Vatican City:

Pope Francis decried the state of democracy and warned against “populists” during a short visit to Trieste in Italy’s northeast on Sunday ahead of a 12-day trip to Asia — the longest of his papacy.

“Democracy is not in good health in the world today,” Francis said during a speech at the city’s convention centre to close a national Catholic event.

Without naming any countries, the pope warned against “ideological temptations and populists” on the day that France holds the second round of a snap parliamentary vote that looks set to see the far-right National Rally (RN) party take the largest share of the vote.

“Ideologies are seductive. Some people compare them to the Pied Piper of Hamelin: they seduce but lead you to deny yourself,” he said in reference to the German fairytale.

Ahead of last month’s European parliament elections, bishops in several countries also warned about the rise of populism and nationalism, with far-right parties already holding the reins to power in Italy, Hungary and the Netherlands.

Francis also urged people to “move away from polarisations that impoverish” and hit out at “self-referential power”.

After Venice in April and Verona in May, the half-day trip to Trieste, a city of 200,000 inhabitants on the Adriatic Sea that borders Slovenia, marked the third one within Italy this year for the 87-year-old pontiff, who has suffered increasing health problems in recent years.

Since travelling to the French city of Marseille in September 2023, the Argentine Jesuit has limited himself to domestic travel.

But he plans to spend nearly two weeks in Asia in September visiting Indonesia, Singapore and the islands of Papua New Guinea and East Timor.

He arrived in Trieste shortly before 9:00 am (0600 GMT) and was due to meet with various groups from the religious and academic spheres, along with migrants and the disabled.

The papal visit is due to conclude with a mass in the city’s main public square before he departs for the Vatican in the early afternoon.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Pope Francis. File photo
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Pope Francis will preside over an interfaith meeting in a mosque in the world’s largest predominantly Muslim country during a four-nation Asian visit in September that will be the longest and most complicated foreign trip of his pontificate.

The Vatican on Friday released the itinerary for the Pope’s September 2-13 trip to Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and Singapore. The packed schedule makes clear that the 87-year-old pontiff, who has battled health problems and is increasingly reliant on a wheelchair, has no plans to slow down.

After a day of rest upon arrival in Jakarta on September 3, the Pope will launch into a typically rigorous round of protocol visits to the four countries’ heads of state and government, and speeches to diplomats and meetings with clergy and public Masses in each location.

In Jakarta, he will preside over an interfaith meeting at the capital’s Istiqlal Mosque.

Sprinkled in the mix are encounters with young people, poor and disabled people, elderly people and the Pope’s regular meetings with Jesuit confreres.

The trip was originally planned for 2020 but was called off because of the COVID-19 pandemic. At 11 full days, it’s the longest of the Pope’s 11-year papacy, outpacing by a few days some of his long trips to the Americas and recalling some of the strenuous, globe-hopping trips of St. John Paul II.

It will bring the Argentine Jesuit to the world’s most populous predominantly Muslim nation, Indonesia, as well as the former Portuguese colony of East Timor, where the Catholic Church wields enormous influence. In East Timor, however, the Pope may also have to reckon with the legacy of independence hero Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo.

Next trip

After he returns to Rome in mid-September, he has a four-day visit to Belgium before the end of the month, the only other foreign trip that has been confirmed for the year.

Pope Francis speaks during a working session on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Energy, Africa-Mediterranean, on day two of the 50th G7 summit at Borgo Egnazia, southern Italy, on June 14, 2024
| Photo Credit: AP

Pope Francis called on June 14 for a ban on “lethal autonomous weapons”, when he addressed the G7 leaders’ summit in Italy on the perils of artificial intelligence.

“In light of the tragedy that is armed conflict, it is urgent to reconsider the development and use of devices like the so-called ‘lethal autonomous weapons’ and ultimately ban their use,” the Pope said.

“This starts from an effective and concrete commitment to introduce ever greater and proper human control. No machine should ever choose to take the life of a human being,” he said.

G7 drops summit commitment to abortion access: draft statement 

Pope Francis, the first head of the Catholic Church to ever attend a Group of Seven summit, has repeatedly denounced the arms industry and those he says profit from wars and death.

AI is already being used on the battlefield and its move into modern warfare is raising concerns about the risks of escalation and the role of humans in decision making.

AI has shown itself to be faster but not necessarily safer or more ethical, and the development of weapons systems that could kill without human intervention poses ethical and legal challenges.

Pope Francis told the leaders gathered in the southern Italian region of Puglia: “Artificial intelligence (is) at the same time an exciting and fearsome tool.”

“We would condemn humanity to a future without hope if we took away people’s ability to make decisions about themselves and their lives, by dooming them to depend on the choices of machines,” he warned.

The G7, which brings together Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, said on Friday that AI “can play a crucial role in promoting progress and development in our societies”.

“We recognise the impact of AI on the military domain and the need for a framework for responsible development and use,” the leaders said in a draft statement seen by AFP.

At a strategic level, AI will produce models of battlefields and propose how to respond to attacks, maybe even including the use of nuclear weapons.

“We need to ensure and safeguard a space for proper human control over the choices made by artificial intelligence programs: human dignity itself depends on it,” Pope Francis said.

The Argentine pontiff was speaking after a series of bilaterals, including with Ukraine’s President Volodymr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

File picture of Pope Francis
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The alleged incident is said to have happened on May 20, when the Italian Bishops Conference opened a four-day assembly with a non-public meeting with the pontiff

Pope Francis used a derogatory term towards the LGBT community as he reiterated in a closed-door meeting with Italian bishops that gay people should not be allowed to become priests, Italian media reported on Monday.

La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera, Italy’s largest circulation dailies, both quoted the pope as saying seminaries, or priesthood colleges, are already too full of “frociaggine“, a vulgar Italian term roughly translating as “faggotness”.

The Vatican did not respond to a request for comment.

La Repubblica attributed its story to several unspecified sources, while Corriere said it was backed up by a few, unnamed bishops, who suggested the pope, as an Argentine, might have not realised that the Italian term he used was offensive.

Political gossip website Dagospia was the first to report on the alleged incident, said to have happened on May 20, when the Italian Bishops Conference opened a four-day assembly with a non-public meeting with the pontiff.

Pope Francis, who is 87, has so far been credited with leading the Roman Catholic Church into taking a more welcoming approach towards the LGBT community.

In 2013, at the start of his papacy, he famously said, “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?”, while last year he allowed priests to bless members of same-sex couples, triggering substantial conservative backlash.

Nevertheless, he delivered a similar message on gay seminarians – minus the reported swear word – when he met Italian bishops in 2018, telling them to carefully vet priesthood applicants and reject any suspected homosexuals.

In a 2005 document, released under Francis’s late predecessor Benedict XVI, the Vatican said the Church could admit into the priesthood those who had clearly overcome homosexual tendencies for at least three years.

The document said practicing homosexuals and those with “deep-seated” gay tendencies and those who “support the so-called gay culture” should be barred.

Vatican City:

Pope Francis used a highly derogatory term towards the LGBT community as he reiterated in a closed-door meeting with Italian bishops that gay people should not be allowed to become priests, Italian media reported on Monday.

La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera, Italy’s largest circulation dailies, both quoted the pope as saying seminaries, or priesthood colleges, are already too full of “frociaggine”, a vulgar Italian term roughly translating as “faggottness”.

The Vatican did not respond to a request for comment.

La Repubblica attributed its story to several unspecified sources, while Corriere said it was backed up by a few, unnamed bishops, who suggested the pope, as an Argentine, might have not realised that the Italian term he used was offensive.

Political gossip website Dagospia was the first to report on the alleged incident, said to have happened on May 20, when the Italian Bishops Conference opened a four-day assembly with a non-public meeting with the pontiff.

Pope Francis, who is 87, has so far been credited with leading the Roman Catholic Church into taking a more welcoming approach towards the LGBT community.

In 2013, at the start of his papacy, he famously said, “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?”, while last year he allowed priests to bless members of same-sex couples, triggering substantial conservative backlash.

Nevertheless, he delivered a similar message on gay seminarians – minus the reported swear word – when he met Italian bishops in 2018, telling them to carefully vet priesthood applicants and reject any suspected homosexuals.

In a 2005 document, released under Pope Francis’s late predecessor Benedict XVI, the Vatican said the Church could admit into the priesthood those who had clearly overcome homosexual tendencies for at least three years.

The document said practicing homosexuals and those with “deep-seated” gay tendencies and those who “support the so-called gay culture” should be barred.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

This photo taken and handout on March 31, 2024 by The Vatican Media shows Pope Francis during the Easter ‘Urbi et Orbi’ message and blessing to the City and the World from the central loggia of St Peter’s basilica in The Vatican.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Pope Francis urged the world to resist “the logic of weapons” in his Easter message at the Vatican on March 31, easing growing health fears as he greeted thousands of Catholics.

The 87-year-old’s “Urbi et Orbi” (To the City and the World) blessing came after he led Easter Mass in front of 60,000 worshippers at Saint Peter’s Square while appearing in good spirits.

In his traditional speech broadcasted worldwide, Francis condemned war as “always an absurdity and a defeat”, raising conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar and beyond.

He renewed appeals for a ceasefire in Gaza, calling for greater aid deliveries to the devastated territory and the release of hostages taken by Hamas during its unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war.

The civilian population is “now at the limit of its endurance”, he said, lamenting the impact on children especially.

“Let us not allow the strengthening winds of war to blow on Europe and the Mediterranean. Let us not yield to the logic of weapons and rearming,” he added.

The pope prposed a “general exchange of all prisoners between Russia and Ukraine” as the war between the two countries grinds through its third year.

Francis also urged world leaders to “spare no efforts in combatting the scourge of human trafficking” to free its victims.

Moments before the blessing, Francis passed through the adoring crowd on his “popemobile” as pilgrims shouted “Long live the pope!”, waved flags and strained to take pictures.

Health concerns

Easter Sunday marks the resurrection of Jesus Christ and is the culmination of Holy Week, a major part of the Catholic calendar followed by 1.3 billion people.

The pope on Saturday presided over the Easter Vigil at the Vatican in front of some 6,000 people from around the world, a day after his last-minute cancellation at a major Good Friday procession revived questions about his health.

He delivered a 10-minute homily in Italian, speaking without any undue difficulty and condemning “the walls of selfishness and indifference” in the world.

At the end of the two-and-a-half-hour service he showed little sign of fatigue, taking time to greet and bless some of the worshippers.

In a brief statement Friday, the Vatican had said that “to preserve his health ahead of tomorrow’s vigil and the Easter Sunday mass, Pope Francis will this evening follow the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum from the Santa Marta Residence”, where he lives.

The last-minute decision raised questions about how long Francis can continue to lead the Catholic Church.

A Vatican source told AFP on Friday there was “no particular concern” about his health and the decision to pull out had been “simply a measure of caution”.

The Argentinian Jesuit had also cancelled his participation in the “Via Crucis” in 2023, but that followed a three-day hospital stay for bronchitis, and was announced well ahead of time. Weeks later, he underwent a hernia operation.

Up until Friday, the pope had attended his various engagements throughout the week, but he recently appeared tired and has sometimes delegated speaking roles to colleagues.

No plans to resign

Francis, who never takes holidays, made his last trip in September, to the southern French city of Marseille. In December, he cancelled a much-anticipated attendance at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai.

His next scheduled trip is to Venice on April 28. The Vatican has not yet confirmed a planned trip to Asia and Pacific Ocean nations for this summer.

Francis has previously left the door open to stepping down if he can no longer do the job. That would follow the example of his immediate predecessor, Benedict XVI, who in 2013 became the first pope since the Middle Ages to voluntarily step aside.

But in a memoir published this month, Francis wrote that he did “not have any cause serious enough to make me think of resigning”.

Vatican City:

Pope Francis took part in the Easter Vigil service at the Vatican on Saturday, a day after the last-minute cancellation of his presence at a major Good Friday procession revived questions about his health.    

The 87-year-old pontiff arrived to preside over the Easter Vigil at Saint Peter’s Basilica in front of some 6,000 people from around the world shortly before 7:30 pm (1830 GMT).

A day after cancelling his appearance at the Stations of the Cross (“Via Crucis”) ceremony, Pope Francis, clad in white, arrived in a wheelchair shortly before the two-hour service.

The Vatican had confirmed earlier in the day that he would attend. 

After the rite of light in a basilica plunged into darkness to symbolise the passage from death to life of Christ, Francis delivered a ten-minute homily in Italian, speaking without any undue difficulty.

He spoke out against “the walls of selfishness and indifference” in the world and lamented “all the aspirations for peace shattered by the cruelty of hatred and the ferocity of war”.

Later in the service he was to baptise eight adults.

Sunday’s Easter Mass and the “Urbi et Orbi” blessing that follows it will be broadcast live around the world.

In a brief statement Friday, the Vatican had said that “to preserve his health ahead of tomorrow’s vigil and the Easter Sunday mass, Pope Francis will this evening follow the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum from the Santa Marta Residence”, where he lives.

The last-minute decision — the pope’s chair was already in place for the procession — and the lack of detail in the statement added to doubts about his health and questions as to how long he can continue to lead the Catholic Church and its 1.3 billion followers.

– Growing doubts –

“The Via Crucis of a fragile pope” was the Saturday headline in Italian daily La Stampa, while Il Messaggero spoke of a “renunciation of Francis”.

A Vatican source told AFP on Friday that there was “no particular concern” about his health, and that the decision to pull out had been “simply a measure of caution”.

The Argentinian Jesuit had also cancelled his participation in the “Via Crucis” in 2023, but that followed a three-day hospital stay for bronchitis, and was announced well ahead of time. Weeks later, he underwent a hernia operation. 

Holy Week is a pillar of the Catholic calendar, involving a series of ceremonies leading up to Easter Sunday itself.

Up until Friday, the pope had attended his various engagements across the week, but he has recently appeared tired and has sometimes delegated speaking roles to colleagues.

He notably skipped making a homily a week ago when presiding Palm Sunday mass in St. Peter’s Square, replacing it with a moment of silence and prayer, although he did pronounce prayers before making an appeal for peace at the end of the mass.

Holy Week, culminating in Easter Sunday marking Christ’s resurrection, is a major part of the Catholic calendar, and its numerous ceremonies are something of a marathon for an octogenarian who has been travelling to engagements in a wheelchair for two years.

Francis, who never takes holidays, made his last trip in September, to the southern French city of Marseille. In December, he cancelled a much-anticipated attendance at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai.

His next scheduled trip is to Venice on April 28. The Vatican has not yet confirmed a planned trip to Asia and Pacific Ocean nations for this summer.

Francis has previously left the door open to stepping down if he can no longer do the job. That would follow the example of his immediate predecessor, Benedict XVI, who in 2013 became the first pope since the Middle Ages to voluntarily step aside.

But in a memoir published this month, Francis wrote that he did “not have any cause serious enough to make me think of resigning”.

Resignation is a “distant possibility” that would be justified only in the event of “a serious physical impediment”, he wrote.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Vatican City, Holy See:

Pope Francis, who often pleads for compassion to prisoners, washed the feet of 12 incarcerated women in Rome on Thursday in a rite marking Holy Thursday before Easter.

The Argentinian Jesuit visited the Rebibbia women’s prison in the northeastern outskirts of the Italian capital, where he performed the same rite in 2015.

Thursday, however, was the first time the 87-year-old pontiff had dedicated his annual ritual during Holy Week solely to women.

Seated in a wheelchair, the pope washed the feet of each of the prisoners, some of them in tears, before drying them off with a towel and kissing them.

“We all have small failures, big failures,” said the pope in an impromptu homily during a mass held in the courtyard of the prison that holds some 370 women.

“But the Lord is always waiting for us, with open arms, and he never tires of forgiving,” he added.

The washing of feet is “a gesture that draws our attention to the vocation of service,” said Francis, who as a priest in Buenos Aires had already begun visiting prisoners.

A few minutes earlier, the pontiff was all smiles as he shook hands with the inmates.

Last month, the pope caught a flu that caused him to cancel some public meetings. During his subsequent recovery, he has on several occasions asked others to read his speeches.

In the Christian tradition, Holy Thursday commemorates the day when Christ washed the feet of the apostles at the Last Supper.

It is a highlight of Holy Week, which commemorates Christ’s final days before his resurrection on Easter.

Since becoming pope in 2013, the head of the Catholic Church has often visited prisons and refugee centres, including last year on Holy Thursday when he visited a juvenile detention centre and washed the feet of 12 young men.

On Good Friday, he is due to preside over the “Way of the Cross” prayer service at Rome’s Coliseum, which he was unable to attend last year as he recovered from a bronchial infection.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Pope Francis smiles as he waves faithful at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, on March 20, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Pope Francis on March 20 repeated his call for negotiations to end wars in Ukraine and Gaza, after remarks about “raising the white flag” sparked outrage in Kyiv.

At his weekly audience at the Vatican, the 87-year-old turned his thoughts to the populations of “the martyred Ukraine and of the Holy Land, Palestine, Israel, who suffer so much from the horror of war”.

“Let us never forget, war is always a defeat. We cannot go forward during a war. We must make every effort to talk, to negotiate.”

Francis sparked outrage with an interview broadcast earlier this month where, talking about Ukraine, he praised those who “have the courage to raise the white flag and negotiate”.

Kyiv — which has been fighting a Russian invasion for two years — reacted with outrage, recalling the Vatican’s envoy and saying it would “never” surrender.

Vatican City:

Pope Francis, at 87 increasingly weak and wobbly, takes a trip down memory lane and speaks of his hopes for the Roman Catholic Church’s future in a new book reflecting on his life and its intersection with major world events.

“Life – My Story Through History,” a memoir written with Italian journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona and published by HarperCollins, goes on sale on March 19, the 11th anniversary of Francis’ installation as the first Latin American pope.

While offering little that is new, the 230-page book is a breezy, conversational-style read starting with his childhood in Buenos Aires to today.

It is punctuated by events including World War Two, the Holocaust, the Cold War, the 1969 Moon landing, the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, the September 11, 2001 attacks and the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013.

Francis, whose health recently has shown signs of strain with successive bouts of bronchitis, a spate of hospital stays and difficulty walking, repeats that he has no intention of resigning like his predecessor unless “a serious physical impediment were to arise”.

He jokes that while some of his conservative critics “may have hoped” he would have announced a resignation after a hospital stay, there is little or no risk of it because “there are many projects to bring to fruition, God willing”.

He again defends his recent decision to allow blessings for people in same-sex relationships, reiterating that they are not blessings for the union itself but of individuals “who seek the Lord but are rejected or persecuted”.

The Church, he says, does “not have the power to change the sacraments created by the Lord” and that “this (the blessings) does not mean that the Church is in favour of same-sex marriage”.

Hoping For An Embracing Church

Addressing the controversy about the recent ruling, he says: “I imagine a mother Church that embraces and welcomes everyone, even those who feel they are in the wrong and have been judged by us in the past”.

Francis writes that even if some bishops refuse to offer blessings for those in same-sex relationships, as in Africa, “it doesn’t mean that this is the antechamber to schism, because the Church’s doctrine is not brought into question”.

Throughout the book he leans on historical events as backdrops to make appeals relating to current, sometimes similar, situations.

Speaking of World War Two, he writes that still today “Jews continue to be stereotyped and persecuted. This is not Christian; it’s not even human. When will we understand that these are our brothers and sisters?”

In recalling when he first heard of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan at the end of the war, he writes: “The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is a crime against humanity, against human dignity, and against any possibility of a future in our shared home.”

Reflecting on the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States by Islamists, Francis says, “It is blasphemous to use the name of God to justify slaughter, murder, terrorist attack, the persecution of individuals and entire populations – as some still do. Nobody can invoke the name of the Lord to wreak evil.”

The pope dismisses as “fantasy, obviously invented”, recent reports by conservative American Catholic media that he would change the rules of conclaves to allow nuns and lay people to enter conclaves to choose future popes.

On the lighter side, Francis speaks of the controversial “Hand of God” goal by compatriot Diego Maradona in Argentina’s 1986 World Cup quarter-final against England, which the referee allowed as he did not have a clear view showing that Maradona had used his hand.

Years later, when Maradona visited the pope at the Vatican, “I asked him, jokingly, ‘So, which is the guilty hand?'” Francis writes.

 

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)