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☆ Pope Francis to have abdominal surgery, in latest health concern
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( John Allen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Rome CNN —Pope Francis will have surgery on his abdomen and remain in a Rome hospital for several days, the Vatican said Wednesday, sparking renewed fears over the 86-year-old’s fragile health. The pope was forced to cancel several work commitments in late May after he was debilitated by a fever. According to medical sources, the intervention is likely related to the surgery Francis experienced in 2021 to remove half of his colon. Should Francis be incapacitated for any length of time, the Vatican could find itself facing something of a constitutional crisis. Francis said he wrote the letter several years ago and gave it to then-Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who resigned in 2013.

Persons: Rome, Rome CNN — Pope Francis, Francis, he’s “, Vatican, Matteo Bruni, ” Francis, Pius XI, ”, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Tarcisio Bertone, ’ ”, Francis ’, Pope Benedict XVI, “, Gregory XII Organizations: Rome CNN, Vatican, Rome’s Clinic, Catholic, Spanish, ABC, State Locations: Rome, St

☆ A Vigilant Steve McQueen, a Misguided Maïwenn and Other Cannes Scenes
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Manohla Dargis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Presumably Johnny Depp, a heat-seeking target for the armies of paparazzi amassed here, helps explain the movie’s presence. The king is played by a powdered and bewigged Depp, who looks suitably indolent, though perhaps because he’s underused. The king is mainly there to look gaga at Jeanne, which he does a great deal, though it’s a tough call whether Louis lavishes as much attention on Jeanne as Maïwenn does. Among all the close-ups of Jeanne giggling, Maïwenn folds in some palace intrigue and the briefest nod at the terror to come. There’s some comfort that “Jeanne” isn’t contending for the Palme d’Or, which would be an embarrassment, but is being presented out of competition.

Jeremy Selwyn/WPA Pool/Getty Images Camilla stands next to Queen Elizabeth II during a Diamond Jubilee pageant on the River Thames in June 2012. Chris Jackson/Getty Images From left, Camilla, Charles, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip attend the state opening of Parliament in May 2013. From left are Camilla, Charles, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Louis, Duchess Catherine, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince William. Frank Augstein/WPA Pool/Getty Images In pictures: Britain's Queen Camilla Prev NextShe reportedly met Prince Charles at a polo match in Windsor in 1970 and they became friends. From left are Camilla, Charles, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Louis, Duchess Catherine, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince William.

☆ No one's buying Ivana Trump's townhouse — an extravagant unit filled with leopard print and pink marble — almost 9 months after her accidental death in the apartment
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Azmi Haroun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Notably, the price of Ivana Trump's former abode has not budged since being listed in November 2022. The home was listed with Douglas Elliman and features extravagant rooms tied to Ivana Trump's personality, as well as a haunting doll modeled after Ivana Trump. After Ivana Trump's highly-publicized and financially contentious divorce from Donald Trump, Ivana Trump was awarded a settlement worth $25 million and purchased the home for $2.5 million. Ivana and Donald Trump's three children, Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump, spent their teenage years in the apartment. Correction: April 25, 2023 — An earlier version of this story misstated the months since Ivana Trump's passing.

Summary Pontiff was hospitalised unexpectedly on WednesdayVatican says he has respiratory infectionNot clear if pope will be able to lead Easter servicesVATICAN CITY, March 30 (Reuters) - Pope Francis spent a peaceful night in a Rome hospital after suffering from a respiratory infection, a Vatican source said on Thursday. Bruni has said Francis would have to stay at Rome's Gemelli hospital for "a few days" for "appropriate" medical treatment. An official update on his condition was expected in late morning, the Vatican source said. Last year, the pope attended but did not preside at some of the Easter services due to his knee pain. Francis, who this month marked 10 years as pope, is sometimes short of breath and generally more exposed to respiratory problems.

☆ Vatican repudiates colonial-era 'doctrine of discovery'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

VATICAN CITY, March 30 (Reuters) - The Vatican on Thursday formally repudiated the colonial-era "doctrine of discovery", used centuries ago to justify European conquests of Africa and the Americas, saying "it is not part of Catholic Church teaching". The Vatican acknowledged in a statement from its culture and human development departments that papal documents from the 15th century were used by colonial powers to give legitimacy to their actions, which included slavery. The Vatican departments admitted that the bulls, which gave political cover to Spanish and Portuguese conquests in Africa and the Americas, "did not adequately reflect the equal dignity and rights of indigenous peoples". Argentine-born Pope Francis, the first pontiff from the Americas, has made several outreach gestures towards indigenous people. Last year, he travelled to Canada's Arctic region to apologise for the oppression of the Inuit people.

☆ Disappointment for King Charles as first overseas visit as monarch is postponed
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Michael Holden | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) - King Charles' first state visit to France as British monarch, postponed on Friday because of widespread social unrest, was supposed to be an occasion celebrating a new chapter of harmony in relations between London and Paris. "The king and queen consort were of course very much looking forward to the visit," a Buckingham Palace source said. On the first state visits of his reign, the new monarch and his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort, were going first to France before heading on to Germany. Now it jars with the angry mood in France," Peter Ricketts, a former British ambassador to France, told Sky News. Both the palace and Macron said they looked forward to the postponed trip going ahead in the future when dates can be found.

☆ Analysis: Macron wins Pyrrhic victory on pension bill, risks fuelling anger
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Michel Rose | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

By using special constitutional powers instead of risking lawmakers rejecting the reform, Macron has given ammunition to the opposition and to trade union leaders who cast the reform as undemocratic. LE PEN AMBUSHTo be sure, claims of authoritarianism by the pension bill's critics are far-fetched. Political observers say Le Pen played her hand well. "Mrs Le Pen is ready for the ambush," Laurent Berger, the head of the moderate CFDT union said on Thursday, hours before the vote. But the end of debates in parliament may do little to quell anger on the streets.

☆ Pope Francis marks 10th anniversary with Mass and podcast
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

VATICAN CITY, March 13 (Reuters) - Pope Francis marks 10 years as head of the Roman Catholic Church on Monday celebrating Mass with cardinals in the chapel of the Vatican's Santa Marta hotel where he has lived since his election. The Argentina-born Francis, 86, became the first Latin American pontiff on March 13, 2013, succeeding Benedict XVI who had become the first pope in six centuries to resign. With his 10 years as pontiff, Francis has now reigned longer than the 7.5 years average length of the previous 265 pontificates. After that comes the papacy of John Paul II, who reigned for more than 26 years between 1978 and 2005. The shortest is believed to be that of Urban VII, which lasted 13 days in 1590.

☆ Pope Francis to gather cardinals to mark his 10th anniversary as pontiff
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

VATICAN CITY, March 13 (Reuters) - Pope Francis will mark his 10 years as head of the Roman Catholic Church on Monday celebrating Mass with cardinals in the chapel of the Vatican's Santa Marta hotel where he has lived since his election. The Argentina-born Francis, 86, became the first Latin American pontiff on March 13, 2013, succeeding Benedict XVI who had become the first pope in six centuries to resign. Francis has said he would be ready to step down if severe health problems prohibited from running the 1.38-billion-member Church. With his 10 years as pontiff, Francis has now reigned longer than the 7.5 years average length of the previous 265 pontificates. The shortest is believed to be that of Urban VII, which lasted 13 days in 1590.

☆ Pope says Ukraine war fuelled not just by 'Russian empire'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

VATICAN CITY, March 10 (Reuters) - The war in Ukraine is driven by the interests of several "empires" and not just of Russia's, Pope Francis said in an interview published on Friday. Francis said the conflict was fuelled by "imperial interests, not just of the Russian empire, but of empires from elsewhere". He expressed a readiness to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin to call for peace. Extracts were published on Friday by Italian dailies La Repubblica, La Stampa and Corriere della Sera. I have less physical resistance, the knee (problem) was a physical humiliation, even if the recovery is going well now," he said.

☆ Grand but Comfortable: A California Home Inspired by French Chateaus
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( Kathryn O Shea-Evans | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

SUMMERY PALACE Interior designer Kevin Klein’s light-filled take on monarchical style, in his Los Angeles home. A CENTURIES-OLD French château dazzles the eye. But is it a tempting place to unwind, chomp a BLT and stream “Top Gun: Maverick”? For the décor of his own 1927 French Normandy-style home in Los Angeles, local designer Kevin Klein took inspiration from the Château de Digoine, in Burgundy, but he knew he needed a friendlier take on castle aesthetics. “I figured if I could replicate just 1% of Digoine in a contemporary way, I’d be happy.”

☆ Pope Francis again turns screws on use of traditional Latin Mass
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

VATICAN CITY, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Tuesday further tightened the screws on Catholic conservatives over the use of traditional Latin Mass, rebuking bishops who had allowed it to be said in parishes without previous permission from the Vatican. Francis issued a brief but unequivocal decree underscoring sections of a document he issued in 2021, when he overturned liberalising decisions by his two predecessors, who had been more lenient towards the traditional Latin Mass. Some also had closed an eye to the regulation that priests ordained after 2021 needed special permission from the Vatican to say the old-style Latin Mass. Some conservatives in the Church have used the Latin Mass as a battle cry in their general opposition to the reforms of the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council, which included the introduction of Mass in vernacular languages. Many missed the Latin rites' sense of mystery and awe and the centuries-old sacred music that went with it.

☆ The 19th-century 'miracle' heart relic of holy French woman and no trace of disease, scientists say
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( Isobel Van Hagen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Scientists found no trace of disease in the preserved heart of a French woman who a pope beatified. Pauline Jaricot, whose health was poor, was supposedly "cured" after a visit with the Pope in 1837. Some members of the Catholic Church see the recent findings as a sign of a miracle. Despite living with poor heart health for most of her life, Catholics have said a visit to Pope Gregory XVI in 1837 miraculously "cured" her of heart disease. "No evidence that was inconsistent with natural and spontaneous conservation not mediated by the hand of man, which can be considered a miracle by the Roman Catholic Church, could be retrieved," the scientists said.

☆ Vatican holds funeral for Cardinal George Pell who decried Pope Francis’ rule
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

The Australian cardinal who decried the papacy of Pope Francis as a “catastrophe” was given a funeral Saturday in St. Peter’s Basilica, with the pontiff imparting a final blessing for the once high-ranking Vatican prelate. Cardinal George Pell, 81, died on Jan. 10, shortly after undergoing hip surgery in a Rome hospital. Pell later returned to his native Australia to be tried on child sex abuse charges over allegations that he molested two choirboys while he was archbishop of Melbourne. As is customary for funerals of cardinals, a final blessing, delivered in Latin, in the form a prayer for mercy and eternal rest, was recited by Pope Francis. Gaenswein unleashed a torrent of criticism of Francis in interviews hours after Benedict died in retirement at the Vatican on Dec. 31 and in a book published days later.

☆ Pope Francis meets Benedict's top aide as memoir rattles Vatican
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Pope Francis talks with Archbishop Georg Ganswein during the Wednesday general audience in Saint Peter's square at the Vatican, September 5, 2018. REUTERS/Max RossiVATICAN CITY, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Monday privately met Archbishop Georg Ganswein, former Pope Benedict's closest aide, who has rattled the Vatican with a book describing what he says were the strains while two men wearing white lived within its ancient walls. The Vatican's daily bulletin listed Ganswein in the pope's schedule of audiences but as is customary gave no details. Although Francis often compared having Benedict living in the Vatican to having a grandfather in the house, the book describes some tense situations. For the first seven years after Francis was elected pope, Ganswein kept his two jobs.

☆ Fact Check-No evidence former Pope Benedict specifically requested Joe Biden's exclusion from his funeral
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Social media users have misinterpreted the circumstances surrounding U.S. President Joe Biden’s absence from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s funeral, saying Benedict requested Biden not attend. One post says, “Pope Benedict asked Biden not to attend his funeral.” (here). A tweet reads, “Joe Biden is such a good Catholic that Pope Benedict apparently banned him from attending his funeral”. We would move everything in the wrong direction.” (here)There is no evidence that Biden was “banned” from Pope Benedict’s funeral. There is no evidence President Joe Biden was “banned” from Pope Benedict’s funeral.

☆ Watch: Funeral of Pope Benedict XVI Led by Pope Francis
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

All the Times the House Failed to Elect a New Speaker So Far The House of Representatives has yet to elect a new Speaker after eight rounds of voting so far this week. A candidate must win the majority of those present and voting. Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

☆ Book by Benedict's top aide reveals tensions in Vatican
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/5] Archbishop Georg Ganswein pays homage to former Pope Benedict in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, January 3, 2023. Ganswein says Benedict, in his annotated response to Francis, critiqued the way Francis had responded to questions on abortion and homosexuality. He also writes that Benedict felt Francis' decisions to restrict the use of the traditionalist Latin Mass was "a mistake". Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said he had no comment on the book, written with Italian journalist Saverio Gaeta and published by Piemme, an imprint of Mondadori. SERVING TWO MASTERSFor the first seven years after Francis was elected pope, Ganswein kept his two jobs - Prefect of the Pontifical Household and private secretary to the ex-pope.

☆ Pope Benedict XVI Funeral: Pope Francis Presides Over Vatican Ceremony
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Francis X. Rocca | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

VATICAN CITY— Pope Francis presided over the funeral of his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday, in a solemn and grand ceremony, but one that didn’t focus on the deceased’s life or accomplishments. Francis’ homily was mostly a meditation on the last words of Jesus, from the Gospel reading earlier in the Mass. The pope mentioned Benedict only in a few remarks, recalling “the wisdom, tenderness and devotion that he bestowed upon us over the years.”

☆ Pope Francis Presides Over Funeral for Pope Benedict XVI
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Francis X. Rocca | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

VATICAN CITY— Pope Francis presided over the funeral of his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday, in a solemn and grand ceremony, but one that did not focus on the deceased’s life or accomplishments. Francis’s homily was mostly a meditation on the last words of Jesus, from the Gospel reading earlier in the Mass. The pope mentioned Benedict only in a few remarks, recalling “the wisdom, tenderness and devotion that he bestowed upon us over the years.”

☆ Funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict seals a contradictory legacy
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Donna B. Doucette | Donna B. Doucette Has Been The Executive Director Of Voice Of The Faithful Since She Also Serves On The Leadership Team Of The Association Of U.S. Catholic Priests. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

It’s as if Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who is being laid to rest Thursday in Vatican City, has two legacies instead of one. Despite this promise and the potential for transparency, Benedict continued the church’s centuries-old preference for handling abuse cases privately. Benedict, for example, was the first pope to acknowledge the crimes of clergy sexual abuse and attempt to make amends institutionally. We quickly grew to a worldwide presence as the scope of the clergy abuse problem became apparent. Perhaps, using the contradictions and collisions of Benedict’s work, the Spirit has set in motion the 21st century path of the Catholic Church, which Pope Francis is calling us to embrace: synodality.

☆ Pope Benedict's funeral draws thousands to the Vatican
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Rhoda Kwan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Thousands gathered at the Vatican on Thursday for the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, a stalwart of conservative values who shocked the Catholic church when he resigned a decade ago. Mourners dressed in black poured into St. Peter's Square ahead of the Mass, which began at 9:30 a.m. local time (3:30 a.m. EST). The event was presided over by Pope Francis, with a living pontiff leading the farewell to his predecessor for an event that is unprecedented in modern times. As fog shrouded the top of St Peter's Basilica, the ceremony began with a prayer by Francis for the late pope emeritus, and readings were made in Spanish, English and Latin. Francis placed his hand on Benedict's cypress coffin as it was being carried into St Peter's Basilica, before placing his hand on his chest and bowing to the late pope.

☆ Pope Francis May Have a Freer Hand After Death of Benedict
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Francis X. Rocca | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

ROME— Pope Francis has been the leader of the Catholic Church for almost 10 years, but he has been the only pope in the Vatican just since Saturday. The death of Pope Benedict XVI after a decade in retirement has ended an extraordinary arrangement that helped define the current pontificate. While Pope Francis has already taken a markedly different tack than his predecessor, he may feel even freer to do so now.

☆ Pope Benedict Receives a Quiet Farewell From Mourners
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Francis X. Rocca | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

VATICAN CITY—The body of Pope Benedict XVI lay before the main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday, his head resting on a pair of velvet cushions, his face waxy and ashen, with rosary beads entwined through his folded hands. The twisting baroque columns of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s altar canopy towered behind. The late pope, who retired in 2013, wore a bishop’s miter but, unlike his predecessor, St. John Paul II , when he lay in state, not the woolen cloak around his neck signifying papal office.

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