said. These discussion points have "rattled conservative factions".

Synods themselves are the product of the Second Vatican Council which ran from 1962 to 1965, and act as "an 'advisory' board of sorts to the Pope", explained Euronews. There have been 16 of them since the 1960s, but they have "often garnered accusations of not reflecting the reformative spirit of Vatican II", the news website said.

In response, Pope Francis has "attempted to reform the institution" in an attempt to "breathe new life into the Vatican".

What next?

The landmark three-week synod "may represent a watershed moment for the Catholic Church akin to the Second Vatican Council", said the Irish Times.

Some have also warned it could trigger a new schism. Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, a former leader of the church's doctrinal office who was replaced by Francis, has warned that the assembly could be used as a "hostile takeover".

Not everyone is confident that the meeting will bring about significant changes. Given the broad resistance to Pope Francis's ideas – including the moves to give women voting rights – Kathleen Gibbons Schuck of Women's Ordination Worldwide said she was not expecting the synod to bring about major shifts in the church. "There's an enormous history that we're looking to move to a different place," she told The Guardian.

"Do I really think there's going to be substantial change that comes out of this? Even though I'm typically an optimist, I don't," she said. "It's an incremental change. And I see signs of hope in that change."

Participants will reconvene in Rome in October 2024, after which the pope is expected to issue a document endorsing or rejecting its recommendations. That will come as "a defining moment" for the long-term legacy of Francis, said the Irish Times.

Argentina’s presidential election in October is shaping up as a political and cultural battle between a right-wing populist and… the Pope.

Javier Milei is the politician. The 52-year-old economist was largely unknown before 2021 but came out on top in the presidential primaries in August, having “pledged to wage a ‘cultural battle’ to transform Argentina into a libertarian paradise where capitalist efficiency replaces social assistance”, said The Observer.

Pope Francis, born in Buenos Aires and the former archbishop of the Argentinian capital, is still an influential figure in his homeland and the 86-year-old has been making his feelings known on the political situation there.

In a TV interview in March, Pope Francis commented on the rise of the far-right in Argentina, saying “it is the triumph of selfishness over communitarianism”. And he appeared to refer to the political newcomer Milei specifically when he said: “I am terrified of saviours of the nation without a political party history.”

Francis even made reference to Hitler in the interview, talking about the “new politician, who spoke beautifully, who seduced the people”, said Crux.

The Catholic news site also noted that Milei has variously described Pope Francis as “a ‘communist,’ an ‘imbecile’ and even a ‘leftist son of a b*.’”

A self-described “tantric sex instructor” who bragged about “various threesomes” in numerous TV appearances that built his fame, Milei also claims to be a staunch Catholic, said The Telegraph. He “wants to limit abortion rights in all cases, unless the mother’s life is at risk”, and “blames cultural Marxism for the LGBT movement”, said the paper.

And those far-right, populist views brought Milei 30% of the vote in the country’s August primaries, “ahead of both major political coalitions”.

Juan Grabois, a progressive presidential candidate with close links to the Pope, called Milei a “false prophet”, said The Observer, one who has capitalised on dissatisfaction with Argentina’s “dire economic crisis” and triple-digit inflation rate.

Pope Francis’s intervention is significant, as he is regarded as Argentina’s “most famous native son”, Crux said, but his popularity in Argentina has waned. There was “fervor” in 2013, said Religion Unplugged, when Jorge Bergoglio became the first Pope from Latin America, but a decade later he now “generates divided opinions”.

His uneasy relationship with Argentinian politics has a long history. During his time as archbishop of Buenos Aires, he said the government wanted to “cut my head off” due to “false accusations that he had collaborated with the military dictatorship of the 1970s”, Reuters reported. And he has not returned to his homeland since becoming Pope, the news agency added.

In Argentina, and in Spain, he is “blamed for virtually everything”, said Inés San Martin for Angelus. A 2019 poll by the publicly funded Argentinian CONICET research institute cemented this notion. Some 40% of respondents said they were indifferent to Francis, while 27% suggested he was too involved in politics.

But the Vatican undoubtedly holds historic influence. “For the past two thousand years, the Pope has been a major player in global affairs”, a “peace broker, a mediator, an advocate, and an influence”, said the Council on Foreign Relations’s Gabrielle Sierra.

His governmental arm, The Holy See, also wields political power. The pontiff has diplomatic relationships with 183 countries. This provides him with “access to international relations in a way that no other religious leader could even imagine having”, Timothy Byrnes, professor of political science at Colgate University, told the council.

During the Cold War, Pope John Paul II was seen as being “an instrumental figure in setting the course for the Soviet Union’s demise”, said War on the Rocks, with a “political nonalignment” policy offering “unique access to foreign powers”.

Perhaps the Vatican’s biggest sphere of influence, ironically aligning with Milei’s views, is opposition to abortion. In Argentina in 2018, Francis was reported to “have personally lobbied senators to spur votes against the legislation” to allow elective abortion up to 14 weeks of pregnancy, said The Lancet.

However, he has also “shown solidarity… with migrants, talked about climate change and espoused Catholic Social Teaching that sometimes finds itself at odds with some parts of capitalism”. The number of practising Roman Catholics has dropped in Argentina, but it is still the majority religion, and deeply embedded into national culture.

With the Pope and Milei at odds on key issues, for many Argentinians the presidential election next month will be a question of church or state.

The Vatican quietly launched an investigation into the diocese of Tyler, Texas, and its outspoken bishop, Joseph Strickland, last week, the diocese confirmed to the National Catholic Reporter on Monday. The apostolic visitation "was very confidential," diocesan spokeswoman Elizabeth Slaten told NCR. "The whole thing was conducted by the Holy See. We respect their processes."

An apostolic visitation is commissioned by the Vatican and often centers on whether someone in a leadership position, like a diocesan bishop or monastic abbot, is able to govern in an "appropriate and effective ways," cannon lawyer Mercy Sr. Sharon Euart told NCR. They are often used to "to rein in clerics seen by the Vatican to be problematic," Religion News Service added, and Strickland, 64, is a "conservative firebrand" with "years of controversy" and more Twitter followers than Catholics in his diocese.

Strickland's trollish behavior on Twitter, including attacks on Pope Francis and Democratic lawmakers and support for Covid-19 vaccine deniers, "earned him a personal rebuke in 2021" from the Vatican's papal nuncio to the U.S., Archbishop Christophe Pierre, RNS reported. "But efforts to rein in Strickland through private conversations appeared unsuccessful. If anything, the bishop's comments have grown more strident."

Apostolic visitations are fairly rare, but the Vatican also conducted one into the diocese of Knoxville, Tennessee, in December 2022, after years of complaints about Bishop Richard Stika. Pope Francis accepted Stika's resignation, the Vatican announced Tuesday. Stika, 65, is a decade younger than the usual retirement age for bishops, 75. "For years, questions have swirled around his alleged cover-up of abuse, diocesan finances, morale among priests and the overall administration and management of the diocese," NCR reported.

Archbishop Shelton Fabre of Louisville, Kentucky, will serve as apostolic administrator of the Knoxville diocese until the pope appoints Stika's replacement. Stika and Strickland were both appointed by Pope Benedict XVI. Pope Francis appointed and removed Bishop Martin Holley in Tennessee's Memphis diocese in 2018 for financial mismanagement, after an apostolic visitation.

Pope Francis on Sunday said the Vatican is engaged in a "not yet public" mission to end the war in Ukraine and doing "all that is humanly possible" to return children taken from the country and moved to Russia.

Speaking to reporters, the pope revealed that during his recent three-day visit to Budapest, he discussed the matter with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Metropolitan Hilarion, the Russian Orthodox Church's representative in Budapest. "In these meetings, we did not just talk about Little Red Riding Hood," Francis said. "We spoke of all these things. Everyone is interested in the road to peace."

Francis said he also met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Thursday, and they talked about a "peace formula." The pope added that he believes "peace is always made by opening channels."

Russia invaded Ukraine in late February 2022, and at the time, Francis did not want to address Russia's aggression "in part because he hoped that keeping the Vatican's traditional neutrality could put him in a position to broker a cease-fire or peace," The New York Times' Jason Horowitz writes. He has since condemned Russia and compared its actions to massacres carried out by Joseph Stalin.

The 86-year-old pontiff also gave reporters an update on his health. In late March, he was hospitalized, with the Vatican saying it was due to a respiratory infection. Francis shared that he felt "a strong pain" at the end of a public audience, and while he "did not lose consciousness ... I had a high fever." Doctors determined he had an "acute and strong" pneumonia, the pope said, adding, "the body responded well to the treatment, thank God."

The cardinals of the Catholic Church arrived at the Vatican's Apostolic Palace to begin the conclave, the secretive process of electing a new pope.

The 133 eligible voting cardinals who will be shut up in isolation in the Vatican until a new pope is elected have "sworn an oath" to keep the details of the process "under wraps for life", said the BBC. The Vatican goes into "total lockdown": the cardinals are unable to contact the outside world, and surrender all electronic devices on entry. The area is also "swept for microphones and bugs" to prevent any leaks.

The death of Pope Francis, who was laid to rest last month, has sparked a succession battle pitting conservatives against progressives. The cardinals who will vote for the next leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics are "less predictable than ever before, with the vast majority having no experience of a papal conclave", said The Guardian. "A much wider geographic spread of cardinals adds to the uncertainty."

For now, "there is no leading candidate", said The Telegraph. "There are so many variables, and the process is so opaque, that forecasting a winner is a risky business."

Typically, a conclave is held 15-20 days after a papal vacancy, according to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

A conclave lasts as long as it takes for one candidate to receive two-thirds of the cardinals' votes. The longest in history took nearly three years with the election of Pope Gregory X in 1271 while Pope Francis was elected in just one day in 2013.

How is a new pope chosen?

The rituals surrounding the papal succession date back centuries, but the process has been given a modern revamp after a team of Catholic journalists and researchers compiled a new online guide to every cardinal who will choose the next pontiff.

The College of Cardinals Report — a "slick, interactive website", said Crux — features details of all 252 cardinals, including where they stand on issues such as ordaining female deacons, blessing same-sex unions and making priestly celibacy optional.

Out of the 252 cardinals listed in the report, 135 of them are currently under the age of 80 and so eligible to participate in the conclave.

After the death or resignation of a pope, the cardinals are called to convene in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, where they take an oath of secrecy and are isolated from the outside world. During this time, they can discuss the merits of likely candidates. Open campaigning is not allowed, said the BBC, but it is "still a highly political process".

Voting is held through a series of secret ballots, with each cardinal elector writing a name of choice on a piece of paper. A two-thirds majority is required for any cardinal to win, although if the number of cardinal electors is not divisible by three, one additional vote is required. Four rounds of ballots are held each day until one man receives the required majority. Ballot papers are burnt after each session, giving off smoke that can be seen by onlookers outside. If the smoke is black, the cardinals have failed to reach a decision. White smoke signifies that a new pope has been chosen.

What is the conclave?

The group of cardinals who form the conclave that selects next pope "truly is is the world's most powerful electorate" for its size, said the Financial Times. Francis – the first non-European pope since the eighth century – did a "great deal to shape the choice" of the upcoming conclave. Of the 133 cardinals under 80, the vast majority have been appointed by him, according to America magazine. The total number of electors is technically supposed to be capped at 120, but Francis is not the first pope to go over the limit.

Most of the cardinals will have little inkling of the prospective papal candidates ahead of the conclave, said the College of Cardinals Report. Voting for a pope is not like voting in a political leadership contest, where the candidates are publicly scrutinised, often ad nauseam. A small number of the conclave will be curial cardinals, working in the Roman Curia that assists the pope in carrying out his governance of the Church, but the majority will be archbishops, serving in dioceses around the world.

Francis "revolutionised" the College of Cardinals by passing over large archdioceses like Los Angeles, Venice and Milan "in favour of picking men from the peripheries who reflect his pastoral orientation and concern for the poor", said America magazine. "The result will be a conclave very different from the one that elected him. It will be less Italian, less European and less curial but will be more Asian and African."

Whoever becomes the next pope, bookmakers believe there is a 50% chance he will be known as Francis II. Other names being touted include John Paul, Leo and John.

Who are the front runners?

For many Catholic commentators, overt speculation on who the next pope might be while the current one is still alive is disrespectful. But following Francis' death, talks have been turbocharged on the potential papal candidates — known in Italian as the papabili. The front runners span a spectrum of backgrounds and ideological standpoints, so the conclave's eventual choice could well change the future direction of the Church.

But the unpredictability of the process, in which cardinals are sequestered for days of voting, means that all speculation is flawed, said US Catholic. They "do a lot of praying to the Holy Spirit, who is full of surprises".

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Italy: A "consummate Vatican diplomat", 70-year-old Italian cardinal Pietro Parolin served as Pope Francis' secretary of state and is the current favourite to succeed him. He is known for brokering both the US-Cuba thaw, 10 years ago, and the 2018 Vatican-China agreement. Given current geopolitical volatility, the cardinal electors might well see the need for a diplomat, said US Catholic. For 11 years he has survived Francis' "regular savage reshuffles", said Damian Thompson in The Spectator. "He is regarded as a moderate who would be able to repair the damage caused by his boss's outbursts and vendettas."

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Philippines: Filipino cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, 67, has long been a leading papabili among Vatican watchers and bookmakers. He is "media-savvy, charismatic, and joyful" said US Catholic. If elected, he would be the first Asian pope and the "first truly fluent English-speaking pope in history" (at least since Adrian IV, who was born in Hertfordshire and held the office in the 1150s). Cardinal Tagle is comfortable showing emotion and has a playful, folksy manner, said the College of Cardinals Report. His left-leaning politics are similar to Pope Francis' relatively progressive views on social justice issues.

Cardinal Peter Turkson, Ghana: Multilingual biblical scholar Cardinal Peter Turkson, 76, has been described as charming and softly spoken and has long been considered a front runner. However, his relatively liberal views on homosexuality, ecology and social justice put him at odds with some fellow cardinals as well as bishops in his own country of Ghana. While there is enthusiasm for electing a pope from Africa, where the Catholic population is growing, Cardinal Turkson is not generally seen as a unifying candidate.

Cardinal Péter Erdő, Hungary: An award-winning scholar and intellectual, Cardinal Péter Erdő, 72, is more conservative than the current pope and is seen as a potential "consensus choice", said US Catholic. He was brought up under a communist regime — his family fled Hungary with just the clothes on their backs when invading Soviet troops burned down their house in 1956 — and he has since overseen his country's church while Hungarian democracy slides into autocracy, "a possibly applicable skillset these days".

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, Italy: The 69-year-old Archbishop of Bologna is a "progressive who is regarded as having been close to Francis", said The Telegraph. His extensive experience of conflict resolution saw him named Francis' peace envoy for the war in Ukraine. However, his relative youth "may count against him" as cardinals "could be wary of appointing someone whose papacy could last for many years, concerned that the direction he takes the Church would become too entrenched".

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Italy: The 60-year-old Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem was only appointed a cardinal in 2023, but "has gone from a left field option in the conclave to one of the favourites", said The Independent. Fluent in Italian, Hebrew and English, he has spent decades leading Catholics in the Middle East, putting him in the spotlight at a time when events in Israel and Gaza are at the forefront of world and Church politics. "As well as being a heroic figure with a keen ability as a diplomat he is also a leading Biblical scholar", but his election as pope would be a "significant geopolitical statement by the Church, especially at a time it has been highly critical of Benjamin Netanyahu's government".

And the wild card…

Cardinal Mykola Bychok, Ukraine: The 45-year-old Eparch of Saints Peter and Paul of Melbourne was made a cardinal by Pope Francis last year. He has "spoken eloquently about the suffering of his fellow Ukrainians in the current war with Russia, and his Australian flock is largely composed of Greek Catholic refugees from the Balkan War and the conflict with Russia that broke out in 2014", said Daniel Gallagher, a former Latin Secretary to Popes Benedict XVI and Francis and now lecturer in literature and philosophy at the US' Ralston College, in Crisis magazine. Is Bychock too young to occupy the throne of St Peter? "History says no," and Francis seemed to say the same.

Pope Francis has been hospitalized in Rome with a respiratory infection, the Vatican announced Wednesday.

The 86-year-old pontiff does not have COVID-19 and will need to spend "a few days" in the hospital, the Vatican said, adding that he "is touched by the many messages received and expresses his gratitude for the closeness and prayer."

Francis, who as a young man had part of one lung removed due to a respiratory infection, has had "some breathing difficulties" over the last few days, the Vatican said. He appeared at his weekly general audience earlier Wednesday, but canceled a television interview set for the afternoon in order to undergo tests at the hospital.

This comes ahead of the Vatican's Holy Week activities, which will begin on Palm Sunday. The pontiff's audiences through Friday have all been canceled.

Deepfake images of Donald Trump being arrested and the Pope in a puffer jacket have sparked concern that we could be at a tipping point in being able to distinguish whether something posted online is real or not.

What happened?

Last week, as people across the US waited for the possible arrest of Donald Trump, Eliot Higgins, the founder of open-source investigations website Bellingcat, decided to generate his own images using the artificial intelligence (AI) programme Midjourney, which creates images from simple text prompts.

While Higgins made it clear the images were AI-generated, his posts went viral and were viewed nearly 5 million times in just two days.

In a case of life imitating art, the Independent reported that Trump “appears to be getting in on the fun of sharing AI photos of himself”. The former president responded to Higgins’ posts by sharing an AI-generated image of himself praying.

Just days later an AI-generated image of Pope Francis, wearing a large white puffer jacket, also went viral, racking up millions of views and even fooling misinformation experts.

What are the implications?

“Fears of AI fakery are not new,” said New Scientist. “For several years, we have faced the threat of deepfaked images of people’s faces, produced by earlier generations of AI trained on smaller volumes of information, but they have frequently had tell-tale signs of fakery, such as non-blinking eyes or blurred ears.”

The rapid development of AI technology to render images that look totally realistic means it could be “possible that in one or two years, people will not be able to tell a real image from a fake one – even when scrutinising it closely”, warned the i news site.

Last week appears to have been such an inflection point.

The Trump images have provided “a case study in the increasing sophistication of AI-generated images, the ease with which they can be deployed and their potential to create confusion in volatile news environments”, said The Washington Post.

Henry Ajder, an AI expert and presenter of the BBC radio series The Future Will Be Synthesised, told i news that the trend is concerning, especially if the technology was used for malicious purposes and gets into the wrong hands.

While there is concern AI-generated deepfake images could be used to spread disinformation to distort political processes or change the narrative around the war in Ukraine, for example, they could also be used on everyday people who do not have the resources to stop their spread “to create fake, incriminating images to show people somewhere they shouldn’t be, or used as forms of bribery or humiliation”, said i news.

What can be done about it?

Ultimately, said New Scientist “the rapid rise of AI means some disruption is inevitable”.

In recent years major technology companies have bolstered their policies against deepfakes. In 2019 Facebook-parent company Meta banned users from posting highly manipulated videos “but left the door open for manipulated videos that are meant to be parody or satire”, said The Washington Post. Twitter also “introduced a new rule prohibiting users from sharing deceptive and manipulated media that may cause harm, such as tweets that could lead to violence, widespread civil unrest or threatening someone’s privacy”.

Yet as AI technology gets more and more sophisticated social media companies have failed to keep up investment to detect and enforce these polices. There are some signs AI-generators themselves are starting to take action, with Midjourney and OpenAI, which also developed ChatGTP, working on safety restrictions on the prompts that people can enter to generate images.

However, The Washington Post said the Trump episode “makes evident the absence of corporate standards or government regulation addressing the use of AI to create and spread falsehoods”.

Dr Elinor Carmi, a lecturer in data politics and social justice at City University, London, agreed, saying the image of Pope Francis is “an example of a wider problem of technologies being pushed into our societies without any oversight, regulation or standards”.

Stressing the need for better media literacy of how easy it is to create and spread fake images, Carmi said: “Most of our society has been left behind, not understanding how these technologies work, for what purposes and what are the consequences of that.”

The Vatican and Pope Francis unveiled a new slate of legislation on Saturday that updates existing rules within the Catholic Church to penalize coverups of sexual abuse and hold perpetrators responsible.

The new legislation, laid out in a letter by Francis, allows senior clergymen to be held accountable for dismissing any sexual abuse within their dioceses. These updated guidelines extend penalties to lay leaders who cover up abuse for the first time, and additionally reaffirm that non-consenting adults can also be victims of abuse.

"Crimes of sexual abuse...cause physical, psychological, and spiritual harm to the victims and harm the community of the faithful," Francis wrote in the letter translated from Italian. Francis added that "a continuous and profound conversion of hearts is needed, attested by concrete and effective actions that involve everyone in the Church," in order to stop the ongoing cycle of abuse.

The updated guidelines to hold senior clergymen responsible is "the most significant change introduced in the new version of the normative text," Vatican News reported, and are slated to go into effect on April 30.

The original legislation was penned in 2019 after Francis signed a law requiring all Catholic dioceses to create a "public, stable, and easily accessible" process for reporting and stopping sexual abuse. Later that year, Francis also ended a prior "pontifical secrecy" rule within the Church that The Guardian noted "forbid imposing an obligation of silence on those who report sexual abuse or allege they have been a victim."

However, even with these new guidelines in place, there are still some shortcomings when it comes to full protection for abuse victims. The new laws do not mandate reporting of abuse by lay leaders themselves, nor do they require abuse to be reported to law enforcement, The Associated Press reported.

Pope Francis appealed for peace in South Sudan on Sunday while on the last leg of his high-profile African pilgrimage, in a rare foray to the continent for the religious leader.

The Associated Press reported that Francis spoke before an estimated crowd of 100,000 during a Mass in the South Sudanese capital of Juba. He implored the people of South Sudan to stop the years-long bought of violence that has befallen the country.

"Even if our hearts bleed for the wrongs we have suffered, let us refuse, once and for all, to repay evil with evil," Francis said, per AP. "Let us accept one another and love one another with sincerity and generosity, as God loves us."

The trip to South Sudan marked the last length of the journey to Africa for Francis, where he also visited the Democratic Republic of Congo. He was joined in South Sudan by two other religious leaders: Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and the moderator of the Church of Scotland, Iain Greenshields.

South Sudan is the world's youngest country, having only gained independence in 2011, and the nation has been besieged by civil war and bloody conflicts since its founding. While President Salva Kiir reached a peace deal with opposition leaders in 2018, AP noted that the tenants of that agreement "remain largely unimplemented and fighting has continued to flare."

The goal of the three religious leaders was to try and get Kiir and the opposition to re-engage in peace talks.

"The fact that the three Churches united for the sake of South Sudan, this is the turning point for peace," worshipper Jesilen Gaba told Reuters, adding that she wanted the visit "to be a blessing to us. We have been at war, we have lost many people."

Citizens of the world’s youngest nation will welcome the head of one of the world’s oldest international institutions this week when Pope Francis visits South Sudan.

The Pope is joining the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Church of Scotland Moderator, Iain Greenshields, on an “ecumenical pilgrimage of peace”. The first stop will be the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The three church leaders will use the visit to the two conflict-ridden countries to “plead for peace in both lands”, America magazine said, and “hopes are high among the people there that [the] visit may kick-start the struggling peace processes in both countries”.

Clash of ideologies

Overshadowing the trip, however, is a clash of ideologies, especially on questions around LGBT rights in South Sudan, a country that was born in 2011 when it gained independence from predominantly Muslim Sudan.

Before the visit, Pope Francis and the archbishop of Canterbury have both “risked angering local political and church leaders”, The Guardian said, with comments about same-sex relationships that “contrast with deeply conservative views that predominate in South Sudan”.

The Pope has said that laws that criminalise homosexuality are unjust and has pledged that the Catholic Church will campaign against them. Sexual activity between men is illegal in South Sudan and punishable with sentences of up to 14 years’ imprisonment, though as The Guardian noted, there is little evidence of those laws being enforced in recent years.

Welby, too, recently said he was “extremely joyful” at the prospect of Church of England clergy blessing couples in same-sex marriages, although he added that he himself will not deliver those blessings.

Responding to his comments, the head of the Anglican church in South Sudan, Archbishop Justin Badi Arama, said Welby was “failing to defend biblical truth”, and his role as moral leader of the global church had been “severely jeopardised”.

Catholicism on the rise in Africa

For Catholics and Anglicans alike, the visit comes at a critical juncture. Most of the current growth in the Anglican church is coming from sub-Saharan Africa. Similarly, Catholicism is witnessing its fastest ever growth in Africa, with recent statistics showing a 2.1% rise between 2019 and 2020.

In recognition of this trend, the Pope “has often spoken of giving Africa a voice in the church and in the world”, said Stan Chu Ilo, a research professor in world Christianity and African studies at DePaul University in Chicago, on The Conversation.

Yet many wonder how successful this effort will be given that African representation within the Vatican has dropped to a 30-year low and “there are many African Catholics, particularly high-ranking church leaders, who are yet to embrace [Francis’s] reform agenda”, Ilo said.

Welby, meanwhile, faces “African anger” as he prepares for the trip, according to The Times. His commitment to backing blessings for gay couples was branded “alienating” by the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches, a traditionalist group that claims to represent 75% of the world’s 80 million Anglicans.

Those criticisms “were led by the Most Rev Justin Badi Arama”, the paper said – the very person who is due to host Welby during the South Sudanese leg of his trip.

Spirit of forgiveness

Despite the controversies, the visit is expected to be an emotional one. In an address to a festival in Belfast last year, Archbishop Welby spoke in moving terms about a retreat he attended in Rome with South Sudan’s warring factions, The Tablet reported.

The retreat ended with Pope Francis bending down to kiss the feet of the South Sudanese leaders in an appeal for them to pursue peace. When he did so, Welby said, “I could see tears running down their faces. Tears were running down every face there, including the BBC cameraman.”

Those tears may prove portentous. Last week, Charles Tai Gituai, head of South Sudan’s Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission – an oversight body established to track implementation of the country’s peace agreement – said that despite the controversies, there is great hope for the trip.

“I hope… the people of South Sudan will find inspiration and a spirit of forgiveness in these visits in order to renew public confidence in the peace process,” Gituai said.

This article first appeared in The Week’s Global Digest newsletter. Sign up for a preview of the international news agenda, sent to your inbox every Monday.

Pope Francis criticized "unjust" laws criminalizing homosexuality in an interview Tuesday. "Being homosexual isn't a crime," he told The Associated Press in a wide-ranging interview at the Vatican, and if it's a sin, so is not being charitable to gay people. This was the first time a pope has publicly condemned laws criminalizing homosexuality, AP reported Wednesday. "Some 67 countries or jurisdictions worldwide criminalize consensual same-sex sexual activity, 11 of which can or do impose the death penalty."

Some Catholic bishops support laws criminalizing same-sex relationships and other discrimination against LGBT people, Pope Francis said, and "these bishops have to have a process of conversion" and work to apply "tenderness, please, as God has for each one of us." The Catholic Church "must" work to put an end to these "unjust" laws, he added.

Pope Francis has not tried to change Catholic doctrine on homosexuality, which holds that homosexual sex is sinful, but he has backed same-sex civil unions and made a point throughout his papacy to "minister repeatedly and publicly to the gay and transgender communities," AP reports.

"We are all children of God, and God loves us as we are and for the strength that each of us fights for our dignity," Francis told AP, paraphrasing the Catechism of the Catholic Church. "Being homosexual is not a crime. It's not a crime. 'Yes, but it's a sin.' Fine, but first let's distinguish between a sin and a crime. But it's also a sin to lack charity with one another, so what about that?" He repeated later that "being homosexual isn't a crime, it's a human condition."

As the pope noted, some Catholic bishops — including in Africa, where Francis is heading at the end of January — support laws criminalizing homosexuality as consistent with Catholic teaching. Other bishops have gone farther than the pope in welcoming LGBT Catholics.

"It is a demonic mystery of the human soul why so many men and women have a profound and visceral animus toward members of the LGBT communities," newly appointed Cardinal Robert McElroy, bishop of San Diego, wrote Tuesday in the Jesuit magazine America. "The church's primary witness in the face of this bigotry must be one of embrace rather than distance or condemnation."

Pope Francis asked his audience for prayers for his predecessor, Pope Benedict, on Wednesday at the Vatican, describing the 95-year-old as "very sick," CNN reports.

Benedict, who served as the head of the Church from 2005 until his resignation in 2013, is experiencing a "deterioration due to the advancement of [his] age," a spokesman subsequently confirmed, adding, "the situation at the moment remains under control and continually monitored by his doctors."

In 2018, Benedict, then 90, wrote a letter to the public describing himself as "inwardly … on a pilgrimage toward Home," and the Vatican reported he suffered from a "painful but not serious condition" in 2020.

Pope Francis addressed a question about priests using digital and social media during a gathering of seminarians on Monday, and according to a transcript of the discussion the Vatican released Wednesday, he didn't hold back. The pope said he doesn't use social media because he's too old, but the future priests must use this marvel of science — with limits.

There are dangers in the digital world, including getting lost in the news or listening to music that doesn't allow you to get your work done, and also another danger "that you know well: digital pornography," Pope Francis said. "I'm not going to say, 'Raise your hand if you've had some experience with this,'" the pope assured the seminarians. "But each one of you think about if you have experience or have been tempted with digital pornography. It's a vice that many people have, many lay men and women, and even priests and nuns."

The Devil enters people through pornography, not just "criminal" kinds like child pornography but also "pornography that's a little more 'normal,'" Pope Francis told the seminarians. Pornography "weakens the soul" and pure hearts, and if it's on your phone, erase it. "Excuse me for descending into these details about pornography, but it's a reality: a reality that affects priests, seminarians, nuns, consecrated souls," he added. "Do you understand? Good."

Pope Francis has admitted that “even nuns and priests watch online pornography”, reported The Telegraph. Warning that watching porn is a way of succumbing to the influence of “the devil”, the Pope said “it’s a vice that many people have – many lay people but also priests and nuns”. A person with “a pure heart” should not be looking at porn, he told an assembly of priests and seminarians in Rome. “If you can cancel it from your phone, then cancel it, then you won’t have temptation in your hand,” he added.

Bees count from left to right

A study has found that bees order numbers in increasing size from left to right. “It has already been shown that bees are able to count – at least up to five,” said Martin Giurfa, a professor at the Research Centre on Animal Cognition at Paul Sabatier University in France. The Guardian said the new findings “supported the much-debated theory that the practice of counting from left to right is inherent in all animals, including humans”.

Jerry Lee Lewis is alive

The manager of Jerry Lee Lewis has stated that the rock legend is alive, despite reports of his death. TMZ initially claimed he 87-year-old had died at home in Memphis. However, Lewis’s rep told Page Six: “He’s alive. TMZ reported erroneously off of a bulls*** anonymous tip.” The mix-up comes days after Lewis was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. According to a post on the musician’s official Facebook page he was “too ill with the flu to attend the ceremony.”

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In Oct. 2021, Pope Francis launched an ambitious, audacious project to gather the world's 1.36 billion Catholics in a global synod, or advisory assembly, a process usually reserved for cardinals or bishops. His worldwide synod was so unprecedented the Vatican had to invent a new word for it, synodality, which it defines as "a style, a culture, a way of thinking and being, that reflects the truth that the church is led by the Holy Spirit who enables everyone to offer their own contribution to the church's life."

The pope's two-year-long Synod on Synodality is now at the stage where the synodal conversations at every Catholic church and organization in the U.S. and around the world have been distilled down to national summaries. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released the U.S. national synthesis report on Sept. 19. Here's a look at the Synod on Synodality, how it works, and what it will tell the pope and the world about the Roman Catholic Church.

What is the Synod on Synodality?

On one level, the Synod on Synodality is a massive prayerful listening session and exercise for building unity and mutual respect and understanding in a very large and diverse global church. But Pope Francis also hopes it will permanently change how the church operates on a parish, diocesan, and global level.

A synod, the Vatican explains, "is a gathering of the faithful in order to listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to the church and asking her to be and to do." The synodal process is one "in which people participate in decision making, share responsibility for the Church's mission, and cooperate and collaborate more in the day to day life of the church," the Vatican adds, though the Catholic Church "is neither a monarchy nor a democracy."

"Pope Francis has made clear that the synod is not a parliament, or a convention, or an opinion survey," the Vatican says. "Although it has many elements familiar to political and similar processes — listening, speaking, taking votes — what differentiates a synod is that it is a spiritual process that takes place within the church."

For Pope Francis, this is also "the greatest gamble of this papacy," Fr. Thomas Reese writes at Religion News Service. Under his predecessors, synods "were stage-managed affairs, where the agenda and debate were carefully controlled," and participants used the opportunity mostly to "show their loyalty to the pope and his teaching." Francis has asked for, and gotten, frank feedback from the bishops, he adds. And this global synod "may succeed in bringing greater unity to the church, or it could result in greater conflict and division."

How does the process work?

After Pope Francis launched the synod in Oct. 2021, every Catholic parish, school, association, and other organizations worldwide was invited to organize and hold its own listening and discernment sessions, each of which was documented and sent to the local diocese or archdiocese. The diocese synthesized the contributions from each individual church and sent that document to a regional body, which summarized the diocesan contributions and sent them to national bishops' conferences.

That's the stage the church is at currently. The bishops conferences created national synopses of what their member parishes discussed and discerned, and they will pass it up to a continental assembly of bishops and laity, which will synthesize the national documents and pass it up to the Vatican for the "universal phase" of the synod. The Vatican will release a final document in Oct. 2023.

How big of a task is that?

It is a very large undertaking. The U.S. portion or the Synod on Synodality involved about 700,000 participants in 15 regions made up of 178 diocese and 112 Catholic organizations, all of whom submitted more than 22,000 reports, the USCCB reports. The 18 U.S. Eastern Catholic eparchies submitted their reports directly to the Vatican.

"Many who conducted listening sessions described being transformed by the process of listening to others' stories and hearing about their faith journey," the document from Region XI (Northern California and Nevada) records. "Those who shared their stories, especially those who participated in small group sessions, stated that they felt listened to by the church for the first time."

What did U.S. Catholics say?

The Catholics who participated in the synod said they feel alienated from church leaders but also scared to enter into relationship with each other because of the clergy child sex abuse scandal, and they lamented that the church seems deeply divided along political and ideological lines and over use of the Latin Mass. "Many regional syntheses cited the perceived lack of unity among the bishops in the United States, and even of some individual bishops with the Holy Father, as a source of grave scandal," the U.S. report relayed.

The participants wanted a "more welcoming church in which their 'lived reality' is prioritized over rules and regulations," Dennis Sadowski recaps at Catholic News Service. And they hoped the Catholic Church would do a better job of addressing the needs of the marginalized, including immigrants, racial minorities, the poor, prisoners, addicts, LGBTQ+ Catholics, divorced parishioners, the disabled and sick, and women, "whose voices are frequently marginalized in the decision-making processes of the church," as they U.S. report puts it.

Just as "noteworthy is that many of the priorities of the U.S. bishops got little attention in the listening sessions," Reese writes at Religion News Service. "In the synthesis, there is no mention of the religious freedom of the church being under attack, no opposition to gay marriage or gay teachers in Catholic schools, no concern about trans persons in bathrooms or sports, no desire to prohibit certain people from going to Communion. The word abortion is never mentioned, although 'the unborn and their mothers' are mentioned along with other marginalized groups."

"The most common desire named in the synodal consultations was to be a more welcoming church where all members of the People of God can find accompaniment on the journey," the U.S. synthesis document reports.

As the synod from Region XII (Oregon, Idaho, and Montana) wrote: "People noted that the church seems to prioritize doctrine over people, rules, and regulations over lived reality. People want the church to be a home for the wounded and broken, not an institution for the perfect. They want the church to meet people where they are, wherever they are, and walk with them rather than judging them; to build real relationships through care and authenticity, not superiority."

Does the Synod on Synodality have critics?

Is the pope Catholic? (In other words, yes.) Jonathan Liedl at the National Catholic Register says that with an "abysmally low" 1 percent of America's 66.8 million Catholics participating, the synod can't credibly be called an "accurate portrayal of Catholics' experience of how the church listens," and he argues that synod organizers are unrealistically inflating expectations with "hyperbolic language about what the synod is and what it can accomplish."

The U.S. national synthesis is "as bad as you'd expect," writes Eric Sammons, editor in chief of the conservative Catholic magazine Crisis. "It's full of straw-men," tired cliches, and "properly woke talking points, such as encouraging diversity, lamenting 'marginalization,' overcoming racism, fighting climate change, welcoming 'LGBTQ+ persons,' and empowering women."

This entire misguided Synod on Synodality "institutionally favors endorsing heresy and immorality, and this document reflects that," Sammons adds. "The church is not a democracy; it is a monarch with Jesus as King," and the faithful should not to look to "suburban Catholics in their 60s imbued with the false self-centered presuppositions of modern culture" reshape the church.

"As the synodal process has progressed, conservatives have openly expressed fear while progressives loudly voice their desires. Both sides have used the synodal process to push their agendas," Religion News Service's Reese writes. But "Francis has pushed back on what he terms 'politicizing' the synodal process," which he stresses "should be a time of prayer, listening, and discernment, not a time for pushing agendas."

"Apologetics may be necessary in other regards, but it is a most unhelpful posture for the synodal process," Michael Sean Winters notes at the National Catholic Reporter. "You can't really listen to others if you think you have the answers already."

Will the synod lead to big changes, like women or married priests?

You wouldn't want to bet on that.

The "synodal process should not automatically reject certain topics or positions for dialogue and deliberation merely because they are questions of long-held discipline in the life of the church or reformable Catholic doctrine," Cardinal Robert McElroy, the bishop of San Diego, writes in America Magazine. The lived reality of the Catholic laity is an important "prism that can help to reinvigorate Catholic doctrine and discipline," and our quantum of faith "is not an inert and abstract body of teaching that forms a straitjacket for Christian faith and practice."

But at the same time, "a synodal church is a discerning church, not a parliamentary one," and "its search for God's will cannot be reduced to building majorities or forming coalitions," McElroy writes "It is essential to recognize that synodality is more concerned with nurturing a culture within the life of the church rather than specific policy outcomes."

To put it another way, "when doctrine is involved, the local church is not at liberty to change what it wants, but must consult with the universal church," National Catholic Reporter's Winters adds. "The whole judges the part, and the church of Rome plays a unique role in that universal judgment. Almost all Catholics understand this."

What does Pope Francis hope to learn or accomplish?

The Synod on Synodality is the pope's most ambitious attempt to decentralize power in the Catholic Church and include regular Catholics in directing the life of the church. "One of the ills of the church, indeed a perversion, is the clericalism that detaches priests and bishops from people, making them officials, not pastors," Pope Francis said in September 2021, at the start of the synod.

The goal of the synod, the pope has said, is "to plant dreams, draw forth prophecies and visions, allow hope to flourish, inspire trust, bind up wounds, weave together relationships, awaken a dawn of hope, learn from one another, and create a bright resourcefulness that will enlighten minds, warm hearts, give strength to our hands."

At the same time, "for Francis, you might say that the synodal process is more important than the results," Reese writes at Religion News Service. "For Americans, who are result oriented, this is unintelligible. Francis sees the experience of prayer, listening, and discernment as a way of healing divisions and building the Christian community. If we are not true to the process, the results are meaningless."

"As Pope Francis frequently reminds us, synodality is not a one-time event, but an invitation to an ongoing style of church life," Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, writes in the U.S. summary. "We have taken the first steps of this path, and we have learned much; we have more to learn and more to do."

Pope Francis on Monday apologized to Indigenous groups in Canada for the Catholic Church's involvement in the forced assimilation of native peoples into Christian society, a historic moment of atonement in what the religious leader has described as a "penitential pilgrimage."

"I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples," the pope said, speaking at the site of a former residential school in Maskwacis, Alberta. "It is necessary to remember how the policies of assimilation and enfranchisement, which also included the residential school system, were devastating for the people of these lands," he continued.

The weeklong trip also comes as "the result of years of Indigenous requests for an official acknowledgment from the church," notes The Washington Post, calls for which intensified after hundreds of unmarked graves were uncovered near former schools last year. A government-funded report described the system — which "forced Indigenous children from their parents" and led to decades of abuse — as one of cultural genocide, add the Post and the Journal.

Operating from the 19th century to the 1970s, the residential school system traumatized roughly 150,000 Indigenous children. Conditions were horrible, and malnutrition, abuse, and death ran wild, reports The Associated Press.

Francis also hosted and apologized to an Indigenous delegation for the church's conduct within the schools back in April, though many argued his comments did not go far enough.

Pope Francis announced in a video message released Saturday that he was canceling a planned trip to South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) due to severe knee pain, Vatican News reported.

The pope has been publicly using a wheelchair for the past two months. Vatican observers have pointed to the pope's health issues, his visit to the tomb of the medieval Pope Celestine V, and his appointment of new cardinals as signs that the pontiff may be preparing to resign.

"My dear Congolese and South Sudanese friends, words at this time are not enough to convey the closeness I would like to express to you and the affection I feel for you. I would like to say to you: do not let hope be stolen from you!" Francis said in the video.

Following the pope's announcement, the Rev. Iain Greenshields — the moderator of the Church of Scotland's General Assembly — and Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby also pulled out of the trip. "I am deeply sorry not to be making our planned pilgrimage of peace to South Sudan next week with my brothers," Welby tweeted, while Greenshields said the trip had been merely "postponed."

Pope Francis has urged mothers to stop ironing their son’s shirts and to encourage them to get married, reported Somerset Live. Speaking during a service to mark the end of the 10th World Meeting of Families, the head of the Roman Catholic Church also told adult men not to “take the easy road” and return to their mothers in “moments of difficulty”. Instead, he added, they should “move ahead with this courageous gamble”.

Eton boys under fire for chant

Pupils at Eton have made headlines for chanting “we’ve got more prime ministers than you” during a cricket match with Harrow, a rival public school. Harrow won on the pitch as the two leading schools met at Lord’s Cricket Ground for potentially the last time after the Marylebone Cricket Club announced the end of two centuries of annual cricketing tradition. Eton has produced 20 prime ministers compared with Harrow’s seven, noted The Telegraph.

Airline to rent bunk bed space

Air New Zealand is to allow economy passengers to lie down in “skynests”: communal, bunk bed-style sleeping pods in the economy section of its planes. In a move that the airline says will be a world first, economy passengers will still buy seats on flights but they will also be able to book four-hour sessions in the pods at an additional cost, explained The Guardian. The pods will feature a mattress and sheets which will be changed by cabin crew members after each booking. The “skynests” will be stacked on top of each other.

Speculation is mounting that Pope Francis could resign from the papacy – rather than die in office – after announcing a visit to the tomb of a 13th-century pontiff who stepped down after only four months.

Italian and Catholic media have been “rife with unsourced speculation” that the 85-year-old Francis could be preparing to quit the role, from which pontiffs rarely resign, said NPR. When Pope Benedict XVI stepped down in 2013, he was the first pope to do so for almost 600 years.

Now, resignation rumours are being fuelled by the announcement that Francis is to visit the central Italian city of L'Aquila in August for a feast began by Pope Celestine V, one of the few popes to have stepped down before Benedict XVI, who gave up the job in 1294 after just four months.

Health issues

When Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now known as Pope Francis, was elected to replace Benedict XVI nine years ago, he was a “breath of fresh air” for the Vatican, said Newsweek. The Argentinian cardinal offered a sharp contrast to the “conservative” and “stiff” tenure of his predecessor, Joseph Ratzinger.

But that “energetic demeanour” has been affected by a series of health issues, including colon surgery, which has meant Francis has used a wheelchair for the past month, adding to speculation that resignation may be on his mind.

Mission accomplished

Francis has also taken several steps to bolster his legacy in recent weeks, having been appointed in 2013 on a mandate to reform the Roman Curia.

Last month, Francis named 21 new cardinals, 16 of whom are under 80 and will therefore qualify to elect his successor.

The new cardinals will be officially appointed in Rome at a consistory on 27 August, by which time Francis will have named 83 of the 132 cardinal electors, thereby “raising the chances” they will pick a successor ready to push on with his papal agenda and “mercy before dogma” policies, said The Times.

Two days after the consistory Pope Francis has also invited all cardinals in Rome to discuss the new Vatican constitution, which has been “nine years in the works”, said the paper.

It will allow women to head up Vatican departments, impose term limits on priestly Vatican employees, and position the Holy See as an institution at the service of local churches, as part of Francis’s campaign to “make the Vatican less self-referential and more open to the needs of far-flung dioceses”.

It will mean that Francis’s “main task as pope has in some ways been accomplished”, said NPR.

Significant visit

Having seemingly ensured his legacy, the proposed visit to the tomb of Celestine V feels “pretty final”, said Newsweek.

Benedict also visited the tomb in 2009, leaving behind his pallium stole. It was an act largely missed at the time, but later came to be seen as a “symbolic gesture ahead of his own resignation”, which came four years later, said The Guardian.

Francis has also previously praised Benedict’s decision to step down as “courageous” and hinted he wanted his own papacy to also be short.

Pope Francis' health issues, new appointments to the College of Cardinals, and a planned visit to the tomb of Pope Celestine V have all fueled speculation that the pontiff plans to resign. Here's everything you need to know:

Who was Pope Celestine V and why is Pope Francis visiting his tomb?

The Vatican announced Saturday that the pope will visit the tomb of Pope Celestine V in the Italian city of L'Aquila in August. This announcement led some observers to speculate that Francis may be telegraphing his own impending resignation.

Celestine, born Pietro Angelerio, was elected pope in 1294 as a compromise candidate after two years of bickering among the various cardinals. By most accounts a saintly man, Celestine was canonized 17 years after his death, but his pre-papal life as a hermit left him ill-suited to oversee the church's complex bureaucracy. After just five months, the job was too much for him. He issued a decree declaring that popes had the right to resign and then quickly exercised that right.

Celestine's legacy in the church is twofold. First, to avoid another years-long deadlock, his successor decreed that the cardinals be locked up together until a new pope is chosen. This system remains in place today.

Second, he established the precedent that popes are allowed to resign voluntarily. Before Celestine, some popes had been forcibly deposed, but he was the first to freely give up the office.

Whether popes should resign was a different matter. In Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, the poet places Celestine in hell and describes him as "the craven one, who made the great denial." Celestine was succeeded by Pope Boniface VIII, whose broad view of the church's temporal power clashed with Dante's vision of church-state relations.

It took 719 years for another pope, Benedict XVI, to follow in Celestine's footsteps. Four years before resigning in 2013, Benedict visited Celestine's tomb and left his own pallium stole — a vestment symbolizing episcopal authority — at his medieval predecessor's grave.

If Francis is signaling his intent to resign as well, it would go a long way toward setting a new precedent. Instead of dying in office, future popes would be expected to relinquish the papacy when the mental and physical demands of the office became too much for them to handle.

What about the new cardinals Francis appointed?

The College of Cardinals is a group of senior Catholic clergy who receive lifetime appointments. Their main duty is to elect a new pope when the incumbent dies or resigns. Only cardinals under the age of 80 can vote in papal elections.

Cardinals also traditionally gathered twice a year in meetings known as consistories to advise the pope on matters of church government, but Francis has held less than one per year since his election, relying on a small group of close advisers rather than on the full college. The next consistory is scheduled for August and will overlap with the pope's visit to Celestine's tomb.

On Sunday, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis would create 21 new cardinals, 16 of whom are under 80. With these new additions, nearly two-thirds of the 83 cardinal electors will be Francis appointees.

According to Catholic teaching, the College of Cardinals "does not exist by divine institution," Ed Condon notes at the Catholic magazine Pillar. The office of cardinal — unlike that of pope, bishop, priest, or deacon — has no scriptural or dogmatic basis, but is instead a practical creation of the church. This allows popes to shape and utilize the college "according to their own best judgement."

Colleen Dulle and Gerard O'Connell, who host America magazine's Inside the Vatican podcast, observed that, in selecting this latest flock of cardinals, Francis generally "passed over 'cardinalatial sees,' big cities where the bishop has often been named a cardinal, in favor of bishops from underrepresented communities." The new cardinals include clerics from India, Ghana, Nigeria, Singapore, and East Timor. The share of cardinals from Italy dropped from 24 percent to 17.4 percent, the National Catholic Reporter notes.

Francis also appears to have made the college more reflective of his own ideological and pastoral outlook. Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego, who is the only new cardinal from the United States and shares Francis' position of allowing pro-choice politicians to receive the Eucharist, provides a good example. Condon warns that the pope's appointments could turn the college into a "decidedly more political" institution.

Could Francis resign in August?

Technically he could resign at any time. If Francis chooses to resign during the August consistory, that consistory would automatically become a conclave, with the cardinal-electors locked in the Sistine Chapel until a new pope has been chosen. If nothing else, it would save on airfare.

On one hand, the time could be ripe for such a resignation. Francis is 85 — the same age Benedict was when he resigned — and he's been using a wheelchair for the past month due to strained ligaments in his right knee, causing him to cancel a June trip to Lebanon.

The pope also appears to have accomplished the main goals of his papacy. The new cardinals will ensure that the next conclave is less Eurocentric and "reflect[s] the diversity of the Catholic world," Dulle and O'Connell wrote. Also, Francis' new apostolic constitution reforming the Vatican bureaucracy took effect Sunday. According to The Associated Press, this document "allows women to head Vatican offices, imposes term limits on priestly Vatican employees and positions the Holy See as an institution at the service of local churches, rather than vice versa."

On the other hand, the cardinals haven't gathered in Vatican City since 2020. Many of them have never met one another. For these new cardinals, there's been no opportunity to float the names of possible successors during informal discussions in the Vatican hallways. Condon suggests that, rather than "stacking the deck," Francis "might have actually done the opposite — ensuring the election to choose his eventual successor is the most spontaneous of the modern era."

The top Catholic officials in Jerusalem strongly criticized Israel on Monday for Friday's attack on the funeral procession of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Israeli riot police stormed the courtyard of St. Joseph Hospital, where Abu Akleh's funeral procession was starting, and kicked and beat the pallbearers, causing them to nearly drop the coffin.

"The Israel Police's invasion and disproportionate use of force — attacking mourners, striking them with batons, using smoke grenades, shooting rubber bullets, frightening the hospital patients — is a severe violation of international norms and regulations, including the fundamental human right of freedom of religion," Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of the Holy Land, said at Monday's press conference.

Monsignor Tomasz Grysa, the Vatican's representative in Jerusalem, said Israel's "violent intrusion" into Abu Akleh's funeral "brutally violated" a 1993 agreement between the Roman Catholic Church and Israel that "upholds and observes the human right of freedom of religion." Jamil Koussa, St. Joseph Hospital's director, said the target of the raid was Abu Akleh's coffin itself and declared it an attempt to "horrify people in the building."

Israel's police force defended its conduct on Friday, saying it had "intervened to disperse the mob and prevent them from taking the coffin," instead of putting it in a hearse, as Abu Akleh's family had planned. Abu Akleh's brother Anton disputed that rationale, saying he "never gave any promises to the Israeli police."

Abu Akleh, who was Catholic, was shot dead Wednesday while covering an Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp. Witnesses said Israeli forces shot Abu Akleh, who was wearing a blue protective vest clearly marked "Press." Israel, after first suggesting a Palestinian gunman had fired the fatal shot, said it will investigate whether she was hit by Israeli fire.

Dutch open-source research consortium Bellingcat said that based on evidence from Palestinian and Israeli military sources, Israeli soldiers "were in the closest position and had the clearest line of sight to Abu Akleh," suggesting she was killed by Israeli fire.

Britain is a nation of “secret bog roll bandits”, according to fresh research. The average user flushes 127 rolls down the loo annually, according to a report by eco tissue firm Who Gives a Crap. “Even some of the most dedicated eco-warriors massively underestimate the impact traditional toilet paper production has on our forests,” said CEO Simon Griffiths. The Daily Star said “bog roll boffins” suggest spraying your bottom with water before you wipe to reduce paper use.

Pope encourages kindness to mothers-in-law

Pope Francis has urged Catholics to be kinder to mothers-in-law, France 24 reported. In an address at St Peter’s Square yesterday, the pontiff discussed the “mythical character” of the mother-in-law and said they were often the victim of “cliches”. He added: “I’m not saying we see her as the devil, but she is always presented in a pejorative way.” The Pope also advised mothers-in-law to “be careful how you express yourselves”.

Girls ‘don’t fancy’ the ‘hard maths’ of physics

Girls do not study physics at school because they would rather not do the “hard maths”, the government’s social mobility tsar has claimed. Katharine Birbalsingh, a headteacher and chair of the Social Mobility Commission, told MPs that just 16% of her sixth-form physics students were girls, whereas they make up a majority of students in biology, chemistry and maths classes. She claimed this was because physics isn’t “something that girls tend to fancy”.

The horrific images and stories of Russian torture, executions, rape, and other atrocities in Bucha, Ukraine, have prompted new sanctions from Western nations and calls for war crimes prosecutions.

Pope Francis on Wednesday kissed a battered Ukrainian flag "from that martyred city Bucha," fount of "testimony of new atrocities" and "horrendous cruelty carried out against civilians, defenseless women and children," the "victims whose innocent blood cries up to the sky and implores that this war be stopped."

There is convincing evidence, despite Moscow's denials, that Russia is responsible for the war crimes in Bucha. Countries with closer ties with Russia than the Vatican have started condemning the horrors documented out of Bucha and other areas of Ukraine under recent Russian occupation. Most aren't explicitly pinning the blame on Moscow, though they're now tiptoeing up to that line.

"The images of the massacre ... are horrifying and sad for humanity," Turkey's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday. "The targeting of innocent civilians is unacceptable. It is our basic expectation that the issue is subjected to an independent investigation, that those responsible are identified and are held accountable." Turkey has been striving to be an honest broker between Kyiv and Moscow.

India, which continues to buy Russian oil and has abstained from United Nations votes condemning Russia for its Ukraine invasion, called the Bucha reports "deeply disturbing" on Tuesday. "We unequivocally condemn these killings and support the call for an open investigation," India's U.N. ambassador T.S. Tirumurti said. China's U.N. ambassador and Foreign Ministry also called the Bucha reports "deeply disturbing" and called for an investigation.

Cracks are also showing in countries trying to keep neutral on Russia.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on Tuesday went much further than Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, saying "Russian forces committed war crimes against a defenseless civilian population" and reiterating "Israel's condemnation of the Russian invasion and the war crimes we have been exposed to in recent days." Bennett has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and is careful not to blame Russia.

And even as India's government made what the BBC calls "the strongest statement it has made since Russia invaded Ukraine," the opposition Congress Party said India's position is becoming untenable. "Russia has been a trusted friend of India, and it has been a long-standing ally," lawmaker Manish Tewari said in Parliament. But "friends also have to be told if they are wrong, that they possibly need to get their act together."

Rev. Andres Arango, a Roman Catholic priest, resigned from his Arizona parish at the beginning of February after it was discovered that he had incorrectly performed thousands of baptisms, using the phrase "we baptize" instead of "I baptize," The New York Times reports.

The consequences don't stop with Arango's resignation. If any children he baptized become priests, they will have to be re-baptized and re-ordained. And since those priests were never truly ordained, they never had the authority to celebrate the Eucharist, forgive sins, or perform confirmations.

That exact situation arose in 2020 when a priest discovered he had been baptized with the same improper phrasing, according to Religion News Service.

This may sound like legalistic quibbling, but the Vatican insists it makes a difference. According to a document approved by Pope Francis, the use of "we" implies that the community of worshippers is doing the baptizing, when actually there is no "we" with that authority. Church teaching holds that when a person baptizes, "it is really Christ Himself" — working through that person — "who baptizes."

Laypeople, non-Catholics, and even non-Christians can perform valid baptisms if they follow the proper formula. The only essential elements are intent to baptize, water, and the words "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

It is also important to note that the Catechism of the Catholic Church says God is "is not bound by his sacraments." It would not be unreasonable for a Catholic to assume that God might look into the heart of someone improperly baptized or given Communion by an invalidly ordained priest and honor that person's desire to receive those sacraments.

But this is not an assumption the Church is free to make. God might not be bound by the sacraments, but the Church is. To paraphrase John Goodman's character in The Big Lebowski, this is not evangelicalism; there are rules.

The UK birth rate has been in steady decline since the 1970s, said Peter Stanford in The Daily Telegraph. Yet as the rate of human births has fallen, our enthusiasm for pets has soared. The country is now home to an estimated 12.5 million dogs, which is almost three times as many as in 1965 and just a whisker below the number of children under 16.

“Are the two connected?” Pope Francis reckons so. During an audience at the Vatican last week, the pontiff castigated couples who “substitute cats and dogs for children”. It was, he said, proof of a “certain selfishness… it makes us laugh but it’s true. Renouncing parenthood diminishes us. It takes away our humanity.”

The Pope’s remarks were “incredibly tone deaf”, said Harriet Williamson in The Independent. There are all sorts of reasons why people don’t have children. Some are physically unable to; others are prevented by financial constraints or choose not to for environmental reasons. To suggest they’re somehow being selfish is “regressive and insulting”.

The comments hark back to an earlier, more old-fashioned style of Catholic leadership that Pope Francis had appeared to have left behind, said The Sunday Times. They certainly won’t have the desired effect, and “merely demonstrate how removed this celibate 85-year-old man is from real life and the real-world problems facing women of childbearing age and their partners”.

I can see why his words infuriated many pet lovers and childless people, said Kathleen Parker in The Washington Post. But I also kind of know what he was getting at. We do seem to be “obsessed” with our “fur babies” these days, and it’s valid to wonder about the wider effects of this.

The Pope is also right to worry about how countries with a shrinking base of young workers are going to support themselves in the future, said Tim Stanley in The Daily Telegraph. Much of the world is facing the spectre of underpopulation. In Germany, they’re “razing empty flats to make way for parks”; in Italy, maternity wards are closing down. The difference between Francis and more militant environmentalists is that while they want to save the planet from people, he wants to save it for people.