The Papacy 2024-

The 2025 Jubilee is a jubilee in the Catholic Church celebrated in the year 2025, announced by Pope John Paul II at the end of the 2000 Great Jubilee. The papal bull proclaiming the Jubilee is “Spes non confundit” (Latin for “Hope does not disappoint”).
It runs from Christmas Eve (24 December) 2024 to Epiphany (6 January) 2026.

Something to look up to: how Michelangelo’s love and humility could influence the Sistine Chapel conclave
The artist’s frescoes hold many lessons for the cardinals who have to decide upon the next pope

Conclave to elect new pope to start on 7 May, Vatican says
The 135 Roman Catholic cardinals eligible to vote will meet at Sistine Chapel to decide church’s next leader
The 135 cardinals eligible to vote will be sequestered between the chapel and their lodgings at Casa Santa Marta, the guesthouse where Pope Francis lived during his 12-year papacy, for however long it takes to pick a new pontiff.
German cardinal Reinhard Marx told reporters on Saturday that he expected the conclave would last “just a few days”. But Anders Arborelius, a Swedish cardinal in the running for pope, told reporters before the meeting that voting could take longer “because we don’t know each other”.
Interior and architectural details of the Sistine Chapel.
Eight in 10 of those eligible to vote in the conclave were appointed by Francis, with 20 only becoming cardinals in December. Francis made a point of selecting cardinals from places where there had never previously been one, such as Myanmar, Haiti and Rwanda. Until this past week, many had never met each other before.

What are the church’s rites for the death of a pope and the election of a new one?
(AP) The death of a pope starts a centuries-old ritual involving sacred oaths by the cardinals electing a successor, the piercing of ballots with a needle and thread after they’re counted, and then burning them to produce either the white or black smoke to signal if there’s a new leader for the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics.
Who will be next pope after Francis? Key contenders ahead of conclave.
Ahead of the conclave to select the next pope, names circulating include cardinals Bo of Myanmar, Tagle of the Philippines and Italians Pizzaballa and Parolin.
(WaPo) Fifteen to 20 days after the death of Pope Francis, cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church will shut the doors of the Sistine Chapel to pick his successor. It is set to be the largest conclave in the history of the faith and also one of the most unpredictable.

26 April

Pope Francis remembered in funeral mass attended by world leaders and 200,000 mourners

Eric Reguly, Globe and Mail European bureau chief
Presidents, royalty and a multitude of mourners bade farewell to Pope Francis on Saturday at his funeral, where a cardinal said the pontiff’s legacy of caring for migrants, the downtrodden and the environment must not die with him
Pope Francis’s funeral took the shape of a mass pilgrimage and unofficial global summit as the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square filled to bursting with pilgrims, presidents, and refugees.
The Vatican estimated that more than 200,000 pilgrims from all over the world had arrived before the funeral started at 10 a.m., making it one of the largest funerals in Vatican – and European – history. They began filling the square well before dawn, a testament to the popularity of Francis among Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
The crowds spilled into the streets around the basilica and onto two bridges over the nearby Tiber River, where they had no view of the event but could hear the hymns. Some of the faithful, unable to get near St. Peter’s Basilica, entered nearby churches to pray in silence.
… Francis’s coffin was sealed on Friday evening in St. Peter’s Basilica, where he lay in state for three days. The Vatican said that day that 250,000 visitors have filed past his then-open coffin to pay their respects. Some of the faithful were annoyed by visitors posing for selfies near the open coffin.
The funeral started at 10 a.m. local time and ended at noon, after which the funeral procession took the coffin through the streets of Rome to Santa Maria Maggiore, Francis’s favourite basilica in Rome. He broke with tradition by asking to be buried there, not in the crypts beneath St. Peter’s, which hold the tombs of some 140 popes.
In keeping with his desire for simplicity, Francis chose to be buried in a simple wooden coffin.
Analysis: Pope Francis and his legacy: How he likened (inclusive) capitalism

Famous Faces Were in the Crowd at Pope Francis’ Funeral
(NYT) President Trump, Melania Trump, Prince William and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine were among those who paid respects to the pontiff in St. Peter’s Square.
Filling up the rows of nondescript chairs, according to Vatican protocol, reigning monarchs went first, including King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain. Then came heads of state, in alphabetical order according to the name of their country in French.
Only Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy and President Javier Milei of the pope’s native Argentina had priority seating toward the front.
… Away from the world leaders, among the crowds, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks who was imprisoned after his website published secret government documents in the 2010s, paid tribute to Francis with his family.
“Now Julian is free, we have all come to Rome to express our family’s gratitude for the Pope’s support during Julian’s persecution,” read a message on social media attributed to his wife, Stella Assange. The post said that the pope had written to Mr. Assange while he was in prison.
Trump’s Blue Suit at Pope’s Funeral Draws Attention
President Trump’s choice stood out in a sea of world leaders and famous faces who were dressed in customary black.

22 April
Pope Francis lies in state ahead of his funeral, set for Saturday
(AP) Pope Francis’ funeral has been set for Saturday at 10 a.m. local time in St. Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College of Cardinals.
Cardinals met at the Vatican to schedule Pope Francis’ funeral and burial, plan the conclave to elect his successor and make other decisions about running the Catholic Church as world leaders and the ordinary faithful grieve the pontiff’s death.
The public viewing of Pope Francis will begin as soon as Wednesday morning in St. Peter’s Basilica, after his casket is taken by procession from the Vatican hotel where he lived.

21 April
Pope Francis: A lifetime serving the poor and challenging Catholic Church orthodoxy
Eric Reguly, Globe and Mail European bureau chief
The people’s Pope
Francis, dead at 88, fought for peace and served the poor from the slums of Buenos Aires to the Vatican’s highest office
(Globe & Mail) The message was clear from the onset. Pope Francis was a street priest at heart – and by training in the rough streets of Buenos Aires. He would lead a frugal and simple existence. He would not even live in the opulent Apostolic Palace, choosing instead Vatican City’s modest Casa Santa Marta guesthouse, where he would occupy Suite 201. He would be chauffeured around in a cheap Fiat, not a luxurious Mercedes-Benz with blacked-out windows. He would not use Castel Gandolfo, the traditional papal summer residence overlooking Lake Albano in the cool, breezy hills just beyond Rome.
He would, as he would say three days after his election, want a “poor church for the poor.” He had chosen the pontifical name Francis, after Francis of Assisi, because the 13th-century friar represented “poverty and peace.” The plight of the poor, migrants and the unemployed would become the leitmotif of his messages.
Francis Worked to Make Catholic Church More Inclusive
Pope Francis sought to make the church more welcoming, global and collegial, after his predecessors adopted more doctrinaire and traditional approaches.
(NYT) The cardinals who will choose Pope Francis’ successor face a critical decision: Will they follow his path toward a more welcoming, global and collegial church or restore the more doctrinaire, traditional approach of his predecessors?
That will be the subject of intense debate among the cardinals, and Francis leaves behind a complicated legacy for them to argue over.
Early hopes that a “Francis effect” would bring the faithful back to the pews mostly failed to materialize as church attendance continued to fall in the secularized West even as it grew in the global South.
Although Francis made considerable strides in addressing the church’s sexual abuse crisis and tackled its murky financial culture, the path he put the church on for the future will be the most contentious issue.

Pope Francis has died, Vatican says

Pope had cheered faithful with Easter appearance
Francis spent weeks in hospital with double pneumonia
Pope had sought to overhaul Roman Catholic Church
Francis projected simplicity into grand role
Leaves ‘legacy of humanity, justice, human fraternity’
(Reuters) – Pope Francis, the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, has died, the Vatican said on Monday, ending an often turbulent reign marked by division and tension as he sought to overhaul the hidebound institution.
He was 88, and had suffered a serious bout of double pneumonia this year, but his death came as a shock after he had been driven around St. Peter’s Square in an open-air popemobile to greet cheering crowds on Easter Sunday.
“At 7:35 (0535 GMT) this morning the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father.”
On Sunday, Francis had made his first prolonged public appearance since being discharged on March 23 from a 38-day hospital stay for pneumonia.
In an Easter Sunday message read aloud by an aide as the pope looked on from the main balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, the pontiff had reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

JD Vance meets Pope Francis after Vatican criticism of migrant deportations
…on Sunday morning [20 April], Mr. Vance…did manage to see the Pope at his simple Casa Santa Marta residence behind St. Peter’s Basilica. The visit, at 11:30 a.m., lasted only a few minutes, during which time the Pope offered Mr. Vance a Vatican necktie, rosaries and, for his children, three chocolate Easter eggs.
18 April
JD Vance to spend Easter in Rome amid tiff with Pope Francis
The pope has sharply criticized the Trump administration’s mass deportation policies.
(Politico) Vance’s visit to the seat of Catholicism during the Church’s holiest days of the year comes under the shadow of his public tiff with an ailing Pope Francis and in the wake of his virulently anti-Europe comments. And as the White House increasingly leans into its Christian bonafides through its policies and messaging, the visit from the No. 2 in an administration that the Church has starkly opposed on key issues lays bare the complicated relationship between the Trump White House and Catholic Church leadership.
It also sheds light on a broader rift between conservative American Catholics, a majority of whom voted for Trump in 2024, and Francis, who condemned Trump’s mass deportation agenda and is viewed by some conservative Catholics as liberal.
The Trump administration has sparred with the Church repeatedly in the past few months over Trump’s strict immigration policies and nativist rhetoric, which differ sharply from Francis’ more progressive, pro-immigrant stances. The squabble peaked in February when the pope himself sent American bishops an extraordinary letter denouncing the president’s mass deportation agenda and slamming Vance’s understanding of a medieval theological concept.

28 February
Pope Francis suffers ‘breathing crisis’ making condition suddenly worse
Vatican says pontiff was given non-invasive mechanical ventilation, to which he responded well and remains alert
A Vatican official said the breathing crisis on Friday did not last for long and that his doctors were expected to need 24-48 hours to assess how the event would affect his clinical condition.
The episode came after three days in which the pontiff’s health had shown “slight” improvements, meaning his situation was no longer considered to be critical.
On Wednesday, a CT scan of the pontiff’s chest “showed a normal evolution” of the inflammation in his lungs, while the “mild kidney insufficiency”, which was diagnosed on Sunday, had resolved.
It is unclear how long he will remain in hospital. The Vatican said earlier on Friday that Francis would not be leading the church service on 5 March to mark the beginning of Lent.

24 February
‘Night Went Well’ for Ailing Pope, Vatican Says
Francis is being treated for pneumonia, a complex infection and kidney problems that have left him in critical condition.
‘We are very worried’: Conclave cast express concern for Pope Francis in health crisis
Italian actors Isabella Rossellini and Sergio Castellitto lead well-wishers at the Sag awards hoping the ailing pontiff makes a quick recovery

23 February
‘Conclave’ wins Best Ensemble at the SAG Awards — here’s what it means for the Oscars race

21 February
Pope Francis ‘not yet out of danger’ and to stay in hospital for another week
Chronic illness remains but pontiff, 88, is stable and in good humour, doctor says

23 January
Pope warns Davos summit that AI could worsen ‘crisis of truth’
Francis calls for close oversight of technology that raises ‘critical concerns’ about humanity’s future
In a written address at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland on Thursday, the pope said AI could fuel the “growing crisis of truth in the public forum”, as its output was almost indistinguishable from those of humans.
“This technology is designed to learn and make certain choices autonomously, adapting to new situations and providing answers not foreseen by its programmers, thus raising fundamental questions about ethical responsibility, human safety, and the broader implications of these developments for society,” he said in a statement read to Davos delegates by Cardinal Peter Turkson, a Vatican official.
The pope has first-hand experience of artificial intelligence’s ability to distort the truth – he is a popular subject in AI-generated deepfake images, including one of him embracing the singer Madonna and a second in a Balenciaga puffer jacket.

14 January
Hope by Pope Francis review – the first memoir by a sitting pontiff
A historic papal autobiography offers unique insights into the challenges faced by the leader of the Catholic church, but skates over scandals
‘Abuse, corruption, dark dealings’: Pope Benedict handed scandal documents to Francis
Pope Francis says in his autobiography he received a ‘large white box’ relating to ‘difficult and painful situations’

2024

24 December 2024
Pope Francis kicks off a yearlong Jubilee that will test his stamina and Rome’s patience
(AP) — Pope Francis kicked off the 2025 Holy Year on Tuesday, inaugurating a celebration of the Catholic Church that is expected to draw some 32 million pilgrims to Rome in a test of the pope’s stamina and the ability of the Eternal City to welcome them.
From his wheelchair, Francis knocked a few times and the great Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica swung open. He was wheeled across the threshold as bells tolled across Rome and the choir inside the basilica began Christmas Eve Mass.